The Main Reasons for the Wars - Essay Example

War in Vietnam, the Opium War, and World War Ever since the dawn of civilization, nations, for same or different reasons,have been waging war against each other. According to Kegley and Wittkopf, Global Politics, 9th Ed (2004) 405:"Between 1945 and 2001, 225 armed conflicts have been under way." Of the 225 armed conflicts there were 42 wars between two countries and an additional 178 internal conflicts, 32 of which had external participation by other states and 131 did not." Milton Leitenberg of the University of Maryland estimates that from 1945 to 2000, some 50-51 million people were killed in wars and other violent conflicts. For the entire 20th century, he estimates 130-142 million war-related deaths and a chilling 214-226 million if government killings in non-war situations are included." In the 1950s, the globe averaged 13 wars each year. In the 1960s, the globe averaged 19 wars each year. In the 1970s, the globe averaged 31 wars each year. In the 1980s, the globe averaged more than 40 wars each year. In the 1990s, the globe averaged more than 40 wars each year. In 1992, the world hit a peak of 51-armed conflicts going on simultaneously. In 2002, there are 38-armed conflicts under way.Most of these conflicts since 1945 have been in the Global South and most have been civil wars (Kegley and Wittkopf 2004). The Vietnam War, Opium war, and the World War 1 were some of the bloodiest and most complicated war in human history. The people and governments involved in these conflicts found it hard to resolve the war easily because of their underlying deep-rooted causes. Some of the countries involved resort to conflict for varied reasons, but mostly fought for nationalism. Most North Vietnamese fought for their national interest while the U.S. fought for the preservation of Democracy. During the Opium War, the Chinese fought to defend their country from the harsh effects of opium trade while the British fought to preserve their colonial and economic interest. Moreover, the underlying causes of World War 1 were the intense nationalism that permeated Europe throughout the 19th and into the 20th century, the political and economic rivalry among nations, and the military buildup that occurred after 1871, when Germany emerged as a great world power (Harvey 2005). The differences in the goals for going into war of these countries contributed to the difficulty in achieving peace among them. The main reason why the war in Vietnam is difficult to contain is that it was caused by many conflicts in the past. The American involvement and the Vietnam War did not happen overnight. The Vietnam War developed as a sequel to the struggle (1946-54) between the French, who were the rulers of Indochina before World War II, and the Communist-led Viet Minh, or League for the Independence of Vietnam, founded and headed by the revolutionary leader. Ho Chi Minh. Having emerged as the strongest of the nationalist groups that fought the Japanese occupation of French Indochina during World War II, the league was determined to resist the reestablishment of French colonial rule and to implement political and social changes (Harvey 2005). Following the surrender of Japan to the Allies in August 1945, Viet Minh guerrillas seized the capital city of Hanoi and forced the abdication of Emperor. Bao Dai. On September 2, they declared Vietnam independent and announced the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, commonly called North Vietnam, with Ho Chi Minh as president. France officially recognized the new state, but the subsequent inability of the Viet Minh and France to reach satisfactory political and economic agreements led to armed conflict beginning in December 1946. With French backing Bao Dai set up the state of Vietnam, commonly called South Vietnam, on July 1, 1949, and established a new capital at Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) (Harvey 2005). In most wars, the North Vietnamese were fighting for their nationalism and defending their land while the Americans want to hold the line against the spread of world Communism. This is the great difference between the goals of the two. America paid for the war the French fought against Communist Vietnam as a part of the Truman Doctrine (1947) "to protect free peoples" and then by the 1950's became involved when the war flared up again. By the late 1950's the Americans developed the "Domino Theory" as a justification for the involvement. This theory stated, "If South Vietnam falls to the Communist, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India and Pakistan would also fall like dominos. The Pacific Islands and even Australia could be at risk" (Key 2005). The U.S. involvement in the war has been described as an escalation. This is typically meant to refer to the incremental increase in forces in response to greater need, rather than an intentional strategy. However, a key element was that there was no traditional declaration of war that would have involved a national commitment to using all available means to secure victory. Instead, U.S. involvement increased over several years, beginning with the deployment of noncombatant military advisors to the South Vietnamese army, followed by the use of Special Forces for commando-style operations, followed by the introduction of regular troops for defensive purposes, until regular troops were used in offensive combat (Vietnam War 2005). Once U.S. troops were engaged in active combat, escalation meant increasing their numbers. The escalation of the war complicated its ambiguous legal status. The treaty agreements between the U.S. and South Vietnam allowed each escalation to be seen as simply another step in helping an ally resist Communist aggression. This allowed the U.S. Congress to vote appropriations for war operations without requiring the Johnson Administration to meet the constitutionally mandated requirement that Congress declare war (Vietnam War 2005). The opium war is another example of war with deep underlying causes. During the eighteenth century, the market in Europe and America for tea, a new drink in the West, expanded greatly. Additionally, there was a continuing demand for Chinese silk and porcelain (Emergence 2005). However, China, still in its pre-industrial stage, wanted little that the West had to offer, causing the Westerners, mostly British, to incur an unfavorable balance of trade. To remedy the situation, the foreigners developed a third-party trade, exchanging their merchandise in India and Southeast Asia for raw materials and semi-processed goods, which found a ready market in Guangzhou. By the early nineteenth century, raw cotton and opium from India had become the staple British imports into China, in spite of the fact that opium was prohibited entry by imperial decree. The opium traffic was made possible through the connivance of profit-seeking merchants and a corrupt bureaucracy (Emergence 2005). By the 1830's, the English had become the major drug-trafficking criminal organization in the world; very few drug cartels of the twentieth century can even touch the England of the early nineteenth century in sheer size of criminality. Growing opium in India, the East India Company shipped tons of opium into Canton, which it traded for Chinese manufactured goods and for tea (Opium Wars 2005). This trade had produced, quite literally, a country filled with drug addicts, as opium parlors proliferated all throughout China in the early part of the nineteenth century. This trafficking, it should be stressed, was a criminal activity after 1836, but the British traders generously bribed Canton officials in order to keep the opium traffic flowing. The effects on Chinese society were devastating. In fact, there are few periods in Chinese history that approach the early nineteenth century in terms of pure human misery and tragedy. In an effort to stem the tragedy, the imperial government made opium illegal in 1836 and began to aggressively close down the opium dens (Opium Wars 2005). War broke out when Chinese junks attempted to turn back English merchant vessels in November of 1839; although this was a low-level conflict, it inspired the English to send warships in June of 1840. The Chinese, with old-style weapons and artillery, were no match for the British gun ships, which ranged up and down the coast shooting at forts and fighting on land. The Chinese were equally unprepared for the technological superiority of the British land armies, and suffered continual defeats. Finally, in 1842, the Chinese were forced to agree to an ingenious peace under the Treaty of Nan king (Opium Wars 2005). Just as the Vietnamese did, nationalism drove the Chinese into war with the British. Additionally, the Chinese also want to stop the illegal trade of opium that had caused severe human misery and tragedy. The British colonialism and continued economic interest in the region made the opium war inevitable since it made all its effort in order to gain control of the region. Thus, the different reasons for both made the war escalate again in the second opium war. Lastly, World War 1 is another example of war based on prolonged conflicts. World War 1 was immediately precipitated by the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by a Serbian nationalist in 1914. Military conflict, from 1914 to 1918, that began as a local European war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia on July 28, 1914; was transformed into a general European struggle by declaration of war against Russia on Aug. 1, 1914; and eventually became a global war involving 32 nations. Twenty-eight of these nations, known as the Allies and the Associated Powers, and including Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and the U.S., opposed the coalition known as the Central Powers, consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. The fundamental causes of the conflict, however, were rooted deeply in the European history of the previous century (World War 1 2005). However, many factors had led toward war (World War 1 2003). The underlying cause of The World War 1 can be traced to the imperialistic, territorial, and economic rivalries that had been intensifying from the late 19th cent., particularly among Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, and Austria-Hungary (World War 1 2003). Of equal importance was the rampant spirit of nationalism, especially unsettling in the empire of Austria-Hungary and perhaps in France. Nationalism had brought the unification of Germany by "blood and iron," and France, deprived of Alsace and Lorraine by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, had been left with its own nationalistic cult seeking revenge against Germany (World War 1 2003). While French nationalists were hostile to Germany, which sought to maintain its gains by militarism and alliances, nationalism was creating violent tensions in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; there the large Slavic national groups had grown increasingly restive, and Serbia as well as Russia fanned Slavic hopes for freedom and Pan-Slavism (World War 1 2003). Imperialist rivalry had grown more intense with the "new imperialism" of the late 19th and early 20th cent. The great powers had come into conflict over spheres of influence in China and over territories in Africa, and the Eastern Question, created by the decline of the Ottoman Empire, had produced several disturbing controversies. Particularly unsettling was the policy of Germany. It embarked late but aggressively on colonial expansion under Emperor William II, came into conflict with France over Morocco, and seemed to threaten Great Britain by its rapid naval expansion (World War 1 2003). These issues, imperialist and nationalist, resulted in a hardening of alliance systems in the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente and in a general armaments race. Nonetheless, a false optimism regarding peace prevailed almost until the onset of the war, an optimism stimulated by the long period during which major wars had been avoided, by the close dynastic ties and cultural intercourse in Europe, and by the advance of industrialization and economic prosperity. Many Europeans counted on the deterrent of war's destructiveness to preserve the peace (World War 1 2003). Furthermore, the problem of communications in 1914 should not be underestimated; all nations still used telegraphy and ambassadors as the main form of communication, resulting in delays from hours to even days. There is probably no single concise or conclusive assessment of the exact cause of the First World War (World War 1 2005). Nationalism is great driving force for war, once any race or a nation in particular felt that their national sovereignty is at stake, people will stand up against any aggressors even it will cause their own lives. Despite of the advance weaponry of the U.S. army, they were forced to abandon the war on Vietnam due to heavy casualties and strong resistance back home. The North Vietnamese were willing to die for their land while most of the young American soldiers were not even sure what they are fighting for. Same is true with the Opium war, war based on nationalism is a war difficult to contain. In addition to nationalism, the cause of World War 1 was also due to imperialism, territorial dispute, economic rivalries that had been escalating since the 19th century. These made the three great wars of the 20th century difficult to contain. References "Emergence of Modern China." (2005). Retrieved Nov. 2, 2005. from The Maryland Chaos Group. Web site:http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/modern.html. Harvey, Donald Joseph, M.A., Ph.D. (2005). ENCYCLOPEDIA: WORLD WAR I. Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. World Almanac Education Group. A WRC Media Company. "Key Question: Why did the USA go to war in Vietnam" (2005). Retrieved Nov. 2, 2005. from Learn History. Web site: http://www.learnhistory.org.uk/vietnam/reasons.htm. Kegley and Wittkopf. (2004). World Politics. 9th ed. Chapter 11 "Opium Wars." (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved November 2, 2005. from Wikimedia. Web site:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars. "Vietnam War." (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved November 2, 2005. from Wikimedia. Web site:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War. "World War I." (2003). The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press. Copyright 2005 Yahoo! Inc. "World War I." (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved November 2, 2005. from Wikimedia. Web site:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I. Read More