(5) Peasant, serf and slave revolts
and rebellions against the authority of empires or civilizations. (6)
Civil wars to determine the leadership of particular empires; wars of
leadership succession; conflicts and power seizures within particular
oligarchies.
In every civilization final decisions regarding domestic and foreign
issues have been made by an appeal to arms. There were laws and legal
institutions in many civilizations under which confrontations might have
been prevented and armed conflict avoided. Where these legal means
failed to provide solutions, contestants turned to armed force as the
final arbiter.
Competitive survival struggle has played a prominent role in the life of
every civilization known to history. Competition at its highest level
employs armed force as its instrument of policy. War, domestic and
foreign has, therefore, dominated the history of every civilization.
Walter Bagehot called war a state maker. In the same context, war may be
referred to as a civilization maker.
Conflict, including war, has played a major role, often a determining
role in building and maintaining civilizations. It has also been a major
and perhaps _the_ major factor in undermining and destroying
civilizations. Arnold Toynbee contends that war has been a "proximate
cause" of the overthrow of one civilization after another. No observer
of current western civilization can fail to note the determining part
played by war during the first half of the present century.
Pages:
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183