113-537: The No-Conscription Fellowship was a British pacifist organisation which was founded in London by Fenner Brockway and Clifford Allen on 27 November 1914, following a suggestion by Lilla Brockway , after the First World War had failed to reach an early conclusion. Other prominent supporters included John Clifford , Bruce Glasier , Hope Squire , Bertrand Russell , Robert Smillie and Philip Snowden . A focus of
226-430: A brand of nonviolence (or ahimsa ) which he called satyagraha – translated literally as "truth force". This was the resistance of tyranny through civil disobedience that was not only nonviolent but also sought to change the heart of the opponent. He contrasted this with duragraha , "resistant force", which sought only to change behaviour with stubborn protest. During his 30 years of work (1917–1947) for
339-492: A broad moral guideline against violence between individuals. No philosophical program of rejecting violence between states, or rejecting all forms of violence, seems to have existed. Aristophanes , in his play Lysistrata , creates the scenario of an Athenian woman's anti-war sex strike during the Peloponnesian War of 431–404 BCE, and the play has gained an international reputation for its anti-war message. Nevertheless, it
452-484: A campaign of nonviolent resistance in the event of a fascist invasion or takeover. As the prospect of a second major war began to seem increasingly inevitable, much of France adopted pacifist views, though some historians argue that France felt more war anxiety than a moral objection to a second war. Hitler's spreading influence and territory posed an enormous threat to French livelihood from their neighbors. The French countryside had been devastated during World War I and
565-502: A few years. While conventional wisdom holds that casualties have increased in recent times due to technological improvements in warfare, this is not generally true. For instance, the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) had about the same number of casualties per capita as World War I , although it was higher during World War II (WWII). That said, overall the number of casualties from war has not significantly increased in recent times. Quite to
678-690: A former British ambassador to the United States. These and other initiatives were pivotal in the change in attitudes that gave birth to the League of Nations after the war. In addition to the traditional peace churches, some of the many groups that protested against the war were the Woman's Peace Party (which was organized in 1915 and led by noted reformer Jane Addams ), the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) (also organized in 1915),
791-508: A general feature of animal social behavior. Some proponents of the idea argue that war, while innate, has been intensified greatly by developments of technology and social organization such as weaponry and states. Psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker argued that war-related behaviors may have been naturally selected in the ancestral environment due to the benefits of victory. He also argued that in order to have credible deterrence against other groups (as well as on an individual level), it
904-420: A leading figure in the peace movement with the publication of her novel, Die Waffen nieder! ("Lay Down Your Arms!") in 1889 and founded an Austrian pacifist organization in 1891. In colonial New Zealand , during the latter half of the 19th century European settlers used numerous tactics to confiscate land from the indigenous Māori , including warfare . In the 1870s and 1880s, Parihaka , then reported to be
1017-469: A noble cause is a contributing factor towards war, few wars have originated from a desire for war among the general populace. Far more often the general population has been reluctantly drawn into war by its rulers. One psychological theory that looks at the leaders is advanced by Maurice Walsh. He argues the general populace is more neutral towards war and wars occur when leaders with a psychologically abnormal disregard for human life are placed into power. War
1130-507: A professor at the University of Illinois , says approximately 90–95% of known societies throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare, and many fought constantly. Keeley describes several styles of primitive combat such as small raids , large raids, and massacres . All of these forms of warfare were used by primitive societies, a finding supported by other researchers. Keeley explains that early war raids were not well organized, as
1243-602: A source of violent conflict. Pope Urban II in 1095, on the eve of the First Crusade , advocating Crusade as a solution to European overpopulation, said: For this land which you now inhabit, shut in on all sides by the sea and the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; it scarcely furnishes food enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder and devour one another, that you wage wars, and that many among you perish in civil strife. Let hatred, therefore, depart from among you; let your quarrels end. Enter upon
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#17331048423681356-437: A strictly pacifist interpretation of Christianity . They stated their beliefs in a declaration to King Charles II : "We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world. The Spirit of Christ ... which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for
1469-571: A universal and ancestral aspect of human nature , others argue it is a result of specific socio-cultural, economic, or ecological circumstances. The English word war derives from the 11th-century Old English words wyrre and werre , from Old French werre (also guerre as in modern French), in turn from the Frankish * werra , ultimately deriving from the Proto-Germanic * werzō ' mixture, confusion ' . The word
1582-413: Is Luke 22:36: "He said to them, 'But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one .'" Pacifists have typically explained that verse as Jesus fulfilling prophecy, since in the next verse, Jesus continues to say: "It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what
1695-575: Is Within You , Tolstoy provides a detailed history, account and defense of pacifism. Tolstoy's work inspired a movement named after him advocating pacifism to arise in Russia and elsewhere. The book was a major early influence on Mahatma Gandhi , and the two engaged in regular correspondence while Gandhi was active in South Africa. Bertha von Suttner , the first woman to be a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, became
1808-484: Is both fictional and comical, and though it offers a pragmatic opposition to the destructiveness of war, its message seems to stem from frustration with the existing conflict (then in its twentieth year) rather than from a philosophical position against violence or war. Equally fictional is the nonviolent protest of Hegetorides of Thasos . Euripides also expressed strong anti-war ideas in his work, especially The Trojan Women . In Plato's Republic Socrates makes
1921-564: Is caused by leaders who seek war such as Napoleon and Hitler . Such leaders most often come to power in times of crisis when the populace opts for a decisive leader, who then leads the nation to war. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine
2034-493: Is commonplace encourage their children to be more aggressive. War can be seen as a growth of economic competition in a competitive international system. In this view wars begin as a pursuit of markets for natural resources and for wealth. War has also been linked to economic development by economic historians and development economists studying state-building and fiscal capacity . While this theory has been applied to many conflicts, such counter arguments become less valid as
2147-445: Is described as difficult to abide by consistently, due to violence not being available as a tool to aid a person who is being harmed or killed. It is further claimed that such a pacifist could logically argue that violence leads to more undesirable results than non-violence. Tapping into just war theory conditional pacifism represents a spectrum of positions departing from positions of absolute pacifism. One such conditional pacifism
2260-608: Is estimated that between 1985 and 1994, 378,000 people per year died due to war. Most wars have resulted in significant loss of life, along with destruction of infrastructure and resources (which may lead to famine , disease, and death in the civilian population ). During the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the population of the Holy Roman Empire was reduced by 15 to 40 percent. Civilians in war zones may also be subject to war atrocities such as genocide , while survivors may suffer
2373-547: Is fueled by displacement and projection where a person transfers his or her grievances into bias and hatred against other races , religions , nations or ideologies . By this theory, the nation state preserves order in the local society while creating an outlet for aggression through warfare. The Italian psychoanalyst Franco Fornari , a follower of Melanie Klein , thought war was the paranoid or projective "elaboration" of mourning. Fornari thought war and violence develop out of our "love need": our wish to preserve and defend
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#17331048423682486-735: Is named for pacifism : " lemba, lemba " (peace, peace), describes the action of the plant lemba-lemba ( Brillantaisia patula T. Anders ). Likewise in Cabinda, " Lemba is the spirit of peace, as its name indicates." The Moriori , of the Chatham Islands , practiced pacifism by order of their ancestor Nunuku-whenua . This enabled the Moriori to preserve what limited resources they had in their harsh climate, avoiding waste through warfare. In turn, this led to their almost complete annihilation in 1835 by invading Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama Māori from
2599-491: Is of Jesus, besides preaching these words, surrendering himself freely to an enemy intent on having him killed and proscribing his followers from defending him. There are those, however, who deny that Jesus was a pacifist and state that Jesus never said not to fight, citing examples from the New Testament. One such instance portrays an angry Jesus driving dishonest market traders from the temple . A frequently quoted passage
2712-610: Is related to the Old Saxon werran , Old High German werran , and the modern German verwirren , meaning ' to confuse, to perplex, to bring into confusion ' . The earliest evidence of prehistoric warfare is a Mesolithic cemetery in Jebel Sahaba , which has been determined to be about 13,400 years old. About forty-five percent of the skeletons there displayed signs of violent death, specifically traumatic bone lesions. In War Before Civilization , Lawrence H. Keeley ,
2825-422: Is the common pacificism , which may allow defense but is not advocating a default defensivism or even interventionism . Institutional pacifists object to the foundation and continued existence of institutions that enable and encourage war, similarly to those who criticise the influence of the military–industrial complex . The term may have been coined by American sociologist Charles A. Ellwood , writing for
2938-497: Is written about me is reaching its fulfillment." Others have interpreted the non-pacifist statements in the New Testament to be related to self-defense or to be metaphorical and state that on no occasion did Jesus shed blood or urge others to shed blood. Beginning in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation gave rise to a variety of new Christian sects, including the historic peace churches . Foremost among them were
3051-662: The Three Strategies of Huang Shigong says: "As for the military, it is not an auspicious instrument; it is the way of heaven to despise it", and the Wei Liaozi writes: "As for the military, it is an inauspicious instrument; as for conflict and contention, it runs counter to virtue". The Taoist scripture " Classic of Great Peace ( Taiping jing )" foretells "the coming Age of Great Peace ( Taiping )". The Taiping Jing advocates "a world full of peace". The Lemba religion of southern French Congo, along with its symbolic herb,
3164-866: The American Civil War , including about 6% in the North and approximately 18% in the South. The war remains the deadliest conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 military personnel. United States military casualties of war since 1775 have totaled over two million. Of the 60 million European military personnel who were mobilized in World War I , 8 million were killed, 7 million were permanently disabled, and 15 million were seriously injured. During Napoleon 's retreat from Moscow, more French military personnel died of typhus than were killed by
3277-721: The American Union Against Militarism , the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the American Friends Service Committee . Jeannette Rankin , the first woman elected to Congress, was another fierce advocate of pacifism, the only person to vote against American entrance into both wars. After the immense loss of nearly ten million men to trench warfare , a sweeping change of attitude toward militarism crashed over Europe, particularly in nations such as Great Britain, where many questioned its involvement in
3390-480: The Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1943. Since the 2010s, some authors have expressed a renewed interest in institutional pacifism , often contrasting it with the more individually-oriented types of personal pacifism , and highlighting the role of human institutions in permitting accumulation of military resources. One writer suggested that institutional pacifism can be further categorised into juridicial pacifism and social pacifism, while another attempted to cite
3503-499: The French Revolutionary Wars based on Christian ideals of peace and brotherhood. Bohemian Bernard Bolzano taught about the social waste of militarism and the needlessness of war. He urged a total reform of the educational, social, and economic systems that would direct the nation's interests toward peace rather than toward armed conflict between nations. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, pacifism
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3616-914: The Korean War , the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 , the Iran–Iraq War , the Gulf War , the Eritrean–Ethiopian War , and the Russo-Ukrainian War . The Human Security Report 2005 documented a significant decline in the number and severity of armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. However, the evidence examined in the 2008 edition of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management's "Peace and Conflict" study indicated
3729-721: The League to Enforce Peace was established in the U.S. to promote similar goals. Hamilton Holt published a 28 September 1914, editorial in his magazine the Independent called "The Way to Disarm: A Practical Proposal" that called for an international organization to agree upon the arbitration of disputes and to guarantee the territorial integrity of its members by maintaining military forces sufficient to defeat those of any non-member. The ensuing debate among prominent internationalists modified Holt's plan to align it more closely with proposals offered in Great Britain by Viscount James Bryce ,
3842-588: The Peace Pledge Union in 1934, which totally renounced war and aggression. The idea of collective security was also popular; instead of outright pacifism, the public generally exhibited a determination to stand up to aggression, but preferably with the use of economic sanctions and multilateral negotiations. Many members of the Peace Pledge Union later joined the Bruderhof during its period of residence in
3955-622: The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Amish , Mennonites , Hutterites , and Church of the Brethren . The humanist writer Desiderius Erasmus was one of the most outspoken pacifists of the Renaissance , arguing strongly against warfare in his essays The Praise of Folly (1509) and The Complaint of Peace (1517). The Quakers were prominent advocates of pacifism, who as early as 1660 had repudiated violence in all forms and adhered to
4068-723: The Service Civil International and the Peace Pledge Union (PPU). The League of Nations also convened several disarmament conferences in the interbellum period such as the Geneva Conference , though the support that pacifist policy and idealism received varied across European nations. These organizations and movements attracted tens of thousands of Europeans, spanning most professions including "scientists, artists, musicians, politicians, clerks, students, activists and thinkers." Pacifism and revulsion with war were very popular sentiments in 1920s Britain. Novels and poems on
4181-483: The Soviet Union were around 27 million . Since a high proportion of those killed were young men who had not yet fathered any children, population growth in the postwar Soviet Union was much lower than it otherwise would have been. Once a war has ended, losing nations are sometimes required to pay war reparations to the victorious nations. In certain cases, land is ceded to the victorious nations. For example,
4294-605: The Taranaki region of the North Island of New Zealand. The invading Māori killed, enslaved and cannibalised the Moriori. A Moriori survivor recalled : "[The Maori] commenced to kill us like sheep ... [We] were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies. It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed – men, women and children indiscriminately." In Ancient Greece , pacifism seems not to have existed except as
4407-733: The Union 's military campaign, arguing they were carrying out a " police action " against the Confederacy , whose act of Secession they regarded as criminal. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , French pacifist René Gérin urged support for the Spanish Republic . Gérin argued that the Spanish Nationalists were "comparable to an individual enemy" and the Republic's war effort
4520-458: The Warring States period , the pacifist Mohist School opposed aggressive war between the feudal states. They took this belief into action by using their famed defensive strategies to defend smaller states from invasion from larger states, hoping to dissuade feudal lords from costly warfare. The Seven Military Classics of ancient China view warfare negatively, and as a last resort. For example,
4633-588: The Yoshida Doctrine as an example of institutional pacifism. Although all pacifists are opposed to war between nation states , there have been occasions where pacifists have supported military conflict in the case of civil war or revolution . For instance, during the American Civil War , both the American Peace Society and some former members of the Non-Resistance Society supported
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4746-421: The civil rights movement . Pacifism covers a spectrum of views, including the belief that international disputes can and should be peacefully resolved, calls for the abolition of the institutions of the military and war, opposition to any organization of society through governmental force ( anarchist or libertarian pacifism ), rejection of the use of physical violence to obtain political, economic or social goals,
4859-579: The fascists of Germany , Italy and Japan . During the period of the Napoleonic Wars , although no formal peace movement was established until the end of hostilities, a significant peace movement animated by universalist ideals did emerge, due to the perception of Britain fighting in a reactionary role and the increasingly visible impact of the war on the welfare of the nation in the form of higher taxation levels and high casualty rates. Sixteen peace petitions to Parliament were signed by members of
4972-690: The Cotswolds, where Englishmen and Germans, many of whom were Jewish, lived side by side despite local persecution. The British Labour Party had a strong pacifist wing in the early 1930s, and between 1931 and 1935 it was led by George Lansbury , a Christian pacifist who later chaired the No More War Movement and was president of the PPU. The 1933 annual conference resolved unanimously to "pledge itself to take no part in war". Researcher Richard Toye writes that "Labour's official position, however, although based on
5085-556: The French economist Frédéric Passy was also the founding father of the first international organisation for the arbitration of conflicts in 1889, the Inter-Parliamentary Union . The National Peace Council was founded in after the 17th Universal Peace Congress in London (July August 1908). An important thinker who contributed to pacifist ideology was Russian writer Leo Tolstoy . In one of his latter works, The Kingdom of God
5198-586: The French politician Duc de Sully , the philosophers Émeric Crucé and the Abbe de Saint-Pierre , and the English Quakers William Penn and John Bellers . Pacifist ideals emerged from two strands of thought that coalesced at the end of the 18th century. One, rooted in the secular Enlightenment , promoted peace as the rational antidote to the world's ills, while the other was a part of the evangelical religious revival that had played an important part in
5311-680: The Great Depression, though some consider that it did not play a very large role in the recovery, though it did help in reducing unemployment. In most cases, such as the wars of Louis XIV, the Franco-Prussian War , and World War I , warfare primarily results in damage to the economy of the countries involved. For example, Russia's involvement in World War I took such a toll on the Russian economy that it almost collapsed and greatly contributed to
5424-499: The Māori, which proved more successful in preventing land confiscations than acts of violent resistance. Mahatma Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of India, instrumental in the Indian independence movement . The Nobel prize winning great poet Rabindranath Tagore , who was also an Indian, gave him the honorific " Mahatma ", usually translated "Great Soul". He was the pioneer of
5537-554: The Neanderthals and ancestors of apes and primates. For the period 3000 BCE until 1991, estimates range from 151 million to 2 billion. The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is World War II , from 1939 to 1945, with 70–85 million deaths, followed by the Mongol conquests at up to 60 million. As concerns a belligerent's losses in proportion to its prewar population,
5650-686: The Peace Society in 1850 on a full-time basis, a position which he would keep for the next 40 years, earning himself a reputation as the 'Apostle of Peace'. He helped secure one of the earliest victories for the peace movement by securing a commitment from the Great Powers in the Treaty of Paris (1856) at the end of the Crimean War , in favour of arbitration. On the European continent, wracked by social upheaval ,
5763-684: The Russians. Of the 450,000 soldiers who crossed the Neman on 25 June 1812, less than 40,000 returned. More military personnel were killed from 1500 to 1914 by typhus than from military action. In addition, if it were not for modern medical advances there would be thousands more dead from disease and infection. For instance, during the Seven Years' War , the Royal Navy reported it conscripted 184,899 sailors, of whom 133,708 (72%) died of disease or were 'missing'. It
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#17331048423685876-410: The U.S. In Britain, the prominent activist Stephen Henry Hobhouse was jailed for refusing military service, citing his convictions as a "socialist and a Christian". Many socialist groups and movements were antimilitarist , arguing that war by its nature was a type of governmental coercion of the working class for the benefit of capitalist elites. The French socialist pacifist leader Jean Jaurès
5989-438: The United States and U.S. Generals , expressed support for an economic view of war. The Marxist theory of war is quasi-economic in that it states all modern wars are caused by competition for resources and markets between great ( imperialist ) powers, claiming these wars are a natural result of capitalism . Marxist economists Karl Kautsky , Rosa Luxemburg , Rudolf Hilferding and Vladimir Lenin theorized that imperialism
6102-705: The Western world after 1900, often focusing on treaties that would settle disputes through arbitration, and efforts to support the Hague conventions. The sudden outbreak of the First World War in July 1914 dismayed the peace movement. Socialist parties in every industrial nation had committed themselves to antiwar policies, but when the war came, all of them, except in Russia and the United States, supported their own governments. There were highly publicized dissidents, some of whom were imprisoned for opposing draft laws, such as Eugene Debs in
6215-510: The Younger criticised warfare in his book Naturales quaestiones (c. 65 CE). Maximilian of Tebessa was a Christian conscientious objector. He was killed for refusing to be conscripted. Throughout history many have understood Jesus of Nazareth to have been a pacifist, drawing on his Sermon on the Mount . In the sermon Jesus stated that one should "not resist an evildoer" and promoted his turn
6328-469: The aspiration towards a world socialist commonwealth and the outlawing of war, did not imply a renunciation of force under all circumstances, but rather support for the ill-defined concept of 'collective security' under the League of Nations. At the same time, on the party's left, Stafford Cripps 's small but vocal Socialist League opposed the official policy, on the non-pacifist ground that the League of Nations
6441-459: The campaign for the abolition of slavery . Representatives of the former included Jean-Jacques Rousseau , in Extrait du Projet de Paix Perpetuelle de Monsieur l'Abbe Saint-Pierre (1756), Immanuel Kant , in his Thoughts on Perpetual Peace , and Jeremy Bentham who proposed the formation of a peace association in 1789. Representative of the latter, was William Wilberforce who thought that strict limits should be imposed on British involvement in
6554-484: The campaign was the Military Service Act which introduced conscription in 1916. Branches were established across the country, leaflets were produced and deputations sent to lobby Parliament. They were successful in getting provision for conscientious objectors in the bill, but opposed the establishment of the army's Non-Combatant Corps . The founders and other members were jailed for their opposition to conscription. Bertrand Russell took over from Clifford Allen as
6667-539: The capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organized groups. It is generally characterized by extreme violence , destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces . Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets , and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties . While some war studies scholars consider war
6780-666: The chairman of the organisation while Catherine Marshall took over from Fenner Brockway as secretary. Marshall was in love with Clifford Allen and, when he was suffering from the effects of imprisonment, she drove herself to the point of exhaustion and Lilla Brockway then resumed the role of secretary in 1917, as she had been provisional secretary in 1916. The National Committee in 1916 was A. Barratt Brown , Alfred Salter , Aylmer Rose , Bertrand Russell , C.H. Norman , Catherine Marshall, Clifford Allen , Edward Grubb , Fenner Brockway , John P. Fletcher , Morgan Jones , Rev. Leyton Richards , Will Chamberlain . The Scottish organisation
6893-988: The chances of becoming a psychiatric casualty – of being debilitated for some period of time as a consequence of the stresses of military life – were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire. Swank and Marchand's World War II study found that after sixty days of continuous combat, 98% of all surviving military personnel will become psychiatric casualties. Psychiatric casualties manifest themselves in fatigue cases, confusional states, conversion hysteria, anxiety, obsessional and compulsive states, and character disorders. One-tenth of mobilised American men were hospitalised for mental disturbances between 1942 and 1945, and after thirty-five days of uninterrupted combat, 98% of them manifested psychiatric disturbances in varying degrees. Additionally, it has been estimated anywhere from 18% to 54% of Vietnam war veterans suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder . Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white American males aged 13 to 43 died in
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#17331048423687006-452: The civil rights movement's march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, they have called for armed protection. The interconnections between civil resistance and factors of force are numerous and complex. An absolute pacifist is generally described by the BBC as one who believes that human life is so valuable, that a human should never be killed and war should never be conducted, even in self-defense (except for non-violence type). The principle
7119-433: The colonies, Quakers chose to trade peacefully with the Native Americans , including for land. The colonial province was, for the 75 years from 1681 to 1756, essentially unarmed and experienced little or no warfare in that period. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, a number of thinkers devised plans for an international organisation that would promote peace, and reduce or even eliminate the occurrence of war. These included
7232-702: The conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers . Three of the ten most costly wars, in terms of loss of life, have been waged in the last century. These are the two World Wars, followed by the Second Sino-Japanese War (which is sometimes considered part of World War II , or as overlapping). Most of the others involved China or neighboring peoples. The death toll of World War II, being over 60 million, surpasses all other war-death-tolls. Military personnel subject to combat in war often suffer mental and physical injuries, including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder , disease, injury, and death. In every war in which American soldiers have fought in,
7345-414: The contrary, on a global scale the time since WWII has been unusually peaceful. Estimates for total deaths due to war vary widely. In one estimate, primitive warfare from 50,000 to 3000 BCE has been thought to have claimed 400 million±133,000 victims based on the assumption that it accounted for the 15.1% of all deaths. Other scholars find the prehistoric percentage much lower, around 2%, similar to
7458-478: The costs of war and interpersonal violence are so substantial that better ways of resolving disputes must be found. Some pacifists follow principles of nonviolence , believing that nonviolent action is morally superior and/or most effective. Some however, support physical violence for emergency defence of self or others. Others support destruction of property in such emergencies or for conducting symbolic acts of resistance like pouring red paint to represent blood on
7571-446: The course of conflict and may eventually morph into "peace conditions" – the minimal conditions under which a state may cease to wage a particular war. Throughout the course of human history, the average number of people dying from war has fluctuated relatively little, being about 1 to 10 people dying per 100,000. However, major wars over shorter periods have resulted in much higher casualty rates, with 100–200 casualties per 100,000 over
7684-420: The entire nation was reluctant to subject its territory to the same treatment. Though all countries in the First World War had suffered great losses, France was one of the most devastated and many did not want a second war. War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states , or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have
7797-412: The first peace congress was held in Brussels in 1848 followed by Paris a year later. After experiencing a recession in support due to the resurgence of militarism during the American Civil War and Crimean War , the movement began to spread across Europe and began to infiltrate the new socialist movements. In 1870, Randal Cremer formed the Workman's Peace Association in London. Cremer, alongside
7910-418: The globe. The invention of gunpowder , and its eventual use in warfare, together with the acceleration of technological advances have fomented major changes to war itself. In Western Europe, since the late 18th century, more than 150 conflicts and about 600 battles have taken place. During the 20th century, war resulted in a dramatic intensification of the pace of social changes, and was a crucial catalyst for
8023-426: The growth of left-wing politics . Mao Zedong urged the socialist camp not to fear nuclear war with the United States since, even if "half of mankind died, the other half would remain while imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist." A distinctive feature of war since 1945 is that combat has largely been a matter of civil wars and insurgencies. The major exceptions were
8136-459: The increasing mobility of capital and information level the distributions of wealth worldwide, or when considering that it is relative, not absolute, wealth differences that may fuel wars. There are those on the extreme right of the political spectrum who provide support, fascists in particular, by asserting a natural right of a strong nation to whatever the weak cannot hold by force. Some centrist, capitalist, world leaders, including Presidents of
8249-474: The independence of his country from British colonial rule , Gandhi led dozens of nonviolent campaigns, spent over seven years in prison, and fasted nearly to the death on several occasions to obtain British compliance with a demand or to stop inter-communal violence. His efforts helped lead India to independence in 1947, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom worldwide. Peace movements became active in
8362-516: The kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world. Throughout the many 18th century wars in which Great Britain participated, the Quakers maintained a principled commitment not to serve in the army and militia or even to pay the alternative £10 fine. The English Quaker William Penn , who founded the Province of Pennsylvania , employed an anti-militarist public policy. Unlike residents of many of
8475-638: The largest Māori settlement in New Zealand, became the centre of a major campaign of non-violent resistance to land confiscations. One Māori leader, Te Whiti-o-Rongomai , quickly became the leading figure in the movement, stating in a speech that "Though some, in darkness of heart, seeing their land ravished, might wish to take arms and kill the aggressors, I say it must not be. Let not the Pakehas think to succeed by reason of their guns... I want not war". Te Whiti-o-Rongomai achieved renown for his non-violent tactics among
8588-518: The memory of the International Brigades and other militaristic interventions. Shortly after the war ended, Simone Weil , despite having volunteered for service on the republican side, went on to publish The Iliad or the Poem of Force , a work that has been described as a pacifist manifesto. In response to the threat of fascism, some pacifist thinkers, such as Richard B. Gregg , devised plans for
8701-409: The mid-nineteenth century. The London Peace Society, under the initiative of American consul Elihu Burritt and the reverend Henry Richard , convened the first International Peace Congress in London in 1843. The congress decided on two aims: the ideal of peaceable arbitration in the affairs of nations and the creation of an international institution to achieve that. Richard became the secretary of
8814-498: The most destructive war in modern history may have been the Paraguayan War (see Paraguayan War casualties ). In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths, down from 72,000 deaths in 1990. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem, a decrease in social spending, famine , large-scale emigration from the war zone, and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. For instance, of
8927-542: The motivations for war, but no consensus about which are most common. Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said, "Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions, and its own peculiar preconceptions." Dutch psychoanalyst Joost Meerloo held that, "War is often...a mass discharge of accumulated internal rage (where)...the inner fears of mankind are discharged in mass destruction." Other psychoanalysts such as E.F.M. Durban and John Bowlby have argued human beings are inherently violent. This aggressiveness
9040-590: The nature and presence of warfare. Thus, he argues, warfare is not a universal human occurrence and appears to have been a historical invention, associated with certain types of human societies. Montagu's argument is supported by ethnographic research conducted in societies where the concept of aggression seems to be entirely absent, e.g. the Chewong and Semai of the Malay peninsula. Bobbi S. Low has observed correlation between warfare and education, noting societies where warfare
9153-516: The nine million people who were on the territory of the Byelorussian SSR in 1941, some 1.6 million were killed by the Germans in actions away from battlefields, including about 700,000 prisoners of war, 500,000 Jews, and 320,000 people counted as partisans (the vast majority of whom were unarmed civilians). Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in
9266-663: The obliteration of force, and opposition to violence under any circumstance, even defence of self and others. Historians of pacifism Peter Brock and Thomas Paul Socknat define pacifism "in the sense generally accepted in English-speaking areas" as "an unconditional rejection of all forms of warfare". Philosopher Jenny Teichman defines the main form of pacifism as "anti-warism", the rejection of all forms of warfare. Teichman's beliefs have been summarized by Brian Orend as "... A pacifist rejects war and believes there are no moral grounds which can justify resorting to war. War, for
9379-407: The other cheek philosophy. "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well ... Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." He also believed that murder is a sin and repeated the commandment of " Thou shalt not kill ". The New Testament story
9492-450: The outside of military recruiting offices or entering air force bases and hammering on military aircraft. Not all nonviolent resistance (sometimes also called civil resistance ) is based on a fundamental rejection of all violence in all circumstances. Many leaders and participants in such movements, while recognizing the importance of using non-violent methods in particular circumstances, have not been absolute pacifists. Sometimes, as with
9605-500: The overall decline in conflicts had stalled. Entities contemplating going to war and entities considering whether to end a war may formulate war aims as an evaluation/propaganda tool. War aims may stand as a proxy for national-military resolve. Fried defines war aims as "the desired territorial, economic, military or other benefits expected following successful conclusion of a war". Tangible/intangible aims: Explicit/implicit aims: Positive/negative aims: War aims can change in
9718-455: The pacifist, is always wrong." In a sense the philosophy is based on the idea that the ends do not justify the means. The word pacific denotes conciliatory. Pacifism may be based on moral principles (a deontological view) or pragmatism (a consequentialist view). Principled pacifism holds that at some point along the spectrum from war to interpersonal physical violence, such violence becomes morally wrong. Pragmatic pacifism holds that
9831-465: The pacifistic argument that a just person would not harm anyone. In Plato 's earlier work Crito Socrates asserts that it is not moral to return evil with further evil, an original moral conception, according to Gregory Vlastos , that undermines all justifications for war and violence. Several Roman writers rejected the militarism of Roman society and gave voice to anti-war sentiments, including Propertius , Tibullus and Ovid . The Stoic Seneca
9944-416: The participants did not have any formal training. Scarcity of resources meant defensive works were not a cost-effective way to protect the society against enemy raids. William Rubinstein wrote "Pre-literate societies, even those organized in a relatively advanced way, were renowned for their studied cruelty.'" Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has continued over much of
10057-486: The party to oppose Neville Chamberlain 's policy of appeasement . The League of Nations attempted to play its role in ensuring world peace in the 1920s and 1930s. However, with the increasingly revisionist and aggressive behaviour of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan , it ultimately failed to maintain such a world order. Economic sanctions were used against states that committed aggression, such as those against Italy when it invaded Abyssinia , but there
10170-536: The police raided the National Labour Press and dismantled the printing press. However the NCF had a secret press and were able to continue publishing. Historian Thomas Kennedy says that during the last two years of the war, the NCF remained a: Pacifism Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war , militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence . The word pacifism
10283-399: The policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works
10396-525: The psychological aftereffects of witnessing the destruction of war. War also results in lower quality of life and worse health outcomes. A medium-sized conflict with about 2,500 battle deaths reduces civilian life expectancy by one year and increases infant mortality by 10% and malnutrition by 3.3%. Additionally, about 1.8% of the population loses access to drinking water . Most estimates of World War II casualties indicate around 60 million people died, 40 million of whom were civilians. Deaths in
10509-572: The public, anti-war and anti- Pitt demonstrations convened and peace literature was widely published and disseminated. The first peace movements appeared in 1815–16. In the United States the first such movement was the New York Peace Society , founded in 1815 by the theologian David Low Dodge , and the Massachusetts Peace Society . It became an active organization, holding regular weekly meetings, and producing literature which
10622-407: The sacred object to which we are attached, namely our early mother and our fusion with her. For the adult, nations are the sacred objects that generate warfare. Fornari focused upon sacrifice as the essence of war: the astonishing willingness of human beings to die for their country, to give over their bodies to their nation. Despite Fornari's theory that man's altruistic desire for self-sacrifice for
10735-668: The same way in any country. Several theories concern the evolutionary origins of warfare. There are two main schools: One sees organized warfare as emerging in or after the Mesolithic as a result of complex social organization and greater population density and competition over resources; the other sees human warfare as a more ancient practice derived from common animal tendencies, such as territoriality and sexual competition. The latter school argues that since warlike behavior patterns are found in many primate species such as chimpanzees , as well as in many ant species, group conflict may be
10848-484: The sort of persons you would expect to find at such a meeting — older pacifists and older rebels — Bertrand Russell , Robert Trevelyan , George Lansbury , Olive Schreiner , Lupton , Stephen and Rosa Hobhouse , Dr Clifford , C.H. Norman , Miss Llewelyn Davies and the Snowdens : the pacifist predominating over the rebel element. From March 1916 the NCF published The Tribunal . In an effort to suppress this publication,
10961-461: The start of the Russian Revolution of 1917 . World War II was the most financially costly conflict in history; its belligerents cumulatively spent about a trillion U.S. dollars on the war effort (as adjusted to 1940 prices). The Great Depression of the 1930s ended as nations increased their production of war materials. By the end of the war, 70% of European industrial infrastructure
11074-506: The territory of Alsace-Lorraine has been traded between France and Germany on three different occasions. Typically, war becomes intertwined with the economy and many wars are partially or entirely based on economic reasons. The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II . Many economists believe that government spending on the war caused or at least accelerated recovery from
11187-505: The theme of the futility of war and the slaughter of the youth by old fools were published, including, Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington , Erich Remarque 's translated All Quiet on the Western Front and Beverley Nichols 's expose Cry Havoc . A debate at the University of Oxford in 1933 on the motion 'one must fight for King and country' captured the changed mood when the motion was resoundingly defeated. Dick Sheppard established
11300-618: The war. After World War I's official end in 1918, peace movements across the continent and the United States renewed, gradually gaining popularity among young Europeans who grew up in the shadow of Europe's trauma over the Great War. Organizations formed in this period included the War Resisters' International , the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom , the No More War Movement ,
11413-497: Was 'nothing but the tool of the satiated imperialist powers'." Lansbury was eventually persuaded to resign as Labour leader by the non-pacifist wing of the party and was replaced by Clement Attlee . As the threat from Nazi Germany increased in the 1930s, the Labour Party abandoned its pacifist position and supported rearmament, largely as the result of the efforts of Ernest Bevin and Hugh Dalton , who by 1937 had also persuaded
11526-531: Was assassinated by a nationalist fanatic on 31 July 1914. The national parties in the Second International increasingly supported their respective nations in war, and the International was dissolved in 1916. In 1915, the League of Nations Society was formed by British liberal leaders to promote a strong international organisation that could enforce the peaceful resolution of conflict. Later that year,
11639-485: Was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ahimsa (to do no harm), which is a core philosophy in Indian religions such as Hinduism , Buddhism , and Jainism . While modern connotations are recent, having been explicated since the 19th century, ancient references abound. In modern times, interest
11752-578: Was destroyed. Property damage in the Soviet Union inflicted by the Axis invasion was estimated at a value of 679 billion rubles. The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 2,508 church buildings, 31,850 industrial establishments, 40,000 mi (64,374 km) of railroad, 4100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries. There are many theories about
11865-592: Was equivalent to the action of a domestic police force suppressing crime. In the 1960s, some pacifists associated with the New Left supported wars of national liberation and supported groups such as the Viet Cong and the Algerian FLN , arguing peaceful attempts to liberate such nations were no longer viable, and war was thus the only option. Advocacy of pacifism can be found far back in history and literature. During
11978-667: Was important to have a reputation for retaliation, causing humans to develop instincts for revenge as well as for protecting a group's (or an individual's) reputation (" honor "). Crofoot and Wrangham have argued that warfare, if defined as group interactions in which "coalitions attempt to aggressively dominate or kill members of other groups", is a characteristic of most human societies. Those in which it has been lacking "tend to be societies that were politically dominated by their neighbors". Ashley Montagu strongly denied universalistic instinctual arguments, arguing that social factors and childhood socialization are important in determining
12091-579: Was led by Marjory Newbold , whose husband Walton became a Communist MP. Branches were established across the country and the first national convention was held on 27 November 1915 at the Congregational Memorial Hall . The second convention was held the following year on 8 April at Devonshire House — a Quaker meeting place in Bishopsgate . Beatrice Webb , who was pro-war, recorded the occasion in her diary, The Friends' Meeting House ...
12204-506: Was no will on the part of the principal League powers, Britain and France, to subordinate their interests to a multilateral process or to disarm at all themselves. The Spanish Civil War proved a major test for international pacifism, and the work of pacifist organisations (such as War Resisters' International and the Fellowship of Reconciliation ) and individuals (such as José Brocca and Amparo Poch ) in that arena has until recently been ignored or forgotten by historians, overshadowed by
12317-587: Was not entirely frowned upon throughout Europe. It was considered a political stance against costly capitalist-imperialist wars, a notion particularly popular in the British Liberal Party of the twentieth century. However, during the eras of World War One and especially World War Two , public opinion on the ideology split. Those against the Second World War, some argued, were not fighting against unnecessary wars of imperialism but instead acquiescing to
12430-542: Was packed with some 2,000 young men — the National Convention of the No-Conscription Fellowship. ... Among the 2,000 were many diverse types. The intellectual pietist, slender in figure, delicate in feature and complexion, benevolent in expression was the dominant type. These youths were saliently conscious of their own righteousness. ... On the platform were the sympathisers with the movement — exactly
12543-620: Was revived by Leo Tolstoy in his late works, particularly in The Kingdom of God Is Within You . Mahatma Gandhi propounded the practice of steadfast nonviolent opposition which he called " satyagraha ", instrumental in its role in the Indian Independence Movement . Its effectiveness served as inspiration to Martin Luther King Jr. , James Lawson , Mary and Charles Beard , James Bevel , Thich Nhat Hanh , and many others in
12656-614: Was spread as far as Gibraltar and Malta, describing the horrors of war and advocating pacificism on Christian grounds. The London Peace Society (also known as the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace) was formed in 1816 to promote permanent and universal peace by the philanthropist William Allen . In the 1840s, British women formed "Olive Leaf Circles", groups of around 15 to 20 women, to discuss and promote pacifist ideas. The peace movement began to grow in influence by
12769-533: Was the result of capitalist countries needing new markets . Expansion of the means of production is only possible if there is a corresponding growth in consumer demand . Since the workers in a capitalist economy would be unable to fill the demand, producers must expand into non-capitalist markets to find consumers for their goods, hence driving imperialism. Demographic theories can be grouped into two classes, Malthusian and youth bulge theories: Malthusian theories see expanding population and scarce resources as
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