Religion,land, Political ideals, oil.

[frankiegth]

As a spin off from a debate on a different site I thought I'd pose the question, 'cos I certainly don't have the answer.

Which of the four catagories above do you feel have man made war over and the most lives been lost in the persuit of?

Off the top of my drunken head I'd be inclined to say.

1 Land
2 religion
3 political ideals
4 oil

Having said that I feel religion gets blamed for warfare when it's not the real issue. When was the last time you heard of a country going off to war to "convert" the heathen or whatever
to their way of religious thinking.

[bh]

Crusades!!

[thevicar]

If you think anything after the first crusade had anything more than a smattering of religious cover then you're probably not overly well versed in European political history of the time. Even the first was more about power and prestige than about the recapture of Jerusalem. Why do we never mention the invasion of Eastern Europe and Spain which also had religious propaganda roots?

My guess that most lives have been lost in war over power and money but then I'm a cynical sod.

Most lives have been thrown away generally by political powers (China, USSR etc) but most political ideas are about control of power and money.

[robotsmfc]

Most European wars have certainly been over land and power, with those two factors having the overarching motivation of control of resources.