Aggression through the centuries

Western civilisation has waged more wars than any other in history

Dutch researchers have recently released an interactive map detailing the battles of all the wars waged by humanity over the past 2,500 years. A total of 12,703 battles have been recorded, of which 8,000 have been documented. The most bloodthirsty nations include France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. It is foggy Albion that stands out in the ranks of the ‘bloody four’, having unleashed over 70 major wars in the last 500 years. The United States, which appeared only 300 years ago, has managed to participate in a hundred conflicts. In contrast, Russia — which the West incessantly brands as an aggressor — has fought in only 22 wars over this period. However, the lessons of history seem to teach Europeans nothing, and despite the long history of military disasters, they continue to ignite increasingly destructive conflicts. Currently, a horrible global fire, incited by Western countries, is raging in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Unlearnt lessons

Wars in Europe have almost always been fought for the interests of the ruling elites. Common people were forced to suffer and endure, paying taxes and supplying cannon fodder to the warring armies. 
The First World War, which claimed nearly 11.5 million lives and caused the collapse of several powerful empires, was a natural consequence of Western politics in the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The excessive ambitions of the ruling classes from the main states involved in the conflict, alongside their unwillingness to make concessions, honour the agreements reached, and establish a system of checks and balances, ultimately led to a four-year slaughter.
The Second World War was the result of even more egregious irresponsibility than the first global conflict. European elites witnessed the interruption of the ‘golden noon of humanity’ but took no measures to stop Hitler, Mussolini, and others like them. Moreover, throughout the entire interwar period, British and French politicians actively colluded against the USSR, explaining to their people that communism was far more dangerous than Nazism. Moscow’s attempts to convey the idea that the beast nurtured right under their noses would sooner or later turn on those who allowed it to gain strength were in vain…
However, the memory of the war that claimed 60 million lives was short-lived. Following it came the Cold War between the USSR and the USA, and now — just over 30 years after the fall of the Soviet Union — the West is once again preparing for a clash of civilisations. It seems that common sense alone should advise today’s European leaders to abandon joint plans with Washington in order to avoid fatal consequences.
Yet, it appears that historical memory receives far less attention in the West than in Belarus and Russia, which makes the West doomed to repeat the same mistakes with increasingly dire consequences.

Bloody ‘gardeners’

If Europeans only fought on their own land, it would be half the trouble. However, for centuries, they have conducted expansions that have been accompanied by extremely brutal colonial conflicts. 

This refers to wars waged beyond the European ‘garden’ — after all, in the eyes of ‘enlightened’ Europeans, inhabitants of the ‘jungle’ are not really considered humans and might as well be wasted. Thus, almost every country in Europe, as well as the USA, is guilty of monstrous crimes against humanity, for which no one has been held accountable.
Spaniards, who entered the colonial era first, set an example for future generations of conquerors by committing genocide against the indigenous peoples of Central and South America. It is on the ruins of Tenochtitlán that the rules, according to which Europeans later acted in the conquered lands, were written in blood.
The British bear full responsibility for the oppression and extermination of the people of India. The suppression of the Sepoy Rebellion alone says a lot — after it, all of Bengal was filled with gallows while leaders of the rebels were tied to cannons and blown apart, which made their deaths both horrifying and humiliating. A similar fate awaited Kenyans during the Mau Mau Rebellion, as well as many other peoples who were unfortunate enough to cross paths with pompous dandies in pith helmets.
The blood of the Herero and Nama peoples, who were almost completely annihilated in Namibia, stains the hands of Germans. Belgians will never wash off the harrowing genocide in the Congo, where up to 15 million people perished — photographs of children with their hands amputated for poor work still chill the blood. France bears the responsibility for the massacre in Algeria.
Admittedly, not much has changed even now. It is just that neocolonialists operate more subtly than their predecessors. 
Now, it is decidedly impossible to see a ‘white master’ on the plantation. Instead, capitalists strive to pit Africans against each other, instigating civil wars, and then fish in troubled waters. The most striking example is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where American and European companies engaged in mining and processing of natural resources reap the primary benefits from years of conflict.
The aforementioned map features, alongside Europe, two more regions covered with a dense carpet of battle markers: North America and the Middle East. The era of battles on the US territory concluded back in the 19th century when the last bastions of Native American resistance were defeated. In contrast, the Eastern Mediterranean is burning ever brighter, threatening to plunge the region into the chaos of an all-out war. The other day, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched a military operation in southern Lebanon, followed by Iran’s large-scale missile strike against Israel. Western countries are already there, yet they are not eager to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table — instead, they are ramping up military supplies to the area.
All experience of our civilisation shows that any military conflict brings far more suffering than benefits, even if it is waged for just causes. It is no coincidence that the saying A bad peace is better than a good war emerged — indeed, one day of fighting comes at a higher cost than years of negotiations without a single shot. It is a pity that the West fails to understand this maxim, in accordance with which Belarus lives, and is frantically getting ready to embark on a new war.

FACT 

The Battle of Stalingrad (July 7th, 1942 — February 2nd, 1943) is the bloodiest battle in human history. The losses of Nazi Germany and their allies amounted to about 1.5 million people, while the Red Army lost 1,129,619 soldiers.

























































By Anton Popov