World's Greatest Wars (ePub)

Wars are one of the defining characteristics of human psyche.They have, through bloodshed, chaos and ultimately suffering,pushed the human civilisation forward and still continue to doso. They are the means through which civilisations have definedthemselves and paved the way for pages of history to becomean eternal entity. Wars are perhaps the only event that havecreated as well as dissolved borders for new eras to stay incontinuance.Since such events have defined landmark stones in humanhistory, it becomes essential to understand the causes and thepurposes behind them and the socio-political results thatfollowed. However, defining a 'great war' is a multi-facetedaspect and can be a difficult task from a historical point ofview. Certain conflicts that have witnessed the lowest loss tohuman life have at many times extended till several decadesand even centuries. Can they be regarded as great? Can suchevents be regarded as permanent memories that extended fornot more than a couple of months or years but witnessedsome of the largest losses to human life? In this compilation,some of the greatest human conflicts have been presented withthe sole purpose to not only appreciate the socio-political andhistorical aftermath that followed after them but also toappreciate the scars that got left behind, for without scars, nopage of history has ever been written. Like the old Latinmaxim, "there is no peace without war" suggests, humancivilisation indeed is written down through the annals of conflictand resolution.The compilation starts with the 2nd World War, undoubtedlythe greatest war in civilizationalhistory, in both scale, historicalrepercussions and damage incurred to both human and publiclife, with permanent transformations across the globe. This greatwar of 1937-45 was a result of the 1st World War, anothergreat conflict encompassing much of the globe and the fatherof 2nd World War, and that cannot be ignored. Themethodology to define a credible great warcan have severalfactors, and hereit has been comprised of dependents such asorigins of the conflict, scale and influence over affected factions,regions, communities and peoples, approximate damage dealt tohuman life and most importantly, their socio-politicalrepercussions. The book is sub-divided into several chapterscorresponding to these conflicts with only brief historicalperspectives and information. This is important since the last5,000 years have seen countless number of large-scale conflictsinvolving millions of lives and even more. However, since thebook addresses only the deadliest and greatest wars ofcivilisation, only a select few have been included in the list.