[extropy-chat] Origin of Wars

[Lee Corbin]

Keith writes

> [Lee wrote]
>
>>I think that Keith has a very good, but hardly unique,
>>description of the basic process. I'm conjecturing that
>>no description so far postulated here, however, covers
>>all the known cases. For example, there are just too many
>>damn wars in which population pressure was not a cause.
> 
> I define population pressure in the post stone age as falling income per 
> capita or (perhaps more important) the future prospects of falling income 
> per capita.  I am not aware of a war where (if you looked) this was not the 
> situation.   Which wars do you offer as being cases where there was rising 
> income per capita and bright economic future?  (For the side that started 
> the war.)

The American Civil war is one, the U.S. war with Mexico, Hitler and Stalin's
war on Poland are a couple of others.

The American Revolution is another: the Colonialists may have been 
the world's richest people, at least as noticed by regular British troops
("John Adams", by McCullough).

And would you claim that France was attacked by Austria and Prussia
on February 7, 1792 because of resource scarcity or population pressure?
The leaders of Austria and Prussia were simply scared of anti-royalist
revolutions in general.

We can start with these, and I'd appreciate any information about them
that you have that supports your thesis.

Lee