What was the main driver of conquest and wars in ancient times? Why were they so frequent?
Upvote:1
It is not possible to give a short answer: the question is too complicated (and somewhat controversial). There are several good books which address it in depth. I can recommend three of them which try to answer this question:
Azar Gat, War in Human Civilization, Oxford 2006,
Lawrence Keeley, War Before Civilization. Oxford University Press, USA, 1996
Ian Morris, War! What is it good for? (Farrar,...NY, 2014).
Upvote:2
Wars are usually fought because of some combination of fear, honor, or interest - even when the stated rational is or seems closer to nationalism or fear mongering.
You can't really put much of a pattern forward beyond that without inspecting the causes of each individual war. Even then, filing a particular war declaration under a single reason will usually not pass a sniff test. It's never strictly about "scarcity of resources". Things instantly get murkier when you factor in historical and international context.
Take for instance the various barbarian invasions during the fall of the western Roman Empire. A naive glance at the subject could mislead one to think that they were strictly after loot and land. Maybe even just waiting for Rome to be weak enough that they can start pouring into the empire. But a closer look reveals the even nastier hordes of Huns that was displacing them from the East.
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