date: 2025.07.19
History of Warfare
- War is an act of violence that compels the enemy to submit in order to realize one’s ‘will.’ (Clausewitz)
- The ultimate reason why states or political groups wage war using (non-)military means is either ‘to impose their will on the enemy’ or for better peace or the survival of the group.
- Although violence is the most important attribute of war, it is not the only one. Since chance and uncertainty limit this violence, a commander’s decisions and reason (political superiority) are very important in war.
- Historically, the nature of war has changed according to the times.
- Wars in pre-primitive and primitive times were animal wars fought purely with muscular strength. They mainly fought against animals biologically close to humans, and their origins are presumed to have been sexual desire, dominance, curiosity, and the like.
- In ancient times, during the birth of the first civilizations, wars were waged to expand territory and plunder hostile forces’ land or food and enslave them. During this period, infantry tactics dependent on battle formations using weapons like spears, swords, and shields emerged (e.g., Alexander, Greco-Roman wars, etc.).
- In medieval times, holy wars were frequent due to religious beliefs (e.g., the Crusades). In medieval Europe, military tactics did not develop well due to the feudal system. Since individual knights only focused on charging and the magnitude of weight, there was no mobility, so the scale of battles was also small. But this was only the case in Europe, while the Mongol army created military tactics like the decimal system and organized troops for invasion.
- Later, centralized monarchies emerged and gunpowder weapons like small firearms and cannons were invented. From this time, genuine military strategic thought began to develop. A representative example is Frederick the Great of Prussia.
- Modern Europe was the era of Napoleon after the French Revolution. While previously wars were fought by decisions of monarchs or lords, in this era wars were waged with the support of the people. Therefore, troops were mobilized through conscription and division and corps systems were introduced. Consequently, field artillery systems and supply systems were established. Wars of this period took the form of people’s war + war of annihilation, mainly aimed at annihilating the enemy.
- Later, as the Industrial Revolution began in the 19th century, new rifles, machine guns, railways, steamships, etc., were invented. Since it became possible to transport materials in large quantities and command distant units, wars took on the aspect of total war.
- World War I was a total war in which all citizens and resources of the state were mobilized (although it did distinguish between combatants and non-combatants). Therefore, mass destructive power was demonstrated and defensive strengthening appeared faster than offense. So it had the characteristics of prolonged war + war of attrition, and after the war, the world economy and science and technology grew rapidly. Unlike this trench warfare form, in World War II, strategies using new weapons like tanks and aircraft emerged (e.g., Germany’s blitzkrieg).
- From the Cold War era, modern warfare includes nuclear war with conventional plus nuclear weapons. While the justification for war until then was ‘to secure survival rights,’ since the destructive power of nuclear weapons is so strong, using nuclear weapons as a means would lead to human extinction, making the political purpose of war itself meaningless. Countries began adopting treaties or strategies to suppress nuclear war (e.g., mutual assured destruction). The first experiment was nuclear bombs dropped on two regions of Japan in 1945. Subsequent weapons achieved tremendous development in terms of science, technology, and strategy. Besides simple destructive power, there are intercontinental ballistic missiles with long range that can be used as delivery systems. And as systems to intercept enemy missiles developed, anti-ballistic, multiple warhead, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles began to be researched.
- Current wars in the post-Cold War era involve threats in the form of ideology, drugs, and terrorism at the strategic level. Current wars are divided into irregular warfare like guerrilla warfare, civil affairs operations, and terrorism, and information warfare centered on cyber warfare and unmanned warfare.
- Conflict refers to everything in war except armed clashes.
- One of the important origins of games is war. Games like chess and Korean chess were originally created in ancient civilizations to simulate actual combat or to practice strategy. Another origin was that they were also created for ritual purposes to perform ceremonies or divine fate.
- Games are structural models of violence. Therefore, games also serve as devices that symbolize actual physical violent acts and suppress human archetypal desires.