Reasons for War

[Lawrence of Arabica]

Historically, so far as the middle ages goes...
nobles (kings included) wanted to aquire new territory for their younger sons. Also, a lot of war at that time was raiding, which means the possibility of booty in large quantities.

Dynastic quarrels, that is, disputes over succession, were a big reason (or pretext). The Norman conquest of England and the Hundred Years War are both examples.

 

[ScyldSceafing]

I thought one of the more interesting reasons for going to war was the one Tom Clancy used in Red Storm Rising (and no, I'm not a Tom Clancy fanatic, so please let's not go off into a long Clancy discussion) ... the Russian economy was in such a state that its leaders just gave up trying to fix it. Infrastructure broke down to the point that they couldn't get grain from their southern client states. So they started a land war in Europe basically as an attempt to extend their hegemony throughout the great central plains of the continent.

In the real world wasn't it Gorbachev's agriculture innovations that served as his power base to rise to the head of the government? I seem to recall he was from the Ministry of Agriculture. Anyway, I digress.

Now, historically, I don't think the reasons for going to war are usually this thoughtful and rational. Or perhaps the thoughtful, rational reasons are very seldom the ones cited by the demagogues trying to sell the prospect of dead sons and privation to the populace. I dunno.

 

[rbingham2000]

Let's see...

Perhaps the biggest point of contention historically was land. Greed could and did lead to death as many people coveted and sought to take the lands of their neighbors for themselves. And in addition, misunderstandings often arose between people and countries as to who actually owned a piece of land, leading to much strife and bloodshed.

Rebellion (and most of you should know what this is) was also popular. Unfortunately, not all rebellions are justified, and often, the ruler that the rebels put on the throne turns out to be just as bad as the ruler they took down, if not worse. And once a ruler is taken down, there's going to be at least a few pissed-off loyalists to the old ruler that the new ruler has to deal with.

Also, there's the situation where two factions, tribes, nations or what have you battle it out simply because they've always done so. Usually both sides have forgotten what started the whole thing, and the fighting has become cause itself. This is typically the case with blood feuds between families and clans.

 

[Melvin the Mediocre]

More reasons for war

to take slaves / to stop slavery
opposing nation guards or plans to use an artifact, portal, or gateway
diety decrees it
genocide
bloodlust (orcs vs dwarves)
over population
believe that your culture is superior and should dominate

 

[ErichDragon]

It depends how close you want your fantasy world to be to the real world. In the real world all wars in the Western world were fought for one reason and one reason alone - money. There are always secondary reasons and illusory reasons to get support for wars from the people, but in the end all wars are about wealth.

 

[Gilladian]

not exactly war, but this site talks a lot about civilizations and what makes them fall apart:

http://www.learner.org/exhibits/collapse/

pretty neat!

Gilladian