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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7400911" data-attributes="member: 16814">There's some great stuff in here, but I differ with you on the premise:  most wars are fought due to population pressure.  Germany started WWII largely because it had a surplus of young men without gainful use.  This made them susceptible to an ideology, yes, but no other country that had plenty of gainful use for their young men fell under the sway of that ideology.  The Crusades were fought for various religious and secular reasons, but the timing was keenly associated to a build-up of noble sons without land to inherent.In other words, peoples don't go to war if they have enough at home.  Peoples go to war if they cannot currently support their populations and need to bleed off the excess, either through conquest and victory and new land/resources or casualties.  Ideologies come in to provide a support and mode for the aggression, but people just aren't that aggressive when they have enough already.  Every war can be traced back to a pressure on the population for resources and a surplus of citizens.At least, that's my working theory in a nutshell.  Extremist and/or violent ideologies have a hard time taking root in prosperous peoples.</blockquote>