All war is hell, but in your opinion, what was the worst, more destructive war, that has taken place to date?
I think it's a question that would depend on your perspective. For example, someone living in the southern US states might say the Civil War, but someone living in Poland would say the Second World War. Someone in Southeast Asia might say it was what we call the Vietnam War. What would someone in a place like Argentina or Portugal say?
Okay, I'm going to take your term "destructive" literally and not think about casualty numbers, single battle losses, etc. And in doing that, the first thing that came to mind when thinking of "destructive" was Nagasaki and Hiroshima... destructive in not only lives but land, cities, etc. And destructive years and decades later because of the radiation. Because of that, I'd have to go with WWII.
I think the go to answer for this question is usually WWII because of its massive impact on more than half the globe. However, while WWII was destructive in many respects, there are a lot of conflicts today that don't get much media attention, but are still very destructive both in terms of casualties and in destabilizing the political, social and economic structure of the countries affected. I speak of the civil wars that currently plague much of Africa, with the Boko Haram attacking its own people to tribal warfare in many regions.
World War Two was the most destructive, in part because civilians were seen as targets to reduce enemy materiel rather than just targets of opportunity. Though many of the Chinese civil wars came close.
I agree with everyone saying that WW2 was the worst war, the mass killing of people, the soldiers that died in battle, the atomic bombs, I don't see another war that can come even close to this.
Before "technology" existed people killed themselves in a more brutal way, but mass extermination is something unthinkable, that goes way beyond war.
I absolutely agree with this. Shooting with guns (and sometimes point-blank) was horrible. Sometimes in the Civil War, they even got at it with bayonets. But atomic bombs... things later in time like Agent Orange... just not on the same level at all.
In terms of scale, there is no doubt: The Second World War. It ran from 1939-1945, was fought on nearly every continent, tens of millions died (combatant and civilian alike), unspeakable atrocities were committed on all sides, and it only ended after two cities were decimated by atomic weapons. In terms of duration, I'd say the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s has to be toward the top of the list. It went on for around eight years, involved unbelievable barbarism by both sides, and chemical weapons were employed against both military and civilian targets.
I think the term "Most destructive" is rather subjective. In my personal opinion the war that would be most destructive is the war that claims the most lives, and more or less tears a country or group of countries completely apart. So technically you could say that the most destructive is the Muslim conquest of India, which lasted 500+ years, and claimed 60m-80m lives. But, if you don't consider that a "war" then you could say World War II was the most destructive.
Guywithguitar is quite right, if we don't want to be too subjective we must establish a parameter to judge which war was the most destructive. But I don't think you can go with raw numbers, the best way is probably to find which war caused most deaths relative to the world population at that time; that way we can say that war had the biggest negative impact on humanity. After a bit of research it looks like the Mongol conquests were the worst "war" in terms of population, 30-40 million deaths in a world with 300-400 million people, 10% of humanity wiped out. But considering it a war might be a bit of a stretch. Another parameter could be to find out which war caused the highest percentage of civilian casualties, since that is a good sign of the devastation caused by a war (life can't continue as usual outside the battlefields). If we use a strict definition of war WWII probably wins whichever parameters we might use.
"Worst War" is very hard to come up with an answer for. There's so many categories to place this under. Is it population lost? Treatment of humans? Cruelty to humans & torture caused? Damage to future generations? You'll also have to factor in the time period. It's very easy to come up with the answer of The Second World War being the worst due to how many people and who were sent to concentration camps, the torture & brutality along with Hiroshima and Nagasaki being nuclear bombed. To be honest, I would probably vote for the Second World War to be the worst one but that's only from all the technology they had. When you think about it, 400/500+ years ago, they didn't have that technology to kill people "instantly" and so anyone who died would have had to gone through some serious pain with whatever instrument was used to kill that person. Rape of course was also a major part of many wars that long ago (And nearly every war. WW2 was a terrible time for rape victims. Especially German females after the USSR took the country and later east Germany) and it was much easier to get away with rape 400/500+ years ago. So really, it's incredibly hard to answer that question. Think about "Agent Orange" in Vietnam. There are still victims from that from people that weren't even in the war or born during that time. Depends on your interpretation of what you find the worst way to be treated to answer that question.
I know its a popular opinion but I would also go with WW2. The length,intensity, and scale of that conflict was just so darn impactful to the world at large. While more recent skirmishes allow for more deadly/dangerous weapons I feel that WW2 can be considered the "worst war". When a large % of the entire population can say that they lost more than one family member in the conflict I think that is something to think about.
Cliche answer, but the facts are facts. World War II is the worst war that has every been fought. Civilization was literally on the line. Millions of people died in various almost unimaginably horrific ways. From the Jews who died in ovens after being worked like slaves and starved, to all the soliders and civilians who died via atomic bombs it was truly the most horrific episode and era in human history. And hopefully something we'll never have to experience ever again.
I took some time and carefully thought about the question. WWII seems to be the general contention and so far as out right destruction, without the balances, WWII was the most destructive without a doubt. I wrote the word "balances" because there are a lot positive aspects to the Great War. Innovation in all fields were greater than ever before. Nuclear energy was introduced. The way the door opened was extremely tragic but it fathered in a new train of thought and we still are just tapping in to its full possibilities. The German experiments with rocketry fathered space exploration. Wave amplification and control of same fathered in the technical start of the satellites that the rockets take to space so signals like this one get bounced around to its planned destiny. Out of senseless death from infections and infectious diseases, the medical field field brought us vaccines and a new wave of possibilities that there might be a cure for every disease affecting all of mankind. These are just some things that can be labeled as balances. Now the new question might be, which war left nothing but death and destruction behind it. Look and see the world around you as it is at this minute. We are a world at war with absolutely nothing to show for it. Even the Mongols would shudder at the things we have done.
"If God's on our side, He'll stop the next war" pretty much sums it up. WWII, with its 70,000,000+ human casualties (and people still dying from left over munitions) is certainly near the top. e would hope that the lessons from that war would end war, but we still have people craving what they perceive as the glory of war. And we still have greed, including the greed for imposing beliefs.
While many other wars are destructive I would have to agree with the majority of the group here. Millions of innocent people were murdered. They weren't killed in combat, they were murdered. And yes, genocide continues to happen in other countries and while we may not be involved, it's a good enough reason (in my opinion) to get involved and keep innocent people from being murdered. I am honestly terrified of this ISIS movement because it just seems to have similar traits of the Nazi regime. It scares the living hell out of me.
This is totally a matter of opinion. I would say WWI because of the senselessness of it and its long term impact on society and culture. From what I have read about it I just don't understand how any rational human being with an ounce of sense and compassion could keep going just killing and killing when it is accomplishing nothing.
Just out of curiosity, is there a "better" war? Because war is...ugly. Yes, people go to war to fight for a cause and whatever reason they believe in. In that sense it is every human's right to fight for whatever they believe in, etc. However, war is an ugly and terrible event that unfortunately claims a lot of human lives. Sorry to sound like such a hippy.
