War as Accident vs War by Design - Essay Example

Around the theme of "War as accident vs. war by design Wars normally emerge as a planned affair or jut accidentally and accelerate beyond control. In fact, even the planned wars can go overboard to the surprise of the planners, since it is not possible to visualize the course any war is going to take from the start to the end, with ultimate precision (Lovell, 112). Since a war involves an engagement with the enemy, the plan made by one party may fail, since the planning is done without full information regarding the status of the enemy. This is worsened by war propaganda and military misinformation techniques applied, which serve to represent the enemy in a way that is different from the reality (Ross, 41). Therefore, this discussion seeks to understand the origins of the wars, with a focus on whether the Opium War, World War I, and World War II were started accidentally or by design. The Opium War The opium war occurred in two phases, the first phase occurring 1839 to 1842 and the phase in the period 1856 to 1860 (Hanes and Frank, 54). The origin of this war was a commercial conflict between the Chinese and the British Empire. The Opium War occurred by design and not by accident. This is because; the first Opium War was solely started by the British Empire, which sent gun boats following a commercial disagreement between British Empire and China (Lovell, 102). The British Empire and its merchants had been importing large quantities of Opium into china, which was initially used as a medicinal substance. However, it turned out that the Chinese realized that the Opium could be mixed and smoked together with tobacco (Hanes and Frank, 72). This led to an increase in demand for Opium, which opened more trade opportunities for the British merchants. However, as time progressed, the Chinese authorities realized that Opium had addictive effects as well as other negative health impacts on the Chinese people. Therefore, the authorities sought to restrict the importation of Opium by the British merchants, by banning any import on shipments related to Opium as a product (Lovell, 117). This trade ban created a bad blood between the Chinese and the British Empire, since the British Empire was benefiting more from the trade; therefore it had not illegalized trading in Opium. While the British merchants sought for ways out, to continue importing the product, the Chinese authorities responded by confiscating tones of Opium shipments from the British merchants and destroying it, on top of taking most of the British merchants’ hostage (Hanes and Frank, 60). Since the British Empire did not respect the will of the Chinese to ban the importation of Opium, it planned an attack on China, to force it agree to the continuation of the trade in Opium, in addition to creating more favorable conditions for the trade. Therefore, the British Empire sent gunboats to attack China, which in turn gave in to the demands of the British Empire, since it did not have the capacity to fight against the modern weapons (Lovell, 120). The same case happened in the second phase of the Opium war, where the British Empire joined hands with France, Russia and the USA to coerce China into accepting their terms of trade through signing various treaties, which entailed the confiscation of some of the Chinese territories by these western powers (Hanes and Frank, 55). Therefore, the Opium war, which involved the attack on China by western powers, was by design, to allow the western powers enforce commercial agreements that favored them. The First World War This is the first war to occur on a global scale that lasted in the period 1914 to 1918. The war involved the major world powers which were organized in antagonistic packs, with the central powers, made up of Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary on one side and the allies, comprising of Britain, France and Russia on the other hand (Afflerbach and Stevenson, 20). However, the alignment kept changing with time as more countries joined the war, which brought over 70 million military soldiers in a war. The First World War was unprecedented and accidental. This because, even though many countries had aligned themselves in support of either side of the warring countries, they did not anticipate a war that could last for four years, and cause such devastating impacts (Afflerbach and Stevenson, 34). The war was not foreseen, since it arose out of a long-term tension between these world powers over European and colonial issues which they had tried to solve through diplomacy but always failed to yield any success (Afflerbach and Stevenson, 18). The tension had increasingly been accelerated by the change in the balance of power in Europe, in the periods following colonization, where some countries felt aggrieved over the unfair share of the colonies in Africa and elsewhere in the world. However, the conflict was made rife by the struggles over territories in the Balkans, where Austria-Hungary and Russia were the major rivals seeking the control of these territories (Afflerbach and Stevenson, 35). This tension soared high, attracting other powers which then started signing pacts and treaties with their favored sides. The Germans had committed to support Austria on the event that Russia reconstructed its army to attack it. On the other hand, British warned that it could join forces with France and Russia, on the event that Germany did not stop its plan to back Austria in a war (Afflerbach and Stevenson, 46). These threats eventually turned into a full brown war, when the Serbians assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1941, forcing Austria to issue very tough terms that Serbia was unable to meet, due to the short time zone allowed of only 40 hours (Afflerbach and Stevenson, 27). This led to world powers declaring war against each other and the war sparked off. Therefore, World War I just occurred as a spontaneous reaction of the attack and assignation of the Archduke of Austria by Serbians, which in itself was not a war. Therefore, it was unprecedented and accidental, other than planned. World War II This is the next major war after World War I, which occurred as a result of the heightened tensions between the world powers, arising from the World War I. As opposed to World War I, which was accidental, World War II was planned and occurred by design. There were many unresolved issues that arose from the First World War, which kept the enmity between the major powers at the time breeding (Ross, 40). This resulted to the growth of nationalism. This caused the countries to keep looking out for any country that would threaten their sovereignty and powers, so they could attack back. Additionally, the fact that there was no ultimate winner in the First World War kept the countries’ desire for supremacy higher (Craven and James, 73). Therefore, following the invasion of China by Japan in 1937 and the subsequent invasion of Poland by Germany and USSR in 1939, another world war was inevitable (Ross, 33). Notable of the unresolved issues included the Treaty of Versailles, which put the blame for the start of the First World War squarely on Germany and Austria-Hungary. Consequently, they were punished by being required to adopt certain internal reorganization measures as well as paying war reparations (Craven and James, 78). While Germany felt discontented by the treaty, it planned to refuse to adhere to the strict terms, which caused other powers to prepare for another major battle. Therefore, the Second World War was planned mostly by Germany due to the bitterness of having got the blunt edge of the First World War, it planned to attack USSR and overcome it, so it could bring Britain to renegotiate the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (Ross, 44). However, this attack inevitably saw the world powers align in support of either side of Germany or the USSR, leading to a full blown war. Works Cited Afflerbach, Holger, and D Stevenson. An Improbable War?: The Outbreak of World War I and European Political Culture Before 1914. New York: Berghahn Books, 2012. Print. Craven, Wesley F, and James L. Cate. The Army Air Forces in World War II. Washington, D.C: Office of Air Force History, 1984. Print. Hanes, William T, and Frank Sanello. The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Naperville, Ill: Sourcebooks, 2007. Print. Lovell, Julia. The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China. London: Picador, 2011. Print. Ross, Stewart. Causes and Consequences of the Second World War. London: Evans, 2003. Print. Wallbank, Taylor. "A Short History of the Opium Wars." Civilizations Past and Present, 2.7 (1992): 25-33. Print. Read More