In contrast to that view, Lord Macaulay
declared that ‘The history of England is emphatically the history of progress’:
our country has evolved and grown, advancing in all areas of civilization, and
such developments could not have been made without considering mistakes made
along the way. There are countless instances where people have
reflected on past errors and resolved that they will not occur again. For
example, shipbuilders will never again assume that a boat is unsinkable after
the infamous disaster of the Titanic in 1912, where 1514 people died due to a
lack of lifeboats.
War
– what is it good for?
Perhaps the most frequently-repeated
occurrence throughout history is war. Despite the devastating consequences,
man’s greed for power and inability to live harmoniously with his fellows has
led to countless conflicts. Ironically, World War I was known as ‘the war to
end all wars’, as it was one of the most shattering conflicts ever recorded,
triggering the collapse of three major empires. However, World War II broke out
just twenty-one years later. This was the deadliest and most widespread
conflict in history, with around 60 million fatalities and the only use of
nuclear weapons in a war. Nuclear warfare was threatened in the Cold War between America and
Russia, and there are many lessons to be gained from these periods, which
should be studied carefully to prevent future generations from making the same
errors. One hopes that the implications of deploying nuclear
weapons, and the devastation wreaked by the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, will leave a long-lasting legacy, deterring countries from
considering nuclear warfare as an acceptable weapon. North Korea and Iran in
particular should pay heed to this.
Religious genocides have occurred since
antiquity, and are a common theme throughout history. Overall, more than 6
million Jews were believed to have died in the Holocaust, of which
approximately 1.5 million were children. Despite the atrocities committed
against the Jews during this time, after they had endured centuries of
persecution from people such as the Assyrians, Egyptians, Romans, and French,
it did not end mass killings under the pretext of religion. For example, there
is the ongoing violence in Sudan and Tibet, and the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans
of the late 20th century. It could be said that being human is the potential to
do good and evil, and therefore, although most look back and vow never to
repeat the brutalities of the past, there will always be those who disregard
this with a warped view on the moral way in which to treat others.
Following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003,
religious violence escalated between the Shi’a and Sunni branches of Islam to
the point of a civil war that continues to this day. Iraq comprises 65% Shi’as,
although dispute first arose when the Sunnis disagreed over their status as a
minority. The Shi’as have suffered direct persecution at the hands of a Sunni
government since 1932, especially under the reign of Saddam Hussein. The two
sects have now fallen into a cycle of revenge killings, with the Sunni’s
preferred methods being car bombs and suicide bombers in contrast to the
Shi’as’ death squads. There is a colorful historical backdrop to the relations
between Sunnis and Shi’as: since Mohammed’s death there have been many clashes
between the two, often influenced by the political landscape of the time.
Instead of accepting that such conflict between branches of religions ends only
in bloodshed, these dissidents create renewed terror and violence, and do not
embrace their theological differences, but inflict terrorism on the rest of the
population. They are so blind to the error of their prejudices that they do not
see the mistakes of past generations and try to make amends; instead they
pursue their desire for superiority.
Colonialism
The French were beaten in the first Indochina
conflict, ending in 1954, but this did not prevent the US
Army from being defeated by North Vietnamese troops and their Communist
allies in the following years. America did not recognize that attempting to
beat the enemy on its home soil was futile, and again, this crucial factor has
been overlooked in the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In his latest book, ‘Playing the Great Game: Britain, War and Politics in Afghanistan since
1839’, Dr. Edmund Yorke explores the tension between the political and
military forces. Yorke argues that unnecessary political interference or
negligence of military operations has consistently contributed to serious
failures in Britain’s policy towards Afghanistan over the past 170 years. He
highlights the same political and military errors that have occurred throughout
the four major Anglo-Afghan wars of 1839-42, 1878-80, 1919 and the continuing
conflict today. Brigadier Ed Butler, Commander of the British Forces wrote, ‘If
only his book had been available in 2001 and was required reading for all
government ministers, officials and senior officers’. This is a reflection of
how invading armies are often doomed to repeat the same mistakes, due to the
incompetence and ignorance of their leaders. There are many parallels to be
found in today’s conflict in Afghanistan and previous wars, and it may be time
to find a political solution to avoid any more fatalities.
Proposing that all men should share the same
opinions and live peacefully together is an unrealistic demand. Wars have
shaped the world in which we live, and will continue to do so: by nature, man
is a belligerent species. Seeing bloodshed may teach people that fighting each
other is wrong, but it will not stop them from going to war to fight for their
beliefs. It is therefore unrealistic to expect mankind always to
learn from its mistakes, as conflict between people is inevitable. It is the
evolution of warfare that demonstrates whether man has actually learned from
his past.
Church
and monarch
Conflict between the Church and monarchy is
also a recurrent theme. In 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket was brutally murdered
by the knights of his former friend, King Henry II, in a culmination to a
bitter quarrel that had been raging for several years. To pay penance for
Becket’s murder, Henry dropped his plans for greater control over the Church
and in 1174 walked barefoot through Canterbury and was whipped for his sins.
Unfortunately, Henry’s son John did not learn from his father’s experience, and
argued with the Pope, causing him to be excommunicated. It is not surprising
that the Magna Carta of 1215 contained a clause stating that the Church should
be free to obey the Pope above the monarch.
The Church was certainly one of the most
powerful and influential forces in Medieval England. When the Pope forbade
Henry VIII from divorcing his first wife Catherine of Aragon, Henry reacted by
declaring that the Pope no longer held divine authority in England, and founded
his own church, the Church of England. This led to the dissolution of the
monasteries, which had significant social impacts. Although the consequences
are not as severe, the Church and the state still clash, most recently with the
Anglican and Roman Christian Churches in Britain rejecting the government’s
plans to legalese same sex marriage.
King John was a notoriously bad king. One monk
wrote of him, ‘Hell is defiled by the fouler presence of John’. He plotted the
downfall of his own brother, Richard I, betrayed his father, and quarreled so
bitterly with the Pope over the next Archbishop of Canterbury that he was
excommunicated, and an interdict was passed over England and Wales. During his
17-year reign, he lost most of the land his country held in France. Determined
to regain this, he taxed and fined his subjects heavily, imprisoning them when
they could not pay their debts. When he invaded France in 1214, his army was
crushed by Phillip II at the Battle of Bouvines, meaning that all his taxes had
been wasted in an unsuccessful war effort. This angered his barons so greatly
that they forced him to agree to a set of rules, the Magna Carta, decreeing how
the country should be governed. This was a cornerstone of democracy, and the
start of a monarch’s power being limited. His subjects had seen the
consequences of power corrupting a king, and to this day, there are checks and
balances in place to ensure no power becomes too great in Britain.
