What of War?

[Dante T. Frost]

Roll Call:
@caiti
Dariya Zaymidoroga
Gavriila Shahar
Serenity Oliver
Elizabeth Toman
Fionn Paquet
@samantha
Stefan Eder
@jenna

Dante paced the classroom floor, looking around as he rearranged the desks into a semi-circle, before he was completely satisfied with this new layout. In front of the white board hung a large map of 17th Century Europe, as it had been during the 30 Years War. On the small piece of board that was still visible, he had written down the class assignment.

Analyse one war during the period between the 1700s and 2000.
*Key players
*Territory
*Reasons
*Leaders
*Significant Battles
*Death Toll
*Fighting Style

BE CREATIVE

Satisfied, he placed a pack of notes on each desk, with the revision of the last few lessons, and then waited for the class as the bell rang. He greeted each student as they came past him, noting that there were a few absent faces as well as a few new faces.

Morning class. For those that are new, I am Mr. Frost, or sir if you prefer. As you can see, I have given all of you notes, summarising what you have learned thus far. Please supplement it with your own notes and the textbook, and please at least attempt to study for exams, he joked weakly.

I was generally quite pleased with the batch of essays, I could see that you tried, however, small mistakes led to the loss of marks. Those that were present, can collect from me after class. Until I start the new lesson, you can see your latest assignment is there, only due after the school holidays. No World War I or II please, because it has been dealt with quite extensively. Once more, three book sources, only one internet source, and if you want access to university papers, come see me.

Right, now onto the lesson. If you haven't guessed by now, our newest topic is war. Dull, boring, dreary, or at least you think so. For a long time, war was just like that. If something went wrong, countries went to war. It was as easy as breathing, more expensive than anything else, and it was the people who suffered. Australia had the Emu war, yes with actual Emu's fighting the Australian army, and Canada nearly started a war over the ownership of a pig. However, there is also the 30 Years War from 1618 to 1648.

It started out as a religious war, Protestants against the Catholics, until it developed into a general European War. 8 000 000 dead, devastation and famine, with no clear winner at the end. However, it did lead to one of the most important developments for Diplomacy, and can anyone tell me what that is?

Dante paused for a moment, leaning back against his desk and taking a sip of water, waiting for a student to raise their hand.

OOC: Edited to add that the assignment is only due after the holidays =P

[Elizabeth Toman]

Libby walked into the history classroom and arched her eyebrows at the new layout for the desks. "Brilliant." She muttered as she found herself a seat pretty much in the centre and pulled her folder out of the bag before she turned her attention to the whiteboard and pulled a face. "Really?" She asked the room. "You want us to do an assignment while we're studying for finals?" She shook her head as she pulled a pen out, opened the folder and wrote down the assignment notes on the board.

She politely turned her attention to the teacher as he began to speak, her nose curling as he went on to explain more of the assignment, though she jotted this information down as well. It made sense that he didn't want anyone to look into the first or second world wars, because there was ample information about both of those and it really wouldn't require too much research. Surely though, there was more to history than just war?

She giggled at the idea of emu fighting alongside the army, but an Australian gymnast she'd met in the past had told her how vicious the birds actually were, so she could understand why they would be used.

She shook her head at the question about the the Thirty Years' War, she didn't know, or really care, so someone else to answer that, and she'd work out what war to do her next assignment on.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn walked into the history classroom, didn't pay much attention to the new layout and found himself a seat as he pulled the notebook from his bag and looked up at the board. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he concentrated on the words and read through their next assignment and scribbled it down, not caring about being too neat as this was just for his own notes.

When Mr Frost began the lesson, he added notes to what he already had about the assignment and rested his head on the desk with a groan at the mention of exams, he'd been trying to forget about them. He sat up again as he continued listening.

He'd heard about the emu war, and the fact that soldiers had been deployed to cull the birds ((OOC: Unlike Libby's idea of the birds being trained for battle)). While he thought the whole idea of it was cruel and inhumane, he could understand the need for the cull as the birds were destroying crops while their numbers were so large.

While he knew that the Thirty Years' War ended with treaties being signed, he wasn't brave enough to speak up, so he'd leave that for another student to answer as he tried to think of what war to use for the blasted assignment.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity spoke and laughed with other students on her way between classes and said farewell to them as she walked into the classroom. She had to laugh every time she entered the class, as it seemed to be the class for gymnasts, the only person they were missing was Cara.

Walking around the tables, she found herself a seat with as much room between her and Libby as she could. If there was a chance they would have to work in pairs, she didn't think that even she had the patience to work with the bratty girl.

She pulled out her folder and quickly copied down the information for their next assignment. She was sure that she had done well with the last one, but she guessed that only time would tell about that. She listened attentively as Mr Frost began speaking, and she added to the notes she already had, and began working through the wars that she knew about that fitted into the time frame given, and she was couldn't decide on any one of them, so that would have to wait until later when she could use the internet.

She arched her eyebrows at the idea of an Emu War, and would have to look into that later too. She shook her head to the question about the Thirty Years' War. She abhorred violence, so didn't pay that much attention to war itself, so she wouldn't be able to answer anything about them off the top of her head. 

[Dariya Zaymidoroga]

Dariya left her class when the bell sounded. She yawned, tired still for the jetlag but oh well. What was really weird was the sound of English being spoken I the hallways.

She was used to hearing English only in English class, and not much anywhere else...though when tourists came they had no voice but to speak English. Seriously, would it kill them to even say 'privyet' or something? Major impression points to whatever American even tried to speak Russian, much less Ukrainian before English. Her head hurt from staring at English letters all day, and she thought that some of the words looked weird...like didn't 'favor' have an u after the o?

Dariya walked into the world history classroom and saw that the desks and seats were all in a circle. Two students were already sitting down. She took a seat next to the only other girl in the classroom at the time and took out a pen upon seeing notes written on the board. She began writing in Cyrllic as it would be easier for her to understand it if it was in her native language and not English. It took a few seconds writing it down as she had to translate it. More notes soon followed as soon as the class began, because the teacher mentioned things that weren't written on the board.

She hadn't heard of the battle before, but as it was between Catholics and Protestants she could understand why she wouldn't have. She was Russian Orthodox, despite being Ukrainian, and in schools, they didn't talk about the Catholic wars or anything.

She thought about the assignment given, obviously there the War in Donbass that was still going on...or other wars that Ukraine had been in as part of the Soviet Union or under the Russian Empire. It was a shame there was no World War One or Two was allowed though; she was pretty sure that whatever she'd been taught in school wasn't like what the Americans covered, as her old school went over the Soviet Union's involvement in both and the European aspect of the war...they hardly covered what the Americans did in either war. She began to ponder over what war to do; most likely a war in which the Ukraine had been involved in, but what one was the question Dariya was trying to answer at that moment.

[Deleted]

Samantha was looking forward to history class, history in her opinion happened to be be among the most important of things to know. After all, those that did not know their history were doomed to repeat it right? She found herself sitting next to Finn, she failed to recall if they had spoken much before either in classes or out of it.
Not that it really mattered, she was after all here to learn. Not to chat in lessons, unless the discussion was to do with the topic of the lesson or lecture.
She made sure to make notes on her next assignment. Her mind began to ponder over the many different possibilities for assignment. Humanity at least according to history was anything but a peaceful species, this left numerous conflicts in which to use as the topic of her assignment.

There was of course the numerous wars in United Kingdom between England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, plus several different countries from mainland Europe, not to mention the Roman Invasion of Britain, the Zulu Wars in Africa, the Crimean War, The War for Independence, though that would probably be a more popular topic here in the United States. Her notes for a potential topic were random at best, but it was better to have too many ideas than too few. Just in case she found it difficult to find information on the war she chose.
Now back to the class, honestly Sam had been so focused on making notes, she failed to hear the question. So wisely she elected to not offer an answer.

[Stefan Eder]

Kai walked into the room and almost thought that he'd somehow gotten turned around. However, the walls were the same, and the classmates were all here. It was just the desks that had been moved around. With that, Kai glanced around at who was present and then walked over to where Finn was sitting, smiling at the other gymnast as he set his bag down and then glanced at the board to see their next assignment.

Pulling out his notebook, Kai started to jot down the information. He finally finished just as Mr. Frost started to speak, and so turned to the packet of notes that he'd pushed aside in sitting down. Their purpose made sense when the teacher explained it, and he dropped them into his bag as he listened to the teacher move on to talk about their essays. He would have to remember to pick up his last essay when class ended, to make sure he didn't have the same mistakes on this next one... Although having the holidays to work on it would be nice, since he'd have less assignments in general to focus on. He jotted down the restrictions on the paper and then turned to a new page to start taking notes on what was going on in today's lesson.

He considered the question as it was posed. He suspected it had something to do with the Westfälischer Friede, which had set a precedent for establishing peace through diplomatic congress. What did he have to lose? After raising his hand and being called upon, he spoke, “The Westfalian Peace set a precedent for meetings to establish peace, I believe. Those principals spread across the entire world and became central to international law.”

[Dante T. Frost]

Dante looked around at the class in the silence that ensued for the next few moments, resisting the temptation to roll his eyes. It was when Stefan raised his hand that he called upon the student, nodding at the answer.

You've hit the nail on the head. The Westphalian Treaty shaped how diplomacy was done in Europe and then later around the whole world. See, before this, envoys were sent back and forth, and if you didn't like what the envoy was proposing, you could either kill him and send his head back in a box, or just start a war. Either way, war usually the only option to later create peace or as a show of power. After the Treaty was signed, the formation of embassies, and diplomats became a norm. The Treaty was the basis of diplomacy for a few hundred years until the creation of the United Nations and the Charter.

In recent years, diplomacy has come to the forefront of peace negotiations, and on it's own, is quite the complicated topic, which many researchers and professors have dedicated their time to.

Back to war though, can any of you think of examples where war could have been completely avoided if a certain situation had been dealt with fairly, or correctly?

World War I left Europe in tatters, and it can be said that the Treaty of Versailles gave rise to World War II. If the French had been more lenient on the Germans in terms of reparations, then perhaps Hitler would not have been so dead set on revenge. Or if Hitler had been killed in the trenches, then perhaps World War II may never had happened at all.

What did the various revolutions in the world give rise to? The end of Tsar in Russia gave rise to Communism in Socialist Russia, which led to the Purges, and what could have been the greatest country in the world, was left to crumble with the end of the Cold War, and of which Russia is still trying to recover from, it could be said, and which has caused Russia to be a thorn in the side of the United States, and a seat on the Security Council.

Note here for your assignments, that while any war has a trigger, a cause, an assasination, a grudge, there is also the effects of war. The millions dead, and not just soldiers. Some countries have never recovered from the wars or skirmishes fought. Think Rwanda, think the Congo. The Central African Republic. Iran. Irag. The rise of ISIS, the Lord's Resistance Army, rebel fighters. There's Syria, crumbling ruins and Libya. History being destroyed. Hitler had the burning of the books, all of that gone. So think for a few minutes, and then answer me this. What is the point of war?

[Elizabeth Toman]

Libby rolled her eyes when the correct answer came from Kai, she always knew the boy was more geek than he was gymnast, though she instantly felt guilty for not being supportive of a fellow gymnast and she lowered her head.

She thought about the question asked. Surely all of the wars would have had different outcomes if they had been handled correctly? Though once again she remained quiet as she doodled in her book, she wondered why she had thought that this class would have been better than the likes of geography, though there was no point changing classes now when she only had six months left in it until summer.

She jotted down the note he had mentioned for the assignment, ignoring the fact that she was still thinking of a war that she could even study. "Money." She said to the teacher's question. At least she was sure that the earlier wars were over riches and it was probably still the case today. She released a heavy sigh, as this whole topic was more that a little depressing and she would rather think of brighter things than the reasons people went to war. She guessed that at least some people were lucky enough that they chose to fight for their countries these days where they were required or forced to back in the hay-days.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn nodded his head when Kai spoke up the answer, so at least he'd been half right, it had to do with a treaty, he just didn't have the rest of the information that the other boy had given.

A smile flickered across his face as he wondered how long Mr Frost had practiced lesson before he had it all in his head and could just recite it as he did. And the longer her thought about it, there probably wasn't that much difference from remember the lesson and him having to remember a collection of routines for a gymnastics meet. Shaking his head, be returned himself to the here and now and tried to appear that he had indeed been listening, even though the bottom of his page was now covered in doodles from when he had been day dreaming.

He quickly scrawled down what Mr Frost was saying about for the notes to their assignment, unsure if he should be writing it down or if it was already in the notes they had been given, but decided that writing it down would just be better - rather be safe than sorry, and all that. He nodded when Libby gave the same answer he would have given.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity nodded as Kai gave the answer for the question asked and she wrote the information down.

She listened intently as Mr Frost continued the lesson. She shrugged at his question, as she was sure that if a lot of things were handled differently, then things would have ended another way, but she was a firm believer in that things happened for a reason, and life would always be filled with what if's, it was just the way life was. There was a reason that everyone's mothers told them to always wear clean underwear, you never knew if that day would be your last. Though she was sure that the Crusades could have had a better outcome, and they were done in the name of of the Catholic God! And where did it get anyone in the end? There again, look at the Salem witch hunts. Lots of innocent people were murdered for that too.

She jotted down the note he gave for their assignments and bit back a giggle when he mentioned ISIS, but she refused to rise to the bait (about Isis being an Egyptian Goddess. She nodded at the one worded answer that Libby gave to the next question and raised her hand. "Power." She answered. "Wars are started because one person wants power over another. You mentioned Hitler before, he's a great example of a person who wanted power, he wanted to repopulate the entire earth with his master race." She gave a tight smile, lots of things happened because one person wanted power over another.

[Sebastian Michael West]

Sebastian sighed as the instructor went on with his lecture. The boy didn't want to sit in class any longer, but had to in order to move on to his senior year. Some classes he didn't mind, but history wasn't his favorite subject. However, they were talking about war. That was probably the only good thing. The idea of gunfire and bloodshed definitely peaked his interests, even if only just a little. But he didn't want to listen to the teacher just drone on about it. Or even participate in the verbal answers. He'd do just the bare minimum required of him. Of course, he would do his homework to the best of his abilities, but not in class.

He quietly laughed as the one girl said war was because of money. She was partially right, but most countries tended to lose money when they went to war. Millions of dollars, if not billions, were spent on war, without getting much of it back. However, when another girl said it was due to power, he nodded in agreement. Power and control were the reasons of war. Unless you're America, and you just go to war for the hell of it. Or at least, that's what his understanding was anyways. Sebastian had given the military a thought, but he had quickly decided that it wasn't for him. Sure, he'd get to use the big guns, but he also was selfish about risking his life for a country he wasn't even sure he liked.

[Stefan Eder]

Kai was glad to hear that his information had been correct, although he had to hide a smile at the varied reactions of his teammates. They might (almost) all share a class, and might be a team, but at the same time, that didn't mean they all had the same intentions where that class was concerned.

He realized that his mind had wandered and turned his attention back to Mr. Frost, jotting down notes on what the man was saying (as writing helped keep him on task), including things that he hadn't known, or things that he knew but that the teacher mentioned again, since those would be important to be aware of in case of exams. The extra knowledge would be useful, but not so testable.

The question that was posed about wars that could have been avoided, although seemingly rhetorical, was an interesting one, for who could decide what would happen if an event had or hadn't happened? The world would be different, but would there have been another cause to the wars? Finally, they were asked another question, and Kai turned to mull this one over, although by the time he'd come up with an answer, Serenity had already given the same one, with more justification than he would have been able to give... Although he still felt himself shrink a little every time World War 2 came up. It hadn't happened to him yet, but some of his friends who had gone on exchange student trips had told him they'd been cornered for being German when the topic came up.

[Natalie Popović]

Natalie continued writing down notes. She remembered that the Peace of Westphalia happened, byt she forgot its implications for the rest of history. She made a quick notes about the League of Nations following World War I. Sure, it failed to prevent World War II, but it laid the groundwork for the United Nations. The end of World War II brough Tito into power, and Natalie's own family left Serbia because of the wars throughout the 1990s. She couldn't say for certain if the violence was preventable, but her parents always said that Yugoslavia would still exist if the Croats and Slevenes hadn't tried to declare independence. NATO's bombing of Belgrade though, they said that was completely a show of unnecessary force.

As for the overarching point of war, well, this wasn't Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Every conflict had its own triggers. There was some overlap in cause, but nothing completely unifying. Money and power were pretty obvious once she gave the question more thought. Though, money could even be broadened to economic reasons. Even apes fought over food. The more she thought about it, the more depressing her idea sounded. Maybe it wasn't the universal point of war, but did schoolyard bullies need a reason to pick fight?

She kept her mouth shut unsure if her idea was even right. Fighting was a part of human nature. All it took to start a war was for one group to start beating up on another group. Some countries even seemed ready to pick a fight because they were bored. A leader could think up a million justifications for war such as personal insult, disagreements in ideology, disagreements in practice, or just being greedy, but did any of them make war truly right? People didn't even have to agree with the leaders to be caught fighting in a war. Wow that got grim really fast.

[Dante T. Frost]

Dante listened as the class responded, nodding as he absorbed each answer, already formulating the rest of the lesson as he listened. He was glad the class was actually responding to the question, the interaction was good. So they all learned from each other. He gave it a minute after the last answer before going to the board and writing down the following:

Power
Money

These are absolutely correct, well done. Money and power is what every single war is about, or can at least be traced back to these two sources. Let's take a look, when do the quickest outbreaks of war intervention occur? When the danger of mineral rich countries being destroyed is eminent. Oh, it doesn't have to be mineral rich, but rich trade partners are at threat as well. There's this country in Africa, big, amazing fertile soil, under the control of a fascist leader. Oh, his intentions when he gained power were honourable enough in the beginning, but power ate away at the honour, and well, things went to hell in a hand basket. Anybody know this country? Zimbabwe, previously known as Rhodesia, the jewel in Cecil John Rhodes' crown. Farmers were prosperous, and times were good. Everybody had jobs, good jobs, and could support their families, until Robert Mugabe decided that whites were to blame for the country's power. And then it started. Murder, forced removals, fear. And now? Unemployment is at 92%, sanctions to the hilt are in place, expulsion from the UN and gross human right violations. Over time, Mugabe has blamed everyone for the problems in Zimbabwe, the UN, the USA, homosexuality, whites, religion. Why hasn't anything been done? Because Zimbabwe does not have a precious resource. If they had oil fields, the intervention would have been a lot quicker, I can tell you that.

It is true that wars cost more than a few dollars, it can either leave economies in tatters such as the fall of 1929, or it can strengthen economies, restoring faith in the country going to war. However, war is usually the ultimate and final response. It is used as a threat, but more often than not, negotiations are used first, bilateral or multilateral, usually with some form of propaganda mixed in. If this doesn't work, then threats and sanctions are carried out, at which most agreements are reached. After all, few countries can actually afford a long drawn war.

Okay, to recap. War can be traced back money and power. There can be many catalysts for war, most commonly resources and religion. War is never just about war, it is also the innocent people that suffer, the destruction, the fall or rise of economies, the years following. So, assignments due after the holidays, and please put some effort into them. Previous assignments can be collected as soon as the bell rings in five minutes.

Dante went back to his desk, sipping from the glass of water and setting out the marked assignments for the students to collect. Not too long after, the bell rang, and the sounds of eager students leaving classrooms filled the hallways.