How did aggression lead to war in Asia and Europe?
1 Answer
Human beings have always been aggressive, the reasons for aggression by larger social entities such as tribes, nations and empires are universal and complex.
Explanation:
A psychologist, rather than a historian, Abraham Maslow's classic Hierarchy of Need Theory (fully outlined in his 1954 book 'Motivation and Personality') applies to human social organizations as much as it does to to individuals. There are hundreds of examples in history, and even more in pre-history.
The basic tier is for survival: Humans, their organizations and leaders will fight for the resources they need for their group to survive. For example, steppe nomads raiding farmers in bad years to get food, steal tradegoods, kidnap women, etc..
The second tier is for safety: Potential threats to public safety might be attacked to limit their potential to harm your society. For instance, in bad years, an empire might send troops out to attack hungry nomads to fend them off from frontier regions.
The third tier is for 'social belonging'. A state might attack foes who do not share values and a common culture with it and its allies.
The fourth tier is for 'esteem' -- sometimes that of the leader alone, and sometimes that of the whole society. Many political leaders throughout history on all continents have attacked other states to enhance their own personal prestige.
The fifth tier is for what Maslow called 'Self-Actualization', a complex activity. Largely this consists of trying to define yourself and your nation or empire by your actions -- there are many examples over the past 4,000 years from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America.
Even this is over-simplistic; all of these needs might be at play simultaneously when a large social-political entity attacks another one.
