War and Peace Among Peoples and Nations

Department of History and Geography

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Baltimore, Maryland 21251-0001.

War and Peace Among Peoples and Nations: A Historical Examination of the development of World War II, and the impact on Europe and the world.

By

Instructor: Dr Aubrey A. Thompson.

Course/Class: History 102.

Date: Monday, April 8th, 2011

INTRODUCTION:

Dating back to ancient civilizations, humans have always engaged in war and conquests. With civilization, man seems to have developed two sets of opposing traits: individualistic traits like selfishness and competitiveness versus sociable traits like loyalty, self-sacrifice and kindness. The first set of traits likely to stimulate war while the second set of traits brings peace and togetherness. [1] The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines war as “a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations ”. Wars take different forms: tribal wars, wars for empire, wars for independence and wars for revenge. Whether or not these wars brought actual progress is popularly debated. Civilization, in this context, means a relatively high level of cultural and technological development[2] while progress is a gradual betterment in the development of humankind.[3] Just as civilization improves the quality of life of man, civilization has equally improved the “quality” of wars. Specialized arms are being fashioned daily: guns, missiles, submarines, fighter jets and bombs are among the blessings of civilization.

The ideas of war, progress and civilization are somewhat interrelated in the sense that civilization brings about the organization of groups of people into states and nations; while progress involves population growth, industrialization, trade and economic growth and when these nations relate with one another, war or peace results. The peace and treaties that may follow a war can also be said to

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