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> The 19th century saw no large scale world wars You forgot the Napoleonic wars involving most of continental Europe (~6 million dead). Instead of world wars,
by cpgxiii 5y ago
> The 19th century saw no large scale world wars
You forgot the Napoleonic wars involving most of continental Europe (~6 million dead).
Instead of world wars, the 19th century was full of significant regional ones, e.g.:
- Taiping Rebellion (20-50 million dead)
- Crimean War
- Russo-Turkish War(s)
- US Civil War
- Franco-Prussian War
- First & Second Boer Wars
- Multiple bloody revolts/rebellions in British India
It was not a "peaceful" century by any stretch of the imagination, and the powers involved in these conflicts were by no means "disarmed".
- runarberg 5y agoI never said that, in fact I was purposefully careful in my wording by adding the necessary qualifiers. The 19th century was relatively peaceful compared to all the centuries before and the century that came after. It is the only century since the 16th to not have a conflict that spans continents. We have two periods of this relative peace. The 19th century and the current post world war II era. Both these periods have relatively low military spending in common. Could we do better? Yes! Should we do better? Also yes. Does nuclear weapons take us there. Probably not. Will the elimination of nuclear weapons take us there? Probably not. Should we get rid of nuclear weapons anyway? Yes!