Economic Cause Of War

The basic cause of modern war is the international confrontation from capitalism and the capitalist class's domination of the world's resources. Take World War II as an example, different scholar have long recognized the role of economic resources and organization in determining the cause of World War II, the Nazi economy lacked the economic resources and organization to oppose the jointed force of the U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R.(Economic Causes of War. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/depth-articles/history/economic-causes-war) It is never surprised that economic can always be a factor that lead to war but at the same time it is also a cause of peace. What kind of economic factors will be both

In 18th century, before the rise of modern capitalism, the nature of war was very different from the war during the ancient times. War was no longer to defeat someone with the purpose of eliminating another. The aim of war was to determine who should rule the nation. Under the system of the means of production and free enterprise, it is never a concern of citizen whether his/her country is big or not after invading others. Because they will not get any profit from it. Therefore, liberals said that there will not be any war under a system of economic laissez faire and popular government. Wars would become obsolete because the causes for war would disappear. However, according to Ludwig von Mises, the acknowledged leader of the Austrian School of economic thought, he thought that democracy and free trade should be consisted at the same time. As democracy cannot be maintained when free enterprise, free trade and economy freedom do not exist. (Mises, L. v. (Director) (1944, October 1). Economic Causes of War. Lecture conducted from , California .) Therefore, ordinary citizen would not satisfy with it and eventually economic causes of

The U.S. civil war from 1861 to 1865 is a great example to explain the economic factors which lead to war. The economic difference between the North and South led to war. With the invention of cotton gin on March, 14th, 1794 by Eli Whitney, the cotton gin made the south industry salary explode.(Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). Are We at Risk For Another Great Depression? Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm) Due to the success of cotton gin, the South only relied on cotton to make profit. A U.S. senator from South Carolina said “cotton is king!” in 1859. (C. Willis, J. (n.d.). James Henry Hammond, "Cotton is King" Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://static.sewanee.edu/faculty/Willis/Civil_War/documents/HammondCotton.html) South relied heavily on cotton has lead to a fatal destiny. To grow cotton from crops, it required numerous of cheap labor like slaves. Therefore, the southern economy became an unidirectional economy, depending on cotton and thus on slave. On the other hand, the northern economy relied their economy on industry. People in north worked together no matter where they from and what culture they were. The north wanted to free the slave as their economy focus did not require slave while south needed to use slave. The difference between on focusing their economy caused