The End of Everything

How Wars Descend into Annihilation

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The author, historian Victor Davis Hanson, tells the story of how four civilizations were destroyed via wartime destruction of their cities: (1) Thebes, by the Macedonians in 335BC; (2) Carthage, by Romans, 149-146 BC; (3) Byzantine Constantinople, by Ottomans, in 1453; (4) Aztec Tenochtitlán, by the Spaniards, in 1521.

Those were blood-soaked times indeed! Hanson goes into meticulous detail describing each scenario, how the doomed societies were perceived by their conquerors, the tactics used, the resulting death and slavery.

Although widely separated in time and space, these four examples allow Hanson to draw some sobering common themes in his epilogue "How the Unimaginable Becomes the Inevitable". (1) The victims naïvely hoped for outside help, which failed to arrive; (2) They were not simply naïve, but also overconfident in their own defenses; (3) They were weakened somewhat by internal disagreements; (4) They were unrealistic about the capabilities of their opponents; (5) They tried to come to "understandings" with their enemies, which eventually fell apart; (6) Eventually, the losing side resorted to their own savage tactics, fruitlessly (but bloodily) trying to avoid annihilation.

Hanson is no Steven Pinker-style optimist, drawing hope from The Better Angels of our Nature. Also in that epilogue, he runs down a list present-day potential/actual hotspots, some obvious (Ukraine, Taiwan, Korea) and others less so (Turkey vs. Greece?)

I was impressed by VDH's scholarship; since I am not even at a dilettante-level student of history, I'm easily impressed. His style is a little dry. And not getting all hippy-dippy on you, but I was struck by the massive waste of human life and wealth that went into wars, on both sides. Especially that Thebes chapter; what the heck were they fighting about? Can't they all just get along? It's as if Omaha suddenly decided to conquer and destroy Des Moines!