Although the invasion of Greece to Iran during the Achaemenids dynasty was mostly regarded as a European-Asian war, a significant part of the war of the Rome Empire in 800-1050 AD occurred in Europe for three centuries. The eruption of war in Europe was made with two purposes: Extremism and promoting Christianity.
In 1337 AD, Edward III of England, declared war on Philip VI, King of France, with the aim of overtaking the country. Edward believed he is the owner of France’s crown and so the 116-year-long wars between the two European countries began. The French could finally push back the English invaders in 1453.
With the beginning of religious wars in 1095 AD, Pope Urban II forced the Christian Europeans to upraise against the Muslims and retake Jerusalem in Palestine. He dispatched a big army to the First Crusade. They occupied Jerusalem in 1099, although a large group of Christian fighters lost their lives. Six other Crusades happened between 1099 and 1250 AD for the promotion of Christianity and the peaceful teachings of Jesus Christ were totally ignored.
Religious wars continued and France witnessed ethnic conflicts between Catholics and Protestants between 1562 and 1598. Although the exact number of fatalities is not clear, the majority of historians say a significant number of people fell victim to the wars.
The 30-year-long European war of 1618-1648 was another religious conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants which occurred in Rome. The “History” magazine says the war left more than 8 million victims who mostly lost their lives in famine and diseases caused by the long conflicts. The war was one of the longest and most brutal wars of human history.
The wars of Napoleon were one of the other parts of the history of European wars. In the last years of his rule, Napoleon dispatched a 700-man army to Russia and occupied Moscow. Napoleon’s army had to come back to Russia after a while due to the severe cold in Russia. He then went to war against his European allies and was defeated.
In a bid to unify Germany in the late 19th century, Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor of the German Reich, engaged in a war with Denmark, Austria and France.
The First World War or World War I erupted in Europe in the early 20th century and spread across the continent shortly. An estimated 10 million people lost their lives in the four-year war.
In September 1939, Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany, decided to turn into the number one power of Europe and World War II began subsequently in which more than 20 million European people were killed.
Although the deadly wars decreased in the late 1950s across the continent, repeated invasions of the European governments against their own people and the violations of human rights continued so that the 20th century was called the “Century of Violence”.
European wars also continued in different forms after the first and second world wars, for instance one can name the war between Turkey and Greece, the civil war in Spain, the Balkan (former Yugoslavia) wars, and European colonial wars on other continents like the one in Rwanda which led to widespread genocide of the people in the country.
These wars neutralized the propaganda campaign by Europe to portray itself as the modern and democratic continent and unmasked the real image of the continent’s warmongers and their hidden plots against humanity.
With Russia’s war against Ukraine, which happened following provocations by the United States and the European Countries, today another destructive war has erupted on the continent. The war has faced the world countries with food shortages, energy and other economic crises, and increasing military threats, and has jeopardized the global security of countries that claim to be the guardians of world security.
With the United Nations’ incapability to bring the conflict under control, peace-seeking countries across the world are expected to combine efforts to minimize the effects of war on other parts of the globe.
By Mohsen Pakaeen, a former Iranian diplomat
Translated by IRNA English Desk
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