most common cause for war

Or as someone else said, just sheer self-aggrandisement.

 

You would also argue the wetness of rain

 

I think your spot on. I am presently reading on the German state, or lack there of, after the Great War. The amount of volkisch national parties is astounding. Many shared the same foundation of belief system yet, upon being absorbed into the NSDAP, had no real aim, just to have a face to protest.

 

Original sin.

As long as humans are the way we are, wars will continue to happen. Nothing can change this short ot the Second Coming.

 

Or the landing of Aliens...(which is more likely is up for debate)...something to show humans we are the more the same than different...

 

Close but not quite that extreme. Give me a bit though and maybe I'll figure a way.

 

Too be able to attain or hold ones identity.

 

Wouldn't that fall under the ideology category?

 

It's a good question....I agree that some wars are about identity...especially if you are being invaded...the attacker I'd doing it for ideology or land/money....the defender is defending their way of life...so that they don't have to learn a new language, eat different food etc etc...it's their culture that they want to preserve.

 

but the initial cause is not identity....isn't the invader causing it???

 

Takes two to tango...

 

It's still a control issue. In many cases at least in the ancient world the conquered weren't really expected to learn a new language or change their national identity.

 

So you haven't heard of Latin?

Or English...



Or French...

 

Not sure what your point is.
When Rome conquered an area the residents weren't forced to learn Latin. For those involved in government or commerce it became something of a greater advantage (it was of some advantage even before the conquest) to learn Latin.

English and French are languages that evolved over time certainly no one was forced to learn them and indeed at the time of the conquest I doubt even their existence was fortold much less their nature. Or are you talking about English and French conquests of other lands? The only cases I can think of where the native languages were outlawed were long after the conquest and those were Scotland and Ireland. Arguably one could include some of the Native American tribes in this as well as attendance at the "Indian schools" was at some point required and they were English only I think.

 

here is a graph of what a conflict research group put up about conflicts, causes, and intensity--Ideological causes seem to lead the pack

http://www.economist.com/node/12758508

 

Don't think Gaelic was actually outlawed; in Scotland, it just went out of use. It originally replaced the Pictish and later Cumbric languages, and was itself replaced by English-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic#From_the_Middle_Ages_to_the_end_of_Classical_Gaelic_education
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbric_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictish_language

Seems to be a similar story in Ireland-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language#History

 

I thought at one point they outlawed teaching if not use of Gaelic but it seems I misremembered some of the important details.
This page makes mention of an effort but it sounds like an unsuccessful one to outlaw it in Scotland:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/multilingual/scots_gaelic_history.shtml
This one mentions an effort to eliminate Gaelic through an education system designed to teach only English but as you say that isn't quite outlawing it and indeed they ended up producing Gaelic church books and holding services in Gaelic.
http://www.scottishhistory.com/articles/highlands/gaelic/gaelic_page1.html
As you say the situation seems to have been similar in Ireland but for The Statutes of Kilkenny which only outlawed it's use if you were English.
Rather similar to the US Indian schools.

 

It was certainly discouraged, but so today is Lowland Scots. Having a very broad accent myself, I appreciate how uneducated I probably sound at times in the real world.
But I don't give a monkeys, and I doubt if the Highlanders did either.
Anyway, sorry for the hijack.

 

Not sure it was a hijack. Learned something in the process as well. So thanks on my part.