War is a situation whereby there is an armed type of disagreement/conflict between members of the similar or different society 1 . War is characterized by the use of irregular or regular military forces accompanied by acts of extreme aggression, mortality or destruction of property. War can be dated back to the Mesolithic times around fourteen thousand years ago. The Mesolithic cemetery site has skeletons of which more than forty percent of them can be attributed to wars as the great cause of death 2 . Over the years there have been very many different types of war though they all share the same characteristics. War has at times been seen as a universal and ancestral aspect of people while other scholars argue socio-cultural or ecological differences cause it. Despite the perspective from which war can occur, it leads to significant deterioration of infrastructure, the ecosystem, loss of lives and displacement of people.
Effects of War
The development of technology gave rise to the invention of more deadly weapons which gave rise to an advantageous position to some countries. It is seen in the case of weapons such as the nuclear weapons, guns and fighter jets 3 .Of all the wars that have occurred in the world, the most deadly regarding the number of deaths caused is the Second World War. It took place between 1939 and 1945 and had more than 80 million deaths were linked to it. The Triple Alliance War is the most destructive for it took more than 55% of the lives of the Paraguay's entire population 4 . These wars are a clear indication of the results that come from it once people engage in it. War has come to be recognized as the world's sixth out of ten problems that might face human beings come the next fifty years.
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Wars such as the World War II had extreme effects on countries that participated in it and those in which no battles occurred. The wars caused disruptions to many homes and destroyed many families in the process. In the case of the America, the Word War II and I battles did not take place in the country's central lands. However, it participated in the two wars through the massive production of weapons that it supplied its alliances that were fighting against countries such as Germany, Japan and Italy and also protect itself. At the time, the women were discriminated against in the job market, and few or no positions were open for them. For those who were lucky of getting jobs, they were paid lower rates than the men even though they worked in the same type of job. The massive production of weapons in America gave the women the leeway to get jobs within the industrial job market 5 .It is because, most of the men were to get allocated to military service thus there was a shortage of workers who would oversee the manufacture the weapons from 1941 to 1944, the number of working women increased from 14 million to about twenty million. The World War II is what gave the women an opportunity to get jobs within the industrial production sector.
Wars are also known to affect the political institutions of different countries 6 . In the World War I, Germany had to sign the Versailles Treaty. This was to make the country give up some of its territorial boundaries on the eastern and western borders. The German government gave the Alsace-Lorraine to France. The two nations had been in dispute over the borders for a long time. Germany had taken the land away from France during the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 thus France wanted it back. After France and Great Britain emerged victorious during the World War I, they demanded their lands back. Germany was also forced to give away some of its boundaries to Poland and Denmark. World War I also led to the Russian Revolution of 1917 7 .The current government at that time was removed from power and taken over by Vladimir Lenin who was a socialist. New states also emerged in Europe that had earlier been part of the Russian Empire such as Lithuania, Finland and Estonia
The economic impacts of war can be positive or negative to the countries involved. In the case of the World War I, the United States ripped big from it, unlike its European counterpart countries. The USA did not become affected by the war for no conflicts occurred in the country. Only the American factories were involved in the fight through manufacturing of weapons. For countries such as the United Kingdom and France, they suffered enormous economic setbacks though they were able to recover quickly. A country like Germany had its economy affected very much. The country had to sign treaties an example of the Versailles treaty that required it to make monetary payments to the Allies countries. With its destruction on infrastructure and they forced payments, the country experienced a massive economic depression that saw increased unemployment rates and hyperinflation in districts such as Weimar. The country's currency, reichsmarks also devalued requiring one to have a wheelbarrow so as to load money to purchase essential items such as bread.
The Second World War (1939-1945) saw countries trying to outdo each other in terms of power, technology and science. Most of the terrible developments in humanity's history can be linked to this war. It is during this war that the countries started bombing each other as the alliances sought victory over the other. Germany was the most affected country during the World War II as a result of bombings on its key economical cities 8 . Some of the cities that were bombed include Kassel that saw more than ten thousand civilians dead. In Darmstadt, more than 12,000 people lost their lives, Pforzheim more than 21,000, Berlin more than 40,000, and Dresden more than 25,000. Lastly, Hamburg lost more than 45,000. Other countries that suffered as result of bombings include Japan, and Tokyo city which saw more than 100,000 deaths and Osaka, 10,000.
Despite the size of any type of war, it always has far reaching implications on the lives of the civilians. The women at times are the most affected for some will have to take new roles as the heads of their families following the deaths of their husbands who participated in the military wars. In wars such as the Civil War in America, women had to step into the shoes of men by working in occupations that had been left vacant. They would operate the factory machinery and the operation of plantations and farms by themselves. The civilian women had also to take up jobs as military nurses so that they could aid in the treating of wounded soldiers during the war. To the women, the Civil War had two effects on them, i.e. they were able to acquire equal voting rights for themselves and the nursing field was open to them unlike before whereby only men could undertake the profession 9 . Many civilians also become subjected to death, disabilities and various injuries on their bodies. Most of them were just innocent parties in these wars. Most civilians become forced to migrate to new lands as their original homes become destroyed due to the war.
Long Term Effects of War
Soldiers do not suffer at the battle field but they end up getting long-term physical and psychological effects. During the First World War (1914-1918), the soldiers suffered from disease such as tuberculosis, asthma and trench foot. The trench foot was caused as a result of the wet and unsanitary conditions posed by the water-filled channels the soldier would move through 10 .The soldiers also suffered from shell-shock. Following the witnessing of death as a result of combat, use of intimate violence and witnessing their friends dying during war is what led to psychological disorders among these soldiers. Once they came out of wars, most soldiers suffered from traumatic mental health disorders which worsened due to inaccessibility to psychological experts and therapist. Most of the soldiers involved themselves in suicidal attempts as a result of the mental health condition.
The Civil War had positive long lasting effects on the USA. It led to industrialization and the creation of an American country that was just and democratic. Before the Civil War, America had been linked to various injustices especially slavery that had significantly tarnished its name. By the Civil War ending slavery, it brought about racial equity in the country and an end to the South's aristocratic form of governance. The state also started becoming industrialized after the Southern states passed laws that allowed for the construction of transcontinental rail road. This is what created the beginning of industrialization and has helped the USA became among the world's top economically stable countries 11 .
During the Second World War, USA bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki using nuclear weapons. This saw the death of more than 140,000 people with tens of thousands dying instantly while the rest succumbed to various forms of injuries for weeks and even today. The major effects of this bombing was the exposure o both people and the environment to radiation. Most of the people who were exposed to radiation still suffer from different forms of cancers such as leukemia. According to a study carried out by Radiation Effects Research Foundation on 94,000 survivors of the bombing, they have proven that they still suffer from effects of the radiation. According to RERF, it has been able to link more than 800 different types of cancerous tumors.
Conclusion
War has positive and adverse effects on either parties involved in it. However, the benefits of war are outweighed by the disadvantages. With advancement in technology, more deadly weapons have been made such as the bombs, guns and fighter jets. These weapons at times are sued by countries to prove their power as seen in the Second World War. In a country such as America, the Civil War brought an end to slavery and initiated industrialization. However, despite this, millions of people had to loose their lives and suffer from injuries. Wars such as the World War I and II also benefited countries such as France, the United Kingdom and the USA though still, it led to the loss of lives. The most major effects of war are the loss of lives for both the soldiers' innocent civilians and soldiers. Conflicting parties should come up with better means of solving their disputes.
Bibliography
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Prince, Cathryn J. Death in the Baltic the World War II Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff . New York NY: St. Martin's Press, 2014.
Ruchir, Shah. The civil war . Barrington, RI: EZ Comics, 2007.
Shah, Ruchir. The civil war . Barrington, RI: EZ Comics, 2007.
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1 Keith F. Otterbein. How war began , (College Station CS: Texas A & M Univ. Press, 2004), 298.
2 Malcolm, Potts and Thomas Hayden, Sex and war: how biology explains warfare and terrorism and offers a path to a safer world , ( New York NY: BenBella, 2010), 334.
3 Cathryn J. Prince, Death in the Baltic the World War II Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff , (New York NY: St. Martin's Press, 2014.), 100-170 .
4 , Chris Leuchars, T o the Bitter End: Paraguay and the War of the Triple Alliance , (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2002), 219.
5 Cathryn J. Prince, Death in the Baltic the World WarII, 150.
6 Corona Brezina, The Treaty of Versailles, 1919: a primary source examination of the treaty that ended World War I , (New York NY: Rosen Pub. Group, 2006), 114.
7 Rex A. Wade, the Russian Revolution, 1917 , (Cambridge GB: Cambridge University, 2005), 1-10.
8 Antony Beevor, The Second World War , (London: Orion, 2012), 20, 30.
9 Shah Ruchir. The civil war . (Barrington, RI: EZ Comics, 2007), 15.
10 Suzie Grogan, Shell-shocked Britain: the First World War's legacy for Britain's mental health . (Barnsley, Eng: Pen and Sword, 2014), 85.
11 Antony Beevor, The Second World War . 26.
