Why Do Humans Wage War?

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why, despite knowing the devastation it causes, do humans insist on starting wars? Countless battles have littered the pages of our shared human story. Powerful leaders, hungry for glory and conquest, have always relied on conflict to achieve their goals.

To understand the persistence of violent conflict in the human story, Dan is joined by Richard Overy, one of the great military historians and author of 'Why War?'.

This was originally released as a History Hit subscriber-exclusive episode.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Max Carrey.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Dan Snow, and if you would like Dan Snow's History Hit ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:09.7	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries with top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week.
0:19.4	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe.
0:25.0	Welcome, everybody. Welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. The first battle was fought in Canaan, is what is now Israel.
0:34.2	The Egyptian Therow, Tithmosis, the third, who ruled over the Egyptian Empire, what was probably its maximum territorial extent, marched north to secure that empire at the head of a force of perhaps up to 20,000 infantry and charioteers.
0:52.3	There were client kings who's risen up in rebellion, and he was here
0:56.0	to restore Egyptian control. An enemy force of 10,000, perhaps more, waited at Megadogdo. They were
1:06.2	commanded by the rebel ruler of Kadesh. Toothmosis moved fast.
1:12.3	He knocked them off balance.
1:13.8	He advanced using an unexpected route.
1:15.7	He caught his enemy unprepared.
1:17.7	He positioned himself at the very centre of the Egyptian line,
1:21.4	possibly in his chariot,
1:22.6	if flattering depictions on temple walls or anything to go by.
1:31.5	His first name, Minkepere, is the manifestation of Rha, and his enemies may well have felt that the embodiment of the sun god was charging down
1:37.8	on them that terrible day. Led by their ferry, the Egyptians smashed the enemy line. Their foe
1:43.8	fled, but the Egyptians,
1:45.6	as so often in history, stopped to loot their camp. And this produced a great hall of plunder,
1:50.4	but it did mean the defeated troops were able to get into the city of Megadog, and bar the gates.
1:56.1	Dothmosis dug a ditch around the city, erected a wall, and he settled down for a siege.
2:00.7	It took around eight months, we think, but in the end, the hunger, the hopelessness, the disease, broke the resolve of the rebels, and they surrendered.
2:08.2	In a mighty temple in the Egyptian capital and Karnak, it's recorded that his army took home hundreds of prisoners, 2,000 horses, great stallions, nearly a thousand chariots,
	...

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