Can you name ANY wars that were started by religion?

Question

WWI-German Empire building
WWII-same
Civil War-Southern distrust of the North
American Revolution-American In dependence
Korea-Communism vs. capitalism
Viet Nam-same

Anything more recent than the 1600's will do.

Answer 1

6 day war, i'm sure I could come up with others if I were properly motivated

http://www.lepg.org/wars.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade

http://www.religioustolerance.org/curr_war.htm

Answer 2

The Korean and Vietnam Wars had nothing to do with religion. They were started by communism. Korea was started when the USA & USSR demilitarized Japanese-occupied Korea after World War II, and the Soviets who were permanent members of the UN Security Council, took advantage of the occupation by expanding their power. Naturally, the newly establsihed "People's Republic" of China joined in, since they were allies with the USSR at the time.


The Vietnam War started when the Soviets once again used their UN Security Power position to take advantage of the collapse of French Colonial Rule after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. However, it goes much futher back than that. In 1927, a group of Nationalists in Indochina known as the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang(aka the Viet Quoc) vowed to break the region away from France. Three years later, The Indochinese Communist Party was established by Ho Chi Minh, and other former members of the French Communist Party. Both groups were merged under an umbrella organization, but throughout the 1930's the ICP, which became the Viet Minh, purged the organization of non-communists like the Viet Quoc. These non-communist anti-colonialists inherited the governments of South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and with support from the USSR, PRC, and most of the rest of the communist bloc, North Vietnam sought to overthrow these non-communist governments.

Answer 3

Few wars that have been fought for truly religious reasons. The people that want the war may use religion as part of their justification for waging the war. For instance, if you feel "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland are due to religion, then you simply do not understand the issues. War is about obtaining and maintaining power; pure and simple. The people who wish to wage war will use any convenient excuse to motivate the people towards war. If people are'nt motivated by religion to fight, then there always seems to be another reason handy. i.e. WMD's, throwing babies on to bayonets, taxation without representation or cracking eggs open on the small or large end. ( Read Jonathan Swift as to the latter if you have no idea what it is a reference to)

Answer 4

1) The100 years war between Protestants & Catholics.
2) Any war that involved the US Christians vs Communists atheists: (Korean war, Vietnam war, Cold war)
3) American Revolutionary War: British Anglicans vs American Protestants.
4) Have to mention the Crusades because the US is fighting the either the 7th or 8th crusade as we speak.
5) All Indian wars fought in the New World (North & South America) in which millions of Indians were killed because they weren't Christians.
6) You could make a strong case that WW2 was fought because of religion: not Christianity but Judism (6 million jews wouldn't have died in WW2 if they hadn't been jewish)
7) All Israeli wars have been fought because of religion.

Answer 5

WWII (for the American entry into the theatre) began as a fight for oil. The United States had cut off Imperial Japan's supply of oil necessary to run the Japanese war machine in China and the South Pacific. Then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. That is what they tell you at the Pearl Harbor Memorial. There were a series of Crusades though....

Answer 6

I think you have this wrong.
WWII was a religious war when we got involved. Hitler didn't like religion at all, not just the jews. And, Stalin wanted communism,not religion. Power of the people, not God. We were tired of religious persecution and came to America and continued to fight that persecution against the Brits in the American Revolution. The Civil War was a humanitarian effort; isn't that religious? Once again, Communism is anti religion. Ok...how about this Iraq Conflict? Israel/Palestine conflict. Please. All wars are essentially religious in nature.

Answer 7

1. Every war the Israelites were in, in the Bible. 2. The current wars between Israel and Palestine. 3. Serbia, 4. Crusades, 5. The Indian wars by the Catholic/Christians in the name of religion to occupy this country. 6. Various wars in Africa between tribes, Muslims, Christians. Nearly every brutality man has been in has been blamed on religion/God/Allah.

Answer 8

A lot of killing currently being done in Africa is because of religion. The people there are killing each other off because they are Christians vs......Muslim I think (I really don't know). The Christians are being killed by the others just because they believe in Jesus.

Northern Ireland is protestant and they were at war with Ireland because Ireland is Catholic.Not anymore, but they were.

Answer 9

all the small civil wars still going on in Africa and Iraq....the whole Israeli thing, the Middle East in general....the skirmishes a decade ago between Pakistan and India.....and I believe the conflicts against communism by the west was based in Christian against "Godless" Communism....The colonial powers against heathen populations...genocide against the Kurds by the Turks...Modern Greeks against Turks.....there is a definite ethnic hatred between certain groups and they are of different sects and religions...hard to separate it out because it is certainly a factor

The south had a different view on religion and justified slavery inside of their faith...the north found that evil....it was abourt a different view on man and faith

Answer 10

The war waged by Crusaders. It is a war for religion to reclaim Holyland.

Answer 11

the Crusades, Hitler's extermination of the Jews in WWII, Saddam's extermination of Kurds, and of course, 9/11, which precipitated the invasion of Afghanistan and gave Bush an excuse to invade Iraq.