From ancient history to the present, which civilisation had the fewest wars? Allan Senior, Deganwy, Gogledd Cymru
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Readers reply
I’m going with the Clangers. sparklesthewonderhen
It’s somewhat counterintuitive, and there’s controversial political baggage associated with some of the people who have written about this (eg Steven Pinker), but the majority of historical and archaeological evidence does suggest that the percentage of people who die in conflict has been on a general downward trajectory throughout history. As violent as the world still is, it’s probably our modern civilisation. ProjectXRay
Here’s a fairly long paper that examines the difficulties in calculating levels of violence from spotty historical records. You can skip past the statistics if that’s not your strong point and still get a good idea why making any sort of definitive claims can be difficult. It was done as a response to Pinker’s Panglossian nonsense, but it illustrates a larger point. Unclestinky
One of the reasons Europe dominated from the 15th to 20th centuries was because we had so many different countries and states close together constantly warring. This created a militaristic Darwinism where military technologies and strategies evolved rapidly as they were tested to literal destruction. cairnofmediocrity
Internal cooperation among community members and willingness to welcome visitors are key ingredients to peace. There are centuries of this, literally thousands of years when population density was balanced against resources sustainably. Prehistory is the history of bands of 20 to 50 people living hunter-gatherer patterns, or localised ones where weather and resources permit, with trading and ceremonial interactions periodically.
Simply put: Small, voluntary units that have enough to eat, aren’t suffering from excessive climatic extremes or plague, like to get together to trade, intermarry, have fun and worship. This can go on indefinitely. Druidic/Celtic cultures and Scandinavian cultures had “gifting” traditions as standing practices – these often required going a few hundred miles by “delegates” from one group to another periodically – to bring some token or some craft/food product or “specialty”. Peace under difficult circumstances endures when small units have a pattern and practice of “pitching in” and being interested and curious in one another, as families, as clans, as nations.
Native cultures – everywhere – that aren’t overcrowded, sick or faced with sustained crisis don’t “make a mess” of their environments, thus we don’t know about them! shastakath
Since civilisations were based on possession of goods, land and farms, they always had armies to protect them. By definition, armies are trained to fight, so sooner or later they engaged in warfare defensively or offensively. So the term “civilisation” denotes a powerful group, and warfare was inevitable. Maggie Camfield
As ever, it depends on what you consider a civilisation to be, and what you count as a war. With a broad definition, the Easter Islanders had a civilisation, and their isolation ensured no wars (or contact whatsoever) with any other civilisation. Conflict is another matter, as there is archeological evidence of internal conflict, particularly towards the twilight of civilisation, as competition for increasingly scarce resources turned violent. Tokugawa Japan also enjoyed an extended period of peace, perhaps pointing to a trend that isolation (self imposed in their case) is the best way to prevent war. pretentioususername
Is the Roman empire one of the contenders? bobbymac1956
I think they invaded the rest of Europe, north Africa, and also went warring to the east, so probably not. Dargyva
Nepal and Switzerland have to be prime candidates because it’s such a pain to move land-based armies in or out. Nepal seems to have been fairly quiet on the international conflict front for the past 200 years, although there has been civil war. GlamorganBoy
Nepal’s civil war was a long and bitter affair, and Caesar had quite a bit to say about the Helvetians. HarrytheHawk
Wasn’t it said that in the Mongol empire a virgin carrying a gold plate could walk unmolested from border to border, that is, from China to the gates of modern Europe? Of course, she could have been a tough woman who would knock attackers’ heads off with said plate if they came too close. LMCollis
The creation of the Mongol empire is thought to have killed more people than either of the 20th century world wars, at a time when the overall global population was a fraction of what it was in 1914 or 1939, making it possibly the most brutal conflict in all of history, in both absolute and relative terms. ProjectXRay
The empire of Ashoka in northern India would be a good one to explore. Definitely born out of the horrors of war, which Ashoka renounced for Buddhist principles of non-harming and no more war which were subsequently established throughout the empire. His kingdom is still respected in current day India. Stillcurious
I’d guess that Ancient Egypt had fewest wars … though whether that would cover “civil wars” I don’t know. Apparently the earliest surviving peace treaty was between Egypt and the Hittites following the Battle of Kadesh in 1274BC. Given the Hittite’s reputation for aggressive wars, I’d guess that Egypt was fighting a defensive war. There were further defensive wars against the invasions of the Sea People who terrorised the eastern Mediterranean between 1200-900BC and caused the collapse of many bronze age civilisations. And does the Battle of Megiddo in 1468BC count? It could be viewed as a civil war in that the kings of Megiddo and Kadesh rebelled against Thutmose III. The ancient Egyptian civilisation, until it was taken over by the Romans, lasted for about 3,000 years. I’m sure there must have been other episodes of fighting but two or three major wars over that time seems pretty peaceful. Especially since the “west” has fought more wars than that in the past 100 years, yet alone the past 1,000. Highbury
The ancient Minoan civilisation based on the island of Crete. Their civilisation was based on agriculture and widespread trade. Displayed through the murals of Knossos, women led the society in many if not all aspects. The Minoan civilisation ended by a massive volcanic eruption and not by war and/or conquest. John E Sinclair, Columbia, South Carolina
A Google search lists Vanuatu in the South Pacific, Vatican City, Iceland, Greenland, and San Marino in southern Europe as countries that have never even fought a war, evidence that offers hope to the rest of us who yearn for peace. Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec
Caral-Supe, the oldest known civilisation in the Americas (in Peru) is renowned for its advanced and diverse architecture. Yet no evidence of weapons or depictions of weapons have been found. Jim Houston
I’m gonna go with the Basque people. As far as I know they’ve never had an actual war. (Terrorism yes, war no). If that doesn’t count, how about San Ramiro? Liechtenstein? Luxembourg? Also, I’m sure there’s a thousand civilisations lost to history specifically because they never had a war. Noah Masters
One candidate for this accolade must surely be the Indus civilisation of the north-west part of south Asia, which straddles the Indian and Pakistan borders and whose best known cities are Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. During its urban mature phase, which lasted from 2600-1900BC, there is no tangible evidence of warfare and, among the material culture of the period, there are few what we would identify as weapons. Many scholars have stated a belief that this civilisation was egalitarian as there is little evidence of elites that can be identified from buildings or burials. Prof Robert Arnott
As far as recorded history is concerned, probably Abyssinia, kingdom of Axum. It only had to fight off colonisation twice, in the 16th century (Ottoman-backed Adal) and 19th century (Italy). This war involved battling foreign troops. Within Africa, however, there was no viable competitor, nobody to fight. Abdikarim Hussein
I believe that would be the Phoenicians, whoever they were? William Schryer
The Orang Asli are perhaps one of the most peaceful groups to ever exist. The oldest inhabitants of peninsular Malaysia are a broad mix of approximately 150,000 individuals, divided into 18 ethnic groups. They share a cultural abhorrence against both violence against outsiders and those in their communities, one that is so strong that the Cheq Wong language spoken by one of their subgroups lacks any words for war, aggressiveness, or violence. Typically the Orang Asli have survived in the face of religious or ethnic persecution by fleeing or avoiding contact with those who would do them harm. Dr Matthew Turner, Washington
The “civilisations” of Göbekli Tepe show no evidence of war over millennia. On the other hand, modern nation-states, being more power-centred, are at war about 50% of their time (the US even greater than). See The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Wendell Bradley
