The Costs and Benefits of War

Daniel Williams

Positive & Negative Effects of Wars

ENC 1101: Written Communication 1

November 6, 2013

Dr. Connor

For centuries there have been wars fought around the world, some for freedom, some for conquest, some for territory. Wars can have significant effects on history, giving lessons on how they were fought and how they’ve shaped nations. Wars usually end with one side being defeated or both sides agreeing to a truce. However, in every war there are serious casualties, hundreds of thousands of people are injured or killed. So “What are the Positive and Negative Effects of War”?

One example is the American Revolution, from 1775 to 1783, after seeking independence the United States want to war with Great Britain. It nearly grew into a world war since France, Netherlands, Spain, and Mysore was secretly supplying the Americans with supplies, weapons, and ammunition. Eventually American won with the Treaty of Paris signed by both sides and even though America won its independence and went on to become a great national power of its own, over 25,000 Americans died fighting for freedom and 43 years later America would go to war with Britain again in the War of 1812.

Nearly a century later America would be fighting a war within itself, the Civil War. The country divided into the Union to the north and the Confederates to the south, the origin of the war was when the north wanted to abolish slavery which the south didn’t like so they split from the union. The war carried on for nearly five years before the south was defeated, the country was reunited and slavery was abolished. The Civil War is one of the earliest industrial wars, railroads, telegraph, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed. However, 365,000 soldiers from the north and 260,000 soldiers from the south were killed, as a result 750,000 Americans were killed and 412,200 were wounded and five days...