Kaipbayeva A.T., Nurmukhambetov A.A
Kazakh state women’s
teacher training university, Kazakhstan
T.K. Zhurgenov Kazakh National academy of arts, Kazakhstan
Medieval wars: causes and
consequences
It is known that the interests of one country may not
always fully comply with the interests of another state, therefore the
collision of interests and principles in many cases grows into a bloodshed war,
while resolving the problem by means of bloodshed should be considered as a
cruel and unjustified method. Military actions, that took place on various
stages of history of the whole humanity were not always effective for resolving
the socio-political problems. So, the downsides of military actions were most
vividly manifested in medieval Europe, the reasons of which is closely related
to the multiple wars, that became an integral part of life of the society and
the inadequate understanding that “war is robbery against local inhabitants”
that widely spread among soldiers. Therefore, in minds of both medieval warriors
and common inhabitants being able of using the weapons the opinion formed, that
by means of war it is possible to enhance one’s socio-economical state. It is
doubtless, that medieval wars, that occurred namely on the grounds of such a
mercantile understanding stimulated creation of a number of unfavorable
conditions, one of manifestations of which is a negative impact of military
actions to social conditions.
Medieval military actions showed, that an important role
is played by economical and religious factors. Indeed, disputes and
controversies for strategically important regions were always directed towards
political and economical interests. Actions, related with the striving to
obtain a leading status at the certain territory, in many cases resulted in
wars. The famous theoretician, that studied the phenomenon of war, wrote the
following in that: “War is the science, full of haziness, not allowing us to
move confidently. There is routine and prejudice in its basics”. [1.p.26]. Such definition of war is considered to be correct, as long as it
is impossible to plan the course of military actions itself and to foresee the
period of their completion. Until the final goal is reached and the tasks are
implemented, the military actions will last. It is easy to notice from the
historical experience, that formed throughout many centuries, which was
characteristic for all war, occurring in various periods of history, at this
also different wars in many cases have stressed only the negative impact to the
society.
Due to internal instability in many medieval states
social relations were formed in complicate conditions. The majority of society
was forced to live in the conditions of unquestioned subordination to the
heads, which is vividly manifested in political, economical and spiritual life
of the society. Relations between the common people and the authorities
facilitate revelation of the main indicators of social environment. Social
inequalities, taking place in peaceful life, during the war started growing stronger.
During the war social relations were subject to social risks, which lead to
conflict situation. It is certain, that consequences of any war and social
aggravations during the war are assessed, first of all, through human
casualties. Collisions between opponents were especially strongly felt in
strategically meaningful regions, therefore on such territories, which were, in
essence, the main arena for military actions, bloodsheds took place, leading to
large-scale consequences, as a result of which human casualties in such regions
were much greater. It is necessary to take into account the fact, that
inhabitants of some places at the territory of which military actions took
place, in order to survive, had to escape to other peaceful places, searching for
peaceful life. For instance, during the 30-year war in Europe in 1618 –1648 a
significant damage was inflicted to the Northern and Central parts of Germany.
Mecklenburg, Brandenburg and Magdeburg, as well as Palatinate and Saxony were
forced not only to face all hardships of war, but its consequences as well.
Number of people, inhabiting Germany during the period of war, according to
data of some sources was 15-17 million, according data of other sources – 21
million of people, and after the end of war the size of population of this
country was fluctuating between 10 and 13 million. [2.p335].
Meanwhile, according to other data, size of population of North-Eastern and
South-Western parts of Germany have decreased by 50% and more [3.p112].
The main difficulties and consequences of military
actions during various periods of history of humanity,
including the medieval period as a whole, were taken by the common people. To
the war, that was funded by people themselves soldiers were draught from common
people. There are no major or minor wars, all military actions have their
complications, therefore, to become a soldier, in order not only to fight, but
also to endanger your life is not a simple decision. Moreover, even those
soldiers, that went to medieval armies with a goal of getting large amounts of
money, were forced to make such a step. Moritz of Saxony indicates three main
kinds of soldier draughts, which are: forced decision, willful decision and
draught by means of deception [2.30]. At this the author does not provide any
data on mercenaries, while during the medieval period the states at war were
widely using the experience of mercenaries for resolving the disputes and
conflict situations. Actions of such soldiers, for whom monetary reward was
more valuable, than state interests and social values, at war in many cases led
to aggravation of social relations. In case if the issue of monetary reward was
not resolved in favor of mercenaries, they started to do sheer robbery of local
inhabitants. Such actions were widely spread during the medieval period and
became a habitual occupation, therefore the history of any medieval war is full
of events, that were accompanied by robbery and brigandism. Besides soldiers,
who “believed, that the main goal of the war is robbery against local
population and achieving material wealth”, the number of military readers,
thinking the same of the essence of war started to grow. Medieval people used
the war in their selfish goals, gaining revenue on it, and for many of them
this became the main occupation. This means, that the intent of medieval
soldiers and other people to use the war with the purpose of easy monetary
gain, firmly penetrated their consciousness. Of course, men, able of using
weapons, were receiving monetary reward when serving as mercenaries, and thus
provided for their families, but in case of non-timely payment of money, people
residing in the direct proximity to the military actions were a subject to
robbery and brigandism from the side of soldiers, who, on their own will joined
the army, and, instead of showing heroism in the battle, pursued to rob the
peaceful people. Such negative manifestations were the consequences of distrust
of soldiers towards their leaders. Not having the opportunity of receiving the
earned money on time, the soldiers tried to make the maximum use of wealth of
others. Of course, this shows low moral qualities of not only the soldiers, but
of their leaders also. Various measures of punishment, embedding fear into
souls, started to be applied frequently, in order to get hold of personal
belongings of people without barriers. So, together with a hanging and severing
the body of an alive person, other ways of torturing the human started to be
used. Unlawful takeover of crop produce by soldiers, was not inspiring people
to do ranching and farming. Such unfavorable circumstances at war only made
social aggravations worse, as the result of which life conditions of people
decreased and all kinds of economical activity, being the basis of social welfare,
underwent a crisis.
During the medieval wars some political and also other
unresolved problems acquired a regional scale, because such each state prefers
to resolve such regional problems while observing its own interests. Late
medieval heads of such states as Denmark and Sweden tried to establish its
superiority at Baltic seashore [4.p.63]. As a consequence of the
fact, that different interests, protected by different states, could not come
to common resolution, at this increasing the social tension and inflicting a
serious damage to all factors, making a direct impact on social stability.
Among them there are: disruption of order of work on large trading seaports,
robbery, brigandism at trade paths, etc.
Any war not only brings material damage to the humanity,
but also makes peculiar changes in the worldview of an individual. The main
problem was that people had their value perceptions of life completely changed.
A widespread opinion that the war is an integral part of society allowed to
take military actions for a normal and lawful situation. As a result of
medieval wars the cities, that were large cultural centers started to be
destroyed, which negatively influenced development of spiritual life.
Destruction of cities as a result of military actions made a negative impact to
development of human potential and to its cultural enhancement – this all
should be considered as the consequence of war. It is undisputed, that during
every war aggression of people, being a subject to robbery and brigandism from
the side of soldiers grows, an for peaceful inhabitants it didn’t matter who’s
interests were protected by soldiers fight on battlefields. People, facing
humiliation and insults from the side of opponent forces, did not care about
this problem, they, in turn, after battles, were ruthlessly robbing, killing
and punishing soldiers of defeated side, moreover, the situation was
complicated to the extent that the facts of cannibalism were registered.
Military actions became a reason for creation of such negative circumstances.
Together with such macro-factorial circumstances, medieval military actions
made an unfavorable impact to the quality of life and safety of family as a
part of society and to separate social groups of people. The especially strong
factor to be seen was the influence of interethnic cultural transmission to formation of the national traits, as the
result of which the national idea, with the purpose of preservation and
re-birth of the nation have appeared. At this the main goal was to form the
national spirit and to preserve national values.
It will not be erroneous to state, that the whole history
of humanity was full of various wars and conflicts, and many problems between
various states could not be resolved peacefully and grew into wars. Based on
historical data provided in this article, the conclusion can be made, that the
war is the aggregate of actions, increasing the social tensions to the maximum.
In our view, such definitions is characteristic for all wars, that occurred in
different historical periods. We believe, that the problem of medieval years,
in which various interests of different states intersected, has to be
reconsidered and rethought by scholars on the grounds of social research. By
means of studying and disclosure of essence of social relations during the war,
via revealing negative and positive impacts of war to interethnic relations and
to members of various social groups, it is possible to make specific
conclusions on this problem.
The
list of used literature:
1. Moritz of Saxony. Theory of military art / translation from English by L.A.
Igorevskiy, Moscow, 2009 –255 p.
2. History of Middle Ages / edited by N.F. Kolesnitskiy, Moscow, 1986.
3. V.M. Alexeyev. Thirty-year war. Leningrad, 1961, 182 p
4. A.S. Kan.History of Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), Moscow, 80
5. Friedrich Schiller. The Thirty-year War. Munich 1975, 313p.
6. I.I. Lukashuk. The Law of International Responsibility. Moscow, 2003 423p.