I heard somewhere that before WWI, war was held as a necessity if life, and even earlier back was seen as a good thing because of the determination to win and what you could take when you won. I don't know if I can believe that we were monolithic in that because I imagine not everyone would get the winnings so to speak, but at the same time we are primates, and primates generally seem to have some innate aggression and even take brutality to a whole new level. So I figured I'd ask you guys because I'm not sure.
Well. Back in the good days war was more profitable. Throughout the Middle Ages gdp as economic indicator is estimated to stagnate most of the time. So attacking other countries and exploiting their stuff made lots of sense. However one should not forget that their were locally entire centuries with really few conflicts like for example 100 ad till 300 ad in Western Europe. Or even the 19th century. Which was compared to the 20. century not too violent