Why medieval people loved WAR

this episode of shanna versity is brought to you by my stupendous awesome supporters on patreon if you'd like to support university on patreon visit patreon.com forward slash Shanna versity ratings I'm shad and a lot of the content on this channel is talking about medieval weapons wonder why what gives it what gave that a way that'll be relating my channel and you know other elements related to you know medieval themes but also action fighting warfare combat but of course my point of reference in figuring out how realistic things are self is of course the medieval period because I love the medieval period and an interesting topic that I haven't really talked about that also you know might not have set in the you know our understanding the middle period as prominently as it should is the perception of war in the medieval period as we look at it now war pretty much nowadays is considered a universal evil war is absolutely terrible I'm not completely on that side of course I think war is terrible absolutely that you know we would never want to go to war but if there is you know a really really big evil that is ready to try and attack other people and take away their rights and stuff like that I think the concept of a righteous war does exist and a perfect example this is of course world war two I am NOT a pacifist in the sense that even when there is an evil aggressor attacking someone that I wouldn't take up arms to defend my fear now of course okay it would have been better if there was no evil aggressor in the first place and we didn't need to do that but when push to it of course okay but when we are pushed to that there is a general understanding belief that it's a tragedy and we don't want to do it but not necessarily in the medieval period okay they had a different perspective on war and death generally than we do now which i think is instructive and interesting to try and understand world war one was a shock to everyone regarding how bad things really could get yet that mentality wasn't understood when World War One began I've had historians describe the attitude that existed about warfare at the beginning of World War one that when World War one was declared every one sheared but when world war ii was declared everyone cried this was because we started to wise onto the horrifying reality of how devastating and destructive modern warfare is and this is the thing that we need to realize the current modern mentality and view towards war is very different to what existed in the past the other thing that I want to talk about which also affects the view on warfare because in the medieval period there are some you know cases that I come across where warfare was kind of looked at it's somewhat of a positive light whereas like what go on war good sweet let's go kill later guys is gonna be fun some that because they looked at killing and death differently to how we do in the modern day the first thing that we should understand is that mortality rates was so much higher in the medieval period and just general leave a past overall then in the modern day because of medical technology and also hygienic practices medicine that had available how available food was you know it problems with exposure I mean they're it's amazing how many significant issues that our ancestors had to deal with that we don't even think of do you ever worry about freezing to death you know in the one day no we don't exposure is it a problem it's turned on the heater okay that was a significant thing they had to do it during the winter snow all around big big problem death was something they just had to learn to deal with if you were gonna have children there is such a high chance that at least one if not more of those children are going to die before they grow into adulthood in fact they kind of developed this almost McCobb black humour cut perspective on death that we probably would find almost offensive and there are examples of it that have survived think about you know nursery rhymes and stuff like that ring around the rosey a pocket full of posy a tissue a tissue we all fall down that's a song about death the falling down is people dying Rockabye Baby in the treetop when the wind blows the cradle will rock when the cradle rocks baby will fall down will come baby cradle and all it's all gonna be out of baby dying okay oh and here's another one Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after Jack and Jill do not fare well in that nursery and these songs and things just arose for in court almost like a black humor kind of way as a way to deal with the horrors of life and we see that today black humor is something that people legitimately used to deal with some of the most horrifying things that had happened to them the prevalence e of death was so common that it was even seen as a type of entertainment when someone was being executed it drew huge crowds people came to watch people being killed there that's entertainment all right and so you can kind of see with this acceptance that death is a far more common thing that just happens okay they're probably already experienced death of loved ones and close ones in their lives as well I can see a less reluctance and also a desensitization to inflicting death on another person if they go on a watch execution there's a type of entertainment going to war and stuff like that doesn't see for me okay it's funny depending on circumstances I I it's interesting the level of aggression that arises in me whenever like I picture anyone threatening my wife and children okay suddenly a switch is flicked in my brain and Chad just goes berserk and married in and if if killing someone was the only way that to prevent an evil person harming my children and wife or a and threatening them I could see myself to know quite a lot but that if those protective instincts weren't you know triggered in me and stuff like that I could see myself hesitate in a big way if I was in a really serious situation where I had to kill someone like a war because this is a big thing I if I went to war right now I know sand from looking at history I know most of these soldiers on the other side just like me okay and they have no beef against me they're not really threatening my family their leaders that have caused the war and stuff like that it would be heartbreaking and so difficult for me to knowingly pull the trigger on someone who I know is just like me I'm not sure I could do it I've been sensitized in a big way through the modern world to value life especially since I haven't really been exposed to large amounts of death anyway I would find it really difficult to kill someone in a wall like that in an actual fact they did Studies on World War two that a very large majority of the soldiers in World War two weren't aiming to kill when they were firing at the enemy they're just shooting random but with enough bullets a lot of people died anyway because chance they gonna hit them but it's only a significant few that actually aims to kill knowingly in world war two so that's an interesting because World War two does constitute the concept of modern warfare and already the mentality we can I feel starting to shift especially with early medieval period as opposed to now because the simple fact is if you do something that is difficult enough times it eventually becomes easy and so if you've been exposed to death enough times watching executions seeing your family dies stuff like that it's probably much easier for you to kill someone in a war battle scenario and not being fazed by the moral conflicts associated with it seems to have been far more prevalent so warfare overall was sometimes considered a moral good or something that's something else great let us go into it and enjoyable yes that's right enjoyable fighting and especially winning can be a very exciting and adrenaline pumping experience especially if the difficult barrier of desensitizing yourself to violence and death has already been done from a young age just by the fact of the society that you've been raised in and then there's the fact that fighting someone in melee combat is a far more engaging and competitive type of warfare than just shooting someone at a distance which is what much of modern warfare has become and represented a far greater and more profound test of strength and prowess now I'm not saying that everyone in the medieval period was completely desensitized to violence and capable of killing and you know not caring about death or anything like that I'm just explaining the contrast between this period and the modern day and what seems to have been the general regard to death and loss of life of course there would have been people who are just as sensitive to the preciousness of modern life as what we do generally see in the modern day and even though I'll be explaining all the possible ways in which warfare was looked upon positively of course there were still people who would have despised it yet still the general impression that I've started to garner from studying the medieval period is that the concept of war was never seen as universally evil or bad it just happened to be a necessary thing that you sometimes had to do and in some cases was something that people wanted to do and enjoyed and there's also the potential to get rich from going to war as well perhaps you could distinguish yourself with some great act of valor and bravery yet this is the other side to it men a general more aggressive by nature than women and yoi aggression is neither good nor bad depending on how its expressed you can be aggressive in your work in your business to gain great where you know benefits and results being aggressive against bad things is it necessarily bad and also so when people say men's natural aggression need to be curbed know it is agree with that and when it comes to physicality there is this level of competition that manifests itself different between men and women I'm not saying men and naturally more competitive than women I think I've noticed that they can be equally competitive but it's but in different ways when it comes to feats of strength acts of bravery and stuff like that there is this natural one-upsmanship that happened between men to be to appear and come off as more manly and a very significant kind of way to show ones bravery courage physical prowess and stuff is in war especially if that type of warfare was more physical and you had less chance of being killed randomly by being explosion being lobbed over from a far distance that you couldn't see and for young men who want to prove themselves to be men and I experienced this when I was younger I was interested in joining the army that like this is a common thing I'm not saying it's universal amongst all men I'm saying it's a generality a common generality going off to war can be a very appealing thing for young men for that reason and if you want to say that Society is constructed to try and encourage men to behave that way I would say it's a bit of both I think it's a natural manifestation of our own biology and because of benefit society because if you're going to war you're going to want the people who are most equipped physically to be out of do it which are generally men and so you're incentivized then to encourage them on top of their natural inclination to do it as well does that mean there hasn't been women historically or in the modern day who are incapable of being effective soldiers of course not yes that they'll be far fewer of those women than there will be men this is fundamental biology and it arises sociologically and we can see signs of that sociological mentality in history in the way in which warfare was regarded was warfare always glorious of course not but the worst thing you would want to happen for your society is if you actually need a go to war of you being attacked and the people who would be most capable to defend that society being unable and ill-prepared to do it and whoever finds himself in a war does not want to lose it ergo getting a bigger army and getting as many of those ones who are most capable at fighting and winning to actually fight and so therefore creating a perception that warfare is glorious exciting a way to prove one's bravery and strength is a means to ensure that those who are most capable of fighting and war will be enthusiastic to do so so we can really see a different perception and even morality surrounding war looking at the past compared to the modern day and when looking at the modern day instead of glorifying war per se rather to encourage people to serve in the military there is a greater appeal to patriotism and doing one's duty which I also believe existed in the past it was just compounded with the glorification of warfare itself another aspect to this more positive perspective to warfare in the past looking in the medieval period was of course greed generally whenever human sees someone who has more than what we do we want those things and it becomes a responsibility on every individual to grow up and overcome those negative impulses still generally it's very rare for people to love the poor rather in fact it's far more common for them to hate the rich and so then if you can D humanize and vilify those people who have more than you to justify you taking what they have by force violence and then full-blown war is the natural result for people to try and take what other people have it's not morally justified but it's a very common and unfortunate thing about our past and really human nature war was a means to be out of get great wealth and for the greedy person even the person who thinks they are righteous and has rationalized and dehumanized and vilified those people whom they want to get things from declaring war on someone was able to be seen with a large measure of positivity and indeed excitement I don't believe this was a motivation behind every single war of the past I just think it's a significant one that we should acknowledge and even those countries that were looking to avoid war and were not looking to take you know the resources and wealth from other nations for immoral reasons who were then thrust into war for reasons outside of control I do suspect that the potential spoils of war that they would gain if they win would be you know icing on the cake what seems to be a very unfortunate reality of human nature is that war is unavoidable they'll be wonderful if you can reach a point some time in the future in which that can change but at the moment because people are imperfect there's gonna be bad people in the world and if bad people exist in the world there's going to be conflict and if conflict exists war will exist now what I'm not saying in this video is that war was universally seen as a great wonderful glorious thing in every single instance in the medieval period I'm sure there were many times within the medieval period in which warfare was seen as horrible and something that someone did not want to do especially if you were in the position of getting attacked and you knew that you and your nation did not have the ability to defend themselves properly war in that sense would be a very bad thing so we should try and understand this in the correct context one of the reasons why I find this beneficial and really interesting to understand is that whenever you're trying to depict the medieval period I think it's important that we try and portray their mindset accurately how they would view the moral conundrums of their day from their own point of reference and not from a modern point of reference because it just makes it more authentic especially if you're trying to do medieval fantasy you're running a role-playing game or you're trying to write a book or if you're you know up the ladder of what you're producing to film television video games it's important to try and understand how people understood things in their own time from their own point of view stop imposing our own views and moralities on the past so there we go I want to share a bit of a rambling video but as a difficult one to do justice to you and also it's difficult to explain but still I hope you've enjoyed and I hope you've learned a thing or two and of course I hope to see you again until that time [Music]

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 842,027

Keywords: war, warfare, medieval, middle ages, battle, knight, knights, knight's, sword, swords, history, historical, education, longsword, armor, armour, game of thrones, lord of the rings, skyrim, fantasy, dnd, dungeons and dragons, d&d, rpg, roleplaying, game, video, soldier, army, greatsword, cavalry, squire, chivalry, weapon, weapons, top ten, top 10

Id: Ut1-IgyfVU8

Length: 15min 26sec (926 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 07 2018