Was The Great Game a war?
Upvote:3
There won't be a good answer to this question, because it really isn't about history, it is about English Language Usage. That said, I don't think that migrating the question will get better results.
War is a state of armed conflict between states, governments, societies and informal paramilitary groups, such as mercenaries, insurgents and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, aggression, destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. Wikipedia:War
From my college courses on the subject, which are so long ago that I can no longer read the cuneiform, one of the critical features of war is that it is fought between uniformed combatants. If the combatants are in uniform, they are entitled to legal forms and treatments (prisoner of war, etc.) If the combatants are not in uniform, they are spies, and have effectively no legal protection. (there may be reasons to preserve the life of a spy to interrogate or to trade later, but there is no legal obligation to do so).
The term "cold war" and "hot war" are anachronistic, but perhaps illustrative. Hot war means that bullets are flying and uniformed combatants are trying to make the other guy give his life for his country. The Great Game was not a hot war.
Prior to most hot wars is a period of tension wherein both sides attempt to shape the context of the conflict. At least to my mind, the Great Game was an attempt to shape the coming conflict - to affect alliances, supplies, logistics, politics, etc.
Is that a war?
" Clausewitz’s masterwork On War proclaims — uniformly — that war is a mere continuation of policy “with other means” (mit anderen Mitteln), or sometimes “with the addition of other means” (mit Einmischung anderer Mitteln). Nowhere in On War or his prefatory notes does the Prussian write “by” other means. The Diplomat
I'll finish with a frame challenge. Does applying the term "war" to a specific behavior improve our understanding of that behavior, or does it impede understanding? I'm more interested in the goals and effects of the Great Game than I am in labeling it.
More post
- 📝 What was the contemporary popular opinion of the Anglo-Irish Treaty?
- 📝 When was it discovered that the stars are not all lying on the same plane?
- 📝 What does it mean that Hamilton "made American credit competitive"?
- 📝 Why did Sun Tzu believe you shouldn't wait beside a river when eager to fight?
- 📝 What happened to the french overseas colonies during the beginning of the french revolution?
- 📝 Did the Trojan Horse actually exist?
- 📝 What did the Scott expedition feed their ponies?
- 📝 Were there clay printing presses in the bronze age?
- 📝 By which year did smiths achieve the ability to handle metal in an exact way that's necessary for the printing press?
- 📝 How did the upper class stay wealthy in the past?
- 📝 History of monogamy
- 📝 What's the best way to convert sailing-era burden to modern displacement?
- 📝 Did Stalin disarm the Chinese Communist Party around 1927?
- 📝 Have democratic nations with their own constitutional monarchies become republics, and in what form?
- 📝 Was Queen Elizabeth II ever the head of state of Namibia?
- 📝 Were US exports in the early 1800s paid for with metal or with paper?
- 📝 When was the American War of Independence first called a 'Revolution'?
- 📝 "Destructive force" carried by a B-52?
- 📝 Did Japan ever retaliate for the Russian attacks of 1806?
- 📝 Did Taíno natives ever work Spanish galleons?
- 📝 Is it correct that many historical resources about Islam are written by Muslims?
- 📝 Who introduced Yoga to the West?
- 📝 Which, if any, successful invasions have been planned by one person without relying on specialized experts?
- 📝 What day and year was the first public & general confession held in the Church of England?
- 📝 Where was the cultural inheritance of the Greco/Roman world/antiquity preserved?
- 📝 Why did Timur attempt to restore the Mongol Empire?
- 📝 Why require every ploughman to make his own plough?
- 📝 Why did Britain, not the Netherlands, create the greatest overseas empire?
- 📝 Why wouldn't the South make salt from seawater during the American Civil War?
- 📝 The situation in nazi Germany of a Jewish male married to an "aryan" female vs Jewish female married to an "aryan" male?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Was The Great Game a war?
- 📝 Why was World War I ended on Nov 11 11:00, rather than immediately upon signing the armistice?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 Was Alexander the Great Greek or Macedonian?
- 📝 Was the American Civil War the “bloodiest civil war in history”?
- 📝 What was the longest a World War II submarine stayed at sea without being resupplied at a port?
- 📝 What was the cleanest war ever fought?
- 📝 What was the Seven Years War called at first?
- 📝 Who governed while Alexander the Great was away conquering Asia?
- 📝 Was it possible for a young Japanese woman to end up enslaved in Great Britain in the mid-1600s?
- 📝 Who was the most successful German spy against Great Britain in WWII, from the contemporary German perspective?
- 📝 What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
- 📝 Why was the Western Front so static in World War I?
- 📝 What was the first known war in history?
- 📝 By mid-1945, was Japan capable of maintaining the war even in the absence of further direct American attacks?
- 📝 When was the American War of Independence first called a 'Revolution'?
- 📝 Which was the last major war in which horse mounted cavalry actually participated in active fighting?
- 📝 Which was the first war in which photography was employed?
- 📝 Why was the Cold War carried out over the whole world instead of between Siberia and Alaska?
- 📝 What was the Hundred Years' War called at the time?
- 📝 How was beer production affected by the war during WW2?
- 📝 Was Russia the only country in WWII that succeeded in expansionist war aims?
- 📝 Was the Zimmerman Telegram a ruse on the US or a way of Germany to incite Mexico to declare war on the US?
- 📝 During World War I, why were church bells stopped until the war was over?
- 📝 Why was the last battle of the War of 1812 fought fully half a year after the official end of the war?
- 📝 Constantine the Great created the Chi-Rho from the Greek word for "Christ". Why choose Greek over Latin, even though he was Roman?
- 📝 Why was the Irish War of Independence in 1918 successful when other revolts failed?
- 📝 What was the original cause of the Camel War in Islamic history?
- 📝 In World War II, why was the ratio of killed to wounded of the Royal Navy twice that of the US Navy?
- 📝 Was Theodoric the Great killed by Justinian?