Was the Minoan civilization warlike?

There is really no reliable archeological evidence-(at least in this point in time), which shows the Minoans to have been a "warlike" civilization similar to their Northern neighbors....the Greco-Mycenaeans.

As far as we know, the Minoan civilization was a major trading power throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions, most likely in contact with Semitic peoples from the Middle East, Egyptians and earlier Hellenic peoples scattered throughout the neighboring Aegean islands. Archeologists have yet to uncover any type of frescoed art or mosaics which depicts a "warlike" civilization or evidence of sophisticated weaponries.

Of course our knowledge of the Minoan past is still very limited and has only really existed as a serious archeological endeavor for a little more than 100 years...much more needs to be literally excavated and studied.

By the time period that the Minoan civilization existed, warfare was well established. Given the plethora of archaeological findings in Minoan Crete it would be indeed paradoxical not to find evidence of war if war actually existed. Unfortunately many researchers will see war wherever they look. The Indus Valley civilization for example, shows no evidence of warfare for over 700 years.Why should it surprise the polemophilic researchers raised within the real politik agenda that portrays humans as inherently evil and warring, that some state-like societies were warless?

They controlled the entire land mass they could control using the technology at their disposal (the island of Crete). Now think about how that would have come about, and what the consequences would be.
Reasons for that are relatively simple:

• manpower was low, too low to attack the far away mainland (or the islands close to it)
• amphibious operations had not yet been invented, the technology would not exist for several hundred years to transport large groups of people across open water. It was risky enough for the occasional lone trading ship to cross that sea.
• resources. Gathering enough bronze and other raw materials to equip a force large enough to successfully carry out an invasion of mainland Greece (the only target even theoretically close enough) was just about impossible for the island state.
  So even if they were warlike historically, circumstances would mean they would have no way to practice that after conquering the pacifying Crete itself (and maybe a few nearby small islands).

I think they were warlike, but mainly my reasons for feeling this is :1 They had slaves. In the Bronze Age slavery was a result of warfare. What do you do with the prisoners? It became so profitable in other civs that the situation became reversed and you made war to attain slaves, and then sell them for a lucrative price. #2 They amassed so much wealth and they had to protect it. This meant not only aggressive war mongering would probably evolve, but also defensive wars. They fought a war against Aegean pirates according to the myths. They swept the sea of pirates. I am sure the pirates didn't just shuffle off without a fight.

Mind you this is just my view from my interpretation of the myths, the art, surrounding cultures, and purely inductive, as i am not an archaeologist, nor an anthroplogist, but I have an MA in Ancient History and taught it, along with Ancient Literature for 43 years at a prestigious prep school.

The wiki subsection on the Minoan Peace is worth a read - it presents the arguments for and against the Minoans as warlike, and is well cited. The crux of it is this:

About Minoan warfare, Branigan concludes that "The quantity of weaponry, the impressive fortifications, and the aggressive looking long-boats all suggested an era of intensified hostilities. But on closer inspection there are grounds for thinking that all three key elements are bound up as much with status statements, display, and fashion as with aggression.... Warfare such as there was in the southern Aegean EBA early Bronze Age was either personalized and perhaps ritualized (in Crete) or small-scale, intermittent and essentially an economic activity (in the Cyclades and the Argolid/Attica) " (1999, p. 92). Archaeologist Krzyszkowska concurs: "The stark fact is that for the prehistoric Aegean we have no direct evidence for war and warfare per se" (Krzyszkowska, 1999).

The Live Science article in question appears to reflect a minority viewpoint not well supported by archaeological or historical evidence - if the Egyptians or Hittites tangled with a major thalassocracy like the Minoans, they didn't document it, and they documented pretty much everything else going on. This supports the idea that the Minoan defenses were impressive enough to make the other regional powers keep their distance, but they were not aggressive or "warlike".