Universal Contemporary History

First Partial Project:

Deconstruction of War Essay

Melanie Cruz Hernández

280057981

Professor: Cesar Edmundo Sanchez Coronado

5°C BB

September 16th, 2017

 Melanie Cruz

Introduction

In this essay I´ll be deconstructing war. But in order to understand the deeper and much more
complex meaning, we need to understand the simple meaning of it. We can define war as a state
of armed conflict between two nations or societies. We can characterize war with aggression,
military forces, and mortality. We normally only get to see the surface of war and we make
assumptions and criticize it and the decisions taken, but it is important to understand war as a
whole, and once we do that, we´ll be able to understand all of the factors that go into it. And I’ll
do that, deconstruct war. Lettuce begin 

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War is just a dispute between two adversaries on an expanded scale. Each longs for the
submission of the other and to leave the adversary incapable of gaining their power, or titles
back. Let´s take Nueva España´s (now México) fight for independence from the Spanish Reign.
It is an easy job identifying our two ¨wrestlers¨, on one hand we have the Creoles, natives born
to Spanish parents, whose rights were all over the place since they were not Spanish nor
indigenous; on the other one, we have those devoted to the Spanish Reign that lived comfortably
under its wing.

The war of entire nations, especially those who are civilized, are moved by a political motive
that started as a political condition; so we can say that in some part, war is a political act. Nueva
España´s people became one when it came to the fight for independence, all looking for the
same motive, overthrowing the Spanish Crown for its kind of government. Driven by the ideals
of the French Revolution the Creoles looked for several clauses.

But war is not only a political act, but an instrument. The political purpose is only the objective,
what we are looking to complete, but in order to accomplish it we must utilize war as an
instrument, as a way. Therefore, we are unavailable to separate these two, they must be acted on
together in order to succeed. In the war for independence we see the change of government as
the motive, or political purpose, while the war itself is the path to follow to accomplish said
motive. The 10 plus years of war where the mere way to follow in order to be successful.
Is essential considering it that war is not a hobby, is not something you do when bored or a thing
you grow passionate about. War is a serious way for a serious purpose. There is no passion, but
courage, strategic thinking, and a need to be inhumane. When word about a movement where
those unsatisfied by the Spanish Reign over the country spread, plenty joined said cause. The
motive was to overthrow the kind of government at the time, this is a serious motive, is not
people being bored and joining to start a riot.

All the special callings in life require peculiar, precise, and distinct qualifications and skills of
understanding and of soul, each skill and qualification may differ in every case, but they are
essential in order to be successful. Those advantageous enough to possess them, along with
manifesting themselves by exceptional achievements are what we call our genius. In the
Mexican war of independence we can identify several geniuses from the very beginning of it

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towards the next years, one whom I consider a genius personally is Jose Maria Morelos y Pavón,
and some would consider his right hand, Mariano Matamoros as another genius.

However, if every army possessed warriors equipped with the knowledge and capacities of a
genius then they would be extremely weak; because there would be no peculiar being, someone
able to see outside of the lines, neither would there be an outstanding character. A genius can
only be rarely found, they can be trained to be better, but you cannot train an ordinary man to
become a genius. Taking Morelos y Pavón as a reference, he had training that helped with his
genius abilities, but his decision making and actions were developed thanks to him naturally
being a genius. The general state of intellectual culture in one country has a strong impact on the
forging and finding of a genius, because you can´t find someone with said abilities on an
educated and ignorant environment.

War is a place of physical effort and of extreme suffering, and in order to not become at their
mercy, certain strength of mind and body is needed, either acquired or being a natural, this
strength would be the ability to turn your humanity off. With this specific quality we can
identify a regular man from an instrument for war. Someone with this quality is someone who
doesn’t hesitate to act, that doesn’t falters. Someone inhumane is that one that doesn’t stop for a
second to wonder how the strategy may affect the adversary; is that one that pushes the limits
and doesn’t pay attention to the devastation or misery that they may leave behind. A war
weapon is a person that acts before being acted upon. The creoles didn’t wait for the authorities
to act on them, a perfect example is when they took the ¨Alhóndiga de Granaditas¨ in
Guanajuato. Despite being occupied by families they knew that taking a hold of it would make
their enemy a tad weaker since it was full of provisions. This action was of great importance in
the war of independence, because it was a symbol of freedom for them, of their independence.

War spirit can be most commonly found in wild, most likely quite uncivilized, warlike races,
and almost every warrior can have the spirit, however; when we talk about a civilized, cultured,
and educated masses the war-spirit cannot be found since they only act on war by pure necessity
and never will they act on inclination. Despite how hard we look, we´ll never find a great
general or a genius among uncivilized people, because having and becoming one requires de

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development of the intelligent powers and capacities only found on civilized people. On the war
for independence all of the creoles were educated people born from Spanish parents, and they
did not share the war-spirit that belonged to the natives. As mentioned before, they had a
political motive and war was the only instrument they had to achieve it, making them pursuing
war for necessity of a new government with new clauses and not the desire of starting a dispute.

War is a political act, and about a motive, but that is nothing but the front of it, there are bigger
things hiding under the surface. The economical aspect of war is also a key factor of war, during
it the State makes sure that all of the production is working in perfect conditions and that
everything goes to the line of combat. The pricing of war is colossal, not only does it leaves
suffering and privation of the citizens but the aftermath of it its worse. When in war one must
think and plan every single detail and the possibilities. On the Mexican War of independence
most of the resources went into affording war and exterminating the threat, in this scenario the
insurgent army. The ´Alhóndiga de granaditas¨ left humongous expenses since it was a place of
storage and provisions. When planning, the Spanish Crown wondered about the possibility of
more people joining the rebellion and going against them, and they did, those who didn’t have
the privilege, the ones they didn’t thought as important where their biggest threat.

Science can be found hiding behind war, a lot of funding goes on in order to have the best
equipment, scientists and specialist are found together in order to create the next best thing. War
itself is a science you can study and understand; but it makes use of technology and science to
be greater. War is a huge factor when we talk about the innovation of technology because every
adversary wants to have the best weapons to destroy the enemy. In the 1810s the technology
behind the war was scarce. During the War for independence their main weapons would be
guns, and canons. But thanks to wars of these nature; scientist could study the circumstances
better and make better weapons.

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Conclusion

War is a complex event that is not just about fighting to solve a disagreement, is about all of the
factors that go into it. War is about having a motive and fighting for it, both literal and
figurative, is taking account of everything that happens into it and the possibilities. Over the
years people protest that wars are not the answer and that we should stop them, but I personally
think that war creates a radical change, something so sudden it makes people realize the weight
of the situation. It would be ideal to stop wars and to be able to get to our motive in different
ways but I personally believe it is impossible to do so. Everyone is shaped differently and has
different ideals, therefore it’s impossible to have every single being acting the same and thinking
the same. I find the beauty of war in great minds that have ideals and do everything to see them
be completed. On the last note I also believe there is no stupid man on war, if they are there is
because they have a motive, and we always criticize nations and their choices of going to war,
because their motive is a secret to us, and they lose the war, is not because a stupid choice was
made, but because there were smarter individuals behind their adversary.