Who are the only two democracies to have declared war on each other?
141776
Got this answer off the web, puts some perspective on the whole situation.\n\n"Don't gush, lad, it doesn't leave room for the cartoon. Cecil does not dispute the general proposition that war between democracies is relatively rare. Common sense alone suggests that embarking upon a military adventure is simpler for a king or dictator than it is for a head of government answerable to a parliament. But proponents of this idea argue that a war between democracies has never occurred. One arrives at this comforting conclusion chiefly by setting up the rules to exclude all the non-conforming cases. The most egregious omission is civil wars, which account for a high percentage of the world's violent conflicts--159 of 575 wars between 1816 and 1980, by one count. The spectacle of the American Civil War, in which two popularly elected governments engaged in four years of the most brutal slaughter, refutes the bald notion that citizens will not vote for politicians who send them off to be killed. Clearly they will if they think the stakes are high enough.\n\nOK, you say, but at least democracies won't get into wars with one another for purposes of foreign aggrandizement. Here we get into the issue of what constitutes a democracy. The U.S. and Britain fought in the War of 1812; Britain at the time had a parliament and a prime minister. So did imperial Germany prior to World War I. Advocates of the peaceful-democracy school account for these cases by saying that neither Britain in 1812 nor Germany in 1914 were liberal democracies. The definition of liberal varies with the teller, but the simplest formulation, proposed by Dean Babst, who first advanced the peaceful-democracies idea in 1972, is that "if a hereditary ruler, such as a king, can choose the prime minister of president, then the country is not considered to have an elective government." This takes both Britain and Germany out of the picture for the period in question. That's fair enough in the case of Germany, where responsibility for the war can be laid pretty clearly at the feet of Kaiser Bill and the Junkers. But the War of 1812 was largely the work of the War Hawks in the democratically elected U.S. Congress.\n\nThe more basic objection to excluding all but liberal democracies is that throughout most of history the number of such democracies has been small. According to political scientist Michael Doyle, there were only 13 liberal democracies prior to 1900, and just 29 between 1900 and 1945--and many of those did not endure. Doyle counts 49 liberal democracies as of 1983; setting aside the confusing instance of Israel vs. Lebanon, none has fought another since 1945. But it may be argued that this merely reflected the postwar Pax Americana.\n\nOne would like to believe democracy = peace, but if we look at the big picture we find little to persuade us that it's a sure thing. Nazi Germany was not a democracy after 1933, but Hitler had been freely elected and the Nazis dominated the democratically chosen Reichstag. The United States and France conducted wars of great savagery in Vietnam and Algeria. The U.S. helped topple the elected Allende regime in Chile, with murderous consequences for the Chilean people.\n\nOne can easily make the case that what prevents war between democracies is not their liberal scruples but their wealth, coupled with the recognition that war would mean economic ruin. If we look down the list of wars over the last 50 years we see that in almost all cases one or both of the belligerents was poor. We now have a proliferation of poor democracies in the wake of communism's collapse. Will they refrain from attacking one another, as their authoritarian or totalitarian predecessors did not? One considers India vs. Pakistan, Russia vs. Ukraine. Clearly the notion that democracies will not make war on one another now faces its great test."\n\n--CECIL ADAMS
448334
Germany, kind of Poland -germany started the war when it invaded Poland-, Britain, France, Austria, America, Japan, and Russia.
1051291
Well, I don't know in other countries, but in the US the congess must declare war by a vote.\n\nUnfortunately our pres. is also commander in chief of the millitary and can wake up one day and say "this country over here pissed me off and we are going to bomb it for up to 30 days without congressional approval".\n\nThe US can also go blow up some third world country indefanately with out ever declaing war, but that takes congress to approve.
536943
For Europe:\n\nThe Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand (not the Band) assasination which ultimately sparked the war between the nations in the Balkans, (Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia etc)...and Austria. Then, the maticulous alliance ladder fell down, Germany who was friends with Austria declared war on Russia who was freinds with Serbia who was a close friend of another nation, then France declared war on Germany to keep in check their booming armed forces, which when invaded drew Britain and then the poles into the war...throw in Japan too.\n\n(FOR EUROPE IT WAS ALLIANCES)\n\nFor the US however, it was mainly triggered by the Zimmerman Telegram to the Mexican government; the British MI detected the telegram that was intended to provoke Mexico to invade the US in turn to keep the US out of Europe's war, and keep Germany safe from having a harder war to fight on the Western Front. Also, we can't leave out the excessive U-boat sinkings that the Germans committed against US and British merchant ships, the Lusitania carrying some odd number of civillians, it was a bloody mess. Wilson didn't want to go to war, nor did the nation, but in the end, the man who won reelection on the slogan "He kept us out of war," led the nation to its first World War...The Great War to end all wars.
355296
Yes. The UK, and England before that, is possibly the most warlike nation in history.\n\nFar, far too many to list here. Take a look at these sites:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_wars - Wars of England. (pre-1707)\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wars_of_Great_Britain - Wars of Great Britain (1707-1800)\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wars_of_the_United_Kingdom - Wars of the UK (1800-present)
90195
which democratic nation and civil war are you talking about??? \nedit your question and ill be more than happy to answer
14144
Both parties agreed to a cease fire in 1988. There was no victor is this war.
1083708
Correct Lincoln started the war unconstitutionally. It was never declared a war by Congress. Lincoln ruled as a dictator according to his own hateful whims. Thus always to tyrants.
1174117
As long as there are religions, there are wars against countries.\n\nIf there were no religions, the wars would be of a more honest kind.\n\nnow there`s christians declaring wars for "democracy" in the name of god.\nIt would make a slight difference in honesty, if a president or nation would just say "we want your oil, period"\n\nreligion is a shield for real intentions.
712285
Which country? Which fight?\n\nPeace.
117615
C'mon... the Swiss were never neutral.  They have always picked a side.  In WWII they picked the Germans.  Just cuz they didn't pick up arms doesn't mean that they didn't pick sides.  Anyway... when was the last time the Swiss sucessfully prosecuted a war?  I think it was about the same time as France or New Guinnea.  In other news... Swiss Miss Instant Hot Chocolate warms the hearts of children around the world.
535483
It all started when archduke Franz Ferdinad was assassinated and two countries went to war....
891132
When? Historically France was usually at odds with Britain, though Britain has been at war with almost every country on Earth at some point in its history. Other main rivals have included Spain, Holland and Germany.
506504
I think each country must fight it's own wars if it wants democracy.  If the people want it badly enough they'll do so, it's not up to others to step in and hand it to them or cram it down their throats.
215781
Sneak attack by the japanese on Pearl harbor, Hawaii ,which in turn we declared war on the japanese empire and germany, known as the axis powers, we were known as the allied powers, along with russia, england, france and others.Hope this answered your question.
738160
The USA has officially declared war 11 times:\n\n- United Kingdom, 1812\n- Mexico, 1846\n- Spain, 1898\n- Germany, 1917\n- Austria-Hungary, 1917\n- Japan, 1941\n- Germany, 1941\n- Italy, 1941\n- Bulgaria, 1942\n- Hungary, 1942\n- Romania, 1942\n\nBesides the official declarations of war, there were 13 instances of Congress authorizing the use of military force without a formal declaration, and a number of instances (the Korean War and the Civil War, for example) that involved neither a formal declaration nor explicit authorization of military force.  See the link below for more info.
334334
At 5 am Sept 1st 1939, Hitler invades Poland. The British and French issue an ultimatum by that afternoon. It expired at noon GMT Sept 3rd. Birtan and France then declared war on Germany, HOWEVER, World War II was not a world war until Japan attacked the USA at Pearl Harbor on Sunday Dec. 7th 1941 at 7am. Go find someone who was there, like I did. I'm sure they have many intresting tales to tell. Dont be afraid of the old. They actually like to talk about the good old bad old days.