New Perspectives on the Economic History of War

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• Jari Eloranta, University of Helsinki
• Wednesday 12 February 2025, 13:15-14:45
• Room 12, Faculty of History, and on Teams.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Aleksandra Dul.

Many economic historians have engaged in the study of war in recent decades. Economic, business, social, and global historians have made significant contributions to our collective understanding of actors’ decisions in various historical periods, and we have learned more about the general processes that drive conflicts. A new volume, titled Routledge Handbook on the Economic History of War, addresses some key issues pertaining to conflicts, such as why the world wars were so utterly destructive and what drives trends in global violence. Our findings can be condensed into six stylized facts that provide new views on the economic history of war: 1) the evidence on the number of conflicts and violence over several centuries is mixed, depending on the indicator and regional focus chosen, yet the conclusion that violence has been decreasing over time is not entirely clear; 2) the deadliness of conflicts has remained substantial, with technology increasing the bang-for-the-buck at an accelerating rate; 3) while there may be evidence of a decline in violence after the Second World War, this has mostly focused on the West, and intra- and extra-state wars have persisted; 4) the emergence of a stronger state was tied into the evolution of greater state capacity and military spending in the early modern period, and the total wars of the subsequent centuries increased this demand, despite the development of the welfare states; 5) real (in constant dollars) global military spending has increased exponentially over the last two centuries, but the relative spending of richer, mature democracies has stagnated or even declined during and after the Cold War; 6) wars have increased the political influence of arms producers, and the biggest exporters of weapons can persistently be found in the West, while the biggest importers remain in the Global South, representing enduring persistence effects of the colonial histories. In addition to the data and research related to these stylized facts, we will also discuss briefly the key findings of the volume in the thematic areas: fiscal, military, and monetary capacity; war and institutions; economic warfare; business and war; and economic effects of war.

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Meeting ID: 331 423 030 137 Passcode: xv2n3Aj6

This talk is part of the Quantitative History Seminar series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• AUB_Cambridge Seminars
• Department of Geography
• Economic and Social History Seminars
• Quantitative History Seminar
• Room 12, Faculty of History, and on Teams
• history

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