About the section
Dr. Amanda Furman’s bi-monthly column is published in the Wall Street Journal and is published exclusively in the Globes. In this column, she says, she “searches the past for the origins of today’s world”
Dr. Amanda Furman is an American-British biographer and historian. She has written five award-winning books and served as a judge on the committees of the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award Game of Thrones and the Great Experts
“Operation Kayla Mueller” in 2019, in which the American forces captured the leader of the Islamic State organization Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is a landmark in the history of the war against terrorism, which the United States announced after the 9/11 attacks. The costs of this long war were enormous : So far, they amount to about 6 trillion dollars, according to a report issued by the Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs at Brown University, which took into account not only the defense budget but also additional costs, such as treating the wounded on the battlefields, homeland security and the national debt.
Trivia
1
Who were the important members of the Hoti-Dalit League and when was it disbanded?
2
What was the most important battle fought by William I during his reign?
3
What was Napoleon’s last battle?
For answers, scroll to the end of the article
The wars in Europe are financed by acts of plunder
The war financing model has greatly improved since the Greeks in ancient times founded the Hittite-Dalite League in 478 BC, which required the country’s residents to contribute an agreed amount of money each year. The league’s financing made Athens the first military power in human history. At least until the people of Sparta, with the help of The Persians built their navy through tax payments they collected from the kingdoms they conquered.
● How did past empires deal with inflation and when did we learn to curb it?
● Why have we been engaged in making our bodies strong and muscular for thousands of years?
● The embarrassing incident in the New York restaurant that led to the birth of the first credit card
The Romans supported their armies with donations and taxes, until the Punic Wars between the Roman Republic and Carthage, three long campaigns between 264 and 146 BC, which were so expensive that the government had to devalue the currency in an effort to increase the money supply. The result was very dangerous. In 86 the government became insolvent, and thus the fate of the Roman Republic was sealed.
After the fall of Rome in the late fifth century, wars in Europe were financed by acts of plunder and other opportunistic means. King William I of England, known as “William the Conqueror”, financed the Norman invasion of England in 1066 in the ancient Roman way – by lowering the value of the currency. But he learned the lesson from the Romans and financed the following wars through taxes, which stabilized the English system and created a new model for war financing.
Napoleon sells assets to finance the battles
Collecting taxes was the accepted method, until the wars in Europe became too expensive for the treasury offices of the warring countries. Rulers turned to several funding channels. In the 16th century, Philip II, King of Spain, turned to banks in Genoa, in order to raise funds for his armada’s invasion of England.
Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I’s chief secretary and who established the intelligence service at court, sent spies to Genoa with an explicit instruction: to delay, by any legal means, Philip’s credit payments. Thanks to Walsingham’s secret operation, England gained more time to prepare for the campaign.
When Napoleon planned the war against England, he had more luck than Philip II: in 1803 he raised 11 million dollars in cash by selling the territory of French Louisiana to the US government.
The invention of war bonds in the 19th century
Napoleon’s situation was unusual: he had a valuable asset that he could sell. Until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, governments relied mainly on taxes, printing money, and borrowing. The United States has lacked a regulated banking system since President Andrew Johnson dissolved the Bank of the United States in the 1830s. The South went back to printing its own money, and that currency depreciated dramatically. The North could afford to be more innovative. In 1862 businessman J. Cooke invented the war bond. It was marketed to citizens with great success. By the end of the war, bonds covered The debt is two-thirds of the North’s expenses.
Accumulating debt is the way the US finances wars to this very day. It has helped the country defend itself against the large financial consequences of the protracted systems it runs. But it is worth remembering the warning of former US President Calvin Coolidge: “In any modern combat system the dollars They are the soldiers who are deployed first. The country in a state of great debt lacks the first line of defense.”
Trivia answers
1. Athens, Chios, Lesbos and Samos. The League was disbanded in 404 BC after the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War.
2. Battle of Hastings. In October 1066, William’s army took over England in a short time,
And so the Saxon rule in the country came to an end.
3. The Battle of Waterloo, held in June 1815, ended the series of Napoleonic Wars. About a month after he was defeated in battle, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena, where he spent the rest of his life.