|
It's a great list and I agree that it's hard to distinguish between religion and culture or politics in some of the ancient wars. I would say this is because religion was often used back then as the ultimate source for political authority.
The thirty year war is one I find really interesting because out of the protracted conflict between Protestants and Catholics emerged the Treaty of Westphalia - the basis for sovereignty and the system of nation states that forms the international order today.
It was religious in a sense that the Catholic Holy Roman Empire was really the only entity that challenged the sovereignty of states and in doing so brought the modern concept of sovereignty itself into existence.
At the time, one of the key principles of the treaty was cujus regio, ejus religio (whoever rules determines the religion of his subjects). Nowdays we understand it as "don't interfere in the domestic policy of another state" but in that time, the very idea of domestic policy as distinct from international relations was expressed in religious terms - as religion was then the most powerful tool for undermining the authority of a state.
|