Ever wonder why America likes to go to war so much?
Years ago I read a good chunk of the “Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius” by Machiavelli. At the beginning he discusses where and how you should establish Rome, and what are the consequences of those choices. Tldr from what I remember, he says that if you want to have a populace that’s always willing to fight in aggressive wars:
your plebs should be poor, but not starving. Too rich and they get lazy, too poor and they’ll only care about survival, but if you hit the right mark they’ll never be satisfied and can be easily persuaded to go to war for money
your citizens should be armed and trained to use weapons
you should support immigration in order to always have fuel for the war machine
use religion to enforce obedinece and discipline
the state should be rich so it can fund the wars
encourage controlled class conflict (plebe tribune Vs senate) in order to limit both groups, and so the armed plebs can blow off steam instead of getting revolutionary ideas
take care to always have an external enemy, or an internal one will appear
don’t over reach when expanding your territories or you won’t be able to manage all of it
Years ago I read a good chunk of the “Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius” by Machiavelli. At the beginning he discusses where and how you should establish Rome, and what are the consequences of those choices. Tldr from what I remember, he says that if you want to have a populace that’s always willing to fight in aggressive wars: