Media’s a relatively recent tool. If you mean proper, national-scale wars, very few were set in motion by regular people. Before the era of the nation-state, most wars were over dynastic or feudal disputes, or else naked imperialism. Wars set in motion by regular people would’ve been more like clan feuds and the like, which, while often vicious, are generally not large enough to be historically noteworthy. Some religious rebellions and the like would’ve been started primarily by ordinary people, like the Hussite Wars.
I wonder how many wars have been caused by politicians and the media vs. how many were genuinely started bottom up by regular people.
Well 1 was definitely the “pig war” that happened in the late 1850s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War_(1859)
It started over a dispute about a poor farmer shooting a rich farmers pig who escaped its pen and was eating all the poor farmers crops.
Media’s a relatively recent tool. If you mean proper, national-scale wars, very few were set in motion by regular people. Before the era of the nation-state, most wars were over dynastic or feudal disputes, or else naked imperialism. Wars set in motion by regular people would’ve been more like clan feuds and the like, which, while often vicious, are generally not large enough to be historically noteworthy. Some religious rebellions and the like would’ve been started primarily by ordinary people, like the Hussite Wars.
Politicians are often born as regular people. Hitler wasn’t born in the ruling class.