Mesopotamian Warfare: Early Development of Armed Conflict (opens in new tab)

The first war in recorded history was between Sumer and Elam circa 2700 BCE, though there were no doubt military conflicts left unrecorded before that date. The war was not between two kings but between their gods. Humans were thought to have been created to serve the gods and kings to be those gods' representatives. Accordingly, warfare was justified as the will of the gods to maintain the established order. The claim that a god is on one's side in a military campaign has been made by many l...