# No two democracies have ever gone to war with each other - true? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 20, 2001, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-two-democracies-have-ever-gone-to-war-with-each-other-true/94330 "2001-11-20T02:35:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-two-democracies-have-ever-gone-to-war-with-each-other-true/94330/41 "2001-11-21T21:51:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > \*\*Well, in WWII, Britian bombed San Marino, which was a democratic state (with a fascist majority party, though). \*\* The Franco-Roman war, the Brito-San Marinian war…I sure learnt about military history, reading this thread… ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-two-democracies-have-ever-gone-to-war-with-each-other-true/94330/42 "2001-11-21T22:13:35Z")
Other wars I can think of-though I don’t think they count: Austro-Prussian War Franco-Prussian War Russo-Turkish War Russo-Japanese War Crimean War As far as I know, none of them involved a democracy. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-two-democracies-have-ever-gone-to-war-with-each-other-true/94330/43 "2001-11-21T22:23:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jojo \* > \*\*I know there have been territorial disputes eg Turkey/Greece over Cyprus, Pakistan/India over Kashmir but has there ever been a full scale war between two democracies? \*\* Turkey/Greece and Pakistan/India were real wars. Don’t write them off because they are territorial, most wars are. Hitler had a whole lot of “territorial disputes”. The German people needed Lebensraum(sp?), space to grow. If only we’d given him a third of the world and kept our mouths shut about his executing the local populations, we might have avoided WWII. On the other hand, relatively few wars continue to the point of total destruction of one side. More usually there is some kind of negotiated settlement followed by occasional snipings. My point here is, if by “full scale war” you mean a total national commitment and mobilization until victory or death, then I’d say the statment is true. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2001, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-two-democracies-have-ever-gone-to-war-with-each-other-true/94330/44 "2001-11-22T00:16:39Z")
I recall going through a similar list with Comrade **oldscratch** a while back with very similar results. It’s interesting to look at the question in historical terms but if we want to use it as a predictor of future possible international confrontations, IMHO, it’s important to factor in two other modern day considerations: - Freedom of the Press - Capitalism FWIW, I imagine the combo of democracy (as discussed), the (relatively) free flow of information (thus largely excluding one-sided propaganda) and international market forces (including the free flow of capital) pretty well exclude the possibility of anything or anybody upsetting the apple cart in the future. One hopes. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-two-democracies-have-ever-gone-to-war-with-each-other-true/94330/45 "2001-11-26T12:37:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kantalooppi \* > [UK’s participation in campaign against Finland really was very minimal. However, I’m rather sure that there were one or two bombing runs made by British against Finland. > \*\* kantalooppi, what history book did you get this from? i’ve never heard of any uk troops bombing finland, at any point during either war. sorry, but until you provide a clear cite for this i think most finns will be quite content to disbelieve you. and besides, renny harlin scrapped the idea of the mansku movie a long time ago after it didn’t get much support from most people. tv-maailma interviewed jude law about the time that the whole movie story came out and he was very surprised about the whole thing, since he’d never even heard of this project… ---
**Author:** ![Nukeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Nukeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nukeman)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-two-democracies-have-ever-gone-to-war-with-each-other-true/94330/46 "2001-11-26T15:21:16Z")
Well, I was going to point out most of the things mentioned by Cecil in his column, but he got there first. Incidentally, in most of the naval battles during the British-American war of 1812, most of the victories (frigate battles, mainly) were won by the (then) tiny American Navy. So it just goes to show how crappy the French must have been. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-two-democracies-have-ever-gone-to-war-with-each-other-true/94330/47 "2001-11-26T17:41:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Austro-Prussian War > Franco-Prussian War > Russo-Turkish War > Russo-Japanese War > > As far as I know, none of them involved a democracy. \*\* Don’t forget about the cooling down of [Franco-American](http://www.theonion.com/onion3741/spaghettios_discontinued.html) relations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-two-democracies-have-ever-gone-to-war-with-each-other-true/94330.md?page=2)