WWI is hard to beat on this scale, but I may have to go for the French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars combo. It was 20-25 years worth of fighting, ended up involving basically every great power, and the end result was an explicit attempt to make everything the way it was before the revolution. Oh, except that the two major republics in Europe (sorry San Marino) were made into a kingdom (Netherlands) or given to somebody else (Venice) since republics were clearly so bad.
Only good thing I can think of that came from it was that the Rosetta Stone ended up in the hands of somebody who could use it.
Well, WWI is an interesting beast. One could argue until they are blue in the face that no one had anything to gain and the direct instigating factors in it being fought were rather stupid, even moreso when you take into account that most of the leaders who fought it didn’t want to… but you also have to accept that it was the result of a great deal of pressure and buildup, not to mention an arms race. It could have been triggered by any number of factors. Ferdinand just happened to have bad timing with his Keystone Cops assassination.
Really, the cause of WWI was 19th century diplomacy in a 20th century world. A terrible blunder on all parts, yes, but not the “stupidest war ever.” Additionally, it was a vast underestimation of the new tools of modern warfare.
In any case, stating that Germany had nothing to gain is a false assessment - there were various chunks of eastern France that Germany had their eyes on. It isn’t like Germany never set foot on French soil before.
As for the Mexican-American war that someone brought up, I wouldn’t call it the stupidest war ever. It didn’t help Mexico that most of their northern territories (now the US) were vastly indifferent to being ruled by Mexico, and didn’t put up much of a fight. The Battle of Chino, California was about 15 minutes long and resulted in the horrible atrocity of a mule being killed before the Mexican milita gave up and left (incidentally, many of those northern battles were won by local militias, not the US military). It was, maybe, a SILLY war, but not really STUPID (in any event, 13,000 Americans and 25,000+ Mexicans died, which is nothing compared to the American Civil War, but still nothing to spit at).
If we aren’t counting rebellions like the Whiskey and Hot Water Rebellions, I’d like to nominate the Franco-American Quasi-War of 1799.
You know, reflecting on the political changes that came after WW1, could we say that WW1 was completing what the Napoleonic wars began–the end of the European Monarchies? (Monarchies? SP? )
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