History Main / PretextForWar

* Another escalation of the Japanese war in China started with a Japanese soldier peeing in the woods. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Seriously]] -- he missed role call after training while taking a leak, and his commanding officer challenged a nearby Chinese patrol, thinking the man might have been abducted or attacked by the Chinese. Tempers flared and somebody (from which side is not known) opened fire. Things were nearly smoothed over by the local commanders, but the Japanese Army high command refused to de-escalate as they had been looking for any old pretext to expand into more of China anyway.

* Another escalation of the Japanese war in China started with a Japanese soldier peeing in the woods. Seriously-- he missed role call after training while taking a leak, and his commanding officer challenged a nearby Chinese patrol, thinking the man might have been abducted or attacked by the Chinese. Tempers flared and somebody (from which side is not known) opened fire. Things were nearly smoothed over by the local commanders, but the Japanese Army high command refused to de-escalate as they had been looking for any old pretext to expand into more of China anyway.

** The assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by "Serbian terrorists" (actually a group including Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, but authorities painted the plot as entirely Serb-run) sponsored by the head of Serbian military intelligence to further the goal of Serbian dominance of the Balkans was used as an excuse to take down Serbia's racist military Junta and replace it with a government which ''didn't'' sponsor terrorists (even during the war there was no question of annexing Serbia, as doing so would only have added to Austria-Hungary's domestic political problems). Which sounds a bit unreasonable until you realise that the very existence of Serbia (an independent nation-state of ethnic Serbs whose sole foreign policy goal was to unite all the lands inhabited by Southern Slavs into Yugoslavia, which they envisioned as as a Greater Serbia) terrified the German/Hungarian elites that ruled the mindbogglingly multi-ethnic Austria-Hungary. Right from the start they thought that, with Germany backing them all the way, Russia would back down rather than risk war with them ''and'' Germany at the same time, just like six years earlier over the formal annexation of (Habsburg-occupied, technically Ottoman) Bosnia. For reference, the main ethnic groups in Austria-Hungary were, roughly by population: Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, Croats, Slovaks, Serbs, Slovenes, and Italians. Plus a lot of Jews, most of whom spoke German/Yiddish or Hungarian.
** Furthermore, right from the start the German High Command's accepted plan of action was to use ''Aufmarsch I West'' (formerly ''Aufmarsch II West''), deployed 80% of the army in the west to invade France through Belgium and attempt to encircle a large part of the French Army on French territory (failing that, they'd still end up occupying economically important French territory). So when Russia mobilized its armies Germany delivered an ultimatum to France as a pretext for war, demanding its neutrality despite being an ally of Russia and asking it to temporarily surrender fortresses integral to France's defenses (Verdun and Toul) along their shared border within 24 hours. The French didn't respond but mobilised the next day, as did the Germans; since about 1911 the ''Revanchism'' movement, a movement seeking revenge for France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the re-annexation of the province of Elsaß-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine) had become a dominant force in French politics and was not to be denied. More importantly the French felt that this was an excellent time for a war: deadlock in the German and Austrio-Hungarian parliaments meant they hadn't increased their military spending and thus capabilities to match the 1905-1914 Franco-Russian increases, but that was set to change in the near future. Moreover the French did not feel they could count on Russian support in a war that mostly or only involved French (and not Russian) interests. Serbia was a cause that Russia was willing to fight for, and the French might not get another chance like it again.

* To make a trifecta, the sinking of the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_%28ACR-1%29 USS Maine]]'' in Havana Harbor provided America with the perfect excuse to start the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar and take over Cuba and Spain's Pacific possessions. Investigations since then seem to be split on whether it was a deliberate act of war by the Spanish, a FalseFlagOperation by Cuban rebels, or a genuine accident caused by a fire in a coal bunker. It didn't help that the American press was actively encouraging war with Spain by citing (false) Spanish atrocities. Why? [[IfItBleedsItLeads To increase their sales figures]]. Not that there weren't perfectly real atrocities being committed by Spain in its attempt to suppress a Cuban Revolution - including the first documented use of what the Spanish called "Campos de Concentración". Unlike the later (euphemistic) use of the term by the Nazis, those were ''supposed to be'' "only" internment camps to hold the civilian population in order to deprive the guerillas of support. They were however guarded by armed Spanish soldiers, had barbed wire and were (due to military corruption) insufficiently provisioned and disease-riddled leading to horrific death tolls - even if the claim that it was due to incompetence or carelessness rather than a deliberate policy of murder is somewhat more credible than in later cases. Only a few years later the same American public who had been outraged at that treatment of the Cuban civilian population didn't care in the slightest about the ''very similar'' methods the US used to suppress the uprising of the Filipino population (the Phillippines having been acquired from Spain as a result of the war).

* Another escalation of the Japanese war in China start with a Japanese soldier peeing in the woods. Seriously - he missed role call after training while taking a leak, and his commanding officer challenged a nearby Chinese patrol, thinking the man might have been abducted or attacked by the Chinese. Tempers flared and somebody (from which side is not known) opened fire. Things were nearly smoothed over by the local commanders, but the Japanese Army high command refused to de-escalate as they had been looking for any old pretext to expand into more of China anyway.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident Gleiwitz Incident]] was used as a pretext for Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. An SS commando in Polish uniforms attacked a radio station near the Polish border and broadcast anti-German propaganda. They even dressed a prisoner in Polish uniform and shot him to add authenticity. Even before that, during the summer of 1939, the Nazis staged attacks on ethnic Germans in Poland, claiming this was the work of Polish terrorists. This allowed Hitler and the Nazis to paint their invasion of Poland as an act of self-defense. Nobody outside Germany bought it, with France and the United Kingdom declaring war on them within a few days.

* Lampshaded in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Maneuvers Great Louisiana Maneuvers]] of 1941. These were held to [[TeachMeHowToFight prepare the US Army]] for the widely expected entry into UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and in a way marked the beginning of the United States as a superpower. Two trumped up factions called the Red Army and the Blue Army were set to test their prowess against each other. To begin the contest it was decided that they represented two nations fighting for control over the Mississippi River.

** An alternative conspiracy theory holds that al-Qaeda were the perpetrators, but claims the government knew the attack was coming and did nothing to gain an easy pretext. Another unrelated theory says either UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt or UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill was aware of the impending Pearl Harbor attack and let it happen for the same reason.
* UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar started thanks to a dispute between Catholic and Orthodox clergymen in Bethlehem (present-day Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire), over the keys to the Church of the Nativity. This led to the awkward situation of Catholic France, Anglican Britain and the Catholic but anti-Pope Kingdom of Sardinia siding with Muslim Turkey against Orthodox Russia over a religious argument. They had the very open goal of unifying Italy, which would necessarily include annexing Rome ([[SeriousBusiness as no Italian would accept another city as capital except as a temporary measure]]), and since the reigning Pope was opposed to a federation that meant Sardinia would eventually go at war with the Pope.
* In the runup to the Six Days War, Nasser was either intentionally provoking Israel or blustering to look tough. First he called for an end to the UN mission acting as "buffer" between Egypt and Israel in the Sinai, then he started mobilizing troops, ostensibly in preparation for war - all while saying stuff like "We'll destroy Israel" on the radio - and ultimately, he closed the Straits of Tiran (Israel's only access to the Red Sea and of crucial importance for Israeli trade with Asia), which Israel had ''repeatedly'' said would be [[ThisMeansWar grounds for war]]. Guess what happened?
* In perhaps one of the most poorly thought out attacks in history, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II was intended to scare the US into remaining neutral rather than joining the Allies. Of course, the US had been aiding the Allies with supplies for years at that point and had been desperately searching for a reason to justify entering into the war in a military capacity. This was less about justifying it internationally -- the other Allied forces were happy to have the US join the fight and would not have complained regardless of the pretext -- and more about justifying it domestically, since public opinion within the US was fairly split about whether they should enter the war. Then the Japanese attacked and any resistance to joining the war evaporated as now it would look worse NOT to retaliate. However, the idea that it was meant to "scare" the US is historically suspect. Pearl Harbor was ''far'' from the only objective; coordinated attacks over the course of a few hours (all at local dawn) basically swept Allied forces from the Pacific in a single stroke, including taking the US territory of the Phillipines and eliminating American air power in the Pacific with it.

* Pennsic, the Society for Creative Anachronism's annual simulated-warfare camping event, got started when Cariadoc of the Bow declared war on ''himself''. While serving as King of SCA's kingdom in the Midwest, he sent a challenge to war to the then-king of the Eastern seaboard, who laughed it off. Not long after, Cariadoc moved to the East coast in RealLife, where he ascended to become King of the East; a new incumbent was elevated to "rule" the Midwest. Digging up the challenge he'd previously issued, he feigned outrage at the taunts ''he'd'' written himself, raised the call to "War" against his former kingdom, mustered his forces to battle those of his Midwestern successor at the border in western Pennsylvania ... and ''lost''.
* The ancient Romans believed their gods looked unfavourably at wars of aggression. Somehow, over the centuries, they were provoked by hostile neighbours - or aiding their beleaguered allies - into conquering their way from a single city to an empire spanning over several continents. The UsefulNotes/PunicWars are a good show at what Rome would lower itself to have a pretext:
** The First was caused when the Mamertines, mercenaries that had been previously worked for Syracuse, occupied the city of Messana (modern day Messina) and requested help from both Carthage and Rome. Carthage acted first, pressing Syracuse into letting the Mamertines go and garrisoning Messana, at which point the Roman Senate, that had been aiming to expand in Sicily for a while, decided to ''not'' go at war as Carthage was an ally and the request was already sketchy to begin with due the Mamertines having stolen the city from its rightful owners to begin with... Then warmongers in the Senate put the decision in front of the Centuriate Assembly, the one organ that, as the popular assembly, had ''more'' power than the Senate and held out the prospect of plentiful booty, at which point the merchants that would benefit from said booty decided to accept the request, much to Carthage's rightful indignation.
** After Rome won the First War, Carthage's influence zone in the Iberian Peninsula was limited to the area south of the Ebrus river... And ''then'' Rome made an alliance treaty with Saguntum, a prosperous and well fortified city right in the Carthaginian influence zone. A few years later Hannibal, knowing that Saguntum would be an enormous threat, conquered it, and Rome declared war.
** After losing the Second Punic War, Carthage was banned from declaring war on anyone without the permission of Rome, a ban that the Romans considered eternal unless a new treaty said otherwise but the Carthaginians considered bound to expire as soon as they had paid the enormous war indemnity. Thus Carthage did not react to Numidian aggression for ''fifty years'', begging Rome for redress or at least permission to counterattack the whole time and only raising an army after they paid the indemnity and thus considered the treaty expired. The Numidians crushed the Carthaginian army at Oroscopa, and the Carthaginians, realizing the Romand did ''not'' consider the treaty expired, executed their general as penance and sent embassies to effectively beg for forgiveness, but Rome, who didn't want the commercial competition and had factions that used Carthage as a political boogeyman, eventually declared war. When the Romans arrived at their African allied harbor of Utica Carthage sent a last embassy, to whom the consul Censorinus demanded they handed over all weapons. Carthage brought to Utica all their weapons ''and'' their military fleet just to stay on the safe side... At which point Censorinus demanded the Carthaginians relocated 16 km away from the sea. The Carthaginians recalled their ambassadors and started rebuilding their weapons and ships, and the Romans attacked.
* When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, they claimed it was to stop NATO eastward expansion...except Ukraine was not in the process of joining NATO, only sending in an application after Russia annexed four occupied oblasts. On top of that, NATO had never made any official binding agreement not to expand eastward, despite repeat claims by Russian propaganda that they had. Then they claimed it was to denazify Ukraine... except Ukraine's president is Jewish and far-right parties have minimal support, and neo-Nazis were seen among the Russian invaders (though non-Russians are far more likely to call bullshit; Russia's PropagandaMachine [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/06/how-victory-day-became-central-to-putin-idea-of-russian-identity heavily downplays the Nazis' antisemitism]], instead defining the Nazis purely by the fact they invaded the Soviet Union and by extension Russia, and apparently extending that to mean ''all'' opponents of the Russian Federation are Nazis). Then they claimed it was to stop Ukraine from gaining nuclear weapons...which they weren't. Later, they claimed it was to "desatanize" Ukraine... except '''87.3%''' of Ukrainians identify as Christian, largely Orthodox. Needless to say, Russia has yet to provide a halfway convincing reason for invading. Ironically, both Sweden and Finland quickly announced their intention to join NATO shortly after the war began.