Years of war vs. years of peace

A thinker of the last century, Gustave Valbert, sat down and calculated the number of years the world had been at war compared to the number of years of peace.

He figured that from 1496 B.C. to A.D. 1861, there had been 3,130 years of war and 227 years of peace — in other words, 13 years of war to every year of peace.

He said that in that period “more than 8,000 treaties of peace, meant to remain in force forever, were concluded. The average time they remained in force was two years.”  

He added, “Within the last three centuries, there have been 286 wars in Europe.”  

Remember, he was writing a century ago: before World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War, the Gulf Wars, etc. 

Peace on Planet Earth has been a fleeting experience. 

From: http://www.illustrationsforsermons.com/

(These numbers obviously do not take into account wars in other parts of the world)

Image: A set of two postage stamps issued by Japan in August 2005 depict the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, set up in the central area (Nakashima) of Hiroshima, reconstructed as peace memorials after the devastation caused by an atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945. Courtesy https://colnect.com/