Excerpt from Dissertation #40,076, Professor Lon'qu, Ba Sing Se University, 71 AU, Year of the Sheep
Looking back on it, it is difficult to ascertain the exact cause of the Hundred Years War. Depending on who you ask, the bloodiest conflict in recent human history was waged for a variety of different reasons. Many refer to it as the Unification War, yet few ignore its other moniker, The Infernal Scourge. Seventy-one years after the conclusion of this great conflict, we are now at liberty to ask: what was the true purpose of the Fire Nation's desire for conquest? Unfortunately, while the memories have yet to be lost to time, the secretive nature of the war's perpetrator, Fire Lord Sozin, makes any definitive answer impossible. Speculation is the best we can manage.
On the other hand, records do exist, making our speculation far more credible. A detailed exploration of Fire Nation census records following the hundred years prior to the War reveals that the aggressor nation experienced remarkable growth of its population during this time: so remarkable that it was soon pushing the limits that the island country could sustain. One could assume then, that the Hundred Years War was nothing special at all, but simply an attempt by a burgeoning nation to claim more territory for its swiftly growing numbers. And yet, while this could have very well been a motivating factor in the initial stages of the war, the Fire Nation met that goal well within two decades, claiming more than enough land from the Earth Kingdom to support their new growth, casualties notwithstanding.
Why then, did the war continue on for another eighty years? Clearly territorial expansion was not the only reason the Fire Nation descended on the world at large. Was it honor? Anyone that has spoken to a native of the volcanic isles for more than a few minutes will tell you that the Fire Nation's culture reveres honor, courage, and glory to the extent that those values may as well be their gods. Did they continue the war for the sole reason of gaining glory and honor on the field of battle? Was the objective of conquering the world supposed to be nothing more than a monument to their own strength?
Some of my fellow researchers seem to believe this, yet I cannot say the same. The University possesses many remnants of war propaganda from the conflict's main combatants: a quick glance at Fire Nation material will prove that their ideals of honor and glory were only marginally relevant to their cause at best.
Another theory is that the Fire Nation's imperial engine also had some underlying altruistic motives, though many of the ones who believe that attribute it more to a feeling of superiority than generosity. There is no denying that, just prior to the War and all throughout it, the Fire Nation enjoyed a significantly higher quality of living than their fellow countries. Aside from the brief population crisis that was quickly nipped in the bud due to the War, records indicate that poverty, homelessness, and illness were remarkably low in the island nation, a stark contrast to the Earth Kingdom's admittedly appalling overall state at the time. This is to say nothing of their great technological gains, far overshadowing all of the other nations of the world.
These factors lead some of my colleagues to believe that the War was little more than misguided pity and arrogance on the Fire Nation's part: that the Fire Lord felt obligated to raise the backwards, inferior civilizations of the world to the standard of his own country. I won't go so far as to say this isn't true at all. Many of our most prosperous cities today are Earth Kingdom towns that had been converted to Fire Nation colonies during the War. There's no denying that the Fire Nation did indeed raise the standard of living for many of the territories they conquered. I find it hard to believe they would dedicate time, resources, and manpower to the improvement of conquered Earth Kingdom land if such a thing had not been part of their plan from the beginning, though it is quite possible the Fire Nation only made these investments because those conquered lands were now theirs, and their rampant problems had become their own.
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War for Peace (Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfiction)
FanfictionEveryone fights for what they believe in. Where some see balance, others see stratification. Where some see salvation, others see slavery. To the Fire Nation, the Avatar is the vanguard of the longest dark age humanity has ever known. And to one of...
