America’s 80-year need for war

Does America need an exorcism? There is indeed an 80-year pattern in American history that has global implications. Every eight decades, the US faces an existential internal crisis that is overcome with war.

First, 1781

The Union itself started with such turmoil. The 1776-1883 Revolutionary War began as an effort to wrest the 13 colonies from the English crown’s embrace and then spilled into a global conflict among the great European powers for dominance over the seas and colonial territories.

France entered the war on the side of the Americans and, in alliance with Spain and the Dutch Republic, sought to challenge British dominance and gain revenge after defeat in the Seven Years’ War (1756-63).

Britain, on the other hand, was able to strengthen its expeditionary force in America by recruiting numerous contingents of German mercenary troops, the so-called Hessians, cementing a special tie with Prussia that was to last until WWI.

Americans were not all united then. Some supported England and actively fought for the crown. There was a bitter division about the colonies’ future for independence or remaining part of the British empire.

Second, 1861

Some 80 years later, in 1861, America was torn apart over the social and economic problem of slavery. Modern factories in the North were better off with paid workers than slaves.

Yet in the South, slaves were assets worth trillions (in today’s money) and a fundamental gear in cotton and sugar production, commodities driving industrialization at the time.

The country was split in two as a model of development and thus also value systems. One part could benefit from the active participation of African Americans in the economy; the other part would have been devastated if blacks