1) Wargods: Societies who's miltary efforts were sustainable and were so through their organization, supplies and tatics.
Ancient Romans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_ancient_Rome
Ancient Roman society spanned from 800 BC-AD 476 (although there were manycahnges to their civilization within this time frame)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_ancient_Rome
This article was useful as an overview and as point at which to begin my research. A summary of the information from this page is:
'The branches of the Roman military at the highest level were the Roman army and the Roman navy. Within these branches the actual structure was subject to substantial change throughout its history.'
The Roman army was highly structurised and organized but this structure was constantly changing.
'Ancient Rome was a state whose history was often closely entwined with its military history over the roughly 13 centuries that the Roman state existed. The core of the Military campaigns of ancient Rome is the account of the Roman military's land battles, from the conquest of Italy to its fights against the Huns and invading Germanic peoples'
The Roman state existed for 13 centuries. Their history was often cloesly intwined with the military and they involved themselves in various land battles.
'The Roman army battled first against its tribal neighbours and Etruscan towns within Italy, and later came to dominate much of the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, including the provinces of Britannia and Asia Minor at the Empire's height. '
I wouldn't want to be their neighbour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_wars
This is what the address says: A list of Roman wars
'4th century BC
First Samnite War (343-341 BC)
Latin War (340-338 BC)
Second Samnite War (326-304 BC)
3rd century BC
Third Samnite War (298-290 BC)
Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC)
First Punic War (264-241 BC)
First Illyrian War (229-228 BC)
Second Illyrian War (220-219 BC)
Second Punic War (218-202 BC)
First Macedonian War (215-205 BC; Roman intervention in 211)
2nd century BC
Second Macedonian War (200-196 BC)
Roman-Spartan War (195 BC)
Roman-Syrian War (192 BC - 188 BC)
Aetolian War (191-189 BC)
First Celtiberian War (181-179 BC)
Third Macedonian War (171-168 BC)
Lusitanian War (155-139 BC)
First Numantine War/Second Celtiberian War (154-151 BC)
Fourth Macedonian War (150-148 BC)
Third Punic War (149-146 BC)
Second Numantine War/Third Celtiberian War (143-133 BC)
First Servile War (135-132 BC)
Cimbrian War (113-101 BC)
Jugurthine War (112-105 BC)
Second Servile War (104-103 BC)
1st century BC
Roman-Persian Wars (92 BC-627)
Social War (91-88 BC)
First Mithridatic War (90-85 BC)
First Marian-Sullan Civil War (88-87 BC)
Second Mithridatic War (83-82 BC)
Sertorius' revolt (83-81 BC)
Second Marian-Sullan Civil War (82-81 BC)
Third Mithridatic War (75-65 BC)
Third Servile War (73-71 BC)
Catilinarian Civil War (63-62 BC)
Gallic Wars (59-51 BC)
Caesar's civil war (49-45 BC)
Post-Caesarian civil war (44 BC)
Liberators' civil war (44-42 BC)
Sicilian revolt (44-36 BC)
Fulvia's civil war (41-40 BC)
Final war of the Roman Republic (32-30 BC)
1st century
Roman conquest of Britain (43)
First Jewish-Roman War (66-73)
2nd century
First Dacian War (101-102)
Second Dacian War (105-106)
Kitos War (115-117)
Bar Kokhba's revolt (132-135)
Marcomannic War (166-180)
3rd century
4th century
Gothic War (376-382) '
A summary of this would be: They were involved in many, many wars. Although there is one thing that is very interesting about this list. As the Roman's draw closer to their collapse (or at least the collapse of Imperial reign) they are involved in less wars, with none occuring in 3rd Century compared with 19 in the 1st century. This shows that there is a link between their military acrivity and the health of their society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_military_engineering
The interesting thing about this article is that it shows that many things that the Roman's invented were invented for the purpose of war. These included bridges, fortified camps, siege machines, roads, systems for mining, walling and civil engineering by military troops (stuff like putting in aqueducts, draining land, cultivating vineyards, the digging of shipping canals, harbours and the construction of town walls)
http://www.roman-empire.net/army/army.html
This is a huge article and if I tried to read it I think I may kill myself, but a few things that I found from the first few (I think it must have been a hundred or so :P) pages were:
'A key moment in Roman history was the introduction of the census (the counting of the people) under Servius Tullius. With this the citizens were graded into five classes, from these classes were in varying degrees recruited the ranks of the army. The most wealthy, the first class, were the most heavily armed, equipped like the Greek hoplite warrior with helmet, round shield, greaves and breastplate, all of bronze, and carrying a spear and sword.'
They had a census system and their troops were well equipped (according to their importance some were more so than others though)
'The lesser classes bore lesser armament and weaponry, the fifth class carrying no armour at all, solely armed with slings.The army officers as well as the cavalry were drawn from leading citizens who were enrolled as equestrians (equites). '
This also relates to the classes of people in our society (or first world countries and third world countries) and it shows that they didn't just pick any random person to be in the cavalry-they did have a huge amount of structure in their military.
Other references for Rome:
http://www.crystalinks.com/romemilitary.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/16325/r-mil.html
http://www.numbera.com/rome/
http://library.thinkquest.org/26602/war.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ancient_rome.htm
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romeancientrome/Ancient_Rome_Republic_Empire_Fall_of_Rome.htm
2) Neutrals: Societies who remain/reamined neautral to avoid conflict and were therefore sustainable.
Switzerland:
http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/switzerland-neutrality-world-war-ii.html
'In 1920 all major nations confirmed, that Switzerland's neutrality towards warfaring nations as fixed on the 1815 Vienna Conference on post-Napoleon international relations would still be respected'
Switzerland has been a neutral country for quite sometime and likes to stay that way. Through being known to be a neutral country they would avoid many needless conflicts (*cough* Romans *cough*)
'In every major conflict of the 20th century the great powers were not willing to respect international rules like neutrality or the Geneva Conventions, if this would have had severe consequences for their military strategy. But rules must be obeyed by everybody or they cease to be respected altogether. This is true for nations as well as for individuals. The continuing efforts of the USA to exclude its troops from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice are not an encouraging sign for the 21st century.'
But this section proves the flaws of trying to remain neutral....nobody really cares! It also provides a comparisson to modern day society (or at least more modern than the WW2)
"Of all the neutrals Switzerland has the greatest right to distinction. She has been the sole international force linking the hideously-sundered nations and ourselves. What does it matter whether she has been able to give us the commercial advantages we desire or has given too many to the Germans, to keep herself alive? She has been a democratic State, standing for freedom in self defence among her mountains, and in thought, in spite of race, largely on our side."Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), British wartime Prime Minister
And a quote from Winston Churchill that may come in handy for my report.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_country
Definition of a neutral country: A neutral country takes no side in a war between other parties, and in return hopes to avoid being attacked by any of them.
Current neutral countries include:
Austria (now a member of EU, see below) - neutral country since 1955, to maintain external independence and inviolability of borders (expressly modeled after the Swiss neutrality).
Costa Rica - neutral country since 1949, after abolishing its military.
Finland (now EU) - military doctrine of competent, "credible" independent defence, not depending on any outside support, and the desire to remain outside international conflicts.
Ireland (now EU) - neutral country since independence in 1922.
Liechtenstein
Sweden (now EU) - Sweden hasn't fought a war since ending its involvement in the Napoleonic Wars in 1814 with a short war with Norway, making it the oldest neutral country in the world.
Switzerland - self-imposed, permanent, and armed, designed to ensure external security. Switzerland is the second oldest neutral country in the world; it has not fought a foreign war since its neutrality was established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
Turkmenistan - declared its permanent neutrality and had it formally recognised by the U.N.
Countries claimed to have neutrality but not recognized by international affairs
Cambodia - claimed neutrality 1955-1970, 1993 to the present day
Moldova - Article 11 of the 1994 Constitution proclaims "permanent neutrality"
Past neutral countries include:
Belgium - neutral stance since 1839, abolished through the Treaty of Versailles after WWI and abolished again after WWII, non-neutral alignment confirmed by membership of NATO.
Laos - the International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos was signed in Geneva on July 23, 1962 by 14 nations, including the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
Luxembourg - neutral stance since 1839, abolished through its constitution in 1948, non-neutral alignment confirmed by membership of NATO.
Netherlands - self-imposed neutrality between 1839 and 1940 on the European continent. Now a NATO member.
And this is a link for a picture that shows the current neutral countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Neutral_countries.svg
http://www.swissworld.org/en/politics/foreign_policy/neutrality_and_isolationism/
The advice of Switzerland's popular saint, Nicholas of Flüe (1417-87), "Don't get involved in other people's affairs" has been the hallmark of Swiss policy for nearly 500 years. The country has in effect been neutral since 1515, a status formally recognised and guaranteed by the great powers of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.
Their culture has an influence on their military standing (Saint Nicholas) and they have been neutral, or considered themselves to be neutral, for nearly 500 years.
Swiss neutrality thus has deeper roots than any of Europe's other major neutral states: Sweden (1815), Eire (1921), Finland (1948) and Austria (1955).
All of these European countries are neutral.
The status of neutrality has not only protected Switzerland from war, but has helped prevent the country from being torn apart when its different language communities might have been tempted to side with different belligerents in cases of conflict.
It's neutral standing has an effect, not just on its interactions with other countries/societies but it also has an effect within the country.
http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/topics/peasec/sec/ref_neutr.html
Permanent neutrality is a principle of Swiss foreign policy. It serves to preserve Switzerland’s independence and the invulnerability of its national territory. In parallel, Switzerland undertakes not to take part in wars between other states.
http://www.energybulletin.net/5140.html
Another example of neutrality would be Edo Japan, but this is a different version completely as well:
During most of the Edo Period, Japan was closed off to the world, suffered no invasion from the outside, and had virtually no exchange with other countries. For the most part, it was a peaceful period, with almost no war inside the country, and marked a remarkable time of development in the economy and culture of Japan
This was a self-imposed exclusion of the rest of the world-although they didn't do it just to avoid invasion.
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