Were all major wars fought over religion?

Answer 1

No, most of the largest wars have been fought over issues other than religion. Religion has been the primary reason or a secondary reason for many wars, but taking some examples affecting America:

Iraq - energy, depose a dictator [Edit, OTR: The Bush Doctrine was based on a Christian vs. Islamic fundamentalism. Fighting for Christian "values" was a major part of this conflict.]

Vietnam - opposition to communism vs. Vietnamese nationalism

Korea - opposition to communism and aggression vs. desire (on both sides) for national unity under one government.

World War II - control aggression vs. militaristic / fascist expansionism

World War I - Many complex reasons dealing with colonial control, expansion of trade, free shipping, ultra-nationalism.

Spanish-American War - lunacy, combined with conflicts over colonialism

US Civil War - slavery, secession, economic power

Mexican War - expansionism (by US) and territorial control (by Mexico)

War of 1812 - free trade, rights of seamen

Some of the other really big, nasty wars - Napoleonic wars - French expansionism and colonialism, ultra-nationalism.

South American independence - nationalism vs. colonialism

Russian revolution - oppression by royalty

There are lots of counter-examples, but the largest, most destructive, and most deadly wars in history had little or nothing to do with religion.

One huge counter example is found in the India - Pakistan - Bangladesh conflicts and in the internal on-again off-again issues with Sikh violence. In these conflicts religion mixes with ultra-nationalism to generate terrible losses. The Serb Orthodox vs. Kosovo Muslim conflict was another smaller counter-example.

Religion often finds little niches within wars, like the German 'Gott mit Uns' (God with us) on belt buckles and other military gear, which causes anti-religious groups a chance to seize 'evidence' of the destructiveness of religion. American sniper scopes have New Testament Bible verses inscribed on them (a practice which was ended in 2009), again causing anti-religious people to declare that war and killing were caused by religion.