In 2007, 67 of the 328 conflicts in the world (of variable intensity) were linked to natural resources. Most were in Africa and Asia. (1) These conflicts were sometimes about the ownership of certain resources. Conversely, resources could also be used to fund conflicts. The two sides of the problem were often linked.
Wars over resources
There are many examples of wars over resources. The colonial conquests were obviously aimed at seizing more wealth. More recently, during the First Gulf War, Iraq invaded Kuwait to take over its oil and currency reserves. Such conflicts have occurred on all the continents, and not only between North and South. Thus, in the Saltpetre war, around the turn of the 1880s, Chile, Peru and Bolivia were fighting over the control of nitrate reserves among other things. (4)
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