Pacifism vs. Militarism as Incompatible Civilizational Strategies
Māori Genocide of Moriori vs Technology-Mediated Warfare Escalation
Māori Genocide of Moriori vs Technology-Mediated Warfare Escalation
The Moriori chose pacifism and were destroyed. The Māori chose militarism and became conquerors. Technology (muskets) enabled the Māori to dominate Moriori completely. But the deeper tension is: can two populations with opposite martial values coexist in the same space?
If pacifism requires all populations to be pacifist, then one militaristic incursion destroys it. If militarism requires constant expansion and conquest, then it cannot coexist with peaceful neighbors. These are genuinely incompatible civilizational strategies. They cannot both persist when they come into contact.
Yet the collision is unresolvable within either framework: the pacifist cannot defeat the militarist without abandoning pacifism. The militarist has no reason to adopt pacifism if it is militarily inferior.
Civilizational strategies (pacifism, militarism) are not universally superior—they are only stable under specific ecological and contact conditions. Pacifism survives only when all neighbors are pacifist. Militarism survives and expands. Therefore, militarism is historically selected for over pacifism in multi-civilization worlds. Pacifism requires isolation or global consensus to be viable.