Why didn't warring countries from hundreds of years ago just send one guy into the opposing country to start wildfires everywhere? They'd be screwed without trees, and any villages near the forests would be unable to put out the blaze.
Because it's a dick thing to do
>>1092201
>what is a scorched earth campaign
Because they generally wanted to conquer land for resources and forests are an important resource.
>>1092201
Why didn't they just send 20 good men to burn there camps and steal there horses?
>>1092201
Wildfires were used in some situations, sometimes they would burn their own land as part of a scorched earth policy to deny an invading army supplies, but only a few places in the world have a problem with wildfires and the economic impact wouldn't be that great.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Xiaoting#The_Wu_counter-attack_and_the_burning_of_the_Shu_camps
>>1092201
Because fire is really unpredictable and noone wants to rule over a charred wasteland.
>>1092201
Because fires are not easy to start.
>>1092201
Because you usually try to take a profit out of the war , its not gonna happen if you conquer burnt land
>>1092201
Depends on the country. In many climates it's really quite hard to set such fires. There's also the fact that, as others have mentioned, you normally want to take valuables and resources intact.
Additionally, the population of the target area that will now have been displaced will be homeless and desperate, and mightily pissed off at you. They might rally further support against you, and a determined and aggressive populace is a nightmare for any conqueror or neighbouring state.
>>1092201
They did
>A chevauchée (French pronunciation: [ʃəvoʃe], "promenade" or "horse charge", depending on context) was a raiding method of medieval warfare for weakening the enemy, primarily by burning and pillaging enemy territory in order to reduce the productivity of a region, as opposed to siege warfare or wars of conquest.
>>1092201
It's actually quite hard to set a forest fire ablaze when the conditions aren't in your favour. And it is even harder to get the fire to actually successfully effect the enemy force, whatever that may be. It all depends on the terrain, type of forest, rainfall, wind, time of year etc.
With the knowledge they had back then my guess is that it wouldnt be a very effective weapon to use on an enemy force.
