As can be seen from the tens of thousands of years that modern humans have spent on this planet, we can be a violent creature. Humans take everything they want and wipe out everything that stands in their way.

Neanderthals, a close relative of man, may have had a similar fate when they first spread from Africa to Europe 45,000 years ago.

Although Neanderthals are considered primitive versions of humans, they were actually successful in their view of evolution.

They conquered Europe and later Asia, and humans remained in Africa.

Unfortunately for the Neanderthals, humans were more adaptable, and this seems to be more local.

Although there is evidence that humans and Neanderthals have interacted and mated with each other as shown by the presence of Neanderthal genes in all non-African nations, there will be a war for dominance throughout the planet.

Some archaeologists have claimed that Neanderthals were attacked by humans, which may be considered the first acts of war in our history.

Neanderthals disappeared within a few thousand years of humans arriving in Europe.

Remains of Neanderthals with head injuries matched by the attack of a sharp instrument have been found, while mass graves of Neanderthals have also been found.

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However, researchers struggled to define ‘what is warfare?’

Martin Smith and John Stuart, scientists at the University of Bournemouth, wrote in an article for the conversation: “One important thing is that a particular kind of logic emerges where any member of an opposing group is seen as representing their entire community, thus becoming a ‘valid target’.

“For example, a group may kill a member of another group in retaliation for a raid that does not involve the victim.

“In this sense, war is a state of mind that involves abstract and partial thoughts, like a set of physical behaviors.

“Such acts of war can be waged against women, children, and men (usually men), and we have evidence of this behavior among the skeletons of early modern man.”

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What’s more, Neanderthals can’t tell if they can actually imagine what war is.

Both continued: “There is no doubt that the Neanderthals committed acts of violence, and it is debatable how far they were able to conceive of ‘war’ in the way modern human cultures understand it.

“Violent verbal abuse may have taken place when members of the smaller and more scattered populations of these two species came into contact (although we have no clear evidence of such evidence), but these cannot be realized as war.

“On the big question of whether modern humans are responsible for the extinction of Neanderthals, it seems that Neanderthals in many parts of Europe became extinct before our species came into being.

“This implies that modern man cannot be blamed for war or competition.”