With-out war would mankind be more developed or less developed?

This question is so very hard to answer, yes we have lost so many great minds to war, famine, disease, accidents, but if there was no real strife, would there be a reason to advance. When Europeans came across what we now call The America's it has been estimated that the population may have been not far off from what there was in Europe at the time! but the level of what many people see as progress was not. Europe was very much in the mood for conquest, and wealth-building, along with exploration, and simply leaving a part of the old world that was filled with problems caused by beliefs in what station everyone was to occupy due to birth, and religious Dogma. While the people that lived in The America's, we have almost no knowledge of, minimal writing, very little infrastructure, tools that were way behind most places in the rest of the planet. Was all of Europe "advances" due to wars and conquest that was so prevalent at the time and still is to this day, do wars begets knowledge and inventions? Meaning does a true power need wars to keep itself out of poverty and stagnation, Germany in the 1930s brought up its standard of living and out of a great depression by its movement into a war economy, would the whole world be less advanced had Germany not done so? That answer would probably be yes but also the great hates that were created between so many races, religions, and countries! Much of the hate in the Middle East can be traced back to Germany's treatment of not just the Jewish faith but anyone that was different. For only by creating the need for hate can we try and find a reason for war on the person-to-person level. So we need to ask ourselves can a society advance without strife and or war, or is the lack of strife itself a cause for stagnation. Is simply being satisfied with your life, bad for business, government, and the planet? Perhaps we can say that we are almost there, where the need for a better life, than past generations, has given us enough of a reason to improve knowledge without strife, or simply that knowledge for what it can mean is reason enough. For without the knowledge, mankind now has, the planet would indeed be running out of time! Reach me in the USA @ <daniel.kadavy212@gmail.com> or by phone at 402-890-7946 Thank you and keep telling others even if it is for a laugh. because of how wrong can one person be. Dan