Nephite Dissenters

It seems that it was often the dissenters from the Nephites who caused the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon.  For example, after the Zoramites dissented from the Nephites and joined the Lamanites, they helped to lead them to war against the Nephites.  The Lamanite commander appointed “chief captains over the Lamanites, and they were all Amalekites and Zoramites” (Alma 43:6).  Both of those groups of course were former Nephites, and it was largely because of them that the Lamanites were convinced to go to war.  They were soundly defeated by Moroni and peace came for a season, until more disaffected Nephites came to convince the Lamanites to go to war.  This happened as Amalickiah and Ammoron, two Nephites who dissented, “did stir up the Lamanites to anger against the people of Nephi” (Alma 47:1).  By the end of this war Teancum concluded that “Ammoron, and Amalickiah his brother, had been the cause of this great and lasting war between them and the Lamanites” (Alma 62:35).  After Moronihah became the Nephite commander several years later, the Lamanites came again to war with the Nephites and captured Zarahemla.  We don’t have a specific reason for the war, but we do learn that the Lamanites “were led by a man whose name was Coriantumr; and he was a descendent of Zarahemla; and he was a dissenter from among the Nephites” (Helaman 1:15).  Later during Moronihah’s time, “There were dissenters who went up from the Nephites unto the Lamanites; and they succeeded with those others in stirring them up to anger against the Nephites” (Helaman 4:4).  The Lamanites then came against the Nephites and took Zarahemla and other Nephite cities.  Again and again we see that it was the Nephite dissenters who brought war to their own people.  Mormon summarized it this way: “It is strange to relate, not long after their dissensions they became more hardened and impenitent, and more wild, wicked and ferocious than the Lamanites… entirely forgetting the Lord their God” (Alma 47:36).