Memes

It's not just Europe, it's everywhere.

Before the British Mandate, Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire, and as Wikipedia says:

Throughout most of the period of Ottoman rule (1533–1918) the territory of present-day Iraq was a battle zone between the rival regional empires and tribal alliances

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iraq

Before the Ottomans were the Mongols, who slaughtered their way across the world.

The only kind of "stable" period was when the Abbasid Caliphate had Baghdad at its core -- but that only meant that the border wars were happening elsewhere in the middle east.

When the Europeans got to the Americas, they killed a lot of natives. But, they also made alliances with some of the natives who were eager to have a new ally in their territorial conflict with other native groups, because, surprise surprise, before the Europeans got there the native groups were in a constant state of conflict over territory too.

The history of humanity is conflict. Even chimps fight brutal fights with other chimp groups over territory, so it goes back to our non-human ancestors.

There's nothing unique about Europeans and conflicts over territory.