In 1997, the use, manufacture, and stockpiling of anti-personal land mines was banned via what’s commonly referred to as the Ottowa Treaty. This was mostly as a reaction to the horrific damage land mines cause to civilians. Land mines are cheap and easy to deploy, and armies are able to scatter tens of thousands of them in combat zones. Then they remain there indefinitely, wounding or killing children, farmers, or whoever happens to stumble upon them even decades after the war.