This paper investigates the historical roots of regional variation in warrior culture, characterized by military career aspirations and a preference for the use of force to resolve disputes. Based on data for 257 prefectures in Qing China, our analysis establishes a positive correlation between a region’s past war frequency and military elite production (measured by its density of wujuren, i.e., the number of local candidates who passed the provincial military exam, normalized by its population) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Using each prefecture’s distance to strategic locations as an instrumental variable, we show the link between military conflict exposure and wujuren density to be causal. During the Qing dynasty, prefectures with more historical wars exhibited a higher tendency to use violence to resolve conflicts (as shown by their higher criminal rates), but no significant differences in economic development, population density or non-military elite density. Furthermore, regions with greater historical war exposure today have more martial arts schools but fewer elementary and middle schools per million population, indicating a persistent impact of wars on human capital investment.