- For other uses, see Civil War
(disambiguation)
A civil war is a war in which the competing parties are segments of the same
country or empire. Civil war is usually a
high intensity stage in an unresolved political struggle for national control of
state power. As in any war, the conflict may be over other
matters such as religion, ethnicity, or distribution of wealth. Some civil wars are also
categorized as revolutions when major societal restructuring is a possible
outcome of the conflict.
An insurgency, whether successful or not, is likely to be classified as a
civil war by history if and only if organised armies fight conventional battles.
Ultimately the distinction between a "civil war" and a "revolution" or other name is arbitrary, and determined by usage. The
successful insurgency of the 1640s in England which led to the (temporary) overthrow of the monarchy became known as the English Civil War. The successful insurgency of the 1770s in British
colonies in America, with organised armies fighting battles, came to be known as the American Revolution.
Pre-modern civil wars
In the pre-modern period there were three main types of civil war dynastic conflicts, rebellions, and peasant
revolts.
Conflicts of succession between the monarch or ruler and a pretender occurred
in almost all pre-modern systems of government. These conflicts for control of a state could take international form, and often
even in civil disputes the factions would have the support of outside powers. Most historians believe that these conflicts were
generally rooted in squabbles between the aristocracy and ruler, or a product of economic or social change and upheaval.
Early states of any great size had difficulty controlling their regions and relatively decentralized rule was the norm. This
left local administrators, landowners, and other nobles a great deal of sovereignty. In most cases this extended to having
control of their own armed forces. If so motivated these vassals could decide to overthrow their sovereign and rebel if
successful they could either separate to form their own state or unseat the ruler and usurp control over the entire polity.
While in the traditional literature the above two types of conflict were the most written about, modern historians are
increasingly looking at peasant revolts. Revolts by the peasantry, and other indentured labourers such as slaves, have been common to almost all societies dependent on such forms of labour. These would break out in
response to increased obligations or cruelty by a ruler, famine or economic failure in the state, among other causes. While there
are many hundreds of such revolts recorded through history hardly any were successful and they were almost always crushed by the
forces of the government and aristocracy.
Of course it is impossible to subdivide civil wars into neat categories. Many conflicts were a mix of these groups. Peasant
revolts would often catalyze around a pretender. Disputes over succession would almost always involve the revolt of vassals. Also
while these are labels for types of early civil wars, they are not explanations of their cause.
Modern era
What is generally agreed upon is that factors such as nationalism, religion, and ideology, played little role in pre-modern
civil wars. While it is quite common for nationalists to read past revolts, such as those of Scotland against Britain as early stirrings of nationalism, this is a
somewhat suspect notion. Religion is more contentious, there are some civil wars that can be seen as fueled by religion in early
years, such as the Jewish
Revolts against Rome, but these can also be seen as revolts by a servile people against
their oppressors or uprisings by local notables in an attempt to gain independence.
Religion
Civil wars over religion are unlikely in polytheistic societies where
religions tend to be flexible and accommodating enough to prevent intercine violence. Even with the arrival of monotheism in
Zoroastrianism and the Abrahamic religions religious revolts were rare. In earlier times a nation's religion was defined the
religion of the sovereign and the elite and it was not dogmatically imposed by upon the mass of the population. Thus even in
Europe through the Middle Ages the Christianity of the great bulk of the population was limited and still much infused by pagan
traditions. With religion so loosely applied it was rare for people to feel like they must rebel against it. The one exception in
Medieval Europe was the occasional rise of heresies such as that of the Albigensians. These tended to be the product of peasant revolts rather than themselves motivators of a civil war.
Religion did not begin to play an important role in the causation of civil wars until the religions stressing individual
salvation were introduced. The first of these is arguably Islam which saw a rash of
uprisings against non-Islamic rulers soon after its appearance. Subsequent Islamic history has been marked by repeated civil
conflicts, mostly stemming out of the Shi'ite Sunni divide. In Europe the Protestant
Reformation had a similar effect sparking years of both civil and international wars of religion. Civil wars between
Catholicism and Protestantism consumed France in the Wars of
Religion the Dutch War of Independence and
violence between Protestant sects played an important role in the English Civil Wars. Some historians both Marxist and non argue that even in these eras religion was
never the root cause of civil war but merely a justification and rationalization for wars that were fought for reasons of
economics or power politics.
Revolutions
A revolution is generally seen as a civil war fought over issues of
ideology, over how power should be organized and distributed, not merely over which individuals hold it. The classic example of a
revolution, and by some arguments the first is the French
Revolution, which is seen to have pitted the middle class and urban poor of France against the aristocracy and monarchy. Some
argue that revolutions are a modern continuation of the peasant revolts of the past. Unlike peasant revolts, however, revolutions
are almost always lead by members of the educated, but disaffected, middle class who then rally the large mass of the population
to their cause. Others see ideology as merely replacing religion as a justification and motivation for violence that is
fundamentally caused by socioeconomic factors. To be successful revolutions almost always require armed force to be employed,
sometimes escalating to a civil war, such as in the Chinese Civil
War. In some cases, such as the French and Russian
Revolutions and revolutionaries succeed in gaining power through a quick coup or localized uprising, but a civil war results
from counterrevolutionary forces organizing to crush the
revolution.
Separatism
One of the most common causes of civil wars, especially in the post-Cold War
world has been separatist violence. Nationalism can be seen as similar to
both a religion and an ideology as a justification for war rather than a root cause of conflict. All modern states attempt to
hold a monopoly on internal military force. For separatist civil wars to break out thus either the national army must fracture
along ethnic, religious, or national lines as happened in Yugoslavia. More
commonly a modern separatist conflict takes the form of asymmetrical warfare with separatist lightly armed and disorganized, but with the support of the local
population such groups can be hard to defeat. This is the route taken by most liberation groups in colonies, as well as forces in
areas such as Eritrea and Sri Lanka.
Regional differences may be enhanced by differing economies, as in the American Civil War. National minorities are also often religious minorities and wars of religion may
link closely into separatist conflicts.
Coups
Coup d'états are by definition quick blows to the top of a government
that do not result in the widespread violence of a civil war. On occasion a failed coup, or one that is only half successful, can
precipitate a civil war between factions. These wars often quickly try to pull in larger themes of ideology, nationalism, or
religion to try to win supporters among the general population for a conflict that in essence is an intraelite competition for
power.
Root causes
Again the forces of religion, ideology, and nationalism can rarely be considered the root cause of a civil war. Almost every
nation has minority groups, religious plurality, and ideological divisions, but few plunge into civil war. Sociologists have long searched for what variables trigger civil wars. In the modern
world most civil wars occur in nations that are poor, autocratic, and regionally divided. However the United States was one of
the wealthiest and most democratic countries in the world at the time of its bloody civil war.
Some models of why civil wars occur stress the importance of change and transition. Thus the American civil war was caused by
the growing economic power of the north relative to the south; the Lebanese Civil War by the upsetting of the delicate demographic balance by the increase in the Shi'ite
population; the English Civil War by the growing power of the
middle class and merchants at the expense of the aristocracy.
Competition for resources and wealth within a society is seen as a frequent cause for civil wars, however economic gain is
rarely the justification espoused by the participants. Marxist historians stress
economic and class factors arguing that civil wars are caused by imperialist rulers battling each other for greater power, and
using tools such as nationalism and religion to delude people into joining them. In this model revolutions, which many Marxists
see peasant revolts as a prelude to, are a completely different phenomena motivated by spontaneous rejection of elite domination
and economic oppression by the working class.
Continuation of civil wars
Not only are the causes of civil wars widely studied and debated, but their persistence is also seen as an important issue.
Many civil wars have proved especially intractable, dragging on for many decades. One contributing factor is that civil wars
often become proxy wars for outside powers that fund their partisans and thus
encourage further violence.
Conflict rebuilding after a civil war is often difficult. In an international war the two parties merely have to desists from
killing each other and can, for the most part, go their own ways. In a civil war not only must violence stop but the factions
involved must also learn to coexist with each other. This can often prove difficult, much of the population will have lost
friends or loved ones in the war, losses they blame on their opponents. Civil wars also tend to greatly entrench any ethnic,
religious, or ideological divisions within a society and restoring unity can be very difficult. United Nations peacekeeping has proved to
sometimes be successful in healing such war torn societies.
Lists of civil wars
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