List of civil wars
The following is a list of civil wars, fought between organized groups within the same state or country. The terms "intrastate war", "internecine war" and "domestic war" are often used interchangeably with "civil war", but "internecine war" can be used in a wider meaning, referring to any conflict within a single state, regardless of the participation of civil forces. Thus, any war of succession is by definition an internecine war, but not necessarily a civil war.
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In modern geopolitics since 1945, "civil war" is also used in a loose sense to refer to any large scale military conflict within a single country (i.e. used as a strict synonym of the generic term "internecine war"), creating terminological overlap with insurgencies or coups d'état.
Terminology
The Latin term bellum civile was used to describe wars within a single community beginning around 60 A.D. The term is an alternative title for the work sometimes called Pharsalia by Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) about the Roman civil wars that began in the last third of the second century BC.[1] The term civilis here had the very specific meaning of 'Roman citizen'.
Since the 17th century, the term has also been applied retroactively to other historical conflicts where at least one side claims to represent the country's civil society (rather than a feudal dynasty or an imperial power).[2]
Ongoing civil wars
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The following civil wars are ongoing as of April 2023. Only ongoing conflicts which meet the definition of a civil war are listed. See List of ongoing armed conflicts and lists of active separatist movements for lists with a wider scope.
Myanmar, Internal conflict in Myanmar, since 1948 (including the Myanmar Civil War since 2021)
Colombia, Colombian conflict, since 1964
Angola, Cabinda War, since 1975
Somalia, Somali Civil War, since 1978
Afghanistan, Afghan conflict, since 1978
- Islamic State–Taliban conflict, since 2015
- Republican insurgency in Afghanistan, since 2021
Senegal, Casamance conflict, 1982–2014 (main conflict), since 2015 (low-level conflict)
DR Congo, Allied Democratic Forces insurgency, since 1996; Ituri conflict, since 1999; Kivu conflict, since 2004
Nigeria, Communal conflicts in Nigeria, since 1998; Boko Haram insurgency, since 2009; Nigerian bandit conflict, since 2011
- Maghreb, Insurgency in the Maghreb, since 2002
Iraq, Iraq conflict, since 2003
- Islamic State insurgency in Iraq, since 2017
Pakistan, War in North-West Pakistan, since 2004
Mexico, Mexican Drug War, since 2006
Sudan, Sudanese nomadic conflicts, since 2008; 2023 Sudan conflict, since 2023
Syria, Syrian civil war, since 2011
- Sahel, Islamist insurgency in the Sahel, since 2011
Mali, Mali War, since 2012
Burkina Faso, Jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso, since 2015
Niger, Jihadist insurgency in Niger, since 2016
Central African Republic, Central African Republic Civil War, since 2012
Yemen, Yemeni civil war, since 2014
Cameroon, Anglophone Crisis (Cameroonian Civil War), since 2017
Mozambique, Insurgency in Cabo Delgado, since 2017
Ethiopia, Ethiopian civil conflict, since 2018
- OLA insurgency, since 2018
- War in Amhara, since 2023
Haiti, FRG9 insurgency in Haiti, since 2020
Past civil wars
Ancient and early medieval (before 1000)
This is a list of intrastate armed conflicts that fulfill the definition set by this article: civil. Note that some conflicts lack both an article or citation. Without citation, they have not been guaranteed to have happened.
- The First Intermediate Period of Egypt, Second Intermediate Period of Egypt and Third Intermediate Period of Egypt were periods of political disunity in Ancient Egypt's history, characterized by frequent warfare between dynasties competing for dominance
- The Persian Revolt was a campaign led by Cyrus the Great against Median rule of Persia (552–550 BC)
- Civil war between Artaxerxes II and Cyrus III (c. 401 BC)
- Sasanian civil war of 589–591
- Sasanian civil war of 628–632
- Roman civil wars (a list of numerous civil wars in the late Roman Republic and in the Roman Empire, between 100 BC and AD 400)
- First Fitna, 656–661, the first Islamic "civil war" between Ali and the Umayyads
- Second Fitna, c. 680/683 – c. 685/692, the second Islamic "civil war" between the Umayyads and Ibn al-Zubayr
- Twenty Years' Anarchy, 695–717, prolonged period of internal instability in the Byzantine Empire
- Civil War between Artabasdos and Constantine V, 741–743
- Third Fitna, 744–752, including the Umayyad civil wars of 744–748 and the Abbasid Revolution
- An Lushan Rebellion, December 16, 755 – February 17, 763
- Fourth Fitna, 809–827, including the Abbasid civil wars and other regional conflicts
- Anarchy of the 12 Warlords, 944–968
- Honourable mention Mahabharata believed by many to be history's oldest civil war in India.
Medieval (1000–1600)
- Fitna of al-Andalus, 1009–1031
- Civil war era in Norway, 1130–1240
- Danish Civil Wars, 1131–1157[3]
- The Anarchy, 1135–1153
- Revolt of 1173–1174
- Civil war in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem between King Baldwin III and dowager Queen Melisende (1152–1153)
- First Barons' War, 1215–1217
- Age of the Sturlungs, 1220 – 1262/64
- Second Barons' War, 1264–1267
- Hungarian Civil War, 1264–1265
- Civil War of Livonia between Livonian Order and the city of Riga and the Archbishopric of Riga, 1297–1330.
- Despenser War, 1321–1322
- Invasion of England, 1326. Continuation of the Despenser War.
- Byzantine civil war of 1321–1328
- Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347
- Byzantine civil war of 1352–1357
- Castilian Civil War, 1366–1369
- Byzantine civil war of 1373–1379
- Jingnan campaign, 1399-1402
- Welsh Revolt, 1400–1415
- Ottoman Interregnum, 1402–1413
- Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War, 1407–1435
- Hussite Wars, 1420–1434
- Great Feudal War in Russia, 1425–1453
- Wars of the Roses, 1455–1485
- Catalan Civil War (1462–1472)
- Ōnin War, 1467–1477
- Sengoku period, 1467–1615
- War of the Castilian Succession, 1475–1479
- Popular revolts in late-medieval Europe
- German Peasants' War, 1524–1525
- Civil War in Kazakh Khanate, 1522–1538
- Inca Civil War, 1529–1532
- Count's Feud, 1534–1536
- French Wars of Religion, 1562–1598
- Marian civil war, 1568–1573
- War against Sigismund, 1598–1599
Early modern (1600–1800)
- Civil War Era in Vietnam, 1533–1789 [4]
- Lê–Mạc Dynasties War, 1533–1677
- Trịnh–Nguyễn Lords War, 1627–1772; 1774–1775
- Tây Sơn wars, 1771–1802
- Zebrzydowski rebellion, 1606–1609
- Shimabara Rebellion, 1637–1638
- Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1639–1651 involved a number of civil wars:
- Irish Confederate Wars, some parts of which were a civil war.[5]
- Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, to some extent a civil war, 1644–1652
- English Civil War, 1642–1651
- First English Civil War, 1642–1646
- Second English Civil War, 1648–1649
- Third English Civil War, 1650–1651
- Acadian Civil War, 1640–1645
- The Fronde, 1648–1653
- The Ruin, 1659–1686
- Brunei Civil War, 1660s—1673
- Lubomirski's rebellion, 1665–1666
- Monmouth Rebellion, May–July 1685
- Glorious Revolution, 1688–1689
- War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–1714
- Choctaw Civil War, 1747–1750
- Pugachev's Rebellion, 1773–1775[6]
- American Revolutionary War 1775–83 - The American Revolution started as a civil war within the British Empire.[nb 1] It became a larger international war in 1778 once France joined.[nb 2]
- War in the Vendée, 1793–1804; between Royalist and Republican forces, part of the French Revolutionary Wars
- Afghan Civil War, 1793–1809
Modern (1800–1945)
- Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition, 1812–1813
- Argentine Civil Wars, 1814–1880
- Ndwandwe–Zulu War, 1817–1819
- Long Expedition, 1819, 1821
- Greek Civil Wars, 1823–1825
- Ochomogo War, 1823
- Fredonian Rebellion, 1826–1827
- Liberal Wars, 1828–1834
- Chilean Civil War, 1829–1830
- Revolutions of 1830; numerous European countries, 1830
- Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833)
- Carlist Wars, 1833–1839, 1846–1849, and 1872–1876
- Texas Revolution 1835–1836
- Ragamuffin War, 1835–1845
- League War, 1835
- Chimayó Rebellion, 1837
- Córdova Rebellion, 1838
- Uruguayan Civil War, 1839–1851
- War of the Supremes, 1839–1842
- Rio Grande Rebellion, 1840
- Yucatán Rebellion, 1841–1848
- The New Zealand Wars, 1845 - 1872
- Bear Flag Revolt, 1846
- Sonderbund War, November 1847
- Revolutions of 1848; numerous European countries, 1848–1849
- Revolution of 1851
- Taiping Rebellion, 1851–1863
- Bleeding Kansas, 1854–1858
- Indian Rebellion of 1857
- Utah War, 1857–1858
- War of Reform, 1857–1861
- Federal War, 1859–1863
- American Civil War, 1861–1865
- Afghan Civil War, 1863–1869
- Austro-Prussian War, 1866
- Klang War; also known as Selangor Civil War, 1867–1874
- Boshin War, 1868–1869
- Satsuma Rebellion, 1877
- Jementah Civil War, 1878
- Afghan Civil War, 1880–1881
- The North-West Rebellion, 1885
- Revolution of the Park, 1890
- Chilean Civil War, 1891
- Argentine Revolution of 1893, 1893
- War of Canudos, 1896–1897
- Banana Wars, 1898–1934
- Federal Revolution, 1899
- Thousand Days' War, 1899–1902
- Liberating Revolution (Venezuela), 1901–1903
- Argentine Revolution of 1905, 1905
- Persian Constitutional Revolution, 1905–1911, Civil War considered to begin after 1908
- Mexican Revolution, 1910–1920
- Paraguayan Civil War, 1911-1912
- Warlord Era; period of civil wars between regional, provincial, and private armies in China, 1912–1928
- Russian Civil War, 1917–1923
- Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, 1918–2003
- Finnish Civil War, 1918
- Ukrainian–Soviet War, 1917–1921
- German Revolution, 1918–1919
- Revolts during the Turkish War of Independence, includes conflict between the Imperial Ottoman Government and the Turkish National Movement, 1919–1922
- Irish Civil War, 1922–1923
- Paraguayan Civil War, 1922–1923
- Nicaraguan Civil War, 1926–1927
- Cristero War, 1926–1929
- Chinese Civil War, 1927–1937, 1945–1949 (de facto)
- Afghan Civil War, 1928–1929
- Brazilian Civil War, 1932
- Austrian Civil War, February 1934
- Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939
- Ukrainian Insurgent Army insurgency, 1943–1956
- Italian Civil War during WWII 1943–1945
- Guerrilla war in the Baltic states, 1944-1956
Since 1945
- Greek Civil War, 1946–1949
- Paraguayan Civil War, 1947
- Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, 1947–1948
- Costa Rican civil war, 1948
- Yeosu–Suncheon rebellion, 1948
- Jeju uprising, 1948
- La Violencia, 1948–1958
- Malayan Emergency, 1948–1960
- Internal conflict in Myanmar, ongoing since 1948
- Cuban Revolution, 1953–1959
- Laotian Civil War, 1953–1975
- First Sudanese Civil War, 1955–1972
- Revolución Libertadora, 1955
- Laotian Civil War, 1959–1975
- Congo Crisis, 1960–1966
- Guatemalan Civil War, 1960–1996
- Nicaraguan Revolution, 1961–1990
- North Yemen Civil War 1962–1970
- Communist insurgency in Sarawak, 1962–1990
- Dominican Civil War, 1965
- Rhodesian Bush War, 1965–1980
- First Chadian Civil War, 1965-1979
- Communist insurgency in Thailand, 1965–1983
- Cambodian Civil War, 1967–1975
- Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970
- Communist insurgency in Malaysia, 1968–1989
- Bangladesh Liberation War, 1971
- Ethiopian Civil War, 1974–1991
- Lebanese Civil War, 1975–1990
- Mozambican Civil War, 1975–1992
- Angolan Civil War, 1975–2002
- Insurgency in Aceh, 1976–2005
- Soviet–Afghan War, part of / also called Afghanistan conflict (1978–present), December 24, 1979 – February 15, 1989 (Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years from 1979 to 1989 and was part of the Cold War)
- Salvadoran Civil War, 1979–1992
- Second Sudanese Civil War, 1983–2005
- Sri Lankan Civil War, 1983–2009
- South Yemen Civil War, 1986
- Afghan Civil War (1989–1992), February 15, 1989 – April 30, 1992. The continuing part of the civil war after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving the Afghan communist government to fend for itself against the Mujahideen months later part of / also called Afghanistan conflict (1978–present)
- First Liberian Civil War, 1989–1996
- Rwandan Civil War, 1990–1994
- Georgian Civil War, 1991–1993
- Iraqi uprisings, 1991
- Sierra Leone Civil War, 1991–2002
- Djiboutian Civil War, 1991-1994
- Algerian Civil War, 1991–2002
- Tajikistani Civil War, 1992–1997
- Afghan Civil War (1992–1996), April 30, 1992 – September 27, 1996. When the Afghan communist government falls to the Mujahideen there was a rise in different kinds of ideology, power-sharing, Belligerents and violent fighting continue to escalate part of / also called Afghanistan conflict (1978–present)
- Burundian Civil War, 1993–2005
- First Republic of the Congo Civil War, 1993-1994
- First Yemeni Civil War, 1994
- Iraqi Kurdish Civil War, 1994–1997
- Nepalese Civil War, 1996–2006
- Afghan Civil War (1996–2001), September 27, 1996 – October 7, 2001. In 1996 the Taliban captured the Afghan capital Kabul and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan part of / also called Afghanistan conflict (1978–present)
- First Congo War, 1996–1997
- Clashes in Cambodia, 1997
- Nepalese Civil War, 1996–2006
- Albanian Civil War, 1997
- Second Republic of the Congo Civil War, 1997–1999
- Guinea-Bissau Civil War, 1998–1999
- Second Congo War, 1998–2003
- Kosovo War, 1998–1999
- Second Liberian Civil War, 1999–2003
- Insurgency in Macedonia, 2001
- First Ivorian Civil War, 2002–2007
- War in Darfur, 2003-2020
- First Central African Republic Civil War, 2004-2007
- Second Chadian Civil War, 2005-2010
- First Iraqi Civil War, 2006–2008
- First Libyan Civil War, 2011
- Second Ivorian Civil War, 2011
- South Sudanese Civil War, 2013-2020
- Second Iraqi Civil War, 2013-2017, also known as War in Iraq
- Second Libyan Civil War, 2014–2020
- Tigray War, 2020–2022
See also
Notes
- Some historians name the 1861–1865 war the "Second American Civil War", because in their view, the American Revolutionary War can also be considered a civil war (since the term can be used in reference to any war in which one political body separates itself from another political body). They then refer to the Independence War, which resulted in the separation of the Thirteen Colonies from the British Empire, as the "First American Civil War".[7][8] A significant number of American colonists stayed loyal to the British Crown and as Loyalists fought on the British side while opposite were a significant amount of colonists called Patriots who fought on the American side. In some localities, there was fierce fighting between Americans including gruesome instances of hanging, drawing, and quartering on both sides.[9][10][11][12]
- As early as 1789, David Ramsay, an American patriot historian, wrote in his History of the American Revolution that "Many circumstances concurred to make the American war particularly calamitous. It was originally a civil war in the estimation of both parties."[13] Framing the American Revolutionary War as a civil war is gaining increasing examination.[14][15][16]. You can read part two of his 1789 book in full here
- A group of Bristol, England merchants wrote to King George III in 1775 voicing their “most anxious apprehensions for ourselves and Posterity that we behold the growing distractions in America threaten” and ask for their majesty’s “Wisdom and Goodness” to save them from “a lasting and ruinous Civil War.”. You can read the 1775 petition in full here
- The “constrained voice” is a good synopsis of how the British viewed the American Revolutionary War. From anxiety to a foreboding sense of the conflict being a civil war,
- In the early stages of the rebellion by the American colonists, most of them still saw themselves as English subjects who were being denied their rights as such. “Taxation without representation is tyranny,” James Otis reportedly said in protest of the lack of colonial representation in Parliament. What made the American Revolution look most like a civil war, though, was the reality that about one-third of the colonists, known as loyalists (or Tories), continued to support and fought on the side of the crown.
- The Revolution was both an international conflict, with Britain and France vying on land and sea, and a civil war among the colonists, causing over 60,000 loyalists to flee their homes.
- France entered the American Revolution on the side of the colonists in 1778, turning what had essentially been a civil war into an international conflict.
- Until early in 1778 the conflict was a civil war within the British Empire, but afterward it became an international war as France (in 1778) and Spain (in 1779) joined the colonies against Britain. Meanwhile, the Netherlands, which provided both official recognition of the United States and financial support for it, was engaged in its own war against Britain.
References
- "Lucan | Roman author". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
- OED: "war between the citizens or inhabitants of a single country, state, or community". Early use of the term in reference to neither the Roman Republic nor the English Civil War include the War in the Vendée (1802) and the civil war in Portugal ( 1835, 1836).
- Bøgh, Anders (26 May 2015). "The Civil War periode 1131–1157". danmarkshistorien.dk/ (in Danish). Aarhus Universitet. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
- Early Modern Wars 1500–1775. Amber. 2013. ISBN 9781782741213.
- F. Warner, 1768
- Milner-Gulland, R. R.; Dejevsky, Nikolai J. (1989). Atlas of Russia and the Soviet Union. Phaidon atlases of world civilizations. Phaidon. p. 108. ISBN 9780714825496. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
1774 [...] the civil war against Pugachov reached its climax.
- Eric Herschthal. America's First Civil War: Alan Taylor's new history poses the revolution as a battle inside America as well as for its liberty Archived 2017-06-26 at the Wayback Machine, The Slate, September 6, 2016.
- James McAuley. Ask an Academic: Talking About a Revolution Archived 2018-01-07 at the Wayback Machine, The New Yorker, August 4, 2011.
- Thomas Allen. Tories: Fighting for the King in America's First Civil War. New York, Harper, 2011.
- Peter J. Albert (ed.). An Uncivil War: The Southern Backcountry During the American Revolution. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1985.
- Alfred Young (ed.). The American Revolution: Explorations in the History of American Radicalism. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1976.
- Armitage, David. Every Great Revolution Is a Civil War Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine. In: Keith Michael Baker and Dan Edelstein (eds.). Scripting Revolution: A Historical Approach to the Comparative Study of Revolutions. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015. According to Armitage, "The renaming can happen relatively quickly: for example, the transatlantic conflict of the 1770s that many contemporaries saw as a British "civil war" or even "the American Civil War" was first called "the American Revolution" in 1776 by the chief justice of South Carolina, William Henry Drayton."
- David Ramsay. The History of the American Revolution Archived 2018-07-27 at the Wayback Machine. 1789.
- Elise Stevens Wilson. Colonists Divided: A Revolution and a Civil War Archived 2016-10-17 at the Wayback Machine, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
- Timothy H. Breen. The American Revolution as Civil War Archived 2017-06-24 at the Wayback Machine, National Humanities Center.
- 1776: American Revolution or British Civil War? Archived 2018-07-27 at the Wayback Machine, University of Cambridge.
Further reading
- Arnold, Guy. Historical dictionary of civil wars in Africa (1999) online
- Collier, Paul, and Nicholas Sambanis, eds. Understanding Civil War: Europe, Central Asia, and other regions (World Bank Publications, 2005) online.
- Davis, Morris, ed. Civil wars and the politics of international relief: Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean (1975) online
- Dixon, Jeffrey S., and Meredith Reid Sarkees. A Guide to Intra-state Wars: An Examination of Civil, Regional, and Intercommunal Wars, 1816-2014 (CQ Press, 2015). online
- Fearon, James. "Why Do Some Civil Wars Last So Much Longer than Others?" Journal of Peace Research (2004) 41, 3:275-302.
- Kalyvas, Stathis N. The Logic of Violence in Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
- Kohn, George Childs. Dictionary of Wars (3rd ed. Facts on File, 2007) online
- Krause, Volker, and Susumu Suzuki. "Causes of Civil War in Asia and Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Comparison." Social Science Quarterly 86.1 (2005): 160-177. online
- Mason, T. David, and Patrick J. Fett. "How civil wars end: A rational choice approach." Journal of conflict resolution 40.4 (1996): 546-568.
- Miller, John. A brief history of the English Civil Wars (2009) online
- Montalvo, J. G., & Reynal-Querol, M. "Ethnic polarization, potential conflict, and civil wars" American Economic Review (2005) 95(3), 796-816.
- Phillips, Charles, and Alan Axelrod, eds. Encyclopedia of Wars (3 vol, Facts on File, 2004), includes many civil wars.
- Sambanis, Nicholas. "Do Ethnic and Nonethnic Civil Wars Have the Same Causes? A Theoretical and Empirical Inquiry" Journal of Conflict Resolution (2001). 45(3), 259-282.
- Sambanis, Nicholas. "What is Civil War? Conceptual and Empirical Complexities of an Operational Definition" Journal of Conflict Resolution (2004). 48(6), 814-858.
- Stapleton, Timothy J., ed. Modern African Conflicts: An Encyclopedia of Civil Wars, Revolutions, and Terrorism (ABC-CLIO, 2022).
- Sundar, Aparna, and Nandini Sundar, eds. Civil wars in South Asia: State, sovereignty, development (SAGE Publications India, 2014) online.