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Rebellion

Rebellion

A rebellion is, in the most general sense, a refusal to accept authority. It may therefore be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors from civil disobedience to a violent organized attempt to destroy established authority. It is often used in reference to armed resistance against an established government, but can also refer to mass nonviolent resistance movements. Those who participate in rebellions are known as "rebels".

Overview

Throughout history many different groups that used violent methods were called rebels. In the U.S, the term was used for the Continentals by the British in the Revolutionary War and the Confederacy by the Union in the American Civil War. It also includes members of paramilitary forces who take up arms against an established government. For example, the Boxer rebellion was an uprising against Western commercial and political influence in China during the final years of the 19th century, and the Jacobite Risings which attempted to restore the deposed Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland were called the Jacobite Rebellions by the government.
Types of rebellion
A violent rebellion is sometimes referred to as an insurgency while a larger one may escalate into a civil war. There are a number of terms that fall under the umbrella of "rebel", though they range from those with positive connotations to those that are considered pejorative. Examples, in rough order from complimentary to pejorative, are:
- "Nonviolent resistance" or "civil disobedience"
- "Resistance" carried out by freedom fighters, often to an occupying invader
- "Revolution" by revolutionaries, often meant to indicate a desired change in the form of government and/or economic system
- "Uprising"
- "Insurrection" by insurrectionists
- "Insurgency" by insurgents
- "Revolt" by militants
- "Mutiny" by mutineers, normally of military or security forces to commanders
- "Subversion" by subversives
- "Terrorism" by terrorists, refers specifically to the method of avoiding pitched battle The difference between a "rebel" and a "terrorist" is often subjective. While the term rebel can sometimes have positive connotations as an agent of change, terrorist implies destructive action and is always used pejoratively, often by an establishment opposed to rebellious activities.
Famous rebellions / uprisings in history

Famous rebels

- Jesus of Nazareth
- Francis of Assisi
- Martin Luther
- Martin Luther King
- Maccabees
- Bhagat Singh
- Bohdan Chmielnicki
- James Connolly
- Michael Davitt
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Che Guevara
- Ammon Hennacy
- Helgi Hóseasson
- John O'Mahoney
- Rani Lakshmi Bai
- Subcomandante Marcos
- Francis Meagher
- Tipu Sultan
- John Mitchel
- Emelyan Pugachov
- Stenka Razin
- William Smith O'Brien
- Subash Chandra Bose
- Spartacus
- Leo Tolstoy
- Leon Trotsky
- Jack Cade
- Owen Glendower
- Emiliano Zapata
- Robert E Lee
- Stonewall Jackson
- George Washington
- Pancho Villa
- Zapata
See also

- Christian anarchism
- Civil disobedience
- Nonviolent resistance
- Revolution
- American Slave rebellions (Nat Turner's rebellion, Stono Rebellion, et cetera)
- Polish uprisings
- Rokosz, a legal rebellion in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
- The Open Source Movement has been called a "rebellion" against closed source software and intellectual capitalism.
- Intifada
Fictional rebellions

- Maquis (Star Trek)
- Rebel Alliance (Star Wars)
- Returners (Final Fantasy VI)
External links

- [http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collections/theme/2 The 1837-1838 Rebellion in Lower Canada], Images from the McCord Museum's collections Category:War
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Civil disobedience
:For the essay by Henry David Thoreau, see Civil Disobedience (Thoreau). Civil Disobedience (Thoreau), 2005.]] Civil disobedience encompasses the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government or of an occupying power without resorting to physical violence. Civil disobedience has been used in nonviolent resistance movements in India in the fight against British colonialism, South Africa in the fight against apartheid and in the civil rights movement of the USA and Europe as well as in the Scandinavian resistance against Nazi occupation. The American author Henry David Thoreau pioneered the modern theory behind this practice in his 1849 essay Civil Disobedience (available at Wikisource), originally titled "Resistance to Civil Government". The driving idea behind the essay was that of self-reliance, and how one is in morally good standing as long as they "get off another man's back"; so you don't have to physically fight the government, but you must not support it or have it support you (if you are against it). This essay has had a wide influence on many later practitioners of civil disobedience. In the essay, Thoreau explained his reasons for having refused to pay taxes as an act of protest against slavery and against the Mexican-American War. Civil disobedience has served as a major tactic of nationalist movements in former colonies in Africa and Asia prior to their gaining independence. Most notably Mahatma Gandhi developed civil disobedience as an anti-colonialist tool. Civil disobedience was a tactic used by Polish opposition to the former communist government (See Solidarity). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a leader of the US civil rights movement in the United States in the 1960s also adopted civil disobedience techniques, and antiwar activists both during and after the Vietnam War have done likewise. Since the 1970s, pro-life or anti-abortion groups have practiced civil disobedience against the U.S. government over the issue of legalized abortion. More recently, in the 2000s, people have used civil disobedience to protest the war on Iraq. Many who practice civil disobedience do so out of religious faith, and clergy often participate in or lead actions of civil disobedience. A notable example is Philip Berrigan, a Roman Catholic priest who was arrested dozens of times in acts of civil disobedience in antiwar protests. In seeking an active form of civil disobedience, one may choose to deliberately break certain laws, such as by forming a peaceful blockade or occupying a facility illegally. Protesters practice this non-violent form of civil disorder with the expectation that they will be arrested, or even attacked or beaten by the authorities. Protesters often undergo training in advance on how to react to arrest or to attack, so that they will do so in a manner that quietly or limply resists without threatening the authorities. For example, Mahatma Gandhi outlined the following rules: #A civil resister (or satyagrahi) will harbour no anger. #He will suffer the anger of the opponent. #In so doing he will put up with assaults from the opponent, never retaliate; but he will not submit, out of fear of punishment or the like, to any order given in anger. #When any person in authority seeks to arrest a civil resister, he will voluntarily submit to the arrest, and he will not resist the attachment or removal of his own property, if any, when it is sought to be confiscated by authorities. #If a civil resister has any property in his possession as a trustee, he will refuse to surrender it, even though in defending it he might lose his life. He will, however, never retaliate. #Retaliation includes swearing and cursing. #Therefore a civil resister will never insult his opponent, and therefore also not take part in many of the newly coined cries which are contrary to the spirit of ahimsa. #A civil resister will not salute the Union Jack, nor will he insult it or officials, English or Indian. #In the course of the struggle if anyone insults an official or commits an assault upon him, a civil resister will protect such official or officials from the insult or attack even at the risk of his life. Gandhi distinguished between his idea of satyagraha and the passive resistance of the west.
See also

- Christian anarchism
- Disobedients
- Nonconformism
- Nonviolence
- Nonviolent resistance
- Rosa Parks
- Tax resistance
- Sousveillance
External links

- [http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=content&task=category§ionid=9&id=200&Itemid=80 Pensions for Peace ~ ACT for the Earth]
- [http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/civ-dis.htm Civil Disobedience], by Peter Suber. From Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia, edited by Christopher Berry Gray, Garland Pub. Co., 1999, vol. I, pp. 110-113.
- [http://sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg On Resistance to Civil Government] by Henry David Thoreau
- [http://www.easylum.net/civildisobedience On Resistance to Civil Government], another version with different Wikipedia references for cultural context.
- [http://eserver.org/thoreau/theory.html The Theory, Practice, and Influence of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience], by Lawrence Rosenwald. From William Cain, ed.,The Oxford Historical Companion to Thoreau
- [http://eserver.org/thoreau/civil.html Annotated version of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience]
- [http://home.snafu.de/mkgandhi/manifest.htm Manifesto against conscription and the military system, with an updated list of all signatories from 1993 to 2005]
- [http://www.reclaimingquarterly.org ReclaimingQuarterly.org features photo-coverage of contemporary civil disobedience actions]
- [http://www.directaction.org DirectAction.org offers online organizing resources for civil disobedience]
- [http://store.theworstpageintheuniverse.com/shirts.html Civil disobedience is still disobedience] - Maddox Store
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Government

A government is the body that has the power to make and enforce laws within an organization or group. In its broadest sense, "to govern" means to administer or supervise, whether over an area of land, a set group of people, or a collection of assets. The word government is derived the Greek Κυβερνήτης (kubernites), which means "steersman", "governor", "pilot" or "rudder".

Definitions

One approach is to define government as the decision-making arm of the state, and define the latter on the basis of the control it has over violence and the use of force within its territory. Specifically, the state (and by extension the government) has been considered by some to be the entity that holds a monopoly on the legitimate use of force within a territory. This view has been taken by the political economist Max Weber and subsequent political philosophers. The exact meaning of it depends on what is understood by “legitimate”. If we use the term in an ethical sense, then this definition would suggest that an organisation might be considered a state by its supporters but not by its detractors. An alternative definition is to take "legitimate" violence to be simply that which has active or tacit acceptance by the vast majority of the population. In this view, the presence of insurrection or civil war against an entity would jeopardise its claim to be a state, provided the insurrection enjoyed significant popular support. Similarly, an entity that shared military or police power with independent militias and bandits could be considered to have a monopoly on “legitimate” violence but to be failing to enforce it, reducing its claim to statehood. In practice, such situations are often described as "failed states". Government can also be defined as the political means of creating and enforcing laws; typically via a bureaucratic hierarchy. Under this definition, a purely despotic organization which controls a territory without defining laws would not be considered a government. Another alternative is to define a government as an organisation that attempts to maintain control of a territory, where "control" involves activities such as collecting taxes, controlling entry and exit to the state, preventing encroachment of territory by neighbouring states and preventing the establishment of alternative governments within the country. In Commonwealth English, the word "Government" can also be used to refer only to the executive branch, in this context being a synonym for the word "administration" in American English (e.g. the Blair Government, the Bush Administration). In countries using the Westminster system, the Government (or party in Government) will also usually control the legislature. The French use of the word gouvernement covers both meanings, whereas Canadian French generally uses it to mean the executive branch. The German word Regierung refers only to government as the executive branch; the wider meaning of the word, government as a system, can be translated as Staatsgewalt.

Forms of government

Various forms of government have been implemented. A government in a developed state is likely to have various sub-organisations known as offices, departments, or agencies, which are headed by politically appointed officials, often called ministers or secretaries. Ministers may in theory act as advisors to the head of state, but in practice have a certain amount of direct power in specific areas. In most modern democracies, the elected legislative assembly has the power to dismiss the government, but in those states that have a separate head of government and head of state, the head of state generally has great latitude in appointing a new one.

Theories

There are a wide range of theories about the reasons for establishing governments. The four major ones are briefly described below. Note that they do not always fully oppose each other - it is possible for a person to subscribe to a combination of ideas from two or more of these theories.

Greed and oppression

Many political philosophies that are opposed to the existence of a government (such as Anarchism, and to a lesser extent Marxism), as well as others, emphasize the historical roots of governments - the fact that governments, along with private property, originated from the authority of warlords and petty despots who took, by force, certain patches of land as their own (and began exercising authority over the people living on that land). Thus, it is argued that governments exist to enforce the will of the strong and oppress the weak.

Order and tradition

The various forms of conservatism, by contrast, generally see the government as a positive force that brings order out of chaos, establishes laws to end the "war of all against all", encourages moral virtue while punishing vice, and respects tradition. Sometimes, in this view, the government is seen as something ordained by a higher power, as in the divine right of kings, which human beings have a duty to obey.

Natural rights

Natural rights are the basis for the theory of government shared by most branches of liberalism (including libertarianism). In this view, human beings are born with certain natural rights, and governments are established strictly for the purpose of protecting those rights. What the natural rights actually are is a matter of dispute among liberals; indeed, each branch of liberalism has its own set of rights that it considers to be natural, and these rights are sometimes mutually exclusive with the rights supported by other liberals.

Social contract

One of the most influential theories of government in the past two hundred years has been the social contract, on which modern democracy and most forms of socialism are founded. The social contract theory holds that governments are created by the people in order to provide for collective needs (such as safety from crime) that cannot be properly satisfied using purely individual means. Governments thus exist for the purpose of serving the needs and wishes of the people, and their relationship with the people is clearly stipulated in a "social contract" (a constitution and a set of laws) which both the government and the people must abide by. If a majority is unhappy, it may change the social contract. If a minority is unhappy, it may persuade the majority to change the contract, or it may opt out of it by emigration or secession.

Operations

Governments concern themselves with regulating and administering many areas of human activity, such as trade, education, medicine, entertainment, and war.

Enforcement of power

Governments use a variety of methods to maintain the established order, such as police and military forces, (particularly under despotism, see also police state), making agreements with other states, and maintaining support within the state. Typical methods of maintaining support and legitimacy include providing the infrastructure for administration, justice, transport, communication, social welfare etc., claiming support from deities, providing benefits to elites, holding elections for important posts within the state, limiting the power of the state through laws and constitutions (see also Bill of Rights) and appealing to nationalism. Different political ideologies hold different ideas on what the government should or should not do.

Territory

The modern standard unit of territory is a country. In addition to the meaning used above, the word state can refer either to a government or to its territory. Within a territory, subnational entities may have local governments which do not have the full power of a national government (for example, they will generally lack the authority to declare war or carry out diplomatic negotiations).

Scale of government

Main articles: government ownership, government spending The scale to which government should exist and operate in the world is a matter of debate. Government spending in developed countries varies considerably but generally makes up between about 30% and 70% of their GDP.

Nonviolent resistance

Nonviolent resistance (or nonviolent action) comprises the practice of applying power to achieve socio-political goals through symbolic protests, economic or political noncooperation, civil disobedience and other methods, without the use of physical violence. It has the guiding principle of nonviolence. Like other strategies for social change, nonviolent action can appear in various forms and degrees. It may include, for example, such varied forms as information wars, protest art, lobbying, tax refusal, boycotts or sanctions, legal/diplomatic wrestling, material sabotage, underground railroads, principled refusal of awards/honours, picketing, vigiling, leafletting, and/or general strikes. Some scholars of nonviolence, arguing that many movements have pragmatically adopted the methods of nonviolent action as an effective way to achieve social or political goals, distinguish the methods of nonviolent action from the moral stance of nonviolence or non-harm towards others. Gene Sharp has identified 198 methods of nonviolent action which practitioners may use to defend against invasions, undermine dictatorships, block coups d'état or challenge unjust social systems. They include:
- symbolic protests
- tax resistance
- hunger strikes
- paralysis of transportation
- social boycotts
- specific and general strikes
- civil disobedience
- economic shutdowns
- political noncooperation
- "disappearance" under false identity
- economic boycotts
- public demonstrations
- slow-downs
- publication of banned newspapers
- deliberate inefficiencies
- assistance to persecuted people
- broadcasts about resistance on radio and television
- judicial resistance
- defiance by the government
- denial of legitimacy to usurpers
- non-cooperation of civil servants
- legislative procrastination and delays
- declarations of defiance
- persistent continuation of old policies and laws
- student defiance
- children's demonstrations
- individual and mass resignations
- refusal of collaboration
- maintenance of autonomy of independent organizations and institutions
- subversion of usurpers' troops, and inciting them to mutiny

Examples of nonviolent resistance

A list of current and recent nonviolent resistance organizations

- Kifaya (Egypt)
- Kmara (Georgia)
- Otpor (Serbia)
- Parihaka (New Zealand)
- Pora (Ukraine)
- Zubr (Belarus)
- Gandhi (India)

Early nonviolent resistance

One of the earliest incidents of nonviolent resistance known to history is found in the works of Flavius Josephus, who relates in both The Wars of the Jews and Antiquities of the Jews (book 18, chapter 3 - The same chapter talks about the execution of Jesus - which is a hint that he may have been the leader of the Jewish protest) how Jews demonstrated in Caesarea to try to convince Pilate not to set up Roman standards, with images of the emperor and the eagle of Jupiter, in Jerusalem (both images would be considered idolatrous by religious Jews). Pilate surrounded the Jewish protesters with soldiers and threatened them with death. They replied that they were quite willing to die rather than see the laws of the Torah violated. This protest action was successful in its immediate goal. Chapter 24 of the Book of Alma, in the Book of Mormon, contains the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehi people, who had forsworn idolatry and violence. Sometime between 90 BC and 77 BC when people known as Anti-Nephi-Lehi, allowed themselves to be slaughtered by their attackers rather than do violence even in self-defense. According to the Book, many of the attackers were moved so strongly by the example of these peaceful people that they threw down their weapons and became pacifists themselves.

Nonviolent resistance in the first stage of the American Revolution

Before the War for Independence started with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the American Revolution was mostly nonviolent. There were a few instances of violence against persons (e.g. The Boston Massacre) and against property (e.g. The Boston Tea Party), but for the most part, revolutionary actions during the first ten years (1765 to early 1775) of the Revolution included:
- Tax Resistance.
- Boycotts of British imports.
- Organization of Committees of Correspondence.
- Petitions to the King and Parliament.
- Publication of Pamphlets and Newspapers.

Nonviolent resistance in nineteenth-century Trinidad

Trinidad, in the West Indies, was the site of successful nonviolent protest and resistance that accelerated the liberation of slaves there. The United Kingdom, then the colonial power in Trinidad, first announced in 1833 the impending total liberation of slaves by 1840. In the meantime the authorities expected slaves on plantations to remain in situ and work as "apprentices" for the next six years. On 1 August 1834, at an address by the Governor at Government House about the new laws, an unarmed group of mainly elderly negroes began chanting: Pas de six ans. Point de six ans ("Not six years. No six years"), drowning out the voice of the Governor. Peaceful protests continued until the passing of a resolution to abolish apprenticeship and the achievement of de facto freedom. The authorities finally legally granted full emancipation for all - ahead of schedule - on 1 August 1838.

Nonviolent resistance in colonial India

The story of nonviolent resistance in colonial India is synonymous with the story of the Non-Cooperation Movement and Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi saw Jesus as one of his main teachers and inspirations. Besides bringing about Independence, Gandhi's nonviolence also helped to improve the status of Untouchables in Indian religion and society. In the conflicts that ensued from Independence and Partition, Gandhi is credited with keeping Calcutta and the whole eastern border of India peaceful.

Nonviolent resistance in communist Poland

:to be written: see Waldemar Frydrych (Orange Alternative), Solidarity

Nonviolent resistance in the United States

:to be written see also American Civil Rights Movement

Nonviolent resistance in segregated South Africa

The ANC and allied anti-apartheid groups initially carried out non-violent resistance against pro-segregation and apartheid governments in South Africa, see Defiance Campaign. However, events such as the Sharpeville Massacre (21 March 1960) led ANC activists like Nelson Mandela to believe in the necessity of violent (or armed) resistance. Mandela founded Umkhonto we Sizwe (the Spear of the Nation). It initially carried out acts of sabotage but later expanded to guerrilla warfare against the South African security forces, including the use of car bombs. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and other groups carried out violent acts against the government. The South African Truth and Reconcilation Commission accused all anti-apartheid groups of killing civilians in violent acts. The PAC's armed wing faced accusations of deliberately killing white civilians and blacks who co-operated with the government. The apartheid government regarded all violent acts by anti-apartheid groups as acts of terrorism. :needs expanding see also Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko

Nonviolent resistance in Israel and the Palestinian Territories

While Palestinians have often used stone-throwing, armed action and suicide bombings against Israel, including attacks on civilian targets, non-violent methods have also been used. Palestinian groups have worked with Israelis and foreign citizens to organise civilian monitors of Israel military activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The best-known of these initiatives is perhaps the International Solidarity Movement. Peace camps and non-violent resistance to Israeli construction of settlements and of the West Bank Barrier have also been consistently adopted as tactics by Palestinians. Citizens of the Palestinian village of Beit Sahour also engaged in a tax strike during the First Intifada. see also: Mubarak Awad In Israel, protestors against Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004 used nonviolent resistance against the impending evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and some settlements in the West Bank. On May 16, 2005, protesters blocked many traffic intersections at 5:00pm, leading to massive traffic jams and delays throughout the country. Although the police had received advance notification of the action, they had much difficulty in opening the intersections to vehicles, eventually arresting over 400 protesters, many of them juveniles. Organizers of the protests regarded this deed only as an opening volley, with the large protests planned to begin when the Israeli authorities cut off entry into the Gaza Strip in preparation of the disengagement. In the event, large-scale civil disobedience did not occur in Israel proper, although some settlers and their supporters resisted the evacuation non-violently. see also: Moshe Feiglin

Nonviolent resistance in Denmark during World War II

When the Wehrmacht invaded Denmark in 1940, the Danes soon saw that military confrontation would change little except the number of surviving Danes. The Danish government therefore adopted a policy of official co-operation (and unofficial obstruction) which they called "negotiation under protest." On the industrial front, Danish workers subtly slowed all production that might feed the German war machine, sometimes to a perfect standstill. On the cultural front, Danes engaged in symbolic defiance by organizing mass celebrations of their own history and traditions. On the legislative front, the Danish government insisted that since they officially co-operated with Germany, they had an ally's right to negotiate with Germany, and then proceeded to create bureaucratic quagmires which stalled or blocked German orders without having to refuse them outright. Danish authorities also proved conveniently inept at controlling the underground Danish resistance press, which at one point reached circulation numbers equivalent to the entire adult population. The Danish government also gave room (and even secret assistance) to underground groups involved in sabotage of machinery and railway lines needed to extract Danish resources or to supply the Wehmacht. The classification of this kind of resistance as "nonviolent" remains debatable, but it certainly proved less "violent" than engaging in or supporting terrorism directed at taking life or health from the occupiers. Even after the official dissolution of their government, the Danes managed to block German goals without resorting to bloodshed. Underground groups smuggled over 7000 of Denmark's 8000 Jews temporarily into Sweden, at great personal risk. Workers (and even entire cities like Copenhagen) went on mass strikes, refusing to work for the occupier's benefit on the occupier's terms. After an initial response of greatly increased repression, the war-distracted Germans abandoned strike-breaking efforts in exasperation. The Danish resistance against the Nazis proved highly effective, but it raises characteristic questions about the efficacy of nonviolence. The Danes clearly lost very few lives, while annoying and draining their foreign occupiers. But some people wonder whether the Danish strategy might not have failed abysmally if applied in other countries occupied by Germany and where German forces ruled through naked terror. It almost certainly would have proved a more painful strategy for Denmark in such a circumstance (as in the case of the successful but agonizing nonviolent resistance to apartheid in South Africa), but as in the case of the Gandhian solution of perfect global surrender to the Nazis followed by perfect global non-cooperation with them, many questions of efficacy remain in the realm of the hypothetical. And due to the decentralized and various nature of nonviolent advocacy, questions about possible compatibility with violent resistance, or even about precise definitions of "nonviolent tactics" have no categorical answers.

Nonviolent Resistance in Germany during World War II

Even in Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Nonviolent Resistance was effectively used to save Jewish lives. In 1943, Frau Israel and other non-Jewish ("Aryan") women protested against the deportation of their Jewish husbands to Auschwitz. The women were in real danger of being massacred themselves. At one point, the SS set up machine guns on Rose Street where the protest was held. In the end, however, the deportattions were halted, and some men came back from Auschwitz with their numbers tattooed on their arms. The Nazis planned to exterminate both the Jewish men and their non-Jewish wives after the end of the War, but this was prevented by the victory of the Allies.

Nonviolent Resistance in Norway during World War II

Norway's teachers, in spite of great suffering, successfully prevented the Nazification of Norway's educational system and society attempted by collaborationist leader Vidkun Quisling.

Nonviolent Resistance in the British Mandate of Palestine

During the years 1936 to 1947, in spite of severe persecution and even extermination of the Jewish population of Europe, the British authorities severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine. Jewish resistance by a minority was violent, but for the most part it consisted of the smuggling of refugees into the land, evading the British blockade. The most famous incident of such resistance was the voyage of the Exodus 1947. The brave and nonviolent resistance of the Jewish refugees impressed world opinion so much that a majority of the United Nations shortly afterwards voted to establish a Jewish State in Palestine. In the next year, 1948, this became the Nation of Israel.

Nonviolent resistance of the farmers of Larzac (France)

In 1971, the French government announced their intention to extend the military camp on the Larzac plateau, an arid area in southern France where they claimed that "almost nobody lived". Local farmers strongly disagreed with this assessment and, inspired by the example of Lanza del Vasto (a philosopher and follower of Mahatma Gandhi who had gone on hunger strike for two weeks in their support), they embarked on a campaign of non-violent resistance. In 1972 the farmers' struggle attracted world-wide media coverage when they brought 60 sheep to graze on the lawn under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The issue became a famous cause among many groups, from ecologists to conscientious objectors, and in 1973 100,000 people attended a demonstration in Paris in support of the farmers of Larzac. The fight lasted until 1981, when the newly-elected socialist French President François Mitterrand abandoned the project. Now instead of a military camp they have the Millau Viaduct and the A75 autoroute.
- See also José Bové

Nonviolent resistance against nuclear weapons

:to be written see also Mutlangen
- see also Committee for Non-Violent Action

Nonviolent resistance in the Pacific

- Mau movement
- Moriori
- Parihaka

Nonviolent resistance in the Middle-East

- Egypt - Kifaya, Tomorrow Party

Publications

- M K Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha)
- [http://www.activistmagazine.com The ACTivist Magazine]
- Gene Sharp,Politics of Nonviolent Action (Parts 1 - 3)
- Walter Wink,Jesus and Nonviolence - A Third Way

External links

- [http://www.nonviolence.org.au/studies.html Nonviolence Training Project: case studies]
- [http://www.aeinstein.org Albert Einstein Institution]: (founder Gene Sharp)
- [http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html The Kingdom of God Is Within You - free e-text]
- [http://home.snafu.de/mkgandhi/manifest.htm Manifesto against conscription and the military system, with an updated list of all signatories from 1993 to 2005] Category: Social justice

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known, especially internationally, as the American War of Independence, was a war fought primarily between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen British colonies in North America. The war began largely as a colonial revolt against the economic policies of the British Empire, and eventually widened far beyond British North America, with France, Spain, and the Netherlands entering the war against Great Britain. Additionally, many American Indians fought on both sides of the conflict. Throughout the war, the British were able to use their naval superiority to capture colonial coastal cities, but control of the countryside largely eluded them. French involvement proved decisive, with a naval victory in the Chesapeake leading to the surrender of a British army at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 recognized the independence of the United States of America. Because a great number of colonists fled the thirteen colonies and settled in the north, the war also paved the way for the eventual creation of what would become Canada. The terms American Revolutionary War and American Revolution are often used interchangeably, though the American Revolution included political and social developments before and after the war itself. This article refers solely to the military campaign; for a broader perspective, including the origins and aftermath of the war, see the American Revolution.

Combatants

Colonists

Colonists were divided over which side to support in the war. About 40 to 45 percent of the colonial population supported the struggle for independence, and were known as "Patriots" (or "Whigs"). About 15 to 20 percent supported the British Crown during the war, and were known as "Loyalists" (or "Tories"). Loyalists fielded perhaps 50,000 men during the war years in support of the British Empire. In some areas, the American Revolutionary War was a civil war. When the war began, the American revolutionaries did not have a professional army (also known as a "regular" or "standing" army). Each colony had traditionally provided for its own defenses through the use of local militia. Militiamen served for only a few weeks or months at a time, were generally reluctant to go very far from home, and would often come and go as they saw fit. Militia typically lacked the training and discipline of regular troops, but could be effective when led by talented officers. Seeking to coordinate military efforts, the Continental Congress established (on paper) a regular army—the Continental Army—in June of 1775, and appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief. The development of the Continental Army was always a work in progress, and Washington reluctantly augmented the regular troops with militia throughout the war. Although as many as 250,000 Patriots may have served as regulars or militiamen in the eight years of the war, there were never more than 90,000 total men under arms for the revolutionaries in any given year. Armies in North America were small by European standards of the era; the greatest number of men that Washington personally commanded in the field at any one time was fewer than 17,000.

European nations

commander-in-chief Early in 1775, the British army consisted of about 36,000 men worldwide, but wartime recruitment steadily increased this number. Additionally, over the course of the war the British hired about 30,000 German mercenaries, popularly known in the colonies as "Hessians" because many of them came from Hesse. Germans would make up about one-third of the British troop strength in North America. By 1779, the number of British and German troops stationed in North America was over 60,000, though these were spread from Canada to Florida. France, the Netherlands and Spain entered the war against Great Britain in an attempt to dilute Britain's emerging superpower status. Early on, all three countries quietly provided financial assistance to the American rebels. France officially entered the war in 1778 and soon sent troops, ships, and military equipment to fight against the British for the remainder of the war. Spain entered the war in 1779, officially as an ally of France, not the United States—Spain was not keen on encouraging similar rebellions in her own empire. The Netherlands entered the war late in 1780, but was soon overwhelmed by the British.

Blacks and Native Americans

African-Americans, slaves and free blacks, served on both sides during the war. Black soldiers served in northern militias from the outset, but this was forbidden in the South, where slaveowners feared arming slaves. Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, issued an emancipation proclamation in November 1775, promising freedom to runaway slaves who fought for the British, and Sir Henry Clinton issued a similar edict in New York in 1779. Tens of thousands of slaves escaped to the British lines, although possibly as few as 1,000 served under arms. Many of the rest served as orderlies, mechanics, laborers, servants, scouts and guides, although more than half died in smallpox epidemics that swept the British forces, and a number were driven out of the British lines when food ran low. Despite Dunmore's promises, the majority were not given their freedom. In response, and because of manpower shortages, Washington lifted the ban on black enlistment in the Continental Army in January 1776. All-black units were formed in Rhode Island and Massachusetts; many were slaves promised freedom for serving in lieu of their masters; another all-black unit came from Haiti with French forces. At least 5,000 black soldiers fought as Patriots. Most American Indian communities east of the Mississippi River were affected by the war, many divided over the question of which side to support. Most Native Americans who joined the fight fought against the United States, since native lands were threatened by ever expanding Anglo-American settlement. An estimated 13,000 warriors fought on the British side; the largest group, the Iroquois Confederacy, fielded about 1,500 warriors against the Patriots.

War in the North

Massachusetts, 1774 to 1776

Iroquois Confederacy In 1774, the British parliament effectively abolished the provincial government of Massachusetts. Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, already the commander-in-chief of British troops in North America, was also appointed governor of Massachusetts and was instructed by King George's government to enforce royal authority in the troublesome colony. However, popular resistance compelled the newly appointed royal officials in Massachusetts to resign or to seek refuge in Boston. Gage commanded four regiments of British regulars (about 4,000 men) from his headquarters in Boston, but the countryside was in the hands of the Patriots. On the night of 18 April 1775, General Gage sent 900 men to seize munitions stored by the colonial militia at Concord, Massachusetts. Several Patriot riders — including Paul Revere — alerted the countryside, and when the British troops entered Lexington on the morning of 19 April, they found 75 minutemen formed up on the village common. Shots were exchanged, and the British moved on to Concord, where there was more fighting. By the time the "redcoats" (as the British soldiers were called) began the return march, several thousand militiamen had gathered along the road. A running fight ensued, and the British detachment suffered heavily. With the Battle of Lexington and Concord — the "Shot heard 'round the world" — the war had begun. Afterwards, thousands of Patriot militiamen converged on Boston, bottling up the British in the city. Late in May, Gage received by sea about 4,500 reinforcements and a trio of generals who would play a vital role in the war: William Howe, John Burgoyne, and Henry Clinton. They formulated a plan to break out of the city. On June 17, 1775, British forces under General Howe seized the Charlestown peninsula at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The battle was technically a British victory, but losses were so heavy that the attack was not followed up. Thus the siege was not broken, and General Gage was soon replaced by Howe as commander-in-chief for the British. In July of 1775, newly appointed General Washington arrived outside Boston to take charge of the colonial forces. The standoff continued throughout the fall and winter. In early March of 1776, heavy cannons that had been captured by Patriots at Fort Ticonderoga were moved to Boston, a difficult feat engineered by Henry Knox. When the guns were placed upon Dorchester Heights, overlooking the British positions, Howe's situation became untenable. The British evacuated the city on March 17, 1776 and sailed for temporary refuge in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The colonial militia dispersed, and in April Washington took most of the Continental Army to fortify New York City.

Canada, 1775 to 1776

During the long standoff at Boston, the Continental Congress sought a way to seize the initiative elsewhere. Congress had initially invited French-Canadians to join them as the fourteenth colony, but when that failed to happen, an invasion of Canada was authorized in an attempt to drive the British from the Canadian provinces. Two expeditions were undertaken. On September 16, 1775, Brigadier General Richard Montgomery marched north from Fort Ticonderoga with about 1,700 militiamen, capturing Montreal on November 13. General Guy Carleton, the governor of Canada, escaped to Quebec. The second expedition, led by Colonel Benedict Arnold, set out from Fort Western (present day Maine) on September 25. The expedition was a logistical nightmare, and many men succumbed to smallpox. By the time Arnold reached Quebec in early November, he had but 600 of his original 1,100 men. Nevertheless, Arnold demanded the surrender of the city, to no avail. Montgomery joined Arnold, and they attacked Quebec on December 31, but were soundly defeated by Carleton. Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, and many men were taken prisoner. The Patriots held on outside Quebec until the spring of 1776, and then withdrew. Another attempt was made by the Patriots to push back towards Quebec, but failed at Trois-Rivières on June 8, 1776. Carleton then launched his own invasion, and defeated Arnold in a naval battle on Lake Champlain (the Battle of Valcour Island) in October. Arnold fell back to Fort Ticonderoga, where the invasion of Canada had begun. The invasion of Canada ended as an embarrassing disaster for the Patriots, but Arnold's improvised navy on Lake Champlain managed to delay the fateful British counter thrust (the Saratoga Campaign) until 1777.

New York and New Jersey, 1776 to 1777

Having withdrawn from Boston, the British now focused on capturing New York City. General Howe, with the services of his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, began amassing troops on Staten Island in July of 1776. General Washington, with a smaller army of about 20,000 men, unwittingly violated a cardinal rule of warfare, and divided his troops about equally between Long Island and Manhattan, thus allowing the Howes to engage only one half of the Continental Army at a time. In late August, the Howes transported about 22,000 men (including 9,000 "Hessians") to Long Island. In the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, the British expertly executed a surprise flanking maneuver, driving the Patriots back to the Brooklyn Heights fortifications. General Howe then laid siege to the works, but Washington skillfully managed a nighttime evacuation to Manhattan. Having taken Long Island, the Howes moved to seize Manhattan. On September 15, General Howe landed about 12,000 men on lower Manhattan, quickly taking control of New York City. The Patriots withdrew to Harlem Heights, where they skirmished the next day, but held their ground. When Howe moved to encircle Washington's army in October, the Patriots again fell back, and a battle at White Plains was fought on October 28, 1776. Once more Washington retreated, but Howe, instead of aggressively pursuing the withdrawal, returned to Manhattan and captured Fort Washington in mid November, taking almost 3,000 prisoners. Four days later, Fort Lee, across the Hudson River from Fort Washington, was also taken. Hudson River is an iconic image of American history.]] General Lord Cornwallis continued to chase Washington's army through New Jersey, until the Patriots withdrew across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania in early December. With the campaign at an apparent conclusion for the season, the British entered winter quarters. Although Howe had missed several opportunities to crush the diminishing Patriot army, he had killed or captured over 5,000 of the rebels. He controlled much of New York and New Jersey, and was in a good position to resume operations in the spring, with the rebel capital of Philadelphia in striking distance. The outlook of the Continental Army — and thus the revolution itself — was bleak. "These are the times that try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine, who was with the army on the retreat. The army had dwindled to fewer than 5,000 men fit for duty, and would be reduced to 1,400 after enlistments expired at the end of the year. Spirits were low, popular support was wavering, and Congress had abandoned Philadelphia in despair. Washington reacted by taking the offensive, stealthily crossing the Delaware on Christmas night and capturing nearly 1,000 Hessians at the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776. Cornwallis marched to retake Trenton, but was outmaneuvered by Washington, who successfully attacked the British rearguard at Princeton on January 3, 1777. Washington then entered winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, having retaken much of New Jersey, and having secured two bold, morale-boosting victories in quick succession to reinvigorate the flagging revolution.

Saratoga Campaign, 1777

In the summer of 1777, the British launched a new expedition from Canada. Led by General Burgoyne, the intention was to seize the Lake Champlain and Hudson River corridor, effectively isolating New England from the rest of the American colonies. Burgoyne's invasion had two components: he would lead about 10,000 men along Lake Champlain towards Albany, New York, while a second column of about 2,000 men, led by Barry St. Leger, would move down the Mohawk River valley and link up with Burgoyne in Albany. Burgoyne set off in early July, recapturing Fort Ticonderoga from the retreating Patriots without firing a shot. He then proceeded overland towards Albany, but Patriots slowed his progress through the wilderness by destroying bridges and felling trees in his path. Running short on supplies, in August Burgoyne sent a detachment to raid nearby Bennington, Vermont. The raiders were decisively defeated by local Patriot militia, depriving Burgoyne of nearly 1,000 men and the much-needed supplies. decisively defeated commanded both American Indians and white Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War.]] Meanwhile, St. Leger—half of his force American Indians led by Joseph Brant—had laid siege to Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River. About 800 Patriot militiamen and their Indian allies marched to relieve the siege, but were ambushed and scattered by British and Indians on August 6 at the Battle of Oriskany. Iroquois warriors fought on both sides of the battle, marking the beginning of a civil war within the Six Nations. When a second relief expedition approached, this time led by Benedict Arnold, the siege was lifted, and St. Leger's expedition returned to Canada. Burgoyne was on his own. Burgoyne pushed on towards Albany, his forces now reduced to about 6,000 men. A Patriot army of about 8,000 men, commanded by the newly arrived General Horatio Gates, had entrenched about 10 miles (16 km) south of Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne sent 2,000 men to outflank the Patriot position, but was checked by Generals Benedict Arnold and Daniel Morgan in the first battle of Saratoga on September 19, 1777. After the battle, the two armies dug in. Burgoyne was in trouble now, but he hoped that help from the south might be on the way. All along, Burgoyne had suggested that his invasion from Canada might be supported by a British offensive up the Hudson River from Howe's location in New York City. However, British war planners did not coordinate their efforts. General Howe had instead sailed away from New York on an expedition to capture Philadelphia (see next section). British General Henry Clinton, left in command at New York, did indeed sail up the Hudson in October, capturing several forts and burning Kingston (at the time the Patriot capital of New York), but his efforts were not enough to affect the events at Saratoga. Patriot militiamen, many of them outraged by the reported murder of an American woman at the hands of Burgoyne's Indian allies, flocked to Gates's army, swelling his force to 11,000 by the beginning of October. Burgoyne, his position becoming desperate, launched a new offensive, the second battle of Saratoga on October 7. The attack was repelled, and General Arnold, though relieved of command by Gates, rushed to the battle and led a decisive counterattack. Badly beaten, Burgoyne surrendered on October 17. Saratoga was the turning point of the war. Patriot confidence and determination, suffering from Howe's successful occupation of Philadelphia, was renewed. Even more importantly, the victory encouraged France to enter the war against Great Britain. Spain and the Netherlands soon did the same. For the British, the war had now become much more complicated.

Philadelphia Campaign, 1777 to 1778

Having secured New York City in his 1776 campaign, in 1777 General Howe concentrated on capturing the capital of Philadelphia. He moved slowly, landing 15,000 troops in late August at the northern end of Chesapeake Bay, about 55 miles (90 km) southwest of Philadelphia. Washington positioned his 11,000 men between Howe and Philadelphia, but was outflanked and driven back at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. The Continental Congress once again abandoned the city. British and Patriot forces maneuvered around each other for the next several days, clashing in minor encounters such as the so-called "Paoli Massacre." On September 26, Howe finally outmaneuvered Washington, and marched into Philadelphia unopposed. After taking the city, the British garrisoned about 9,000 troops in Germantown, five miles (8 km) above Philadelphia. Washington unsuccessfully attacked Germantown in early October, and then retreated to watch and wait. Meanwhile, the British secured the Delaware River by taking (with difficulty) forts Mifflin and Mercer in November. General Washington's problems at this time were not just with the British. In the so-called Conway Cabal, some politicians and officers unhappy with Washington's recent performance as commander-in-chief secretively discussed his removal. Washington, offended by the behind-the-scenes maneuvering, laid the whole matter openly before Congress. His supporters rallied behind him, and the episode abated. Washington and his army encamped at Valley Forge in December of 1777, about 20 miles (32 km) from Philadelphia, where they would stay for the next six months. Over the winter, 2,500 men (out of 10,000) died from disease and exposure. However, the army eventually emerged from Valley Forge in good order, thanks in part to a training program supervised by Baron von Steuben. Meanwhile, there was a shakeup in the British command, with General Clinton replacing Howe as commander-in-chief. French entry into the war had changed British war strategy, and Clinton was ordered by the government to go on the defensive in the North. He abandoned Philadelphia and marched back towards New York City. Washington's army shadowed Clinton on his withdrawal, and forced a battle at Monmouth on June 28, 1778, the last major battle in the North. Washington's second-in-command, General Charles Lee, ordered a controversial retreat during the battle, angering Washington and allowing Clinton's army to escape. By July, Clinton was in New York City, and Washington was again at White Plains. Both armies were back where they had been two years earlier. With the exception of scattered minor actions in the North, like the Battle of Stony Point, the focus of the war now shifted elsewhere.

War in the West

Main article: Frontier warfare during the American Revolution Frontier warfare during the American Revolution in the dead of winter led to the capture of General Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant-Governor of Canada.]] West of the Appalachian Mountains, the American Revolutionary War was an "Indian War." The British and the Continental Congress both courted American Indians as allies (or urged them to remain neutral), and many Native American communities became divided over what path to take. Like the Iroquois Confederacy, tribes such as the Cherokees and the Shawnees split into factions. Delawares under White Eyes signed the first Indian treaty with the United States, but other Delawares joined the British. The British supplied their Indian allies from forts along the Great Lakes, and tribesmen staged raids on Patriot settlements in New York, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Joint Iroquois-Loyalist attacks in the Wyoming Valley and at Cherry Valley in 1778 helped provoke the scorched earth Sullivan Expedition into western New York during the summer of 1779. On the brutal western front, every man, woman, and child — regardless of race — was a potential casualty. In the Ohio Country, the Virginia frontiersman George Rogers Clark attempted to neutralize British influence among the Ohio tribes by capturing the outposts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes in the summer of 1778. When General Henry Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, retook Vincennes, Clark returned in a surprise march in February of 1779 and captured Hamilton himself. However, a decisive victory in the West eluded the United States even as their fortunes had risen in the East. The low point on the frontier came in 1782 with the Gnadenhütten massacre, when Pennsylvania militiamen, unable to track down enemy warriors, executed nearly 100 Christian Delaware noncombatants, mostly women and children. Later that year, in the last major encounter of the war, a party of Kentuckians was soundly defeated by a superior force of British regulars and Native Americans. For generations in the United States, the exploits of George Rogers Clark were practically the only stories told about the Revolution in the West; other parts of the tale were apparently best left unremembered.

War in the South

During the first three years of the American Revolutionary War, the primary military encounters were in the North. One notable exception was in June of 1776, when General Henry Clinton sailed south to attack Charleston, South Carolina. This ended in humiliating defeat for the British, and the revolutionaries remained in control of the southern colonies for the next three years. Starting in 1778, the British once again turned their attention to the colonies of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, where they hoped to regain control with the assistance of southern Loyalists. On December 29, 1778, an expeditionary corps of 3,500 men from Clinton's army in New York captured Savannah, Georgia. A joint Franco-Patriot attempt to retake Savannah failed on October 9, 1779. In this assault Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish commander of Patriot cavalry, was mortally wounded. With Savannah secured, Clinton could now launch a new assault on Charleston, South Carolina, where he had failed so miserably in 1776.

Carolinas, 1780 to 1781

cavalry in 1782.]] Clinton finally moved against Charleston in 1780, blockading the harbor in March, and building up about 10,000 troops in the area. Inside the city, General Benjamin Lincoln commanded about 2,650 Continentals and 2,500 militiamen. When British Colonel Banastre Tarleton cut off the city's supply lines in victories at Monck’s Corner in April and Lenud’s Ferry in early May, Charleston was surrounded. The besiegers dug trenches closer and closer to the city until, on May 12, 1780, General Lincoln surrendered his 5,000 men—the largest surrender of U.S. troops until the American Civil War. With relatively few casualties, Clinton had seized the South’s biggest city and seaport, winning perhaps the greatest British victory of the war, and paving the way for what seemed like certain conquest of the South. The regiment of the southern Continental Army on their way to aid Charleston turned back after to North Carolina after their destination city fell. Colonel Tarleton pursued them and caught up to them on May 29, 1780. The affair that followed is the subject of much debate. Tarleton claims to have soundly defeated the Americans, but the common American verision says that Tarleton's forces either ignored the American attempt to surrender or fired upon them as they were in the process of doing so. The event became known as the Waxhaw massacre. The American verision of the story quickly spread through the colonies. “Bloody Tarleton” became a hated name among the rebels, and “Tarleton’s quarter”—referring to his reputed lack of mercy (or “quarter”)—soon became a Patriot rallying cry. With these events, organized Patriot resistance in the South had collapsed, though the war was carried on by partisans such as Francis Marion. General Clinton turned over British operations in the South to Lord Cornwallis. The Continental Congress dispatched the "hero of Saratoga," General Horatio Gates, to the rescue with a new army. But Gates promptly suffered one of the worst defeats in U.S. military history at the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780, setting the stage for Cornwallis to invade North Carolina. The tables were quickly turned on Cornwallis, however. One wing of his army was utterly defeated at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780, delaying his move into North Carolina. Kings Mountain was noteworthy because it was not a battle between British redcoats and Patriot troops: It was a battle between American Loyalists and American Patriots. The Revolutionary War was in many ways a civil war; this was especially true in the South. Gates was replaced by George Washington's most dependable subordinate, General Nathanael Greene. Greene assigned about 1,000 men to General Daniel Morgan, a superb tactician who crushed Tarleton’s troops at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781. Greene proceeded to wear down his opponents in a series of battles (Guilford Court House, Hobkirk's Hill, Ninety Six and Eutaw Springs), each of them tactically a victory for the British, but giving no strategic advantage to the victors. Greene summed up his approach in a motto that would become famous: "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Unable to capture or destroy Greene's army, Cornwallis turned his attention to Virginia.

Virginia, 1775 to 1781

Virginia had been under revolutionary control since Loyalist forces (including runaway slaves) under Governor Dunmore had been defeated at the Battle of Great Bridge on December 9, 1775. After the defeat Dunmore and his troops took refuge on British ships off of Norfolk, which Dunmore bombarded and burned on January 1, 1776. He was driven from an island in Chesapeake Bay that summer, never to return. British forces raided Virginia sporadically during the war. In January 1781, the rebel capital of Richmond was put to the torch by none other than Benedict Arnold, who had sold his services to the other side and was now a British general. In March 1781, General Washington dispatched Lafayette to defend Virginia. The young Frenchman had 3,200 men at his command, but British troops in the colony, now reinforced and commanded by Cornwallis, totaled 7,200. Lafayette skirmished with Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle while gathering reinforcements. "The boy cannot escape me," Cornwallis is supposed to have said. However, Cornwallis was unable to trap Lafayette, and so he moved his forces to Yorktown, Virginia in July in order to link up with the British navy. As fate would have it, the navy that eventually met Cornwallis at Yorktown was not British.

War at sea

Main article: Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War Meanwhile the co-operation of the French became active. In July Count Rochambeau arrived at Newport, Rhode Island. That place had been occupied by the British from 1776 to the close of 1779. An unsuccessful attempt was made to drive them out in 1778 by the Patriots assisted by the French admiral d'Estaing and a French corps.
- First Battle of Ushant - July 27, 1778
- John Paul Jones
- Continental Navy
- Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1780)
- Second Battle of Ushant - December 12, 1781

Gulf Coast

After Spain declared war against Great Britain in June of 1779, Count Bernardo de Gálvez, the governor of Louisiana, seized three British Mississippi River outposts: Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. Gálvez then captured Mobile on March 14, 1780, and in May of 1781 forced the surrender of the British outpost at Pensacola, Florida. On May 8, 1782, Gálvez captured the British naval base at New Providence in the Bahamas.

Caribbean

- Battle of the Saintes

India

The Franco-British war spilled over into India in 1780, in the form of the Second Anglo-Mysore War. The two chief combatants were Tipu Sultan, ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore and a key French ally, and the British government of Madras. The Anglo-Mysore conflict was bloody but inconclusive, and ended in a draw at the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784.

Netherlands

Also in 1780, the British struck against the United Provinces of the Netherlands in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War to preempt Dutch involvement in the League of Armed Neutrality, directed primarily against the British Navy during the war. Agitation by Dutch radicals, and a friendly attitude towards the United States by the Dutch government, influenced by the American Revolution also encouraged the British to attack. The war lasted into 1784 and was disastrous to the Dutch mercantile economy.

Mediterranean

On 5 February 1782 Spanish and French forces captured Minorca, which had been under British control since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. A further Franco-Spanish effort to recover Gibraltar was unsuccessful. Minorca was ceded to Spain in the peace treaty.

Whitehaven

An interesting footnote to this war was the actual landing on Britain itself by a ship from the Continental Navy. This occurred in 1778 when the port of Whitehaven in Cumberland was raided by John Paul Jones. The landing was a surprise attack, taken as an action of revenge by Jones, and was never intended as an invasion. Nevertheless, it caused hysteria in England, with the attack showing a weakness that could be exploited by other states such as France or Spain. Its result was an intense period of fortification in British ports.

War's end

The northern, southern, and naval theaters of the war converged at Yorktown in 1781. On September 5, 1781, French naval forces defeated the British Royal Navy at the Battle of the Chesapeake, cutting off Cornwallis's supplies and transport. Washington hurriedly moved his troops from New York, and a combined Franco-American force of 17,000 troops commenced the Battle of Yorktown on October 6, 1781. Cornwallis's position quickly became untenable, and on October 19 his army surrendered. The war was all but over. October 19 is on horseback in the right background; because the British commander was absent, military protocol dictated that Washington have a subordinate—in this case Benjamin Lincoln—accept the surrender.]] British Prime Minister Lord North resigned soon after hearing the news from Yorktown. In April 1782, the British House of Commons voted to end the war with the Patriots. On November 30, 1782 preliminary peace articles were signed in Paris; the formal end of the war did not occur until the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783 and the United States Congress ratified the treaty on January 14, 1784. The last British troops left New York City on November 25, 1783. The reasons for Great Britain's misfortunes and defeat may be summarized as follows: Misconception by the home government of the temper and reserve strength of her colonists; disbelief at the outset in the probability of a protracted struggle covering the immense territory in America; consequent failure of the British to use their more efficient military strength effectively; the safe and Fabian generalship of Washington; and perhaps most significantly, the French alliance and European combinations by which at the close of the conflict left Great Britain without a friend or ally on the continent. Decisive victory eluded the United States on the western frontier. However, Great Britain negotiated the Paris peace treaty without consulting her Indian allies, and ceded much American Indian territory to the United States. Full of resentment, Native Americans reluctantly confirmed these land cessions with the United States in a series of treaties, but the result was essentially an armed truce—the fighting would be renewed in conflicts along the frontier, the largest being the Northwest Indian War.

Casualties

The total loss of life resulting from the American Revolutionary War is unknown. As was typical in the wars of the era, disease claimed more lives than battle. It is often overlooked that the war took place in the context of a massive smallpox epidemic in North America that probably killed more than 130,000 people. Historian Joseph J. Ellis suggests that Washington's decision to have his troops inoculated may have been the commander-in-chief's most important strategic decision. Casualty figures for the Patriots have varied over the years; a recent scholarly estimate lists 6,824 killed and 8,445 wounded in action. The number of Patriot troop deaths from disease and other non-combat causes is estimated at about 18,500. Approximately 1,200 Germans were killed in action and 6,354 died from illness or accident. About 16,000 of the remaining German troops returned home, but roughly 5,500 remained in the United States after the war for various reasons, many becoming American citizens. No reliable statistics exist for the number of casualties among other groups, including American Loyalists, British regulars, American Indians, French and Spanish troops, and civilians.

Notes

# Percentage of Loyalists and Patriots: Robert M. Calhoon, "Loyalism and Neutrality" in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p. 247; number of Loyalist troops: Boatner, p. 663. # Size of Patriot armies: Boatner, p. 264. # British troop strength: Black, pp. 27-29. Number of Germans hired: Boatner, pp. 424-26. # British usage of escaped slaves: Kaplan & Kaplan, pp. 71-89. # Patriot all-black units: Kaplan & Kaplan, pp. 64-69. # Total number of warriors: James H. Merrell, "Indians and the new republic" in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p. 393. Number of Iroquois warriors: Boatner, p. 545. # Smallpox epidemic: Fenn, p. 275. A great number of these smallpox deaths occurred outside the theater of war — in Mexico or among American Indians west of the Mississippi River. Washington and inoculation: Ellis, p. 87. # Patriot dead and wounded: Chambers, p. 849.

References

- Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775-1783. St. Martin's Press (New York) and Sutton Publishing (UK), 1991. ISBN 0312067135 (1991), ISBN 0312123469 (1994 paperback), ISBN 0750928085 (2001 paperpack).
- Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: McKay, 1966; revised 1974. ISBN 0811705781.
- Chambers, John Whiteclay II, ed. in chief. The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0195071980.
- Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Knopf, 2004. ISBN 1400040310.
- Fenn, Elizabeth Anne. Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001. ISBN 0809078201.
- Greene, Jack P. and J.R. Pole, eds. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1991; reprint 1999. ISBN 1557865477.
- Kaplan, Sidney and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. ISBN 0870236636.
- Wood, W. J. Battles of the Revolutionary War, 1775-1781. Originally published Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin, 1990; reprinted by Da Capo Press, 1995. ISBN 0306806177 (paperback); ISBN 0306813297 (2003 paperback reprint).

External links

- [http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/american%20revolution/american%20revolution%20index.htm Battlefield atlas of the American Revolution]
- [http://users.snowcrest.net/jmike/amrevmil.html American Revolutionary War History Resources]
- [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/reference/revbib/revwar.htm Entry to US Army Center for Military History, a huge bibliography]
- [http://www.americanrevolution.org/hispanic.html Spain's role in the American Revolution from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean]
- [http://www.americanrevolution.com/AfricanAmericansInTheRevolution.htm African-American soldiers in the Revolution]
- [http://www.besthistorysites.net/USHistory_Independence.shtml American Revolution & Independence] Category:American Revolutionary War Category:Rebellion Category:National liberation movements ko:미국 독립전쟁 ja:アメリカ独立戦争

Confederate States of America

:For other meanings of confederate and confederacy, see confederacy (disambiguation) The Confederate States of America—also referred to as the Confederate States, CSA, the Confederacy and Dixie (colloquially)—was a splinter nation off the United States of America that existed between 1861 and 1865. It was located in North America, occupying the south-eastern portions of the current United States. As its existence was contested by the United States for the whole of its short-lived history, there was never a definitive delineation of Confederate States' northern boundary. Its southern land boundary was with Mexico. It was otherwise bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. For most of its life the Confederacy was engaged in the Civil War against the Union forces, mostly in defense. However, the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee, also made limited incursions into Union territory.

History

The Confederate States were formed on February 4, 1861, by six Southern slave states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana) after confirmation of the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. Jefferson Davis was selected as its first President the next day. Texas joined the Confederacy on March 2 and then replaced its governor, Sam Houston, when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. These seven states seceded ¹ from the United States and took control of military/naval installations, ports, and custom houses within their boundaries, triggering the American Civil War. A month after the Confederacy was formed, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States. In his inaugural address,

Rebellion

Overview

Types of rebellion

Famous rebellions / uprisings in history

Famous rebels

See also

Fictional rebellions

External links

Civil disobedience

See also

External links

Government

Definitions

Forms of government

Theories

Greed and oppression

Order and tradition

Natural rights

Social contract

Operations

Enforcement of power

Territory

Scale of government

See also

Relevant lists

Nonviolent resistance

Examples of nonviolent resistance

A list of current and recent nonviolent resistance organizations

Early nonviolent resistance

Nonviolent resistance in the first stage of the American Revolution

Nonviolent resistance in nineteenth-century Trinidad

Nonviolent resistance in colonial India

Nonviolent resistance in communist Poland

Nonviolent resistance in the United States

Nonviolent resistance in segregated South Africa

Nonviolent resistance in Israel and the Palestinian Territories

Nonviolent resistance in Denmark during World War II

Nonviolent Resistance in Germany during World War II

Nonviolent Resistance in Norway during World War II

Nonviolent Resistance in the British Mandate of Palestine

Nonviolent resistance of the farmers of Larzac (France)

Nonviolent resistance against nuclear weapons

Nonviolent resistance in the Pacific

Nonviolent resistance in the Middle-East

See also

Publications

External links

American Revolutionary War

Combatants

Colonists

European nations

Blacks and Native Americans

War in the North

Massachusetts, 1774 to 1776

Canada, 1775 to 1776

New York and New Jersey, 1776 to 1777

Saratoga Campaign, 1777

Philadelphia Campaign, 1777 to 1778

War in the West

War in the South

Carolinas, 1780 to 1781

Virginia, 1775 to 1781

War at sea

Gulf Coast

Caribbean

India

Netherlands

Mediterranean

Whitehaven

War's end

Casualties

See also

Notes

References

External links

Confederate States of America

History