“An Unholy War of Conquest”

Author(s):  
Andre E. Johnson

This chapter examines Turner’s war rhetoric by examining his rhetoric during the Civil War and contrasts it with his rhetoric during the Spanish-American and Cuban wars. Grounded in his prophetic pessimism, Turner’s rhetoric not only shifts, but in his critiques of the government and his outright denunciations of African Americans who support the war, the chapter argues that Turner creates his own anti-war rhetoric that anticipates the contemporary anti-war rhetoric of many African Americans.

Author(s):  
Paul D. Escott

The nation’s African Americans, living in both the North and the South and in freedom and in slavery, formed a diverse population. This chapter focuses first on the South’s slaves, whose initiatives for freedom—by running to Union lines—changed the nature of the war. It also examines the determined political activism of black people in the North and the pressures they exerted on the government in order to win not just freedom for the race but equal rights as well. Questions about the organization and resources of Northern blacks as well as the connections between the Northern and Southern black populations deserve attention, and the chapter offers many suggestions or questions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 424
Author(s):  
Luis Gargallo Vaamonde

During the Restoration and the Second Republic, up until the outbreak of the Civil War, the prison system that was developed in Spain had a markedly liberal character. This system had begun to acquire robustness and institutional credibility from the first dec- ade of the 20th Century onwards, reaching a peak in the early years of the government of the Second Republic. This process resulted in the establishment of a penitentiary sys- tem based on the widespread and predominant values of liberalism. That liberal belief system espoused the defence of social harmony, property and the individual, and penal practices were constructed on the basis of those principles. Subsequently, the Civil War and the accompanying militarist culture altered the prison system, transforming it into an instrument at the service of the conflict, thereby wiping out the liberal agenda that had been nurtured since the mid-19th Century.


Author(s):  
Jaroslav Tir ◽  
Johannes Karreth

Two low-level armed conflicts, Indonesia’s East Timor and Ivory Coast’s post-2010 election crises, provide detailed qualitative evidence of highly structured intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) engaging in effective civil warpreventing activities in member-states. Highly structured IGOs threatened and sanctioned each of these states and offered (long-term) benefits conditional on successful crisis resolution. The governments were aware of and responded to these IGOs’ concerns, as did the rebels in these respective cases. The early stages of the conflict in Syria in 2011 provide a counterpoint. With Syria’s limited engagement in only few highly structured IGOs, the Syrian government ignored international calls for peace. And, without highly structured IGOs’ counterweight to curtail the government, the rebels saw little reason to stop their armed resistance. The result was a brutal and deadly civil war that continues today.


Author(s):  
Christine Cheng

During the civil war, Liberia’s forestry sector rose to prominence as Charles Taylor traded timber for arms. When the war ended, the UN’s timber sanctions remained in effect, reinforced by the Forestry Development Authority’s (FDA) domestic ban on logging. As Liberians waited for UN timber sanctions to be lifted, a burgeoning domestic timber market developed. This demand was met by artisanal loggers, more commonly referred to as pit sawyers. Out of this illicit economy emerged the Nezoun Group to provide local dispute resolution between the FDA’s tax collectors and ex-combatant pit sawyers. The Nezoun Group posed a dilemma for the government. On the one hand, the regulatory efforts of the Nezoun Group helped the FDA to tax an activity that it had banned. On the other hand, the state’s inability to contain the operations of the Nezoun Group—in open contravention of Liberian laws—highlighted the government’s capacity problems.


Author(s):  
Mark J. Noonan

This chapter demonstrates that the fight for greater realism in literature and life was long-lasting and transpired not on a single front but across many battlefields involving a wide variety of actors. Often, war itself was the impetus, first in the rewriting of the “facts” and significance of the Civil War and later as a means of response to the masculine bluster and bloodlust wrought by the Spanish-American War. The gender and class wars of the 1880s and 1890s were also relevant to this embattled genre, as were the effects of industrialization and immigration, which led to the massive growth of New York at this time, where so many of the newspapers and magazines promoting the various strands of realism were based. New York, war, and social issues were all entangled in the emergence of this genre, as numerous New York authors and artists sought to make sense of modern America and mold it to their own visions.


Author(s):  
Lesley-Ann Daniels

Abstract Governments grant amnesties to rebel groups during civil wars and this is a puzzle. Why would the government offer an amnesty, which can be interpreted as a signal of weakness? In certain circumstances, offering amnesty is a rational policy choice. Governments should give amnesties when they are winning: the risk of misinterpreted signals is lessened, costs are low, rebel groups are weakened, and so amnesty can be used instrumentally to encourage defection or division among foot soldiers or as an incentive to leaders. Therefore, the government capitalizes on its military advantage and offers amnesty in a “stick then carrot” tactic. Using a database of amnesties during conflicts from 1990 to 2011, the article shows that governments are more likely to give amnesties following high rebel deaths. The use of amnesty during conflict is nuanced and context is important when understanding strategic choices.


1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (290) ◽  
pp. 446-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Valencia Villa

Over the years the Americas have made significant contributions to the development of international humanitarian law. These include three nineteenth-century texts which constitute the earliest modern foundations of the law of armed conflict. The first is a treaty, signed on 26 November 1820 by the liberator Simón Bolívar and the peacemaker Pablo Morillo, which applied the rules of international conflict to a civil war. The second is a Spanish-American work entitled Principios de Derecho de Genres (Principles of the Law of Nations), which was published in 1832 by Andrés Bello. This work dealt systematically with the various aspects and consequences of war. The third is a legal instrument, signed on 24 April 1863 by United States President Abraham Lincoln, which codified the first body of law on internal conflict under the heading “Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field” (General Orders No. 100). This instrument, known as the Lieber Code, was adopted as the new code of conduct for the armies of the Union during the American Civil War.


1977 ◽  
Vol 17 (192) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Zorgbibe

“Whenever a large organized group believes it has the right to resist the sovereign power and considers itself capable of resorting to arms, war between the two parties should take place in the same manner as between nations…” This statement by de Vattel in the 19th century seemed destined to take its place as a part of positive law, constituting part of what was known as recognition of belligerency, tantamount to the recognition by the established government of an equal status for insurgents and regular belligerents. When a civil war became extensive enough, the State attacked would understand that it was wisest to acknowledge the existence of a state of war with part of the population. This would, at the same time, allow the conflict to be seen in a truer light. The unilateral action of the legal government in recognizing belligerency would be the condition for granting belligerent rights to the parties. It would constitute a demonstration of humanity on the part of the government of the State attacked and would also provide that government with prospects for effective pursuit of the war. By admitting that it was forced to resort to war, it would at least have its hands free to make war seriously.


2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Paine

AbstractA broad literature on how oil wealth affects civil war onset argues that oil production engenders violent contests to capture a valuable prize from vulnerable governments. By contrast, research linking oil wealth to durable authoritarian regimes argues that oil-rich governments deter societal challenges by strategically allocating enormous revenues to enhance military capacity and to provide patronage. This article presents a unified formal model that evaluates how these competing mechanisms affect overall incentives for center-seeking civil wars. The model yields two key implications. First, large oil-generated revenues strengthen the government and exert an overall effect that decreases center-seeking civil war propensity. Second, oil revenues are less effective at preventing center-seeking civil war relative to other revenue sources, which distinguishes overall and relative effects. Revised statistical results test overall rather than relative effects by omitting the conventional but posttreatment covariate of income per capita, and demonstrate a consistent negative association between oil wealth and center-seeking civil war onset.


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