Why were there so many civil wars in the 20th century?

AS and A Level History

Yazeed Abunayyan

IB World History

1st quarter, 2nd semester term paper

8th of March 2003

Why were there so many civil wars in the 20th century?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, Civil War is defined as “A war between factions or regions of the same country.” As well as wars between nations, the 20th century witnessed an extraordinary series of civil wars within nations. This question goes through my historians’ minds. The analysis could be difficult. Many questions come up in the thinkers mind: Why the 20th century? Why not the century before? What didn’t the League of Nation stop them? What triggered people’s instinct for a civil war knowing that it will, eventually, bring the economy down, and destroy the nation? Was that the intention of the civil wars? Many were able to answer the questions, but opinions differ depending on the ideology of the analyzing historian.

To begin with going further in depth of this question, we must analyze some of the significant civil wars in the 20th century. In Eurpe, one of the significant ones is “the Spanish Civil War”; colonizers in Morocco were protesting the socialist and anticlerical tendencies of the elected central government. The rebels, headed by General Francisco Franco, soon won support from the cities of Cadiz, Saragossa, Seville and Burgos, while others, such as Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia, supported the Republican government. As Republicans fought Nationalists (Franco's supporters), the left-wing government got support from the Soviet Union and from international brigades of volunteer soldiers. Meanwhile, Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe and Fascist Italy’s troops assisted the right-wing army.

Nationalist troops captured Barcelona on 26 January 1939 and Madrid on 28 March 1939. Franco then formed a dictatorship, which survived until his death in 1975.

Along with the Spanish Civil War, the Greek Civil War began in December 1944 and temporarily ended in January 1945. It started up in 1946 again, and finally ended in 1949. This was a two-stage conflict during which Greek communists unsuccessfully tried to gain control of Greece. This was a very hard war for Greece because they had suffered many casualties and lost many supplies during World War II. Because Greece was wounded, this was the perfect time, thought the Communists. The Democratic army, of course, eventually won. America and other allies helped during the second half of the war. The Communist side was called the EAM-ELAS while the Democratic side EDES.

These were just examples of the many civil wars in Europe. The Russian Revolution between the tsarists and the communists as an attempt of the communists to overtake the government, which, eventually succeeded. The Irish Civil War, between the Protestants who wanted to remain under the British crown and the Catholics who wanted their full independence, not to mention the Bosnian civil war in which Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence on 1 March 1992. This led to civil war between, its Muslim inhabitants and their Christian Serb neighbors, who were aided by the Belgrade government in Serbia until, with the support of Croatian army, Bosnia-Herzegovina got independence, along with the Austrian civil war between the communist and the nationalists in Vienna, 1934. In Finland, following their independence in 6th of May, 1917, Throughout December 1917 and January 1918, the Svinhufvud (Sh-win-huuf-veud) government of Finald demonstrated that it would make no recognitions for the socialists and that it would rule without them. The point of no return probably was passed on January 9, 1918, when the government authorized the White Guard, the Finnish army, (Equivalent to the SS in Germany) to act as a state security force and to establish law and order in Finland. That decision in turn encouraged the workers to make a preemptive strike, and in the succeeding days, revolutionary elements took over the socialist movement and called for a general uprising to begin on the night of January 27-28, 1918. Meanwhile, the government had appointed a Swedish-speaking Finn and former tsarist general, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867-1951), as the commander of its military forces, soon to be called the Whites. Independently of the Reds, Mannerheim also called for military action to begin on the night of January 27, thus causing the civil war to ignite.

Analyzing the Civil Wars in Europe, there were many goals of the civil wars, but all divided under three categories; first, there is a group of people in some nations (Russia, Greece) who, after witnessing the economical collapse of their nation, attempted to establish a communist country by overtaking their government in which all goods are shared equally, and they could be regarded as “revolutionists”. Second, a religious conflict between two groups of people within one country in which each group wanted to establish their beliefs in controlling the government (Ireland, Bosnia). Third, the people who felt nationalistic and ...

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Analyzing the Civil Wars in Europe, there were many goals of the civil wars, but all divided under three categories; first, there is a group of people in some nations (Russia, Greece) who, after witnessing the economical collapse of their nation, attempted to establish a communist country by overtaking their government in which all goods are shared equally, and they could be regarded as “revolutionists”. Second, a religious conflict between two groups of people within one country in which each group wanted to establish their beliefs in controlling the government (Ireland, Bosnia). Third, the people who felt nationalistic and supposed their superiority over all the nations and didn’t feel that their government is nationalist enough after witnessing their defeat in some wars.

In Asia, in the 1940/1950’s, there was there was the Chinese civil war between the communists and the nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-Shek, where the communists were in the government and the nationalists government, and as they failed, the went to Taiwan and established their independent country there, which was supported by the USA and Britain who were in conflict with the communists. In Afghanistan there was the war between the communist and the nationalist. Communists were supported by Soviet Union. Then when Taliban existed, a group called themselves “Northern Alliance” revolted against the Taliban government, after witnessing the resentment and aggression, tried to overtake the radically Islamic government. The United States of America supported the Northern Alliance. Beginning in 1900’s, in Yemen, it was a border conflict between the Northern Yemenis and the Southern Yemenis, where the Northern Yemenis wanted full independence from Yemen, using terrorist attacks against the southern people and American citizens living there. In Lebanon, both Christians and Muslims wanted their government to lay the basis of their religion. This caused a civil war between the Muslims and the Christians, catholic and Protestants. Mohammad Ali Shah, was determined to crush the constitution. After several disputes with the members of the Majlis, in June 1908 he used his Russian-officered Persian Cossacks Brigade to bomb the Majlis building, arrest many of the deputies, and close down the assembly. Resistance to the shah, however, coalesced in Tabriz, Esfahan, Rasht, and elsewhere. In July 1909, constitutional forces marched from Rasht and Esfahan to Tehran, deposed the shah, and reestablished the constitution. The ex-shah went into exile in Russia. In Combodia, 1970-1975, the communists attempted a coup d’etat, and the national government and nationalists fought back by the support of the United States of America.

The conflict in the Middle East and Asia are the production of the of the religious, centuries old conflict. One goal all the civil wars share in common is the other party’s desire for a full independence due to either ideological differences (Muslims and Christians in Lebanon, for example), which has been solved, or mostly settled, or historical conflicts (Yemen), which remains in pure existence until this very second. Another factor that helped in the provocation of some civil wars, if not most, is the aid of the Soviet Union (USSR) and their support for the communist fighting for, or against, their government.

In Africa, there were many civil wars in the 20th century, one of which is Sudanese Civil War between two religions; the Muslims in the North who live in a majority and the minority of Christians who live in a the south and want their full independence of the Arabian Republic of Sudan. In Somalia, In June 1991, Aideed was elected chairman of the United Somali Congress by a two-thirds vote, but Ali Mahdi refused to step down as President. By October 1991, Ali Mahdi had formed a government of eight ministers, and the Italian government promised massive financial support.

Civil war erupted as various clan-based military group competed for control after the collapse of Barre's regime. Thus the civil war began. In Liberia, a struggle for leadership of the West African republic of Liberia began on December 24, 1989, when US educated rebel leader Charles Taylor invaded Liberia from neighboring Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Taylor's forces, called the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), sought to take power from brutal dictator Samuel K. Doe, whose military regime had ruled the country since 1980’s. There was the Ethiopian civil war which caused the emerging of Eritrea in the African map.

Contrary to popular belief, Africa's civil wars are not due to its ethnic and religious diversity. Using recently developed models of the overall prevalence of civil wars in 161 countries in the twentieth century, showing that the relatively higher prevalence of war in Africa is not due to the ethno-linguistic disintegration of its countries, but rather to high levels of poverty, failed political institutions, and economic dependence on natural resources.

In South America, the continent had more civil wars within its coil more than any other continent in the world. One of the most significant civil wars is the Paraguayan civil war. The war was caused when General Higinio Morinigo came to power and purged the constitution of Paraguay. Under his regime, Paraguay suffered numerous disturbances, including labor and general strikes and student riots. The military, which received 45 percent of the national income, remained loyal to Morinigo and crushed his opposition. When the ex president, Rafael Franco, revolted against Morinigo, his supporters were there for him, thus evoking the civil war in Paraguay. In the Domincan Republic, which is located in Central America, a combination of reformist military and aroused civilian combatants took to the streets on April 24, seized the National Palace, and installed Rafael Molina Ureña as provisional president. The revolution took on the dimensions of a civil war when conservative military forces, led by army general Elías Wessín y Wessín, struck back against the Constitutionalists on April 25. In Nicaragua, in 1909, a conservative revolt broke out in Nicaragua against the liberal dictator-president Jose Santos Zelaya whose warlike actions and intervention in other Central American nations were opposed by the United States. Following the execution of two Americans who supported the revolution against the government, the United States imposed pressure on the Nicaraguan government thus Zelaya was forced to resign on December 16, 1909. By then, Nicaragua was in a state of near anarchy, and a power struggle between conservative and liberal factions developed. In Mexico, November 1910,the Zapatista faction revolted under the principles of the Plan of Ayala, which asked for restoration of privately owned lands to rural villages. The armed revolt spread through the states of Morelos, Guerrero, Tlaxcala, Puebla, México, and even into Mexico City. By 1912 the Zapatista forces had caused severe damage to railroad and telegraph lines and had won several battles against federal troops. From what the Zapatistas (A revolutionary group of original inhabitants of Mexico before the arrival of the Spaniards) had done, different groups emerged in different parts of the nation, but, by the support of the United States of America, the revolution was suppressed and the Zapatistas were classified as “terrorists”. In Ecuador, Neptalí Bonifaz Ascázubi was then elected with the help of a quasi-fascist grouping of the Serrano lower classes called the Consolidation of National Workers (Compactación Obrera Nacional). In August 1932, after various Liberal and leftist elements in Congress blocked Bonifaz's assumption of power, the Compactación fought a bloody four-day civil war against other paramilitary forces gathered by opponents of the president-elect. The latter were victorious, largely because the great majority of the government military forces remained in their barracks rather than defend Bonifaz. In Guatemala, after the abusing of human rights by the government, the communist-led guerrillas (extreme leftists) revolted, and the rightists defended thus causing the civil war.

South America’s civil wars, in summary, are results of economic insecurity and the instability of full control of the country. What makes the civil wars in South America different than other civil wars is the fact that some of them are caused by the revolution of the original habitants of the region. Nonetheless, human rights were abused in many countries in South America. The United States of America played a major rule in some of the civil wars like Paraguay. South America is currently living economic and rural conflicts like in Colombia.

In an overall conclusion, the 20th century was full of civil wars; at least 1 civil war occurs every five years. Nonetheless, the civil wars are results of the emerging of new ideologies, such as fascism or communism. Communism is a special part, it wasn’t a direct triggering ideology for a civil war, but the support of the Soviet Union was just absolute to any civil war with any communist goals. Apart from the ideologies, the Great Depression occurred in the United States of America in which all continents were economically affected by that depression (According to a speech given by Robert V. Lushing, a professor of modern world history University of Salford, England on Many, 1999). In addition, there were several conflicts based on religious reasons, such as the history of conflicts between Muslims and Christians throughout the centuries, which were reflected in the Lebanese Civil War. Last, but not least, the twentieth century’s civil wars were the result of the inner part of the human beings; the sense of nationality and self-identity were resulting the revolution against people to whom they felt that they did not belong, like the conflict between communists and democrats where the democrats fled to Taiwan and established their own state there.

The 20th century wasn’t all about civil wars; rather, the 20th century had the First World War and the Second World War within its historical timeline, along with the major world conflicts and economic crises; the civil wars were just aspects of the disastrousness and destructiveness of the 20th century. The 20th century was the sum of many civil wars in the past, quantity-wise. The causes of wars in the twentieth century could be used as the causes of the civil wars, especially the introducing of new war methods and weapons, emerging of ideologies such as fascism and Marxism by Karl Marx. The ideologies were mostly economic-related ideologies in which equilibriums are established in a country, equally amongst the nation.

No other century had that much of civil wars like the 20th century. The civil wars were just a part of the many problems in the 20th century, but never to be forgotten.

Term Paper: “Why were there so many civil wars in the 20th