Civil war

This article is about the political class of conflict, for the 2024 film, see Civil War

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies. The term is a calque of Latin bellum civile which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.

Quotes

• Amongst all other vices there is none I hate more than cruelty, both by nature and judgement, as the extremest of all vices. ... I live in an age wherein we abound with incredible examples of this vice, through the licentiousness of our civil and intestine wars; And read all ancient Stories, be they never so tragical, you shall find none to equal those, we daily see practised.
  • Montaigne, Essayes (tr. John Florio)

• RICHMOND:
  England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself;
  The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
  The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,
  The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire:
  All this divided York and Lancaster,
  • Shakespeare, Richard III, V, 5

• The Civil Wars, the common purgative,
  Which always use to make the nation thrive,
  • Daniel Defoe, The True-born Englishman (1701)

• I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ.
  • Montesquieu, Persian Letters (tr. C. J. Betts)