AH Challenge: A true american civil war.

Well the so called civil war was more putting down a secession, which is really a civil war. ;)

No, putting down a secession is not really a civil war. A civil war is, by definition, a conflict by two factions for control of the government of a nation. A secession is one faction trying to ESCAPE from control by the government of a country, not said faction trying to gain control of said government.
 
No, putting down a secession is not really a civil war. A civil war is, by definition, a conflict by two factions for control of the government of a nation. A secession is one faction trying to ESCAPE from control by the government of a country, not said faction trying to gain control of said government.

To replace that government with its own. People refer to the Gallic and Palmyran split-offs of the Roman Empire as that, despite it being the same phenomenon. The Civil War was about rejecting the legitimacy of a popularly elected President after much of the previous decade had seen terrorism directed at Northerners. That is a civil war.
 
No, putting down a secession is not really a civil war. A civil war is, by definition, a conflict by two factions for control of the government of a nation. A secession is one faction trying to ESCAPE from control by the government of a country, not said faction trying to gain control of said government.

Just to head off a semantic dispute, the definition varies. My American Heritage dictionary defines a civil war as 'a war between factions or regions of the same country' which the US Civil War certainly was.
 
Just to head off a semantic dispute, the definition varies. My American Heritage dictionary defines a civil war as 'a war between factions or regions of the same country' which the US Civil War certainly was.
Except the one region was claiming independence so by that definition it was to one side, but not the other.
 
Except the one region was claiming independence so by that definition it was to one side, but not the other.

That's certainly true, and had it successfully gained that independence the war would almost certainly have had a different name. But since they never came to be recognized as an independent state, it was a case of two regions of the same country fighting each other, which according to some definitions fits the 'civil war' moniker.

My main point was that I see the definition which demands that the two groups struggle for the control of the government come up a lot here and I wanted to point out alternate definitions exist which are semantically looser.
 
Ok. I know that they believed that their state was their country. But technically they were Americans, and America was their country. And if a country becomes divided, it is therefore a civil war.
 
Bonus point if it is the general(s) responsible for the unification of the americas that turns against the US governement.


No, putting down a secession is not really a civil war. A civil war is, by definition, a conflict by two factions for control of the government of a nation. A secession is one faction trying to ESCAPE from control by the government of a country, not said faction trying to gain control of said government.

Yes, that is one reason why I wrote TRUE (american) civil war. :)
 
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