A civil war
is a war between
organized groups within the same nation
state or republic,
or, less commonly, between two countries created from a
formerly-united nation state.
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 the Latin bellum
civile which was used to refer to the
various civil
wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.
A civil war
is a high-intensity conflict, often involving regular
armed forces, that is sustained, organized and large-scale. Civil
wars may result in large numbers of casualties
and the consumption of significant resources.
Civil wars since the end of World
War II have lasted on average just over four years, a dramatic
rise from the one-and-a-half year average of the 1900-1944 period.
While the rate of emergence of new civil wars has been relatively
steady since the mid-19th century, the increasing length of those
wars resulted in increasing numbers of wars ongoing at any one time.
For example, there were no more than five civil wars underway
simultaneously in the first half of the 20th century, while over 20
concurrent civil wars were occurring at the end of the Cold
War, before a significant decrease as conflicts strongly
associated with the superpower rivalry came to an end. Since 1945,
civil wars have resulted in the deaths of over 25 million people, as
well as the forced
displacement of millions more. Civil wars have further resulted
in economic collapse Burma
(Myanmar), Uganda
and Angola are
examples of nations that were considered to have promising futures
before being engulfed in civil wars.