55
votes
Accepted
Was the American Civil War the “bloodiest civil war in history”?
The American Civil War doesn't even pass the test of the bloodiest civil war in the Americas. This dubious honor is held by the Mexican Revolution of 1910, with between 1 and 2 million casualties. It ...
- 5,912
45
votes
Was the American Civil War the “bloodiest civil war in history”?
The bloodiest civil war I can think of is the Taiping Rebellion in 19th century China. That conflict is generally thought to have a death toll of 20 million.
Note that this is an estimate made by ...
- 95.9k
43
votes
Why did the Chinese Nationalist party members go to the island of Taiwan and not to any other island?
Taiwan was basically a part of China, and under Nationalist control at the time. (The Philippines were a foreign country.) Also,the Nationalist army, while weaker than the Communists, was far stronger ...
- 103k
36
votes
Why did the Chinese Nationalist party members go to the island of Taiwan and not to any other island?
Tom Au is right; his answer is the correct answer. I want to add two more data points:
Hainan was closer to Mainland China and would be more difficult to defend against amphibious assault, Taiwan had ...
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19
votes
Why did Eisenhower iconize Robert E. Lee?
There's an interesting political angle to be made here. Starting with their meeting in 1946, Eisenhower cultivated a relationship with Lee-biographer, journalist and Virginia politician
Douglas ...
- 3,809
17
votes
Accepted
What reasons did the Confederacy have for believing they would have a quick victory?
TL/DR; Hubris and false assumptions
They assumed the economy didn't matter. The era of the US Civil war tended to see relatively short, decisive campaigns with a limited engagement of the population ...
- 2,314
15
votes
How did the Tutsis win the civil war in Rwanda after 70% of them had been killed?
This question raises interesting questions. However, there are some confusions in the question. And I respectfully disagree with some of the factual and opinion content of the answers previously ...
11
votes
Why were there civil wars in Croatia and Bosnia, but not in Slovenia or Macedonia?
As stated by others this is not really true. Even though shorter and less bloody compared to those in Bosnia and Croatia, the 10-day war outbroke in Slovenia between Yugoslav army located in the ...
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11
votes
Accepted
Are any civil wars -- other than the American Civil War -- commonly reenacted?
The English Civil War is popular for re-enactment in England. Helps that it occurred over 350 years ago though.
Spanish Civil War 1936-39 seems to be regularly re-enacted too but probably not on the ...
- 291
11
votes
Can anyone identify this Union commander?
This is Joshua L. Chamberlain - the "text book maneuver" alludes to his role in the Battle of Gettysburg, especially the defense of the "Little Round Top":
The 20th Maine charged down the hill, ...
- 3,306
11
votes
Accepted
How many troops would the White Armies have had at their peak during the Russian Civil War?
The White Army was never a unified force but rather a number of armies of varying sizes which rarely co-ordinated their efforts. David Bullock, in The Russian Civil War 1918-22 states
Overall, the ...
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11
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What role has a generally armed populace had on resisting a **potentially repressive government?**
Your questions seems to be based on a logical fallacy: An identifiable minority under a repressive government that maintained at least respect through force of arms.
A repressive government, by ...
- 1,727
10
votes
What were The Troubles in Northern Ireland really about?
If one sees a conflict and thinks that there's very little to fight about - they are not looking close enough. Usually, underlying reasons are more complex than what is seen at a glance.
And the roots ...
- 8,373
9
votes
What factors prevented the legality of secession being pursued via the courts prior to the outbreak of the Civil War?
Nobody was interested in a court case. Those who thought it was undoable had no reason for a suit, and those who wanted secession needed it as a bold stroke to rally the more undecided Southern ...
- 11.8k
9
votes
Accepted
In Civil War Reenactments why do people walk across the battlefield
In the Civil War era and earlier, the units needed to keep together in order to avoid being ridden down by cavalry. An experienced infantryman could shoot three times a minute, and a line of them ...
- 11.8k
8
votes
What reasons did the Confederacy have for believing they would have a quick victory?
Who had the better trained army??? Greater part of officers were Southerns. That was the reason why they thought they would win. And really, during all the war the command of the Southern army was ...
- 6,976
8
votes
Examples of oppressive regimes which "loosened up" after winning destructive civil war
What comes to mind is Finland, though it doesn't meet all the criteria.
Finland gained its independence from the Russian Empire in 1917; it was a messy affair resulting from the collapse of Russia, ...
- 53k
8
votes
Why did American Abolitionists believe slavery to be immoral?
NOTE This was an attempt to answer the question as originally written:
Someone already asked when and how people began to consider slavery immoral on stack exchange, but no one has asked why. So ...
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8
votes
Who really fired on Ft. Sumter - the South or Local Charleston, SC militia?
On December 20, South Carolina declared that it seceded. Six days later, Union Major Robert Anderson moved his troops into Fort Sumter.
A letter by South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens to ...
- 3,863
7
votes
Was the American Civil War the “bloodiest civil war in history”?
The Russian Civil War (1917-23) and the Chinese Civil War (1930s-1949) have it beaten handily.
It remains the bloodiest war in American History, partly because both sides were Americans.
- 11.8k
7
votes
Are any civil wars -- other than the American Civil War -- commonly reenacted?
In Lviv (Lwow) in Ukraine they re-enact the Polish-Ukrainian civil war of 1918:
http://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2012/12/7/102886/
(On the other hand, the "civil war" between Ukrainians and ...
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7
votes
Accepted
Why did Syria intervene in favour of the Maronites during the Lebanese Civil War?
Syria is controlled by Alawites who follow a specialized, somewhat secretive religion. This religion is often described as "shiite muslim," but that is a gross oversimplification. The Alawites have ...
- 37.2k
7
votes
What reasons did the Confederacy have for believing they would have a quick victory?
In addition to the reasons already given above, the South also believed that Europe could not survive without Southern cotton. At the beginning of the war, Southern merchants organized a cotton ...
- 409
7
votes
What role has a generally armed populace had on resisting a **potentially repressive government?**
Right now?
little.
The current opressive power of nations as per 2018, even the smallest one, is times bigger than any other nation in the past, for the simple reason that weapons, armament, and ...
- 1,479
6
votes
What factors prevented the legality of secession being pursued via the courts prior to the outbreak of the Civil War?
The main problem that secessionists would have faced in court is that the question had been settled over 40 years before the Civil War: secession was illegal.
The only argument that supports ...
- 1,229
6
votes
How did the US/South Vietnam lose the Vietnam war?
We lost the war in Vietnam because the American public no longer supported it. You can speculate on any number of reasons for this. People stopped believing the Domino Theory. Americans did not feel ...
6
votes
What reasons did the Confederacy have for believing they would have a quick victory?
Before the war, the South was hoping they wouldn't have to fight at all; that, upon weighing the pros and cons, the North would just leave them alone (this proved to be true - for a while).
If, ...
- 3,269
6
votes
Did freed slaves keep a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the wall?
Most likely, yes
Lincoln was very popular among Blacks in US right until 1960's and rise of leftist Democrats whom somewhat tarnished his image (Lincoln was Republican, of course) . This essay ...
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6
votes
Why did Eisenhower iconize Robert E. Lee?
Things are bit different nowadays, but until quite recently you could both be not racist and be into things Confederate at the same time (just stating a fact, not expressing an opinion about that). A ...
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