Critical analysis of the Civil War
Throughout history different events have moved the world in which we live creating chaos and disorder. One of the conflicts that have been key in the development and social change of a country are civil wars. In general terms, a civil war is a conflict between sides of the same nation or better described by Ecured as “a war between organized groups within the same country or republic, or between two countries that were united as a single nation.". However, in more specific terms a civil war is a violent psycho-social phenomenon between two opposite groups within the same state, in order to impose itself on each other and exercise power over that state or seek an individual end.
Now, one of the basic concepts to understand the civil war is that it is carried out by different groups of the same country. These groups can defend different purposes that can be ideological, political, social, economic, among others. For example, in the Spanish Civil War the Republican side and the national side faced. The Republican side was represented by the leftists and defended the working class, while the national side was composed of the right -wing political forces, with support of the Catholic Church, and its main objective was to establish a military dictatorship. On the other hand, although they are not very common, civil wars can be divided into religious sides, to exemplify this it is important to mention the case of the French religious war, where Catholics and Protestants played in the same territory in order to defend their religion.
On the other hand, there are many reasons that unleash a civil war, the first, of them social injustice. Social injustice is a phenomenon that affects everyone, because it awakens measures that have an impact on society and can become the cause of a civil war. An example of this is the Spanish Civil War, during the time of war Spain was characterized by its social differences due to poor living conditions due to economic resources. The working class, including children, worked for a long number of hours in exchange for an unfair reward, which aroused the discontent of the population and made social peace difficult. On the other hand, abolitionism is another of the causes that arouse a war being the case of the US Civil War. While in the south the slaves was considered a property, in the north an anti -sclavist feeling aroused, so the defense of slavery became an important element.
Another important point to mention about this issue is the impact generated by the country. Being this a violent conflict has a direct and indirect impact to the country of which we can mention some consequences. According to Ocaña (2005), demographic losses is one of the factors that are most affected by this type of conflicts, caused by deaths, epidemics, famine and birth reduction that affected the population. In addition, another factor that plays a key role is exile. During the civil, young and women civil wars they are evacuated to safer places, affecting the country’s demographic aspect. Likewise, the economic aspect is affected following a social war, because the country is in ruin and production in the different sectors descend creating a long phase of economic stagnation. Finally, the consequences that most generate impact on society are moral and social. A civil war means a break for country, fragmenting its principles and relations between citizens, that is, after violating the rights of people in many ways, several generations are marked by the suffering and rebuke of the war, continuing withdiscontent and injustices.
About this issue it is important to emphasize the difference between an internal armed conflict and a civil war. In the case, of the historical event between 1960 and 1996 in Guatemala, it is known as internal armed conflict or civil war, but why is it called armed conflict? According to virtual memory, the name of armed conflict was given “by recognizing the struggle of the revolutionary movement. Some people classify him as an armed confrontation, trying to deny representativeness to that movement ”. That is, the characteristic that differentiates one from the other, is the vital role that weapons play in an armed conflict, characterized by death, mutilation, abuse, murders and uncontrollable violence. In particular in Guatemala, this conflict aroused a culture of terror caused by the high costs of the conflict, which even today, most violent acts and abuses remain without being penalized by justice, keeping open the wounds that this conflict brought with them.
Thus, a civil war can be defined as a social phenomenon between two or more groups of a country that defend an idea or interest violently. It is worth mentioning that each of these wars have general social causes, and certainly cause consequences that damage the stability and relationship of a country not only nationwide but also internationally. In addition, these types of conflicts, despite, defending ideologies that some cases are for the benefit of the population, use a violent medium, which establishes terror in the population, and violates their rights, which means that the end does notJustify the media.
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