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A war of independence, also called a war of national liberation or war of liberation, is a conflict fought by a nation to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with a war against foreign powers (or at least one perceived as foreign) to establish a separate sovereign state for the rebelling nationality. From a different point of view, such a war is called an insurgency or a rebellion.[1]Guerrilla warfare and terrorism is often utilized by groups labeled as national liberation movements, often with support from other states. The term "war of national liberation" is most commonly used for those fought during the decolonization movement. Since these were primarily in the third world, against Western powers and their economic influence, and a major aspect of the Cold War, the phrase has often been applied selectively to criticize the foreign power involved.[2]
Some of these wars were either vocally or materially supported by the Soviet Union, which claimed to be an anti-imperialist power, supporting the replacement of Western-backed governments with local Communist or other non pro-Western parties.[1][3] In January 1961 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pledged support for "wars of national liberation" throughout the world.[4] On the other hand, the Soviet involvement was often viewed as a way to increase the size and influence of the Soviet Bloc, and thus a form of imperialism itself. The People's Republic of China criticized the Soviet Union as being social imperialist. In turn, China presented themselves as models of independent nationalist development outside of Western influence, particularly as such posturing and other long-term hostility meant they were regarded as a threat to Western power and regarded themselves as such, using their resources to politically, economically and militarily assist movements such as in Vietnam. When the nation is defined in ethnic terms, wars fought to liberate it have often entailed ethnic cleansing or genocide in order to rid the claimed territory of other population groups.[5][6][7]
International law generally holds that a people with a legal right to self-determination are entitled to wage wars of national liberation.[8][9] While Western states tend to view these wars as civil wars, Third World and communist states tend to view them as international wars.[8] This difference in classification leads to varying perceptions of which laws of war apply in such situations.[8] However, there is general agreement among all states today in principle that the use of force to frustrate a people's legal right to self-determination is unlawful.[8]
Wars of national liberation are usually fought using guerrilla warfare and terrorism. Wars of national liberation generally depend on widespread public support, with ordinary civilians providing crucial support.
The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) can be considered to be one of the first wars of national liberation. It pitted self-liberated slaves against Imperial France, coming about during a period in history where interconnected movements such as the American and French Revolutions had caused a rise of national consciousness in the Atlantic world. At the same time during the Spanish American wars of independence (1808–1833), the patriots launched a series of complex wars of independence against the royalists, which resulted in the formation of new Latin American states. The Siege of Patras (1821) led to the Greek War of Independence, ending Ottoman domination in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece. Discontent with British company rule in India led to the Sepoy Mutiny (1857–1858), which is sometimes described as the First War of Indian Independence.[a][10]
The Easter Rising (1916) in Dublin eventually led to the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921), ending in the establishment of the Irish Free State. In the aftermath of World War I and the 1917 Russian Revolution the Bolsheviks unsuccessfully fought a number of independence movements until Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland gained independence. The Ukrainian People's Republic fought its war of independence (1917–1921), which resulted in being absorbed into a Soviet republic. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish National Movement fought a series of campaigns in the war of independence (1919–1922), which resulted in the subsequent withdrawal of Allied forces and establishment of the Republic of Turkey.
The Indonesian War of Independence (1945–1949) followed with the Liberation of Irian Jaya (1960–1962), the First Indochina War (1946–1954), Vietnam War (1959–1975), Bangladesh Liberation War (1971) and the Algerian War (1954–1962) were all considered national liberation wars by the rebelling sides of the conflicts. The African National Congress (ANC)'s struggle against the apartheid regime is also another example. Most of these rebellions were in part supported by the Soviet Union. Since the Russian Revolution the revolutionary objectives of communism and socialism were shared by many anticolonialist leaders, thus explaining the objective alliance between anticolonialist forces and Marxism. The concept of "imperialism" itself had been theorized in Lenin's 1916 book, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. For example, Ho Chi Minh — who founded the Viet-Minh in 1941 and declared the independence of Vietnam on September 2, 1945, following the 1945 August Revolution — was a founding member of the French Communist Party (PCF) in 1921. In January 1961, over three years before the Gulf of Tonkin incident which would mark the United States government's increased involvement in the Vietnam War, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev would pledge support for "wars of national liberation" throughout the world.[11] In the same decade, Cuba, led by Fidel Castro, would support national liberation movements in Angola and Mozambique.
The Portuguese colonial wars finally led to the recognition of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau as independent states in 1975, following the April Carnation Revolution. The Rhodesian Bush War became a scene of guerrilla warfare and terrorism by factors of the ZANLA and ZAPU against Rhodesia until white-majority rule came to an end in 1979 and the Lancaster House Agreement led to the independence of Zimbabwe in April 1980. In February 1991, six months after the outbreak of the Gulf War, the coalition led by the United States launched a ground offensive to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. The 1991 breakup of Yugoslavia led to fewer wars of independence in part of the Yugoslav Wars, including the Ten-Day War and the Croatian War of Independence. The aftermath of the Rwandan genocide saw the AFDLinvade Zaire, overthrowing the regime of Mobutu and reverting its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the first Libyan Civil War (2011), an uprising developed into a rebellion, toppling the regime of Muammar Gaddafi and the National Transitional Council declared the liberation of Libya from 42 years of his rule.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is a national liberation movement, meaning that it holds official recognition of its legal status as such.[12] Other national liberation movements in the OAU at that time included the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC). It is the only non-African national liberation movement to hold observer status in the OAU, and was one of the first national liberation movements granted permanent observer status by the United Nations General Assembly pursuant to a 1974 resolution.[13][14] The PLO also participates in UN Security Council debates; since 1988, it has represented the Palestinian people at the UN under the name "Palestine".[15]
The Polisario Front has sought the independence of Western Sahara since 1973 and considers its war against Morocco as a national liberation war, as do many foreign observers, countries and the African Union. The Polisario Front has been recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people. The hostilities were frozen after a 1991 cease-fire and settlement plan agreement that called for a referendum on self-determination. However, the referendum was never held and hostilities resumed in 2020.
The following current conflicts have sometimes also been characterized as wars or struggles of national liberation (such a designation is often subject to controversy):
Conflicts which have been described as national liberation struggles:
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)'Rendering an area ethnically homogenous by using force or in- timidation to remove from a given area persons of another ethnic or religious group' seems, in fact, an essential element in the program of many state builders and national liberation movements.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)By June 1989, the Armenian National Movement (Hayots Hamazkayin Sharzhoum, ANM) was formed, transforming the Karabakh Committee into an instrument for the struggle of national independence.
The case of Nagorno-Karabakh, by contrast, represents a genuine struggle for self-determination by the ethnic Armenian population, who have long expressed a clear and consistent will to determine their own political status and have sought to achieve this through established democratic processes, such as referendums