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Colonial Wars and Armed Peace, 1870–1914: A Reconnaissance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

H.L. Wesseling
H.L. Wesseling
Affiliation:
Leiden University
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Extract

The concepts of war and peace are not as simple as they appear at first glance. Closer scrutiny reveals that reality cannot be reduced to the simple dichotomy expressed by this pair of words. There have after all been wars which were never declared and periods of peace which did not follow peace treaties. Yet this made them no less real. Moreover some acts of war were described euphemistically as ‘punitive expeditions’, ‘punishment raids’, or ‘police operations’ while others were described pejoratively as ‘terrorism’, ‘banditry’, and ‘piracy’. There have been wars which officially lasted seven, nine, thirty, eighty andeven onehundred years although theactual fighting took place within a much shorter period. Conversely there have also been eras of peace which were in fact no more than a truce extending over a number of years. In fact the concepts are so elastic that not only in George Orwell's frightening Newspeak but also in ordinary English one can say that “Waris Peace” if only one adds two adjectives: cold waris armed peace.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , July 1981 , pp. 53 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1981

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References

Notes

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67 Grandmaison, L. de, Deux conférances (Paris 1911), 27.Google Scholar

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