'Galatic Civil War' and 'Clone Wars' are incorrectly named

No, but it does say this

The War between the states was fought between two different countries, the CSA and the USA.

The Spanish Civil War was fought in one country, Spain, for control of the Spanish government.


Also, the US Civil War was not a civil war, but a War Between the States.

 

Wars usually aren't named until after the fact. I see the Clone wars as a nickname given to the conflict, and not an official name at the time of the war. Personally I think the GCW is improperly named. It was more of a revolution or a Coup d'état. Afterwards I'd say it would probably be called the galactic revolution.

As for the clone wars. It is what it is.

 

I'm sorry for any confusion, General Kenobi, but I was not responding to your post. I was only responding to the original poster.

I was only remarking that both wars are civil wars. The titles of the wars is irrelevant. The CIS and the Rebel Alliance are both rebellious factions that are part of the citizenry of the Republic/Empire which is the centralized government of the core and inner worlds. The point of view of the CIS or Rebel Alliance is irrelevant because the fact is that at one time they viewed themselves as citizens of the Republic/Empire so therefore when these two rebellious factions went to war with other citizens of the centralized government their actions created civil wars. The only difference between the CIS and Rebel Alliance were they're goals.

 

So your home made defination of civil war is wrong.

Goodness, I can't understand how this topic inspired people taking cheap shots.

 

I think the moniker " clone wars " may have been a bit of ironic revisionistic history on the part of the denizens of a GFFA , as in when they finally realized when it was all over that the clones not only defeated the Seperatists but where also the intial instruments of the Empire. In other words nobody was calling the battle against the Seperatists " The Clone Wars " whilst the war itself was being waged.

 

I would say that the war between the CIS and Republic was NOT a civil war, and heres why.

A civil war would be a fight between two factions that where once the same government. The American Civil War is named because the southern states were orginally apart of the Union.

Looking back on that it looks like I shot myself in the foot, but I'll go on anyway.

You can't compare the Union to the republic. A more accurate comparsion would be that the Republic is the SW version of the UN. I mean think about it, each planet gets it's own representive, but they don't have to listen to the Republic. Indeed a planet can choose not to join the Republic in the first place.

 

I will admit it is a rough comparision. But it's similar in the sense that the CIS was trying to seperate from the Republic. The Republic was trying to stop that.

 

But the planets of the CIS were previously member planets of the Galactic Republic, which would make them subject under the laws of the Galactic Republic. So they did join and are subsequently responsible for following the laws of that government. You can't join a society, government, organization and not follow the laws it governs under. I'm guessing that secession wasn't an act recognized by the Republic government.

 

i disagree somewhat.

you proceed it seems to me from the assumption that the central government has athority over the individual entities if it's a civil war.

this was in fact not the case, the states had rights similar to those depicted by the PT and republic until president lincon basically shredded the constitution in order to preserve the union.

it would have been viable for a state to actually blockade a port or refuse trade with another state prior to the american civil war.

the result of that war was a strong central government and federal law trumping state law, that was not always the case.

we would not have had that division if federal laws had been totally enforcible on the states.

i'm giving a rough overview, i know the details are more complex than i just stated but we're making a rough compairison.

i think the compairison to the UN is also somewhat appropriate in that the senate at the time of TPM was almost as useless as the UN is today.

no athority at all, totally corrupt and abuses it's once grand stature.

i would say lucas drew on both of these and created a hybrid of them, more based on rome from what we know of it, and uses that model to represent the republic.

 

You raise some good points, but for some reason I still can't think of the CIS/Republic War as being a Civil War.

As for the GCW, I guess they chose that name because it sounded cool. It also make the Rebels seem cooler. And for those of you who have played it, the Jedi-Sith war in Knights of the Old Republic is called in the sequel the "Jedi Civil War", even though we wouldn't consider it a civil war to our standards.

 

The Galactic Republic is the centralized government of the core and inner worlds. The CIS was once part of this centralized government, so why isn't the fight between the CIS and Republic a civil war?

The U.S. government and the centralized government of Star Wars are both republics, so why can't we compare two republics?

 

Well if the Republic was like the American Government, then that would make each planet like a state. I have a feeling that the planets that made up the republic had a lot more control over there own affairs then any country would allow over their states.

Besides, I've just realised that although the CIS/Republic War could be called a Civil War, since it was the first (and so far only one to my knowledge) war to feature clones it could be correctly called the "Clone Wars"

 

Not knowing much about American history, I probably shouldn't comment in this thread but I'll give it a shot.

While there are comparisons that can be made between the clone wars and the American civil war, one way of resolving the issue of the names of the wars would be to look at the clone wars like the American War of Independance and the rebellion as the civil war.

 

Exactly.

 

by that definition the american civil war was not a civil war either.

you could be right however.

 

Actually the French and Indian war was more of a World war then WW1 because WW1 was only fought in europe, while the French and Indian war was fought in America, Europe, and Asia.

 

Why is the U.S. Civil War called a civil war if it's not a civil war? I'm basing the reasons why 'Galactic Civil War' and 'Clone Wars' should be renamed on the U.S. Civil War. The defination I provided earlier in the thread, lines up with what happened in the U.S. Civil War. I think it is wrong to think otherwise, historians would not continue to call it a civil war if it wasn't.

Just because it is fought all over the world doesn't neccessarily mean that is the only way it can be considered a World War. I believe the reasons 'world wars' are referenced as those today is because of the amount of countries (all over the world) that were involved.

 

Technically World War I was originally called The Great War.

 

Its some sort of hidden feature purposely named wrong for us fans to talk about and try to determine the meaning of!

Ya, thats all I can come up with

 

Perhaps a question that can be asked is: does the Galactic Civil War encompasse a wider conflict than that presented in the films (i.e. battles like Yavin and Hoth). The feeling I get is that they do. Not only do we have the Alliance, but also other groups and starsystems rebelling in such a way that constitutes a truly Civil War, in the sence that the civil citizenry rebels. Of coarse we don't know much about the period between III and IV; that material is coming in the form of novels, and of coarse the TV shows. Any thoughts o that one?

 

There were about 24 or so countries that fought in WWI. Also, the war was not in Europe, It was in Asia and the middle east as well. Ottoman Empire ring a bell??

 

DroidGeneral, I didn't the top half of the stuff you quoted me on! Further, are you agreeing with me?

 

first, don't expect me to keep arguing this, i agree with both that the GFFA war and the US 'war between the states' were both civil wars, however i am prepared to play devils advocate.

the name civil war to describe the US civil war has always been contentious.

if we go by the simple definition, the one i believe it's easy:

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

civil war
One entry found for civil war.

Main Entry: civil war
Function: noun
: a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country

the longer more traditional definition included the words 'for control of the country', it seems to have been revised in the 20th century or perhaps as with most english words/phrases there have been different meanings at different times.

under the definition i pulled off the online dictionary above both are clearly civil wars, but they are wars of seperation, not wars for domination.

neither the seperatists nor the confederacy were trying to obliterate their opposition, there is some debate on the seperatists there, how long till their movement would have become one of conquest? not long i think.

the only reason i wonder about it is because most would take that to mean that a struggle for dominance of the country or galaxy in the case of SW is exactly what has to take place for it to be a civil war.

the reason it's contentious as to the US civil war is simple, the southern states had the right under the original draft of the contsitution to leave the union, quite simply they wanted out and were allowed to get out legally.

if that premis is followed then what transpired when president lincon went to now end to preserve the union is a war of agression by the northern states to gain dominance over the independent, legally speaking as of the moment of sucession seperate country.

it can't be a civil war if they became a seperate country and were then invaded.

clearly that is not the case with the seperatists in lucas world.

the problem with the american civil war is that we have the victor's history to read and unfortunately in this case it's the losser's point of view that makes the difference.

i find it to be much more clear cut to say that the GFFA war was a civil war than it is to say the US civil war was truly a civil war, isn't that comical.