Extremely Violent Societies by Christian Gerlach

Author:Christian Gerlach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

Conclusions

Since the 1930s many governments, imperial and post-colonial, have depopulated large areas of the countryside, chased rural dwellers away, and resettled a large number of them in strategic villages, and established or encouraged the founding of local militias. Power-holders thus triggered or deepened civil wars that took a long time to subside. Usually, economic development was an element crucial to such strategies to gain political support during the struggle in the countryside. To extend government control and the reach of a state administration to such areas was in turn to facilitate or deepen the capitalist penetration that had already begun. However, the social changes that did take place were often not in accordance with the existing more- or less-sophisticated plans. Traditional modes of life in remote areas gave way to social differentiation, migration, and a state of insecurity. These social processes were a result of the actions of the government authorities but went beyond their control.

Evidently, in many incidents the social conflicts revolving around these anti-guerrilla wars had been set in motion by world historical events such as the upheavals and mobilization of rural resources and the workforce during World War II (Belarus, China, the Philippines, Greece, Malaya, French Indochina, Kenya) or in the world economic crisis of the early 1980s (El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Turkish Kurdistan).

What was in effect the violent opening up of marginal regions (or of their labor) spelled death or suffering for thousands of civilians. The reference to the so-called principle of “minimum force” (sometimes claimed for British anti-guerrilla warfare365) appears absurd where millions were herded into extremely frugal settlements, deprived of sufficient access to land, exposed to systematic harassment and often torture, and where no-go zones were comprehensively bombed or defoliated. It was precisely the soft means that usually caused most victims through hunger, diseases, and exhaustion. Only the gross neglect of these topics has made the denial of substantial population losses possible. More research is especially necessary on the conditions and strategies of survival in resettlement villages or the hiding places of refugees.

In order to understand the suffering and multi-polar violence during open military fighting and the long-term impact of the social conflicts involved, it is also important to examine the processes of social differentiation triggered through mass dislocation and militia building. All of the cases discussed here involving an imperial power ultimately resulted in the colonial or occupation forces leaving, and hence in the formation of new elites. Racism limited investment. In effect, there was no way to uphold an overtly racist order if a backward country was to be comprehensively penetrated with capital, so the colonial order tumbled. Post-colonial regimes were usually successful in oppressing guerrilla movements, but in the process new elements were co-opted into elite ranks. In the former case, massive and extended reprisals against former loyalists occurred. Many of those expelled or resettled never returned, cementing social change and especially a turn away from subsistence agriculture. The rise of ordinary violent crime and continuing civil strife reflected insecurity during a social transformation and uprooting that at times also carried unrest into the cities.

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