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77-450: Scorched earth against non-combatants has been banned under the 1977 Geneva Conventions . It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to

154-489: A Catholic majority, but also a significant Lutheran Protestant population (especially in northern Württemberg and some parts of Baden and Franconia (northern Bavaria)), in contrast to the almost entirely Protestant Northern Germany . Due to the immigration of non-Christians, mainly Turks (see Turks in Germany ) during the last decades of the twentieth century, there is also a small number (roughly 250,000, i.e. 2–3% of

231-457: A belligerent country and co-belligerent (i.e., allied) persons as long their state of nationality maintains diplomatic relations with a belligerent power. Article 42 of Protocol I states that aircrews who are parachuting from aircraft in distress cannot be attacked regardless of what territory they are over. If aircrews land in territory controlled by the enemy, they must be given an opportunity to surrender before being attacked unless it

308-598: A campaign in the Hejaz and Yemen to ravage territory loyal to Muawiyah's opponent Ali ibn Abi Talib . According to Tabari , 30,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed during that campaign of the civil war. Muawiyah also sent Sufyan ibn Awf to Iraq to burn the crops and homes of Ali's supporters. During the Viking invasion of England , the Viking chieftain Hastein tried to occupy

385-434: A direct part in hostilities, i.e., participate in the use of a weapon or a weapon-system in an indispensable function.” Furthermore, it specifies that "persons who are members of the armed forces but do not have any combat mission, such as judges, government officials and blue-collar workers, are non-combatants." Southern Germany Southern Germany ( German : Süddeutschland , [ˈzyːtˌdɔʏtʃlant] )

462-821: A king. During the Wars of Scottish Independence , Robert the Bruce adopted a strategy of slighting Scottish castles to prevent them from being occupied by the invading English. A strategy of slighting castles in Palestine was also adopted by the Mamlukes during their wars with the Crusaders . Stephen the Great used scorched earth in the Carpathians against the Ottoman Army in 1475 and 1476. In 1462,

539-594: A line between Bonn and Bingen , in the mountain ranges ( Mittelgebirge ) of the Westerwald , the Taunus , and the Eifel , along the Rhine and Mosel rivers—is seen as the cultural border between Southern and Western Germany. Two of the most populous states of Germany, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, are part of Southern Germany. They have a combined population of 23.5 million people. In

616-624: A massive Ottoman army, led by Sultan Mehmed II , marched into Wallachia. Vlad the Impaler retreated to Transylvania . During his departure, he conducted scorched-earth tactics to ward off Mehmed's approach. When the Ottoman forces approached Tirgoviste , they encountered over 20,000 people impaled by the forces of Vlad the Impaler, creating a "forest" of dead or dying bodies on stakes. The atrocious, gut-wrenching sight caused Mehmed to withdraw from battle and send instead Radu, Vlad's brother, to fight Vlad

693-509: A result of war. After World War II ended, countries got together with the aim to give rights to non-combatants, and created the 1949 Geneva Conventions, built off the 1907 Hague Convention. The Vietnam War is one war in the mid-20th century in which many civilians were killed. Many civilians were not specifically identified as whether they are non-combatants or ordinary civilians, which might have been directly or indirectly killing hundreds and thousands of Vietnamese civilians. However, there

770-504: A scorched earth campaign that threatened the population with starvation and deported many civilians into slavery in Egypt . The fires of burning villages and fields were clearly visible from Allied ships standing offshore. A British landing party reported that the population of Messinia was close to mass starvation. Ibrahim's scorched-earth policy caused much outrage in Europe , which was one factor for

847-557: A scorched-earth policy and so the Spaniards advanced into a wasteland. Belgrano's army destroyed everything that could provide shelter or be useful to the Royalists. In 1827, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt led an Ottoman-Egyptian combined force in a campaign to crush Greek revolutionaries in the Peloponnese . In response to Greek guerrilla attacks on his forces in the Peloponnese , Ibrahim launched

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924-757: A scorched-earth policy in the Palatinate , Baden and Württemberg . The French were intent on denying enemy troops local resources and on preventing the Germans from invading France. By 20 December 1688, Louvois had selected all the cities, towns, villages and châteaux intended for destruction. On 2 March 1689, the Count of Tessé torched Heidelberg , and on 8 March, Montclar levelled Mannheim . Oppenheim and Worms were finally destroyed on 31 May, followed by Speyer on 1 June, and Bingen on 4 June. In all, French troops burnt over 20 substantial towns as well as numerous villages. In

1001-777: A state or government during a time of peace. The location an individual is tried in a court of law is the determining factor between combatant and non-combatant terrorists. Individuals like the San Bernardino shooters, the Tsarnaev brothers and the people responsible for the September 11 attacks would be characterized as non-combatant terrorists. Groups like Al-Qaeda are considered combatant terrorists or may also be called unlawful combatants. Non-combatants can also be looked at as radical civilians and combatants can be seen as military soldiers. As of 2017, there are inconsistent ways in which

1078-600: A suitably-rugged container had not yet been invented.) The command was obeyed as a result of French plundering and general ill-treatment of civilians in the previous invasions. The civilians would rather destroy anything that had to be left behind, rather than leave it to the French. When the French armies reached the Lines of Torres Vedras on the way to Lisbon, French soldiers reported that the country "seemed to empty ahead of them". Low morale, hunger, disease and indiscipline greatly weakened

1155-513: Is a region of Germany that includes the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, which includes the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia in present-day Bavaria , Baden-Württemberg , and the southern portion of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate that were part of the Duchy of Franconia . German-speaking Switzerland , Austria , Liechtenstein , Alsace , and South Tyrol are also historically, culturally, and linguistically associated with

1232-435: Is apparent that they are engaging in a hostile act or attempting to escape. Airborne forces who are descending by parachute from an aircraft, whether it is disabled or not, are not given the protection afforded by this Article and, therefore, may be attacked during their descent unless they are hors de combat . Article 50 of Protocol 1 defines a civilian as a person who is not a privileged combatant. Article 51 describes

1309-455: Is necessary to pursue a great aim: the destruction of the enemy army, either by battle or by rendering its subsistence extremely difficult. Thus we shall disorganize it and force it into a retreat, during which it will necessarily suffer great losses. Wellington's campaign in 1810 and 1811 is a good example. Clausewitz wrote in On War : All that the country yields will be taken for the benefit of

1386-538: Is no exact proportion of the number of the non-combatants have or were specify the exact figure, the statistics that has been given were all the estimates on how many civilians and combatants were killed. Most of the recorded number of people missing or killed were not specific, but all were casualties , meaning there is/was no exact figure or combatants or non-combatants. Military records in the National Archives do not specify how many non-combatants were killed during

1463-524: Is now Jujuy and Salta Provinces to the south. The Jujuy Exodus was conducted by the patriot forces of the Army of the North , which was battling a Royalist army. Belgrano, faced with the prospect of total defeat and territorial loss, ordered all people to pack their necessities, including food and furniture, and to follow him in carriages or on foot together with whatever cattle and beasts of burden that could endure

1540-475: Is the counsel and intent Of gud King Robert's testiment. A slighting is the deliberate destruction, whether partial or complete, of a fortification without opposition. Sometimes, such as during the Wars of Scottish Independence and the English Civil War , it was done to render the structure unusable as a fortress. In England, adulterine (unauthorised) castles would usually be slighted if captured by

1617-546: The Fourth Geneva Convention defines that civilians who "find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals" are protected persons . Not included in the status of protected persons are the belligerent's own citizens and nationals of a state not party to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and neutral citizens living in

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1694-766: The Geneva Conventions , adopted in June 1977); combatants who are placed hors de combat ; and neutral persons, such as peacekeepers , who are not involved in fighting for one of the belligerents involved in a war . This particular status was first recognized under the Geneva Conventions with the First Geneva Convention of 1864. Under international humanitarian law, certain non-combatants are classified as protected persons , who are to be protected under laws applicable to international armed conflict at all times. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 were one of

1771-667: The Great Powers ( United Kingdom , the Kingdom of France and the Russian Empire ) decisively intervening against him in the Battle of Navarino . In the American Civil War , Union forces under Philip Sheridan and William Tecumseh Sherman used the policy widely: supplies within the reach of Confederate armies I regarded as much contraband as arms or ordnance stores. Their destruction

1848-547: The Humber to Tees and slaughtered the inhabitants. Food stores and livestock were destroyed so that anyone surviving the initial massacre would soon succumb to starvation over the winter. The destruction is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry . The survivors were reduced to cannibalism , with one report stating that the skulls of the dead were cracked open so that their brains could be eaten. Between 100,000 and 150,000 perished, and

1925-580: The Iroquois decisively during the American Revolutionary War with the Sullivan Expedition . General John Sullivan used a scorched earth campaign by destroying more than 40 Iroquois villages and their stores of winter crops resulting in many deaths by starvation and cold in the following winter. In a letter to Jean-Jacques Dessalines , Toussaint Louverture outlined his plans for defeating

2002-493: The Kingdom of Bavaria . Linguistically, Southern Germany corresponds to the Upper German dialects . Southern Germany is culturally and linguistically more similar to German-speaking Switzerland , Austria , and German-speaking South Tyrol than to Central and Northern Germany. A jocular term referring to a cultural boundary defining Bavarian culture is Weißwurstäquator , i.e. the "equator" dividing Northern Germany from

2079-473: The Maratha Empire , Shivaji Maharaj had introduced scorched-earth tactics, known as Ganimi Kava . His forces looted traders and businessmen from Aurangzeb 's Mughal Empire and burnt down his cities, but they were strictly ordered not to rape or hurt the innocent civilians and not to cause any sort of disrespect to any of the religious institutes. Shivaji's son, Sambhaji Maharaj , was detested throughout

2156-638: The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court also prohibits attacks directed against civilians. While not all states have ratified Protocol I or the Rome Statute, these provisions reiterated existing customary laws of war which is binding of all belligerents in an international conflict. Article 3 in the general section of the Geneva Conventions states that in the case of armed conflict not of an international character (occurring in

2233-716: The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and then in the Indian Wars of the Great Plains . When General Ulysses Grant 's forces broke through the defenses of Richmond, Virginia , Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered the destruction of Richmond's military supplies. The resulting fires quickly spread to other buildings, as well as to the Confederate warships docked on the James River . Civilians in panic were forced to escape

2310-549: The United Kingdom , United States , Russia and Japan . Despite many nations signing at the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, a number of the agreements were broken during World War I , including sections from Treaty IV involving poisons and the attacking of undefended towns and villages. While some Geneva Conventions occurred before the Hague Conventions, none touched on the rights of protected non-combatants in

2387-510: The 1899 Convention maintains that surrendering belligerent fighters are to be treated as prisoners of war unless they are out of proper uniforms (i.e. spies ). Article 13 of the same section declares that any other non-combatant or civilian affiliated with but not part of the belligerent military, such as reporters and contractors, have the same right to be treated as a prisoner of war. Article 25 of Treaty II states that undefended communities are protected from any form of attack. In addition to

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2464-551: The Duke of Pomerania, the imperial general permitted his troops, upon his retreat, to exercise every barbarity on the unfortunate inhabitants of Pomerania, who had already suffered but too severely from his avarice. On pretence of cutting off the resources of the Swedes, the whole country was laid waste and plundered; and often, when the Imperialists were unable any longer to maintain a place, it

2541-479: The French army and compelled the forces to retreat, see also Attrition warfare against Napoleon . In 1812, Emperor Alexander I was able to render Napoleon's invasion of Russia useless by using a scorched-earth policy. As Russians withdrew from the advancing French army, they burned the countryside over which they passed ( and allegedly Moscow ), leaving nothing of value for the pursuing French army. Encountering only desolate and useless land Napoleon's Grande Armée

2618-581: The French in the Haitian Revolution starting in 1791 using scorched-earth: "Do not forget, while waiting for the rainy reason which will rid us of our foes, that we have no other resource than destruction and fire. Bear in mind that the soil bathed with our sweat must not furnish our enemies with the smallest sustenance. Tear up the roads with shot; throw corpses and horses into all the foundations, burn and annihilate everything in order that those who have come to reduce us to slavery may have before their eyes

2695-573: The Gallic alliance showed that the ravaging alone was not to be enough to save Gaul from subjugation by Rome. In the year CE 363, the Emperor Julian 's invasion of Persia was turned back by a scorched-earth policy: The extensive region that lies between the River Tigris and the mountains of Media ...was in a very improved state of cultivation. Julian might expect, that a conqueror, who possessed

2772-562: The Impaler. Further use of scorched-earth policies in war was seen during the 16th century in Ireland , where it was used by English commanders such as Walter Devereux and Richard Bingham . The Desmond Rebellions were a famous case in Ireland. Much of the province of Munster was laid waste. The poet Edmund Spenser left an account of it: In those late wars in Munster ; for not withstanding that

2849-641: The Knights, the Maltese militia and a Spanish relief force. In 1630, Field-Marshal General Torquato Conti was in command of the Holy Roman Empire 's forces during the Thirty Years' War . Forced to retreat from the advancing Swedish army of King Gustavus Adolphus , Conti ordered his troops to burn houses, destroy villages and cause as much harm generally to property and people as possible.: To revenge himself upon

2926-490: The Mughal Empire for his scorched-earth tactics until he and his men were captured by Muqarrab Khan and his Mughal Army contingent of 25,000. On 11 March 1689, a panel of Mughal qadis indicted and sentenced Sambhaji to death on accusations of casual torture , arson , looting and massacres but most prominently for giving shelter to Sultan Muhammad Akbar, the fourth son of Aurangzeb, who had sought Sambhaji's aid in winning

3003-573: The Mughal throne from the emperor, his father. Sambhaji was particularly condemned for the three days of ravaging committed after the Battle of Burhanpur. During the Great Northern War , Russian Emperor Peter the Great 's forces used scorched-earth tactics to hold back Swedish King Charles XII 's campaign towards Moscow in 1707–1708. In 1779 Congress decided to defeat the four British allied nations of

3080-656: The Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene , Quintus Fabius Maximus instructed those living in the path of the invading Carthaginians to burn their houses and grain. After the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BCE, the Roman Senate also elected to use this method to permanently destroy the Carthaginian capital city, Carthage (near modern-day Tunis ). The buildings were torn down, their stones scattered so not even rubble remained, and

3157-586: The Vietnam War. Thousands of people were killed: civilian, casualties, combatants and non-combatants and so as ordinary civilians (citizens) in Vietnam but also in Laos and Cambodia. Thus, all figures do not specify how many non-combatants were killed or injured. Although there is no clear definition of terrorism , a terrorist can be explained as an individual who is a non-state actor who engages in armed hostilities toward

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3234-517: The above, Article 27 states that if any sieges do occur, places devoted to religion, charity or hospitals should be avoided if possible, as long as they have no strategic affiliations. Article 28 states that even when a village is captured through war, pillaging is not allowed by any party. That is repeated in Article 47, Section III. The articles above were reaffirmed by Convention IV of the 1907 Convention. Many nations signed, including delegates from

3311-642: The area took centuries to recover from the damage. During the Hundred Years' War , both the English and the French conducted chevauchée raids over the enemy territory to damage its infrastructure. Robert the Bruce counselled using scorched earth to frustrate the invasion of Scotland by Edward I of England , according to an anonymous 14th-century poem: in strait places gar keep all store, And byrnen ye plainland them before, That they shall pass away in haist What that they find na thing but waist. ... This

3388-711: The broader sense (with Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland), Southern Germany includes roughly 30 million people. Thus, about 40% of the German population and almost 30% of all native speakers of the German language live there. In the 17th and 18th centuries, emigrants from Southern Germany, known as the Pennsylvania Dutch , were among the first settlers of the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania and other influential population centers in present-day United States . The region has

3465-497: The carrions, happy where they could find them, yea, and one another soon after, in so much as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves; and if they found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to continue therewithal; that in a short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man or beast. In early 1565, Grandmaster Jean Parisot de Valette ordered

3542-477: The city as it quickly burned. Non-combatant Non-combatant is a term of art in the law of war and international humanitarian law to refer to civilians who are not taking a direct part in hostilities; persons, such as combat medics and military chaplains , who are members of the belligerent armed forces but are protected because of their specific duties (as currently described in Protocol I of

3619-608: The civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive. The term was found in English in a 1937 report on the Second Sino-Japanese War . The retreating Chinese forces burned crops and destroyed infrastructure including cities to sabotage the logistics of the advancing Japanese forces. Clausewitz wrote in Principles of War : In defensive just as in offensive warfare, it

3696-562: The course of the war. This number, however, is largely debated. Despite the understanding that over 18 million were killed in the Holocaust and as a result of other Nazi persecution, the exact number will likely never be determined. There is also difficulty of estimating the numbers for events such as the Nanjing massacre , though it is estimated that between 200,000 and 300,000 civilians and prisoners of war were slaughtered. This does not necessarily include military, non-combatant or civilian peoples killed by radiation, disease or other means as

3773-419: The defector's properties. Belgrano labored to win the support of the populace and later reported that most of the people had willingly followed him without the need for force. The exodus started on 23 August and gathered people from Jujuy and Salta . People travelled south about 250 km and finally arrived at the banks of the Pasaje River, in Tucumán Province in the early hours of 29 August. They applied

3850-421: The depths of the steppes after they had destroyed food supplies and poisoned wells . The Greek general Xenophon recorded in his Anabasis that the withdrawing enemy burnt up the grass and everything else that was good for use in front of the Ten Thousand . During the Second Punic War in 218–202 BCE , both Carthaginians and Romans used the method selectively during Hannibal's invasion of Italy . After

3927-505: The fields were burned. However, the story that they salted the earth is apocryphal . The system of punitive destruction of property and subjugation of people when accompanying a military campaign was known as vastatio . Two of the first uses of scorched earth recorded happened in the Gallic Wars . The first was used when the Celtic Helvetii were forced to evacuate their homes in Southern Germany and Switzerland because of incursions of unfriendly Germanic tribes : to add incentive to

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4004-516: The first multi-country treaties to agree on rights for non-combatants. These meetings occurred in 1899 and in 1907. Three treaties were signed and put into effect in 1899, including the treatment of prisoners of war and the protection of hospital ships . In 1907 thirteen additional treaties were signed. These cover regulations concerning war on land, the declaration of war , the rights and responsibilities of neutral countries , and rights and restrictions during naval war . Treaty II, Article 3 of

4081-405: The harvesting of all the crops in Malta, including unripened grain, to deprive the Ottomans of any local food supplies since spies had warned of an imminent Ottoman attack. Furthermore, the Knights poisoned all of the wells with bitter herbs and dead animals. The Ottomans arrived on 18 May, and the Great Siege of Malta began. The Ottomans managed to capture one fort but were eventually defeated by

4158-524: The heat of combat . The Geneva Conventions recognizes and expands on many of the treaties signed at the Hague Conventions, particularly those involving the treatment of non-combatants. As a result, the regulations are still in effect today. The Geneva Conventions started on April 21, 1949 and were concluded on August 12. The purpose of the Conventions was to establish protections afforded to protected non-combatants in wartime, including civilians under military occupations and prisoners of war. Article 4 of

4235-420: The homeland of the Weißwurst sausage. The river Main , flowing westward, through Upper and Lower Franconia and Southern Hesse , through the city of Frankfurt , into the river Rhine at Mainz , is often cited as a natural border between Southern and Middle Germany while the border west of Mainz is, in that respect, less clearly determined. The border between the Palatinate and the Rhineland —roughly

4312-422: The image of the hell which they deserve". During the third Napoleonic invasion of Portugal in 1810, the Portuguese population retreated towards Lisbon and was ordered to destroy all the food supplies the French might capture as well as forage and shelter in a wide belt across the country. (Although effective food-preserving techniques had recently been invented, they were still not fit for military use because

4389-414: The journey. The rest (houses, crops, food stocks and any objects made of iron) was to be burned to deprive the Royalists of resources. The strict scorched-earth policy made him ask on 29 July 1812 the people of Jujuy to "show their heroism " and to join the march of the army under his command "if, as you assure, you want to be free". The punishment for ignoring the order was execution, with the destruction of

4466-429: The many civilian casualties, including the killing of 150 men, Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr. , Sherman's brother-in-law, issued US Army General Order No. 11 (1863) to order the near-total evacuation of three-and-a-half counties in western Missouri , south of Kansas City, which were subsequently looted and burned by US Army troops. Under Sherman's overall direction, General Philip Sheridan followed that policy in

4543-448: The march of Julian, he beheld the melancholy face of a smoking and naked desert. This desperate but effectual method of defence can only be executed by the enthusiasm of a people who prefer their independence to their property; or by the rigor of an arbitrary government, which consults the public safety without submitting to their inclinations the liberty of choice. During the First Fitna (656–661), Muawiyah I sent Busr ibn Abi Artat to

4620-423: The march, the Helvetii destroyed everything they could not bring. The second case shows actual military value: during the Great Gallic War the Gauls under Vercingetorix planned to lure the Roman armies into Gaul and then trap and obliterate them. They thus ravaged the countryside of what are now the Benelux countries and France. This caused immense problems for the Romans, but the Roman military triumphs over

4697-486: The ones in Heidelberg , Munich , Tübingen , and Würzburg ). The specific features of the landscape are rolling hills, Mittelgebirge (mid-range mountains). Southern Germany also has a part of the Alps , in the southeast of the region ( Allgäu and Bavarian Alps ). In the culinary field, both beer and wine are produced in many varieties throughout the region. The regional cuisine consists of stews , sausages , cabbage , noodles , and other pasta dishes as well as

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4774-411: The population) of Muslims . Where a city has different names in English and German, the English name is given first. Economically, Southern Germany is the strongest part of Germany, with Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria being the powerhouses of manufacturing , especially in the automobile and machinery industry. Furthermore, it is home to some of the country's most prestigious universities (such as

4851-532: The prosecutions of terrorists are conducted. Possible solutions would be to take all individuals classified as non-combatants and have them charged as criminals and prosecute the individuals who are considered combatants and engage in warfare attacks under military commissions. Combatant terrorists are captured and detained in order to put an end to their hostilities and are labeled as prisoners of war, and non-combatants are considered criminals. Germany's Military Manual states that “combatants are persons who may take

4928-399: The protection that must be given to civilians (unless they are unprivileged combatants ) and civilian populations. Article 54 deals with Protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, and is categorical that "Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited." Chapter III of Protocol I regulates the targeting of civilian objects. Article 8(2)(b)(i) of

5005-493: The quartermaster or commissary departments to be issued as if furnished from our Northern depots. But much was destroyed without receipts to owners when it could not be brought within our lines and would otherwise have gone to the support of secession and rebellion. This policy I believe exercised a material influence in hastening the end. General Sherman used that policy during his March to the Sea . Another event, in response to William Quantrill 's raid on Lawrence, Kansas , and

5082-443: The region. Southern Germany primarily contrasts with Northern Germany and defines the territories of modern Germany that did not form part of the North German Confederation in the 19th century. Between Northern and Southern Germany is the loosely defined area known as Central Germany ( Mitteldeutschland ), roughly corresponding to the areal of Central German dialects ( Franconia , Thuringia , Saxony ). The boundary between

5159-476: The retreating army first, and will be mostly consumed. Nothing remains but wasted villages and towns, fields from which the crops have been gathered, or which are trampled down, empty wells, and muddy brooks. The pursuing army, therefore, from the very first day, has frequently to contend with the most pressing wants. Notable historic examples of successful scorched-earth tactics include the failed Swedish , French and German invasion of Russia , Sherman's march to

5236-445: The ruined Roman fortress of Chester in late summer 893, planning to raid northern Mercia from the refortified fortress. But the Mercians destroyed all crops and livestock in the surrounding countryside and expelled the Vikings successfully. In the Harrying of the North , William the Conqueror 's solution to stop a rebellion in 1069 was the brutal conquest and subjugation of northern England . William's men burnt whole villages from

5313-482: The same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle, that you would have thought they could have been able to stand long, yet ere one year and a half they were brought to such wretchedness, as that any stony heart would have rued the same. Out of every corner of the wood and glens they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them; they looked Anatomies [of] death, they spoke like ghosts, crying out of their graves; they did eat of

5390-424: The scorched-earth policy came into effect again because even though some large supply dumps had been established on the advance, the route between them had both been scorched and marched over once already. Thus, the French army starved as it marched along the resource-depleted invasion route. In August 1812, Argentine General Manuel Belgrano led the Jujuy Exodus , a massive forced displacement of people from what

5467-402: The sea during the American Civil War , Kit Carson 's campaign during the Navajo Wars in 1863 and Lord Kitchener 's methods in the Anglo-Boer War . The Scythians used scorched-earth methods against the Persian Achaemenid Empire , led by King Darius the Great , during his European Scythian campaign . The Scythians, who were nomadic herders, evaded the Persian invaders and retreated into

5544-533: The spheres of political influence of Prussia (Northern Germany) and Austria (Southern Germany) within the German Confederation (1815–1866) was known as the "Main line" ( Mainlinie , after the river Main ), Frankfurt am Main being the seat of the federal assembly. The "Main line" did not follow the course of the River Main upstream of Frankfurt, however, it instead corresponded to the northern border of

5621-567: The territory of one of the High Contracting Parties) that each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions to "persons taking no active part in the hostilities" (non-combatants). Such persons shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, with the following prohibitions: In World War II , non-combatants were more affected than they were in previous wars. Sources claim that over forty-five million civilians and non-combatants lost their lives over

5698-448: The two forcible instruments of persuasion, steel and gold, would easily procure a plentiful subsistence from the fears or avarice of the natives. But, on the approach of the Romans, the rich and smiling prospect was instantly blasted. Wherever they moved ... the cattle was driven away; the grass and ripe corn were consumed with fire; and, as soon as the flames had subsided which interrupted

5775-401: Was accomplished without bloodshed and tended to the same result as the destruction of armies. I continued this policy to the close of the war. Promiscuous pillaging, however, was discouraged and punished. Instructions were always given to take provisions and forage under the direction of commissioned officers who should give receipts to owners, if at home, and turn the property over to officers of

5852-575: Was laid in ashes, in order to leave the enemy nothing but ruins. In 1688, France attacked the German Electoral Palatinate . The German states responded by forming an alliance and assembling a sizeable armed force to push the French out of Germany. The French had not prepared for such an eventuality. Realising that the war in Germany was not going to end quickly and that the war would not be a brief and decisive parade of French glory, Louis XIV and War Minister Marquis de Louvois resolved upon

5929-507: Was prevented from using its usual doctrine of living off the lands that it conquered. Pushing relentlessly on despite dwindling numbers, the Grand Army met with disaster as the invasion progressed. Napoleon's army arrived in a virtually-abandoned Moscow , which was a tattered starving shell of its former self, largely because of scorched-earth tactics by the retreating Russians. Having conquered essentially nothing, Napoleon's troops retreated, but

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