Pacifism

Pacifism is opposition to war. Pacifism covers a spectrum of views ranging from a preference to use non-military means for resolving disputes through to absolute opposition to the use of violence, or even force, in any circumstance.

History

Advocacy of pacifism can be found far back in history and literature, for example in the Classical world. Two instances from the Peloponnesian War 431–404 BC that have come down to us are the non-violent protest of Hegetorides of Thasos, and the Athenian women's anti-war sex strike in Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata.

Related Topics:
Classical - Peloponnesian War - Hegetorides - Thasos - Athenian - Aristophanes - Lysistrata

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Some religious organizations, such as the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), the Amish, the Mennonites, and the Brethren have been pacific for centuries. In the 19th century pacifist sentiment grew. Many socialist groups and movements in that century were pacifist, arguing that war by its nature was a type of governmental coercion of the working class, who were forced to fight and die in wars of no benefit to them at the behest of their political and economic masters who never suffer in the war's front lines.

Related Topics:
Religious Society of Friends - Amish - Mennonites - 19th century - Socialist - Working class

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In Aotearoa/New Zealand during the latter half of the 19th century the British, and its colonial settlers, tried many tactics to acquire land from the Maori, including warfare. In one case a Maori leader was so inspiring that he was able to encourage warriors to stand up for their rights without using their weapons, in an atmosphere where similar warriors had defeated opposing forces in earlier years, Te Whiti-o-Rongomai convinced 2000 people to welcome battle-hardened soldiers into their village and even offer them food and drink. This same, peaceful, leader allowed himself and his people to be arrested without resistance.

Related Topics:
Aotearoa - New Zealand - Maori - Te Whiti-o-Rongomai

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In the aftermath of World War I there was a great revulsion with war in much of the West, and pacifist doctrines gained many new adherents. However pacifist literature or public advocation of anti-war ideals was banned in some nations, such as Italy under Mussolini, the Soviet Union, and slightly later Germany after the rise of Hitler. In these nations, pacifism was denounced as simple cowardice. With the start of World War II, pacifist sentiment declined. Bertrand Russell argued that the necessity of defeating Hitler was a unique circumstance where war was not the worst of the possible evils; he called his position "relative pacifism". Even H. G. Wells, who had claimed after the armistice ending World War I that the British had suffered more from the war than they would have from submission to Germany, later urged in 1941 a large-scale British offensive on the continent of Europe to combat Hitler and Nazism.

Related Topics:
World War I - Italy - Mussolini - Soviet Union - Germany - Hitler - World War II - Bertrand Russell - H. G. Wells - 1941 - Nazism

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Pacifist sentiment rose again a generation later in the 1960s.

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