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PaperclipPerfector  15d ago (text post)   2958 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 16, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Calling it “European” is an understatement, but at least it describes a useful subset of the theaters.

“Civil War,” on the other hand, is completely off base. The opponents weren’t a unified state before, during or after the war. I can’t tell if you’re joking or just being contrarian.

To steelman the “European Civil War” concept, the monarchies of Europe involved in WWI were basically cousins from the same elite family.

As for WWII being similar, a case could be made that the onerous restrictions on Germany were basically a continuation of the same war but without bullets.

(Not that I believe either.)

Dynastic relations had long since ceased to matter in European statecraft by the time WWI broke out, and only the tsar had final say in kicking the war off(Britain entered due to parliament and in Germany and Austria powerful generals were pushing for war). The monarchs were also cousins due to recent intermarriage and not because they were part of the same clan.

If I had to draw the lines such that independence wars were separate, I’d look for something like participation in government—“no taxation without representation,” right? Confederates had served in the same military, sent Congressmen to the same assemblies, and otherwise participated in American institutions.

Honestly, I’m willing to class independence wars as civil wars. The American Revolution apparently counts.

I don’t know enough about Korea to speak with confidence. Did either government claim continuity with a previous controlling government? I see one source claiming that the initial border skirmishes counted as civil war. What makes you say that it “doesn’t feel strange”?

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