Although the term "guerrilla warfare" was coined in the context of thePeninsular War in the 19th century,[2] the tactical methods of guerrilla warfare have long been in use. In the 6th centuryBC,Sun Tzu proposed the use of guerrilla-style tactics inThe Art of War.[3] The 3rd century BC Roman generalQuintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus is also credited with inventing many of the tactics of guerrilla warfare through what is today called theFabian strategy, and in ChinaPeng Yue is also often regarded as the inventor of guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare has been used by various factions throughout history and is particularly associated with revolutionary movements and popular resistance against invading or occupying armies.
Guerrilla tactics focus on avoiding head-on confrontations with enemy armies, typically due to inferior arms or forces, and instead engage in limited skirmishes with the goal of exhausting adversaries and forcing them to withdraw (see alsoattrition warfare). Organized guerrilla groups often depend on the support of either the local population or foreign backers who sympathize with the guerrilla group's efforts.[4]
Spanish guerrilla resistance to the Napoleonic French invasion of Spain at theBattle of Valdepeñas
The Spanish wordguerrilla is the diminutive form ofguerra ("war"); hence, "little war". The term became popular during the early-19th centuryPeninsular War, when, after the defeat of their regular armies,the Spanish and Portuguese people successfully rose against theNapoleonictroops and defeated a highly superior army using the guerrilla strategy in combination with ascorched earth policy andpeople's war (see alsoattrition warfare against Napoleon). In correctSpanish usage, a person who is a member of aguerrilla unit is aguerrillero ([geriˈʎeɾo]) if male, or aguerrillera ([geriˈʎeɾa]) if female.Arthur Wellesley adopted the term "guerrilla" intoEnglish from Spanish usage in 1809,[2] to refer to the individualfighters (e.g., "I have recommended to set the Guerrillas to work"), and also (as in Spanish) to denotea group or band of such fighters. However, in most languagesguerrilla still denotes a specific style of warfare. The use of thediminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, and scope between the guerrilla army and the formal, professional army of the state.[5]
Prehistoric tribal warriors presumably employed guerrilla-style tactics against enemy tribes:
Primitive (and guerrilla) warfare consists of war stripped to its essentials: the murder of enemies; the theft or destruction of their sustenance, wealth, and essential resources; and the inducement in them of insecurity and terror. It conducts the basic business of war without recourse to ponderous formations or equipment, complicated maneuvers, strict chains of command, calculated strategies, timetables, or other civilized embellishments.[6]
Evidence ofconventional warfare, on the other hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Chinese general and strategistSun Tzu, in hisThe Art of War (6th century BC), became one of the earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare.[7] This inspired developments in modern guerrilla warfare.[8]
In the 3rd century BC,Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, calledCunctator ("delayer"), used elements of guerrilla warfare, such as the evasion of battle, the attempt to wear down the enemy, to attack small detachments in an ambush[9] and devised theFabian strategy, which theRoman Republic used to great effect againstHannibal's army, see alsoHis Excellency : George Washington: the Fabian choice.[10] The Roman generalQuintus Sertorius is also noted for his skillful use of guerrilla warfare duringhis revolt against theRoman Senate. In China, Han dynasty generalPeng Yue is often regarded as the inventor of guerrilla warfare due to his use of irregular warfare in theChu-Han contention to attack Chu convoys and supplies.[11][12]
In theByzantine Empire, guerrilla warfare was frequently practiced between the eighth through tenth centuries along the eastern frontier with the Umayyad and then Abbasid caliphates. Tactics involved a heavy emphasis on reconnaissance and intelligence, shadowing the enemy, evacuating threatened population centres, and attacking when the enemy dispersed to raid.[13] In the later tenth century this form of warfare was codified in a military manual known by its later Latin name asDe velitatione bellica ('On Skirmishing') so it would not be forgotten in the future.[14]
The Normans often made many forays into Wales, where the Welsh used the mountainous region, which the Normans were unfamiliar with, to spring surprise attacks upon them.[15]
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba employed successfully guerrilla during theItalian Wars, where his Italian lieutenant and successorProspero Colonna was calledCuntatore in honor to Quintus Fabius Maximus due to their similar tactics. Guerrila eventually became one of the specialties of the Spanishtercios, including techniques like thecamisado.[16]
Siege of theFortaleza San Luis by the Dominican rebels by Melanio Guzmán
TheDominican Restoration War was a guerrilla war between 1863 and 1865 in theDominican Republic between nationalists andSpain, the latter of whichhad recolonized the country 17 years after its independence. The war resulted in the withdrawal of Spanish forces and the establishment of a second republic in the Dominican Republic.[19]
The RiffianBerber military leaderAbd el-Krim (c. 1883 – 1963) and his father[20] unified the Berber tribes under their control and took up arms against the Spanish and French occupiers during theRif War in 1920. For the first time in history,tunnel warfare was used alongside modern guerrilla tactics, which caused considerable damage to both the colonial armies in Morocco.[21]
In the early 20th centuryMichael Collins andTom Barry both developed many tactical features of guerrilla warfare duringthe guerrilla phase of the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence. Collins developed mainly urban guerrilla warfare tactics in Dublin City (the Irish capital). Operations in which smallIrish Republican Army (IRA) units (3 to 6 guerrillas) quickly attacked a target and then disappeared into civilian crowds.[22][23] InCounty Cork, Tom Barry was the commander of the IRAWest Cork brigade. Fighting in west Cork was rural, and the IRA fought in much larger units than their comrades in urban areas. These units, called "flying columns",[24] engaged British forces in large battles, usually for between 10–30 minutes.
TheAlgerian Revolution of 1954 started with a handful of Algerian guerrillas. Primitively armed, the guerrillas fought the French for over eight years. This remains a prototype for modern insurgency and counterinsurgency, terrorism, torture, and asymmetric warfare prevalent throughout the world today.[25] InSouth Africa,African National Congress (ANC) members studied the Algerian War, prior to the release and apotheosis ofNelson Mandela;[26] in theirintifada against Israel,Palestinian fighters have sought to emulate it.[27] Additionally, the tactics ofAl-Qaeda closely resemble those of the Algerians.[28]
The growth of guerrilla warfare was inspired in part by theoretical works on guerrilla warfare, starting with theManual de Guerra de Guerrillas byMatías Ramón Mella written in the 19th century:
...our troops should...fight while protected by the terrain...using small, mobile guerrilla units to exhaust the enemy...denying them rest so that they only control the terrain under their feet.[29]
More recently, Mao Zedong'sOn Guerrilla Warfare,[30]Che Guevara'sGuerrilla Warfare,[31] and Lenin'sGuerrilla warfare,[32] were all written after the successful revolutions carried out by them in China, Cuba and Russia, respectively. Those texts characterized the tactic of guerrilla warfare as, according toChe Guevara's text, being "used by the side which is supported by a majority but which possesses a much smaller number of arms for use in defense against oppression".[33]
Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery.
In the 1960s, theMarxist revolutionaryChe Guevara developed thefoco (Spanish:foquismo) theory ofrevolution in his bookGuerrilla Warfare,[35] based on his experiences during the 1959Cuban Revolution. This theory was later formalized as "focal-ism" byRégis Debray. Its central principle is thatvanguardism bycadres of small, fast-movingparamilitary groups can provide a focus for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a generalinsurrection. Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, manyfoco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements.
Guerrilla warfare is a type ofasymmetric warfare: competition between opponents of unequal strength.[36] It is also a type ofirregular warfare: that is, it aims not simply to defeat an invading enemy, but to win popular support and political influence, to the enemy's cost. Accordingly, guerrillastrategy aims to magnify the impact of a small, mobile force on a larger, more cumbersome one.[37] If successful, guerrillas weaken their enemy byattrition, eventually forcing them to withdraw.
Tactically, guerrillas usually avoid confrontation with large units and formations of enemy troops but seek and attack small groups of enemy personnel and resources to gradually deplete the opposing force while minimizing their own losses. The guerrilla prizes mobility, secrecy, and surprise, organizing in small units and takingadvantage of terrain that is difficult for larger units to use. For example,Mao Zedong summarized basic guerrilla tactics at the beginning of theChinese Civil War as:
"The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue."[38]
At least one author credits the ancient Chinese workThe Art of War with inspiring Mao's tactics.[39] In the 20th century, other communist leaders, including North VietnameseHo Chi Minh, often used and developed guerrilla warfare tactics, which provided a model for their use elsewhere, leading to the Cuban "foco" theory and the anti-SovietMujahadeen inAfghanistan.[40]
Guerrilla groups may useimprovised explosive devices andlogistical support by the local population. The opposing army may come at last to suspect all civilians as potential guerrilla backers. The guerrillas might get political support from foreign backers and many guerrilla groups are adept at public persuasion throughpropaganda and use of force.[41] Some guerrilla movements today also rely heavily on children as combatants, scouts, porters, spies, informants, and in other roles.[42] Many governments and states alsorecruit children within their armed forces.[43][44]
While the primary concern of guerrillas is the enemy's active military units, actualterrorists largely are concerned with non-military agents and target mostly civilians.[50]
^Baquer, M. A. (2006).La escuela Hispano-Italiana de Estrategia. Guerra y sociedad en la monarquía hispánica. Vol. 1, 2006, ISBN 84-8483-235-X, págs. 367-380
Boot, Max (2013).Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present. Liveright. pp. 10–11, 55.ISBN978-0-87140-424-4.
Chamberlin, Paul Thomas (2015).The global offensive : the United States, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the making of the post-cold war order. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-021782-2.OCLC907783262.
Hanhimäki, Jussi M.; Blumenau, Bernhard; Rapaport, David (2013)."The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism"(PDF).An International History of Terrorism: Western and Non-Western Experiences. Routledge. pp. 46–73.ISBN9780415635417. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 21 February 2014.
Hinckle, Warren (with Steven Chain and David Goldstein):Guerrilla-Krieg in USA (Guerrilla war in the USA),Stuttgart (Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 1971.ISBN3-421-01592-9
Polack, Peter.Guerrilla Warfare; Kings of Revolution Casemate,ISBN9781612006758.
Thomas Powers, "The War without End" (review ofSteve Coll,Directorate S: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Penguin, 2018, 757 pp.),The New York Review of Books, vol. LXV, no. 7 (19 April 2018), pp. 42–43. "Forty-plus years after our failure inVietnam, the United States is again fighting an endless war in a faraway place against a culture and a people we don't understand for political reasons that make sense inWashington, but nowhere else." (p. 43.)
Sutherland, Daniel E. "Sideshow No Longer: A Historiographical Review of the Guerrilla War."Civil War History 46.1 (2000): 5–23; American Civil War, 1861–65
Sutherland, Daniel E.A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War (U of North Carolina Press, 2009).onlineArchived 24 June 2018 at theWayback Machine
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