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The largest numbers of refugees throughout history have been created by wars. This may be changing today as
economic refugees have become increasingly important. War appears to be as old as humanity, although we note a recent idea that it is an artifact of civilization. Throughout much of history wars were either dynastic or imperial or a mix of the two. These dynasties and empires had religions, but the thet were not the driving force behind religion. This changed with the advent of Abrahamic relgions. This not the case for Judasm because the Jews were not a large group, but it was the case for Christianity and Islam. Christian crusades and Islamic jihad. And both religions have launched both wars afainst each othrr and against fellow relgionists. War did not, however, necesarily cause refugees. People were not always a mobile as they are today, at least since the advent of agriculture and civilization. And people were not always as receptive or as sympathetic to refugees as is the case today. Reliigious war stended to be more violent than dynastic and imperial wars which tended to set refugees in motion. In addition there were also coreligionists willing to take in refugees. Wars created refugees in many ways. Some refugees flee the violence. Some were fearfull of the advancing armies killing and rapeing. Some flee because the War and soldiers were making life untenable such as pillaging and destruction.
The term refugeees when mentioned in reference to Isreael-Paestinian issue is normally used in reference to Palestinians Arabs. Large numbers of Paestinians did indeed flee from the areas where the Isrealis gained control. Historians believe that during the 1948 war that about 0.7 million Arabs fled or were expelled from the part of Palestine which became Israel. Less well known is that a similar number of Jews fled or were were expelled from Arab comtrolled areas of Paalestine or Muslim countries where their ancestors had lived for centuries, in most cases predating Islam amd the Arabs. Rather than being a one-sided refugee problem, there was in fact an exchange of population. The essential difference is that Israel proceeded to absorb and integrate the Jewish refugees, both the European refugeees abd the so called Oriental Jewish refugees from Arab countries. The Arab countries, however, did not absorb or integrate the Palestinian refugees. As a matter of policy, decades after the 1948 war, we are still talking about the Palestinian refugees, who are now mostly the children and grandchildren of the 1948 refugees. One reader writes, "If 1948 was an injustice, it was not unique. Almost every existing country was built on land seized from someone else at some point in the past. If we set out to reverse every such "injustice", the result would be a global bloodbath. All that happened in 1948 and 1967 was that the Muslim world was defeated in war and lost a small amount of territory. This has happened to many societies at various times. The only unique feature of the Palestine case is that the Muslim world would rather keep fighting -- perhaps to the point of triggering a nuclear holocaust -- rather than accept reality and move on."
Decoloinization after World War II was acompaied wiyh relatively limited resustance from the Eyropean colonial powers. The French fought wars in Vietnam and Algeria, but then basically granted independence to the rest of its empire with little resistance. The Dutch fought a war in Indonesia. Only the Portugues fought prolonged colonial wars (Angola and Mozambique). While colonial wars were limited, independence set off a long list of wars throughout Africa and Asia as different groups vied or powwer after the departure of the Eropeans. The Nigeraian Civil War !967-70) pictured here is a good example (figure 1). Biafra attempted but failed to gain independence. The Decolonization Wars were complicated by the Cold War. Some of these wars hav no Cold War elemennts like the Nigerian Civil War. Others like the Portuguese wars had significan Cold War elenments. .
The Indian-Pakistani Wars might be classified as De-Colonization Wars as they were essentially a conflict for control of territiory after the British left (1947). The fact that subsequent wars were fought long after the British had left we thinks this a separate case. The greates refugeee crisis occurred as a result of the partation creating Pakistanb as a separate state. There was also a substantial refugee crisis associated with the Third War leading to the creation of Bangladesh. This was the last of the wars between the two neigboiring states. Pakistan ciontinbues to promote terror attacks on Induia, bur sunce both have acwuired nuckear weapons, the two states have been reluctant ti launch a fourt war. The unsettled point of contention is the status of Kasmir.
Germany launched World War I by attacking France through Belgium (August 1914). The German Army poured across first the Belgian frontier and within a month the French frontier as well (1914). Only the Miracle on the Marne (September 1914) prevented the Germans from reaching Paris and almost certainly winning the War. Civilians fled the invading German Army in large numbers. Some of the Belgians sought refuge in the Netherlands. Most headed south toward France and were joined by French refugees as well. The Germans occupied most of Belgium and areas of northern France until the final months of the War. The refugee problem does not begin to capture the enormity of the problem. The German Army seized cthe civilian food stocks. The Belgians would have starved without American food aid. Thus France throughout the War had a sizeable refugee problem. By the end of the War there wete more than 2 million refugees in France. At the same time the Germans struck at France, the Russians in the East honoring their treaty with France (1914). Attacked in East Prussia. The Germans gained a great victory. Fighting would, however, go on for 3 years, at first mostly in what is now Poland, but eventully spreding into the Baltics and Ukraine. The refugee problem may have been greater than in the West, but with much less outsie aid because it was very difficult getting American food aid into Russia and the Central Powers had little food to spare. In the Balkans, the Central Powers invaded and ovvupied Serbia (1915). The Great Serbian Retreat created large numbers of refugees. And during the Central Powers occupation conditions were very difficult. Some food began to reach Serbia as the Allies reopned a Balkan front (1917). A German offensive broke through the Italian lines (1917) creating large numbers of Italian refugees. Germany with limited exceptions was not invaded by foreign armies. It would have ben had the War cotinued into 1919. But as Germany was not invaded, there was no refugee crisis. The major exception was the Germans expelled from Alsce-Loraune after the War. A much larger problem was the huge food shortage that developed during the War. The refugee problem is closely linkedwith food. The greatest dnger to refugees is the lack of access to food Europe was on the brink of starvation when the War finally ended. Even in France with much of its agricultural sector still in tact, it was not adequate to feed the huge numbers of refugees. Only American food aid prevented mass starvation.
World War II created the greatest refugee problem in human history. The problem began before the actual fighting broke out. And by the end of the War, millions were dead and the survivors on the move all over Europe trying to retirn home, although for masny this was not possible. The problem was concentrated in Europe, but not entirely confined there. There were refugee problems after and during and after World War I. The numbers of refugees were significant, but the refugees and displacements help to create bitterness that led to much more extensive and brutal operations during World War II. The problem began with with the NAZI take over in Germany (1933). Political opponents fled Germany as did many Jews. The NAZI regime's focus on biological racism was to play a major role in the World War II refugee problem. Refugees from the fighting were a small pat of the overall refugeee problem. The NAZIs were determined to remake not only the political map of Europe, but also the ethnic map. And to do this they decided not only to create a colonial empire, but to use genocide. There were forced deportation, mass evacuation and displacement, perscecution based on ethnicity, mass killing, conscription for forced labor, anti-partisan operations, intra-ethnic violence, stategic bombing and evacuation from the cities. The NAZI approach to many refugee groups shifted toward genocide as the War progressed. There were refugee problems in most of the countries involved in World War II. And the boirder chasnges at the end of the War caused additional refugees. The refugee crisis in Europe, especially Germany, resulted after the War in the creation of an international refugee and human rights infrastructure which is the basis of how refugee problems are handeled today. We have focused on the problem od displaced children, but the overall refugee problem is important to understand. NAZI Germany was at the heart of the refugee problem, but the Soviet Union also played a major role. Other countries were involved in a variety of ways both in creating and attempting to assist refugees.
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