List of civil wars

The Latin term bellum civile was first used of the Roman civil wars of the 1st century BC. The term civilis here had the very specific meaning of "Roman citizen". The English term civil war was first used in 1651 to refer to the English Civil War. Since the 17th century, the term has also been applied retroactively to other historical conflicts where at least one side claims to represent the country's civil society (rather than a feudal dynasty or an imperial power).

The terms internecine war and domestic war are often used interchangeably with "civil war", but "internecine war" can be used in a wider meaning, referring to any conflict within a single state, regardless of the participation of civil forces. Thus, any war of succession is by definition an internecine war, but not necessarily a civil war. In modern geopolitics since 1945, "civil war" is also used in a loose sense to refer to any large scale military conflict within a single country (i.e. used as a strict synonym of the generic term "internecine war"), creating terminological overlap with insurgencies or coups d'état.

Ancient and medieval
Only civil wars involving popular or civil forces are listed here. Not covered are wars between clans, warlords or dynasties, wars of succession, etc. Such wars of succession are sometimes also described as "Civil Wars" in modern literature, see e.g. Ottoman Civil War or Islamic Civil War.


 * Roman Civil Wars (a list of numerous civil wars in the late Roman Republic and in the Roman Empire, between 100 BC and AD 400)
 * First Fitna, 656–661, the first Islamic "civil war" between Ali and the Umayyads
 * Second Fitna, c. 680/683-c. 685/692, the second Islamic "civil war" between the Umayyads and Ibn al-Zubayr
 * Twenty Years' Anarchy, 695–717, prolonged period of internal instability in the Byzantine Empire
 * Civil War between Artabasdos and Constantine V, 741–743
 * Third Fitna, 744–750/752, including the Umayyad civil wars of 744–748 and the Abbasid Revolution
 * An Shi Rebellion, December 16, 755-February 17, 763
 * Fourth Fitna, 809–827, including the Abbasid civil wars and other regional conflicts
 * Fitna of al-Andalus, 1009–1031
 * Civil war era in Norway, 1130–1240
 * The Anarchy, 1135–1153 (refers to the disorder during the reign of King Stephen of England)
 * Civil war in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem between King Baldwin III and dowager Queen Melisende (1152–1153).
 * Age of the Sturlungs, 1220-1262/64
 * Byzantine civil war of 1321–1328
 * Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347
 * Byzantine civil war of 1352–1357
 * Castilian Civil War, 1366-1369
 * Byzantine civil war of 1373–1379
 * Ottoman Interregnum, 1402-1413
 * Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War, 1407-1435
 * Hussite Wars (Bohemia), 1420–1434
 * Great Feudal War in Russia, 1425–1453
 * Wars of the Roses in England, 1455-1485
 * Ōnin War (Japan), 1467–1477
 * Sengoku Period (Japan), 1467–1615
 * War of the Castilian Succession, 1475-1479
 * Popular revolt in late medieval Europe
 * German Peasants' War, 1524–1525
 * War of the Two Brothers, 1529-1532 in the Inca Empire

Early Modern (1550–1800)

 * Mughal-Rajput war,(1558-1578)
 * French Wars of Religion, 1562–1598
 * Marian civil war (Scotland), 1568-1573
 * Rokosz of Zebrzydowski (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), 1606–1609
 * Thirty Years' War, 1618–1648 between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire
 * Shimabara Uprising (Japan), 1637-1638
 * Wars of the Three Kingdoms (England, Ireland, Scotland) 1639–1651 involved a number of civil wars:
 * Irish Confederate Wars some parts of which were a civil war.
 * Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, to some extent a civil war, 1644–1652
 * English Civil War, 1642–1651
 * First English Civil War 1642–1646
 * Second English Civil War 1648–1649
 * Third English Civil War 1650–1651
 * Khmelnytsky Uprising (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) 1648-1657
 * Fronde (France) 1648-1653
 * Rokosz of Lubomirski (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) 1665–1666
 * War in the Vendée, France, 1793-1804 fought between Royalist and Republican forces, part of the French Revolutionary Wars

Modern (1800–1945)

 * South American wars of independence, 1808–1829
 * Argentine Civil Wars, 1814–1880
 * Zulu Civil War, 1817–1819
 * Greek civil wars of 1824–1825
 * Liberal Wars (Portuguese Civil War), 1828–1834.
 * Chilean Civil War of 1829, 1829-1830
 * Ragamuffin War (Brazil), 1835-1845
 * Carlist Wars, 1833–1839, 1846–1849, 1872–1876 in Spain
 * Uruguayan Civil War, 1839-1851
 * Māori War (New Zealand) 1845–1872
 * Sonderbund war (Switzerland), November 1847
 * Revolutions of 1848, numerous European countries, 1848-1849
 * Revolution of 1851 (Chile)
 * Taiping Rebellion (China), 1851–1864
 * Bleeding Kansas, 1854–1858
 * Indian rebellion,1857
 * War of Reform (Mexico) 1857–1861
 * American Civil War, 1861–1865
 * Klang War; also known as Selangor Civil War, 1867–1874
 * Boshin War (Japan), 1868–1869
 * Satsuma Rebellion (Japan), 1877
 * Jementah Civil War, 1879
 * The North-West Rebellion of 1885 in Canada
 * 1891 Chilean Civil War
 * Boxer Rebellion, China 1899-1901
 * Thousand Days War, 1899-1902 in Colombia
 * Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920
 * Warlord Era; period of civil wars between regional, provincial, and private armies in China, 1912-1928
 * Russian Civil War, 1917–1921
 * Finnish Civil War, 1918
 * German Revolution, 1918-1919
 * Irish Civil War, 1922–1923
 * Cristero War (Mexico), 1926-1929
 * Chinese Civil War, 1927–1937, 1945–1949
 * Paulista War (Brazil), 1932
 * Austrian Civil War, February 12 to February 16, 1934
 * Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939

Post-WWII (1945 to present)

 * Greek Civil War, 1946–1949
 * Paraguayan Civil War, 1947
 * Palestinian Civil War, 1947–48
 * Costa Rican Civil War, 1948
 * La Violencia (Colombia), 1948–1958
 * Laotian Secret War 1953-1975
 * First Sudanese Civil War, 1955-1972
 * Vietnam War, 1955-1975
 * Guatemalan Civil War, 1960–1996
 * Congo Crisis, 1960-1966
 * North Yemen Civil War 1962-1970
 * Colombian conflict, 1964-present
 * Dominican Civil War, 1965
 * Rhodesian Bush War, 1965–1980
 * Cypriot Civil War, 1963-1967
 * Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970
 * The Troubles (Northern Ireland), 1969–1998, considered ongoing by extremist minority groups
 * Dirty War (Argentina), 1969-1979
 * Cambodian Civil War 1970-1975
 * Bangladesh Liberation War (Pakistan), 1971
 * Lebanese Civil War, 1975–1990
 * Mozambican Civil War, 1975–1992
 * Angolan Civil War, 1975-2002
 * Afghan Civil War, 1978-present
 * Nicaraguan Civil War, 1979–1990
 * Salvadoran Civil War (El Salvador), 1979–1991
 * Internal Conflict in Peru 1980-ongoing
 * Second Sudanese Civil War, 1983-2005
 * Sri Lankan Civil War, 1983–2009
 * First Liberian Civil War, 1989-1996
 * Rwandan Civil War, 1990–1993
 * Casamance Conflict (Senegal), 1990–2006
 * Yugoslav Wars, 1991-1995
 * Georgian Civil War, 1991-1993
 * Sierra Leone Civil War, 1991–2002
 * Algerian Civil War, 1991–2002, conflicts persist
 * Civil war in Tajikistan, 1992-1997
 * Burundi Civil War, 1993–2005
 * 1994 civil war in Yemen, 1994
 * First Chechen War, 1994-1996
 * Iraqi Kurdish Civil War, 1994–1997
 * First Congo War, 1996–1997
 * Clashes in Cambodia, 1997
 * Nepalese Civil War, 1996–2006
 * Rebellion in Albania, 1997
 * Republic of the Congo Civil War, 1997-1999
 * Guinea-Bissau Civil War, 1998–1999
 * Kosovo War (Yugoslavia), 1998–1999
 * Second Congo War, 1998-2003
 * Second Liberian Civil War, 1999-2003
 * Second Chechen War, 1999-2009
 * Albanian rebellion in Macedonia, 2001
 * Ivorian Civil War, 2002-2007
 * War in Darfur, 2003-2009
 * Fourth Chadian Civil War, 2005-2010
 * Civil War in Iraq, 2006-2007, a sub-conflict within the Iraq War
 * Fatah–Hamas conflict (Palestine), 2006–2007, tensions ongoing
 * Mexican Drug War, 2006-present
 * Second Ivorian Civil War, 2011
 * Libyan civil war, 2011
 * Syrian civil war, 2011-present
 * Present Libyan factional fighting, 2011-present
 * Iraqi insurgency (post-U.S. withdrawal). 2011-present
 * Azawadi War of Independence, 2012

Ongoing civil wars
The following civil wars are ongoing. Only ongoing conflicts meeting the definition of a civil war are listed. See list of ongoing military conflicts and lists of active separatist movements for lists with a wider scope.


 * Colombian armed conflict, since 1964.
 * Afghan civil war, since 1978.
 * Ugandan Civil War, since 1987.
 * Somali Civil War, since 1991.
 * Sa'dah insurgency, since 2004 in Yemen
 * Civil war in Iraq, since ca. 2007, part of the larger War in Iraq (2003-2011).
 * Internal conflict in Burma since 1949, restarted 8–9 November 2010
 * Civil war in the Republic of Ingushetia, since 2007


 * Syrian civil war, March 15 2011-present