Pacification (military action)

In a military context, the term pacification refers to a process by which the cooperation or surrender of a population is secured by military force or other means of coercion.^[1] The term originated in the Roman Empire where it saw popular usage in the context of the Roman ideal of pax (peace) and Roman imperial expansion.^[2][3] According to historian Myles Lavan, the Latin term pacare (to pacify) evoked to the Romans a grand project of peace-making while, in English, "pacified" has since crystallised as a euphemism for the suppression of resistance to state power.^[4]

From 1880 onward the term saw popular usage by colonial empires as a pretext for war under the guise of protecting populations, alongside the colonial concept of protectorates.^[5] The term pacification is therefore often presented in quotation marks by contemporary historians.^[6]

• Dutch pacification campaign on Formosa (1635-1636)
• Pacification of Lanun (17th-18th centuries), anti-piracy operations by the Bruneian Empire
• Ten Great Campaigns, specifically the Qing campaigns against the Dzungars (1755–1757) and Xinjiang (1758–1759)
• Pacification of Algeria (1835-1903), French military operations which aimed to put an end to various tribal rebellions
• Occupation of Araucanía (1861–1883), also Pacification of the Araucanía, the actions which led to the incorporation of Araucanía into Chile
• Pacification of Tonkin (1885-1886), a military and political campaign undertaken by the French in northern Vietnam
• Dutch intervention in Lombok and Karangasem or Pacification of Lombok in 1894
• Campaigns of Pacification and Occupation (late 19th century–early 20th century), Portuguese military campaigns in their African colonies
• Pacification of Samar (1901-1902), a counterinsurgency operation during the Philippine-American War
• Kuomintang Pacification of Qinghai (1917-1949), a series of military campaigns against Tibetan tribes
• Pacification of Libya (1923-1932), an Italian military campaign against the Libyan resistance
• Pacification of Sarhad (1928-1934), Persian campaign against the Yarahmadzai tribe in Balochistan
• Pacification of Ukrainians in Eastern Galicia (1930), a punitive action by Polish police against the Ukrainian minority in Poland
• Pacification of Manchukuo, a campaign during the Second Sino-Japanese War (March 1932 – 1941)
• Pacification operations in German-occupied Poland, the use of German military force to suppress Polish resistance during World War II
• Pacification of Rabaul (1943-1945), an Allied campaign against Imperial Japanese forces
• Pacification of Wujek (1981), a strike-breaking action against miners in Katowice, Poland
• East Timor genocide#Indonesian pacification operations (1981–1983)
• Maré, Rio de Janeiro#Pacification efforts (2014), raids by Brazilian security forces in the lead up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup

• Propaganda in Augustan Rome

• d'Andurain, Julie (2016). "Résolution des conflits au début du XXe siècle : « pacification » ou émergence d'une pensée tactique ethno-centrée" [Conflict resolution at the beginning of the 20th century: "Pacification" or the emergence of an ethnocentric tactical mindset]. Revue Défense Nationale (in French) (792): 53–58.
• Finch, Michael P.M. (2013). A Progressive Occupation? The Gallieni-Lyautey Method and Colonial Pacification in Tonkin and Madagascar, 1885-1900. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-019-967-457-2.
• Klein, Jean-François (22 June 2020). ""Pacification", an Imperial Process". Encyclopédie d'histoire numérique de l'Europe.
• Lavan, Myles (2017). "Peace and empire: Pacare, pacatus, and the language of Roman imperialism". In Moloney, E.P.; Williams, Michael Stuart (eds.). Peace and Reconciliation in the Classical World. London: Routledge. pp. 102–114. ISBN 978-147-246-635-8.

• Bryant, G.J. (1985). "Pacification in the early British Raj, 1755–85". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 14 (1).