Casus belli: Difference between revisions

The term act of war links here. For the computer game, see Act of War: Direct Action.

Casus Belli is a new Latin expression meaning "occasion of war." Despite the apparent austerity that the latin confers on it, the term did not come into wide usage until the late nineteenth century with the rise of the political doctrine of "jus ad bellum" or "Just War theory".

Officially, the term refers to the grievances section of a formal Declaration of War. In this section, a government would lay out its reasons for going to war, as well as its intentions in prosecuting it and the steps that might be taken to avert it. In so doing, the government would attempt to demonstrate that it was going to war only as a last resort ("Ultima Ratio") and that it in fact possessed "Just Cause" for doing so.

Modern usage, however, has expanded the definition of the term beyond its technical definitions to include any "just cause" a nation has for entering into a conflict. As such, it has been used both retroactively to describe situations in history before the term came into wide usage and in the present day when describing situations when war has not been formally declared. Possibly as a result of this, the term is commonly misspelled "causus belli," which would translate as "cause of war."

Casus Belli is also the name of a French role-playing game magazine.

Cause of use

A Casus Belli is generally used to avoid loss of morale in the country or nation, or to gain the support of the people. If a country attacked another country with no stated reason it may cause discontent among its populace, and loss of faith in their leaders, in extreme cases leading to revolt or other kinds of civil uprisings.

In modern times a Casus Belli may not be focused primarily on convincing the population, but instead be aimed at justifying the action to the global community, which would equally affect dictatorships and military controlled nations who might not previously have had need of a convincing Casus Belli among its own people.

Historic Uses

Since most wars have been founded on a Casus Belli, many examples of its use exist. Two such examples are:

• When Hitler decided to incorporate Czechoslovakia into his Third Reich, he used a Casus Belli called Lebensraum. This means, roughly, "room for living", and was based on the poor condition that Germany was in after WWI, where the victorious Allies had demanded of Germany large payments in reparations, so that when the US withdrew loans provided to Weimar Germany, caused largely by the Wall Street Crash, Germany's economy collapsed. Because of this Germany was in a state of crisis when Hitler rose to power, and his plan was that if he could expand to areas with many resources, he could build up Germany's economic state and infrastructure. Instead of capturing colonies outside Europe, Hitler claimed that he needed resources close to him, so he could build Germany up fast. To help justify this he also claimed that he was merely reuniting Germany, since most of the areas he captured had formerly belonged to Germany (and had German-speaking peoples living in them).
  The use of such a Casus Belli was well suited to the current economic and political situation in Europe at the time. Britain, still exhausted from WWI, reacted to his claims by following a policy of Appeasement, as they were willing to make significant sacrifices to avoid another war. Therefore Britain did not stop Germany when they started to remilitarize and expand. France was not as enthusiastic about the appeasement policy, but was not willing to go to war alone.

• Another famous example of a Casus Belli is when the Christian Church established the Crusades. The Casus Belli for this war against the rulers of Jerusalem, was that the Christian world needed to liberate the holy city from the "infidel" occupation. Apart from creating a common enemy in Europe, and thereby almost uniting the countries of Europe from their constant wars with each other, the Christian Church also created a hatred toward the infidel religions, and thereby fortified their own power in Europe.

See also

• List of Latin phrases

External links

• Casus Belli French roleplaying magazine website