There are many histories of how wars have begun, but very few which discuss how they have ended. This book fills that gap. Beginning with the Stone Age and ending with globalized terrorism, it addresses the specific issues of surrender, rather than the subsequent establishment of peace. At its heart is the individual warrior or soldier, and his or her decision to lay down arms. In the ancient world surrender led in most cases to slavery, but a slave still lived rather than died. In the modern world international law gives the soldiers rights as prisoners of war, and those rights include the prospect of their eventual return home. But individuals can surrender at any point in a war, and without having such an effect that they end the war. The termination of hostilities depends on a collective act for its consequences to be decisive. It also requires the enemy to accept the offer to surrender in the midst of combat. In other words, like so much else in war, surrender depends on reciprocity-on the readiness of one side to stop fighting and of the other to accept that readiness. This volume argues that surrender is the single biggest contributor to the containment of violence in warfare, offering the vanquished the opportunity to survive and the victor the chance to show moderation and magnanimity. Since the rules of surrender have developed over time, they form a key element in understanding the cultural history of warfare.
Acknowledgements ix
List of Contributors xi
List of Abbreviations xix
Introduction
How fighting ends: a history of surrender Holger Afflerbach Hew Strachan 1
Part I No Quarter? The Beginnings of Surrender
1 Surrender and prisoners in prehistoric and tribal societies Lawrence H. Keeley 7
2 Surrender in ancient Greece Paul Cartledge 15
3 Surrender in ancient Rome Loretana de Libero 29
Part II Learning to Surrender? The Middle Ages
Introduction: Surrender in medieval times Hans-Henning Kortüm 41
4 Surrender in medieval Europe-an indirect approach John Gillingham 55
5 Surrender and capitulation in the Middle East in the age of the Crusades John France 73
6 Basil II the Bulgar-slayer and the blinding of 15,000 Bulgarians in 1014: Mutilation and prisoners of war in the Middle Ages Catherine Holmes 85
Part III The Development of Rules and Regulations: Surrender in Early Modern Times
Introduction: Honourable surrender in early modern European history, 1500-1789 John A. Lynn II 99
Part III A Surrender in Intercultural Wars
7 How fighting ended in the Aztec empire and its surrender to the Europeans Ross Hassig 113
8 Surrender in the northeastern borderlands of Native America William J. Campbell 125
Part III B Surrender in Early Modern Europe
9 Surrender in the Thirty Years War Lothar Höbelt 141
10 Surrender and the laws of war in western Europe, c. 1650-1783 John Childs 153
11 Ritual performance: Surrender during the American War of Independence Daniel Krebs 169
Part IV A Question of Honour: Surrender in Sea Warfare
12 Going down with flying colours? Naval surrender from Elizabethan to our own times Holger Afflerbach 187
Part V The Times of International Law: Surrender in Modern Wars
Introduction: Surrender in modern warfare since the French Revolution Hew Strachan 213
Part V A The Nineteenth Century
13 'Civilized, rational behaviour'? The concept and practice of surrender in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, 1792-1815 Michael Broers 229
14 Robert E. Lee, the Army of Northern Virginia, and Confederate surrender Joseph T. Glatthaar 239
15 Surrender in Britain's small colonial wars of the nineteenth century Edward M. Spiers 253
Part V B Surrender in World War I
16 Surrender of soldiers in World War I Alan Kramer 265
17 By the book? Commanders surrendering in World War I Dennis Showalter 279
18 The breaking point: Surrender 1918 Jay Winter 299
Part VI Unconditional Surrender? World War II
Introduction: Surrender in World War II Gerhard L. Weinberg 313
Part VI A 'Conventional' Surrenders
19 French surrender in 1940: Soldiers, commanders, civilians Martin S. Alexander 321
20 The issue of surrender in the Malayan campaign, 1941-2 Mark Connelly 341
21 'Neither defeat nor surrender': Italy's change of alliances in 1943 John Gooch 351
Part VI B Germany and Japan in World War II
22 German soldiers and surrender, 1945 John Zimmermann 369
23 Kamikaze warfare in imperial Japan's existential crisis, 1944-5 Mordecai G. Sheftall 383
24 The German surrender of 1945 Richard Bessel 395
Part VII Our Times: Asymmetric Wars-Endless Wars and no Surrender?
25 Kosovo, the Serbian surrender, and the western dilemma: Achieving victories with low casualities Michael Codner 407
26 How fighting ends: asymmetric wars, terrorism, and suicide bombing Audrey Kurth Cronin 417
Conclusion
'A true chameleon'? Some concluding remarks on the history of surrender Holger Afflerbach Hew Strachan 435
Index 447
Overview
There are many histories of how wars have begun, but very few which discuss how they have ended. This book fills that gap. Beginning with the Stone Age and ending with globalized terrorism, it addresses the specific issues of surrender, rather than the subsequent establishment of peace. At its heart is the individual warrior or soldier, and his or her decision to lay down arms. In the ancient world surrender led in most cases to slavery, but a slave still lived rather than died. In the modern world international ...