Grok, throughout recorded human history, have civil wars been a "rarity"?
No. Civil wars have not been a rarity in recorded human history. They have been a persistent and common form of large-scale organized violence—often more frequent than wars between states.
Scholars who study the long history of internal conflict describe civil wars as “a constant in human history.” Monica Duffy Toft’s overview traces them from ancient Mesopotamia through the English Civil War, Chechnya, and contemporary cases such as Sudan, emphasizing that the core issues (power, resources, identity, legitimacy) have recurred for millennia. Relative to interstate wars, civil wars “have always been fairly common.”
Patterns across eras
- Ancient and classical periods: Succession crises, factional struggles, and rebellions were routine inside empires and city-states. Rome experienced repeated civil wars in the late Republic and Empire. Chinese dynastic history is punctuated by massive internal upheavals (An Lushan Rebellion, later rebellions). Early Islamic history includes the Fitnas (civil wars). Egyptian intermediate periods featured frequent internal warfare between competing dynasties.
- Medieval and early modern Europe: Carolingian succession wars, the Albigensian Crusade (with strong civil-war dimensions), Wars of the Roses, French Wars of Religion, English Civil Wars, and many others. Civil conflict was a recurring feature of monarchical and dynastic politics.
- 19th–20th centuries: The American Civil War, Taiping Rebellion (one of history’s deadliest conflicts), Mexican Revolution, Russian Civil War, Spanish Civil War, Chinese Civil War, and numerous others. After 1945, civil wars (intrastate conflicts) became the dominant form of armed conflict globally. Data sets show far more civil wars than interstate wars in the post-WWII era; at peaks, dozens were ongoing simultaneously, and roughly one in five to one in six non-microstates experienced major civil conflict in recent decades.
Relative frequency
Interstate wars have become comparatively rare in recent decades (often zero to a few ongoing at any time). Intrastate conflicts and related internal violence have been substantially more common. Civil wars also tend to last longer on average than interstate wars. Modern conflict databases (UCDP, Correlates of War, and related projects) consistently show that the bulk of post-1945 armed conflict has been internal rather than between recognized states.
Civil wars vary enormously in scale, duration, and intensity—from relatively contained power struggles to catastrophes that kill millions and reshape societies. They are not an aberration or modern invention; they are a recurring product of contests over political authority within the same polity. The notion that they are historically rare does not match the record.
YOU ARE DREAMING, its a civil war DUMMIES! That means the fabric of society has totally broken down,.....the military would be no different, they are just people. No, Posse Comitatus wouldn't protect you at all, there would be none.