Defining Surrender ... and making it stick

[TheCurmudgeon]

It appears that most of the examples come from the early days of WWII in Europe. What is also clear is that there was more often than not, no surrender. No political entity handed the country over to the new landlords. In some cases no actual military exchange was required to force the old political entity to fold up shop and move on. Being the pragmatists democratic regimes are supposed to be, they forgo the fight when the odds are not in their favor in order to survive to fight another day. They hold the blood of the people in higher regard than a dictator who will throw every last child into the fight in order to survive politically. Perhaps that is what democracies do when faced with a fight that is not stacked in their favor.

From the American perspective this is interesting in-and-of itself. We have built an Army designed to fight and destroy something. We have Brigade COMBAT teams. We have no comparable formation to administer the area after hostilities end (what I remember being the old ASG back in the days when there was a forward line of troops and a rear area). But that is not where I wanted to go with this. Besides, we do not fight other democracies (if you believe that sort of thing)

I think I may have to leave this one alone. What I thought I would find was situations where the people, being the actual "power" behind the government, would not surrender until they were personally compelled to by an occupying force. No political leader could compel them to give in. No king could hand over the territory with its serfs to another lord. They would only surrender where they saw no advantage in pressing the fight on a very personal level. This meant that it would take a larger occupying force willing to commit atrocities to be able to compel the people that survival was more important than liberty. Perhaps this willingness to fight for your own liberty only exists in the situations where there is a real possibility of pressing the fight to the end. Survival takes precedence over liberty - Patrick Henry be damned. Perhaps there is no difference at all.