Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an individual or in groups. Banditry is a vague concept of criminality and in modern usage can be synonymous for gangsterism, brigandage, marauding, terrorism, piracy and thievery.
The term bandit (introduced to English via Italian around 1776) originates with the early Germanic legal practice of outlawing criminals, termed *bamnan (English ban). The legal term in the Holy Roman Empire was Acht or Reichsacht , translated as "Imperial ban". In modern Italian, the equivalent word "bandito" literally means banned or a banned person.
The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (NED) defined "bandit" in 1885 as "one who is proscribed or outlawed; hence, a lawless desperate marauder, a brigand: usually applied to members of the organized gangs which infest the mountainous districts of Italy, Sicily, Spain, Greece, Iran, and Turkey".
In modern usage the word has become a synonym for "thief", hence the term "one-armed bandit" for gambling machines that can leave the gambler with no money. [1]
"Social banditry" is a term invented by the historian Eric Hobsbawm in his 1959 book Primitive Rebels, a study of popular forms of resistance that also incorporate behaviour characterized as illegal. He further expanded the field in the 1969 study Bandits. Social banditry is a widespread phenomenon that has occurred in many societies throughout recorded history, and forms of social banditry still exist, as evidenced by piracy and organized crime syndicates.
Tradition depicts medieval German robber barons as bandits. [2]
Pope Sixtus V had about 5,000 bandits executed in the five years before his death in 1590, but there were reputedly 27,000 more at liberty throughout Central Italy. [3]
Banditry or brigandry, while existing in Italy since pre-historic times, became particularly widespread in Southern Italy following the Unification of Italy in the 1860s. Brigands such as Carmine Crocco, Michelina Di Cesare, Ninco Nanco, and Nicola Napolitano were active during this period and eventually developed followings as folk heroes. Brigandage in Southern Italy continued sporadically following the 1870s, with brigands such as Giuseppe Musolino and Francesco Paolo Varsallona forming bandit gangs at the turn of the 20th century. Salvatore Giuliano and Gaspare Pisciotta formed a brigand group in Sicily in the 1940s to 1950 and similarly became known as folk heroes. Sardinia has a long history of banditry, with the bandit and kidnapping group anonima sarda being the most recent manifestation of this phenomenon.
In Nazi-occupied Europe from 1939 to 1945, the German doctrine of Bandenbekämpfung ("bandit fighting") portrayed opponents of the Greater Germanic Reich as "bandits" — dangerous criminals who did not deserve any consideration as human beings. German authorities suppressed partisan opposition with maximum force [4] and, usually, with the mass slavery of civilians from partisan-controlled areas. [5]
Banditry (Dao, qiangdao) in Ming China (1368–1644) was defined by the Ming government as “‘robbery by force’ punishable by death.” [6] But throughout the dynasty, people had entered into the occupation of banditry for various reasons and the occupation of banditry was fluid and temporary.
Ming China was largely an agricultural society and contemporary observers remarked that famine and subsequent hardship often gave rise to banditry. [7] In his 1991 book Disorder under Heaven: Collective Violence in the Ming Dynasty, James W. Tong uses data from provincial and prefectural gazetteers of the Ming and the Qing Dynasties to analyze patterns of violence during the Ming Dynasty. [8] Tong analyzes that the peasants had to make a "rational choice" between surviving harsh conditions and surviving through illegal activities of banditry. He identifies multiple important factors in peasants' calculation of whether to become bandits or not, such as the government's ability to punish bandits. [9] Tong concludes that his "rational choice model predicts that there would be more rebellions and banditry where the likelihood of surviving hardship is minimal but the likelihood of surviving as an outlaw is maximal." [10] As a result, Tong finds that banditry, like other types of collective violence, had a spatial and temporal pattern. [11] Banditry was especially pervasive in the southern provinces (most notably Guangdong and Fujian) and the second half of the dynasty (1506-1644). [12]
However, the Northern China and the middle Ming period (1450–1525) had their fair share of banditry. Mounted banditry was the major and pervasive type of banditry plaguing roads around the capital Beijing and its surrounding areas, administrated and named as the Capital Region. [13] Xiangmazei (whistling arrow bandits) was a category of mounted bandits named after their practice of firing whistling arrows to alert their victims. [13] Whistling arrow bandits had troubled the Capital Region throughout the first three decades of the sixteenth century. [13] They had posed such serious threat that special police attention was given to them and failure to arrest them on time incurred severer punishment (further information on Ming justice system can be found in History of criminal justice). [14]
Ming historian David M. Robinson identifies some prominent causes of banditry in the Capital Region. The Region was agriculturally disadvantaged due to constant flood, and thus the peasants often lived in poverty. [15] Furthermore, the Region's economy provided plentiful opportunities for highway robbery. In addition to the highly developed economy of Beijing, the Region also contained numerous commercial cities; these cities not only attracted merchants but also bandits. [15] Robinson also points out that many eunuchs in Beijing resorted to banditry. [16] As Shih-Shan Henry Tsai explained, self-castration was just another way to escape impoverishment; and when a group of eunuchs failed to find employment in the palace, they often turned to mob violence. [17]
The Capital Region also housed a huge number of soldiers with Ming's system of hereditary military and a major portion of bandits were actually soldiers stationed in the region. [18] In 1449, Mongolian soldiers in the service of Ming attacked and plundered Beijing area. [19] Another report of 1489 attested that soldiers had raided in Henan province. [20] Robinson points out that "dire economic straits" forced soldiers to use illegal means to make a living. [21] Also, policies and conditions in the Capital Region provided opportunities for soldiers/bandits to dodge governmental punishment. During the Ming Dynasty, military and civil jurisdictions were separated. [22] This was especially troubling when soldiers lived physically far from their superiors: when soldiers committed robbery, civil officials had no jurisdiction nor power to apprehend them. [20] Policy of transporting nearby garrisons to Beijing for annual training also created opportunities for banditry. One official reported that soldiers travelling by the Grand Canal from adjacent garrisons to the capital committed robbery and murder against civilian travelers and merchants; on the land, these soldiers had fallen into mounted banditry as well. [23]
Bandits’ technique involved the martial skills to use various weapons, ranging from bows and arrows to swords. [24] Another important skill was horsemanship, especially in the Northern Capital Region, where mounted banditry concentrated. As shown above, a large number of bandits were actually garrison soldiers and had access to and able usage of weapons and armors. Another skill was the ability to deploy road blocks to stop and prey on travelers. [25]
Once they forcefully acquired goods and commodities, bandits had to sell them. One 1485 official report revealed that local people, some probably working as fences (see Fences in Ming China), purchased stolen animals and goods from highway bandits at lower prices. [26] Robinson further points out that "[a] widespread network to dispose of the stolen livestock linked" towns in the Capital Region to nearby provinces. [26]
The career nor the identity of a bandit was permanent. Some bandits actually had a settled life and were even married. Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty relates that the great bandit Zhang Mao lived in a big mansion in his hometown Wenan. [27] Similarly, Zhang's comrades Liu Brothers and Tiger Yang had wives and children. [28]
Bandits often operated in groups under one or more leaders. These charismatic leaders were not only skilled in fighting and riding but also possessed material and social capital. One exemplary leader was Zhang Mao of Wenan. He had assembled a massive following and by using his connection and wealth, he managed to bribe and befriend important eunuchs in the court. [27]
Of course, the Ming government used a heavy hand to crack down on banditry. Local commanders and constables were responsible for apprehending bandits, but the emperors often dispatched special censors to cope with rampant banditry. [29] Ning Gao was one of the censors of 1509, and he employed gruesome means such as display of severed heads and body parts to kill off existing bandits and to intimidate potential ones. [30] Other than escaping to difficult terrains, powerful bandits used their connections with high-standing figures in the capital to negotiate safety. In one occasion, the influential eunuch Zhang Zhong helped his sworn brother Zhang Mao to negotiate with a commander sent to hunt down local bandits. [31] However, such patronage did not guarantee immunity. An effective and determined official, empowered by influential superiors or eunuchs, could pose a severe threat to bandits’ survival. Through a well-planned raid, Ning Gao, a client of another powerful eunuch Liu Jin, successfully wounded and captured Zhang Mao, who was then transported to Beijing and executed. [32]
Even though bandits were subject to capital punishment, they could still be incorporated into the regime, serving as local police forces and personal soldiers employed by officials to secure order and suppress bandits. [33] Such transition was not permanent and could often be reversed. Tiger Yang once served as a personal military retainer of the aforementioned Ning Gao before turning to banditry; similarly, when facing unemployment, some of Ning's former "bandit catchers" simply joined the bandit leaders Liu Brothers. [28]
The career of banditry often led leaders to assemble more bandits and army deserters and organize predatory gangs into active rebel groups. One example was Gao Yingxiang, who started as a mounted bandit in Shaanxi and later became an important rebel leader in late Ming. [34] Another example would be Deng Maoqi, a bandit in Fujian who perpetrated robbery on roads and in villages in the late 1440s. [35] His gang of bandits eventually grew into a rebel army and Deng conducted attacks on the government in Fujian. [35] Bandit-rebels were not only common in late Ming. In 1510 and 1511, several bandit gangs under the leadership of Liu Brothers, Tiger Yang raided and plundered Shandong and Henan. [36] Their illegal actions eventually evolved into open rebellion against the Ming Dynasty as they blatantly besieged cities, seized imperial weaponry, extended area of operation southward, and even assumed rhetoric and attire of an imperial dynasty. [37] The rebellion took the Ming almost two years to crush. [38]
Similarly, small groups of local bandits could also end up joining larger groups of rebels. Robinson points out that bandits obviously perceived the benefits of supporting rebel cause but they also could be repelled to join; as a result, the 1510s rebels attracted a lot of local bandits and outlaws as they moved from one place to another. [39]
Marauding was one of the most common peasant reactions to oppression and hardship. In early Republican China, the growth of warlord armies during the Warlord era was also accompanied by a dramatic increase in bandit activity exploiting the lawlessness. By 1930, the total bandit population was estimated to be 20 million. [40]
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, numerous rump regimes ruled by remnants of the Ming imperial family—collectively called the Southern Ming—survived until 1662.
The Yongle Emperor, personal name Zhu Di, was the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424.
Li Zicheng, born Li Hongji, also known by his nickname, the Dashing King, was a Chinese peasant rebel leader who helped overthrow the Ming dynasty in April 1644 and ruled over northern China briefly as the Yongchang Emperor of the short-lived Shun dynasty before his death a year later.
The Chenghua Emperor, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Xianzong of Ming (明憲宗), personal name Zhu Jianshen (朱見深), changed to Zhu Jianru (朱見濡) in 1457, was the ninth emperor of the Ming dynasty, who reigned from 1464 to 1487. He succeeded his father, Emperor Yingzong. "Chenghua", the era name of his reign, means "accomplished change".
Tong Guan (1054–1126), courtesy name Daofu, was a Chinese court eunuch, military general, political adviser, and state councillor to Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty. In the classical novel Water Margin, Tong Guan is fictionalised as a corrupt government official and an enemy of the 108 Stars of Destiny.
The Lê dynasty, also known in historiography as the Later Lê dynasty, officially Great Việt, was the longest-ruling Vietnamese dynasty, having ruled from 1428 to 1789, with an interregnum between 1527 and 1533. The Lê dynasty is divided into two historical periods: the Initial Lê dynasty before the usurpation by the Mạc dynasty, in which emperors ruled in their own right, and the Revival Lê dynasty, in which emperors were figures reigned under the auspices of the powerful Trịnh family. The Revival Lê dynasty was marked by two lengthy civil wars: the Lê–Mạc War (1533–1592) in which two dynasties battled for legitimacy in northern Vietnam and the Trịnh–Nguyễn Wars between the Trịnh lords in North and the Nguyễn lords of the South.
The Battle of Shanhai Pass, fought on May 27, 1644 at Shanhai Pass at the eastern end of the Great Wall, was a decisive battle leading to the beginning of the Qing dynasty rule in China proper. There, the Qing prince-regent Dorgon allied with former Ming general Wu Sangui to defeat rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty, allowing Dorgon and the Qing army to rapidly conquer Beijing.
The Red Turban Rebellions were uprisings against the Yuan dynasty between 1351 and 1368, eventually leading to its collapse. Remnants of the Yuan imperial court retreated northwards and is thereafter known as the Northern Yuan in historiography.
Bunei was King of Chūzan. He was the second and last ruler of the Satto dynasty.
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, founded by the peasant rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, known as the Hongwu Emperor, was an imperial dynasty of China. It was the successor to the Yuan dynasty and the predecessor of the short-lived Shun dynasty, which was in turn succeeded by the Qing dynasty. At its height, the Ming dynasty had a population of 160 million people, while some assert the population could actually have been as large as 200 million.
The Rebellion of Cao Qin was a day-long uprising in the Ming dynasty capital of Beijing on August 7, 1461, staged by Chinese general Cao Qin and his Ming troops of Mongol and Han descent against the Tianshun Emperor. Cao and his officers launched the insurrection out of fear of being persecuted by Tianshun. Tianshun had just gained back the throne from his half-brother the Jingtai Emperor, who rose to power during the 1449 Tumu Crisis.
The economy of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) of China was one of the largest in the world during that period. It is regarded as one of China's three major golden ages. The period was marked by the increasing political influence of the merchants, the gradual weakening of imperial rule, and technological advances.
The Eight Tigers, sometimes referred to as the Gang of Eight (八黨), were a powerful group of eunuchs that controlled the Chinese imperial court during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor of the Ming dynasty.
The Miao rebellions in the Ming dynasty were a series of rebellions of the indigenous tribes of southern China against the Ming dynasty, from the 14th to the 15th centuries. The Ming defeated the rebels with overwhelming force. Later, during the Qing dynasty, another series of Miao rebellions broke out.
The transition from Ming to Qing or the Manchu conquest of China from 1618 to 1683 saw the transition between two major dynasties in Chinese history. It was a decades-long conflict between the emerging Qing dynasty, the incumbent Ming dynasty, and several smaller factions. It ended with the consolidation of Qing rule, and the fall of the Ming and several other factions.
The Miao rebellion of 1854–1873, also known as the Qian rebellion was an uprising of ethnic Miao and other groups in Guizhou province during the reign of the Qing dynasty. Despite its name, Robert Jenks estimates that ethnic Miao made up less than half of the uprising's participants. The uprising was preceded by Miao rebellions in 1735–36 and 1795–1806, and was one of many ethnic uprisings sweeping China in the 19th century. The rebellion spanned the Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods of the Qing dynasty, and was eventually suppressed with military force. Estimates place the number of casualties as high as 4.9 million out of a total population of 7 million, though these figures are likely overstated.
The Prince of Ning rebellion was a rebellion that took place in China in 1519 during the Ming dynasty. It was started by Zhu Chenhao, Prince of Ning and a fifth-generation descendant of Zhu Quan, and was aimed at overthrowing the Zhengde Emperor. The Prince of Ning revolt was one of two princely rebellions during the Zhengde Emperor's reign; it was preceded by the Prince of Anhua rebellion in 1510.
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A fence or receiver was a merchant who bought and sold stolen goods. Fences were part of the extensive network of accomplices in the criminal underground of the Ming and Qing dynasties of China. Their occupation entailed criminal activity, but as fences often acted as liaisons between the more respectable community to the underground criminals, they were seen as living a “precarious existence on the fringes of respectable society”.
'All Germany is a gang of bandits and, among the nobles, the more grasping the more glorious' - a Roman cardinal thus summed up the state of the German nation in the late Middle Ages. [...] Friedrich C. Schlosser [...] mentioned [...] that 'the numerous robber-knights of Thuringia ... earned their living on the highways by [robbing] cities of their goods'.
Hitler's decision [...] called for the 'energetic combat' of the partisan threat and its elimination [...]. [...] With Himmler's political soldiers in charge, men tasked with upholding the racial and ideological precepts of the order and experienced in mass murder, the radicalization of the antipartisan effort was assured. One example of this radicalization involved Hitler's order to take the 'toughest measures' against all those who joined or supported the partisans.
During a private audience with the Duce, Benito Mussolini, in October 1942, Göring discussed the conduct of antipartisan operations in the East and explained the German practice of confiscating all livestock and foodstuffs as well as that of interning men, women, and children in work camps and burning down their villages.
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