War and Refugees in the Modern Era (18th to 19th Centuries): History of War Refugees Series (4)

The modern era, broadly spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, witnessed a transformation in both the nature of warfare and the scale of refugee crises. As empires expanded, revolutions erupted, and nation-states consolidated, millions of civilians were caught in the crossfire of political upheaval and military aggression. This period marked a shift from feudal and dynastic wars to large-scale conflicts, often ideologically driven, such as revolutions, wars of national liberation, and imperial conquests, that increasingly targeted civilian populations. Consequently, the refugee experience in the modern era took on new dimensions, shaped by technological warfare, industrialization, and the ideologies of nationalism, colonialism, and racism.

The Seven Years’ War and Early Colonial Displacements

The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), often regarded as the first "global" war, resulted in considerable displacement in Europe, North America, and India. In North America, British forces deported over 11,500 Acadians from Nova Scotia in what became known as the Great Expulsion (Le Grand Dérangement). Families were separated, villages burned, and thousands perished en route to exile in the American colonies, Britain, and France (Faragher 2005). Many survivors eventually settled in Louisiana, becoming the ancestors of today’s Cajuns.

In Europe, the war ravaged large parts of central Europe and Silesia, while in India, conflicts between the British and French East India Companies destabilized entire regions, displacing local populations amid shifting imperial allegiances.

The American Revolutionary War

The American Revolution (1775–1783) gave rise to a complex refugee crisis involving multiple groups. Loyalists, who remained faithful to the British Crown, faced persecution, property confiscation, and social ostracism. By war’s end, over 60,000 Loyalists—including former British officials, soldiers, freed slaves, and Indigenous allies—fled to Canada, Britain, the Caribbean, and even Sierra Leone (Jasanoff 2011).

Among them were thousands of formerly enslaved Africans who had joined the British in exchange for promises of freedom. The "Black Loyalists" were resettled in Nova Scotia and later in Freetown, Sierra Leone, establishing one of the earliest modern examples of a state-sponsored refugee relocation initiative.

The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars

The French Revolution (1789–1799) triggered a massive internal and external displacement of populations. Nobility, clergy, royalists, and others fled the revolutionary violence—particularly during the Reign of Terror (1793–1794)—seeking refuge in Britain, Prussia, and Austria. An estimated 150,000 émigrés left France between 1789 and 1800 (Hampson 1988).

The subsequent Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) involved over 20 European states and caused immense disruption. Civilians fled advancing armies, conscription, and scorched-earth tactics. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Peninsular War between Napoleonic France and the British-allied forces of Spain and Portugal resulted in widespread displacement, particularly among Spanish civilians. Entire towns were destroyed, and guerrilla warfare further brutalized civilian life (Esdaile 2002).

Poland’s partition and occupation during this period also created thousands of stateless Polish refugees who scattered across Europe, many joining Napoleon’s army in hopes of restoring national sovereignty.

Imperial Conquest and Indigenous Displacement

The 18th and 19th centuries saw the height of European imperialism, as European empires expanded into Asia, Africa, and the Americas, resulting in the the widespread displacement of indigenous populations.

The Trail of Tears

One of the most notorious examples is the Trail of Tears (1830s), where over 60,000 Native Americans—principally the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw—were forcibly relocated from their ancestral homelands in the southeastern United States to present-day Oklahoma. Thousands died of disease, starvation, and exhaustion along the journey, a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and policies justified through settler colonial ideology (Perdue and Green 2007).

South Africa: The Mfecane

In southern Africa, the Mfecane (Zulu term for “crushing”) or Difaqane (Sotho) was a period of chaos and warfare during the early 19th century, largely triggered by Shaka Zulu’s military campaigns. These wars caused the displacement of up to 2 million people across the region as smaller chiefdoms were destroyed, absorbed, or fled (Etherington 2001).

The Greek War of Independence (1821–1832)

The Greek struggle to break free from Ottoman rule was accompanied by large-scale massacres and reprisals that displaced both Greek and Muslim populations. The Chios Massacre in 1822, where Ottoman forces killed over 20,000 Greek civilians and enslaved thousands more, shocked European public opinion and became a rallying point for international support. In response, Muslim communities across newly liberated Greek territories were forced to flee or were killed, resulting in mutual ethnic cleansing and long-term demographic shifts (Clogg 1992).

The Crimean War (1853–1856)

The Crimean War, fought primarily between Russia and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France, and Sardinia, resulted in the first modern instance of war journalism and publicized refugee crises. The Crimean Tatars, a Muslim ethnic group in the Crimean Peninsula, faced mass persecution by Russian forces. After the war, approximately 200,000 Crimean Tatars fled to the Ottoman Empire fearing Russian retribution and Russification policies (Williams 2001).

The war also displaced large numbers of civilians in the Caucasus, and the ensuing instability led to the expulsion of Circassians and other indigenous peoples in the decades that followed.

The Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny, was a major uprising against British colonial rule. As violence engulfed north and central India, both British civilians and Indian elites—regardless of allegiance—were forced to flee. Massacres of civilians by both British and Indian forces provoked waves of internal displacement. Retaliatory violence by the British left numerous towns razed and populations devastated (Metcalf 2002).

The American Civil War (1861–1865)

The American Civil War produced internal displacement on a scale not seen before in the U.S. Nearly half a million Southern civilians were displaced by Union invasions, military destruction, and the collapse of infrastructure. Formerly enslaved African Americans, known as “contrabands,” fled plantations seeking refuge behind Union lines or in refugee camps, where conditions were often deplorable (Berlin 1982).

By war’s end, the freed population faced new dangers from Confederate reprisals, racism, and economic exploitation, leading to additional migration both within the South and northward.

The Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871)

The Franco-Prussian War led to the fall of the Second French Empire and a significant refugee movement. The Siege of Paris drove tens of thousands to flee the capital, while the Paris Commune uprising in 1871 led to further expulsions and executions. Many Communards fled to Switzerland, Belgium, and Britain to escape reprisals (Horne 1965).

The Balkan Wars and the Decline of the Ottoman Empire

In the late 19th century, the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and other Balkan uprisings led to nationalist movements challenging Ottoman rule. These wars produced one of the largest refugee crises of the 19th century. Over a million Muslims—Turks, Circassians, Tatars, and Pomaks—were expelled or fled from the Balkans into Anatolia and the Ottoman heartlands (McCarthy 1995).

These population movements were among the first examples of what would later be called ethnic cleansing. Religious identity was increasingly used as a rationale for mass expulsions, anticipating the refugee crises of the 20th century.

Conclusion

The 18th and 19th centuries represent a critical transitional period in the history of war refugees. With the rise of the modern state and the expansion of empires, warfare became more expansive and ideologically driven, and civilians more frequently became direct targets of military and political action. From the expulsion of Acadians to the forced migrations of Crimean Tatars and Native Americans, the era reveals that displacement was often not incidental but intentional—a tool of war and governance.

These movements of refugees influenced the political, ethnic, and cultural dynamics of whole regions and set the stage for the development of international legal and humanitarian systems in the 20th century. Comprehending the origins and progression of these crises is crucial for tackling contemporary refugee challenges with historical insight and ethical clarity.

Bibliography

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Clogg, Richard. A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Esdaile, Charles. The Peninsular War: A New History. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Etherington, Norman. The Great Treks: The Transformation of Southern Africa, 1815–1854. Longman, 2001.

Faragher, John Mack. A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland. W. W. Norton, 2005.

Hampson, Norman. The French Revolution. Thames and Hudson, 1988.

Horne, Alistair. The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870–71. Penguin Books, 1965.

Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. Knopf, 2011.

McCarthy, Justin. Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922. Princeton: Darwin Press, 1995.

Metcalf, Thomas R. The Aftermath of Revolt: India, 1857–1870. Princeton University Press, 2002.

Perdue, Theda, and Michael D. Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. Penguin Books, 2007.

Williams, Brian Glyn. The Crimean Tatars: The Diaspora Experience and the Forging of a Nation. Brill, 2001.