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Originally posted by Rat:
The War Between the States!(civil war)

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Originally posted by Tiger:
The war in the Firefly verse is definitely most similar to the American civil war, with two important differences:

1. It doesn't appear that slavery is unique to one side or the other in the conflict, nor that it had anything to do with the war.

2. In Firefly, the purpose of the war was to forcibly create an Alliance that didn't exist before, whereas the purpose of the ACW was to forcibly preserve a union that already existed.

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I am not trying to step on toes or start a debate here, but after reading this I needed to chime in as a military historian.

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Originally posted by GWEK:
The era "Firefly" is set in is clearly and obviously modeled after the Civil War.

it makes me very sad for the American education system that there are folks who might not realize this.

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Originally posted by GWEK:
Oh, by the way, one message mentioned the war was an effort to create an Alliance that had not previously existed. I don't think this is true, is it?

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actually I think that you guys are all getting yourselves (and Joss) very locked into one very small box when it fact he has tried to keep the imagery more universal than that.

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- one faction seeking independence, the other an oppressive government not willing to let go of the citizens who want to be free.

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Originally posted by DirtyBrowncoat:
Just want to mention, that watching all but the final three episodes on the DVD, I've gathered that the Alliance wasn't in power until they won the war. The Independence, as it was called, wasn't a faction of people who wanted to break free of the Alliance, it was the Alliance that was moving in on the Independence, trying to bring all the central planets under one rule.

Just how I interpreted it.

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Originally posted by DirtyBrowncoat:

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- one faction seeking independence, the other an oppressive government not willing to let go of the citizens who want to be free.

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Just want to mention, that watching all but the final three episodes on the DVD, I've gathered that the Alliance wasn't in power until they won the war. The Independence, as it was called, wasn't a faction of people who wanted to break free of the Alliance, it was the Alliance that was moving in on the Independence, trying to bring all the central planets under one rule.

Just how I interpreted it.

Simon: You...you came for us.
Mal: You're on my crew.
Simon: Right. I guess I just didn't...you don't even like me.
Mal: You're on my crew. Why we still talking about this?
-Safe

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Originally posted by oldfan45:
The Killer Angels is an inspiration, not a straitjacket...and Serenity Valley doesn't seem to me like Gettysburg but instead the Battle of the Wilderness. The whole Soviet Empire/Hungary comparo falls well on my ears. Any idea how far removed we are from Earth-that-was when that battle happens? I can't recall ever wonedring that before now. Embarrassing.

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Originally posted by BrownCoat1:

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Originally posted by DirtyBrowncoat:
Just want to mention, that watching all but the final three episodes on the DVD, I've gathered that the Alliance wasn't in power until they won the war. The Independence, as it was called, wasn't a faction of people who wanted to break free of the Alliance, it was the Alliance that was moving in on the Independence, trying to bring all the central planets under one rule.

Just how I interpreted it.

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Odd. That is not the impression I got at all.

From what we have seen and read, the Alliance seems to have originated on Earth that was and that same government was behind the exodus to the stars when Earth became all but uninhabitable. Of course when they set up the Core worlds the Alliance is firmly in control.

What I surmised from the series is that the worlds out on the Rim got tired of paying taxes to a government back in the Core that did very little to improve their lot in life or the quality of said life. They opted for self rule and a break from the Alliance (sounds a bit like the Colonies break w/ England, no?). When the Alliance caught wind of this movement for independence, they were quick to send in troops, hence the war.

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Originally posted by Tiger:
The war in the Firefly verse is definitely most similar to the American civil war, with two important differences:

1. It doesn't appear that slavery is unique to one side or the other in the conflict,

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Originally posted by YT:
This is not a difference; there was slavery in the Union throughout the war. The slaves in the North were freed later than those in the South.

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Originally posted by Tiger:

My comparison with the war in Firelfy was meant to demonstrate that as far as we know, slavery exists in the verse, but there's no indication that it had any part to play in the war.

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Originally posted by ReaverMadness:
It has to be the War of Northern Aggression

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Originally posted by thiefjehat:

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Originally posted by ReaverMadness:
It has to be the War of Northern Aggression

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Reavermadness, you must be south of the mason-dixon. Here in Indiana folks call it the civil war but when I visit friends in Virgina they always correct me.

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Originally posted by Hotpoint:
Even during Shermans march to the sea very few civilians were deliberately killed, although much property was destroyed

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Originally posted by Hotpoint:
Well in military terms Du Khang seemed more like Stalingrad than the battles of the Napoleonic or American Civil Wars so the parallel falls apart at that point.

Also we know that civilians were apparently targeted deliberately, and by biochemical warfare no less, so again this is more akin to the viciousness of the fighting on the Eastern Front in WWII. Even during Shermans march to the sea very few civilians were deliberately killed, although much property was destroyed, so the war in Firefly just seems a lot nastier than the ACW to me.

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Sherman cut a terrible path of destruction. Sherman's foragers, called bummers, were authorized to take whatever was necessary to fuel his own army and cripple the Rebel army, but not to indiscriminately burn houses or harm civilians. (Such a campaign invariably slips out of control, however, and some of Sherman's bummers exceeded their orders while their officers turned a blind eye.) Meanwhile, Grant sent Phil Sheridan to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley with orders to finish the job started by David Hunter: defeat Jubal Early and destroy Confederate farms providing food and forage for Lee's army. Like Sherman's fabled March to the Sea, Sheridan's Shenandoah campaign caused very few civilian deaths.

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