  the latin term bellum civile was first used of the roman civil wars of the 1st century bc. the term civilis here had the very specific meaning of "roman citizen". the english term civil war was first used in 1651 to refer to the english civil war.thomas hobbes in leviathan: "sidney godolphin, who [...] was unfortunately slain in the [...] late civill warre" (p. 390). since the 17th century, the term has also been applied retroactively to other historical conflicts where at least one side claims to represent the country's civil society (rather than a feudal dynasty or an imperial power).oed: "war between the citizens or inhabitants of a single country, state, or community". early use of the term in reference to neither the roman republic nor the english civil war include the war in the vendÃ©e (1802) and the civil war in portugal (1835, 1836). the terms internecine war and domestic war are often used interchangeably with "civil war", but "internecine war" can be used in a wider meaning, referring to any conflict within a single state, regardless of the participation of civil forces. thus, any war of succession is by definition an internecine war, but not necessarily a civil war. in modern geopolitics since 1945, "civil war" is also used in a loose sense to refer to any large scale military conflict within a single country (i.e. used as a strict synonym of the generic term "internecine war"), creating terminological overlap with insurgencies or coups d'Ã©tat. ==past civil wars==  ===ancient and medieval===  only civil wars involving popular or civil forces are listed here. not covered are wars between clans, warlords or dynasties, wars of succession, etc. such wars of succession are sometimes also described as "civil wars" in modern literature, see e.g. ottoman civil war or islamic civil war. *roman civil wars (a list of numerous civil wars in the late roman republic and in the roman empire, between 100 bc and ad 400) *first fitna, 656-661, the first islamic
Civil_wars