Exile
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Exile can be a form of punishment. It means to be away from one's home (i.e. city, state or country) while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return.
It's common to distinguish between internal exile, i.e., forced resettlement within the country of residence, and external exile, deportation outside the country of residence.
Exile can also be a self-imposed departure from one's homeland. Self-exile is often practiced as form of protest or to avoid persecution.
Contents |
[edit] History
Exile has a long tradition as a form of punishment. In the Old Testament, Jews were exiled to Babylon. It was also known in ancient Rome, where the Roman Senate had the power to exile individuals, entire families or countries (which amounted to a declaration of war).
The towns of ancient Greece, as well used exile both as a legal punishment and in Athens as a social punishment. In Athens during the time of democracy, the process of ostracism was devised in which citizens could vote someone who was considered a nuisance or a threat into banishment from the city without prejudice for ten years, after which he was allowed to return. Amre famous recipients of this punishment were Themistocles, Cimon and Aristides the Just. Further, Solon the lawgiver voluntarily exiled himself from Athens after drafting the city's constitution, to prevent being pressed to change it.
In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth a court of law could sentence a noble to exile (banicja). As long as the exile (banita) remained in the Commonwealth he had a price on his head and lost the privileges and protection granted to him as a noble. Even killing a banita was not considered a crime although there was no reward for his death. Special forms of exile were accompanied by wyświecenie (a declaration of the sentence in churches) or by issuance of a separate declaration to townfolk and peasantry (all of them increased the knowledge of the exile and thus made his capture more likely).
A more severe penalty than exile was infamy (infamia) - 'a loss of honor and respect' (utrata czci i wiary). A noble who has been infamed not only suffered from the same penalties as an exiled one, but in addition, an exiled noble (banita) who killed an infamed one (infamis) could expect his exile sentence to be revoked. In addition anybody killing an infamed noble could expect a monetary reward from the state (usually a starosta of given region), and sheltering or supporting an infamed noble were also punishable offences. Both exile and infamy could be revoked if the person had done a great service to the state. As the law system in the Commonwealth was fairly inefficient, many exiles actually stayed within the country, often employed and protected by some magnates. One of the most famous exiles of the Commonwealth was Samuel Łaszcz.
On October 23, 2006, for the first time in United States history, a judge in the United States was accused of imposing exile from the U.S. on a U.S. citizen for crimes committed in the U.S. The case concerned Malcolm Watson, a citizen of the United States and a permanent resident of Canada who resided in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, on the other side of the border from Buffalo, New York. Watson, a teacher at Buffalo Seminary and a cross-border commuter, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sex crimes against a 15-year-old former student in Cheektowaga Town Court. The district attorney, Frank J. Clark wanted to impose probation but Watson wanted to serve his probation in Canada where he, his wife, and their children lived. The DA agreed, but subject to the condition that since his probation officer could not directly monitor his residence in Canada, Watson had to remain out of the U.S. except for meetings with his probation officer--thereby, once the judge approved the sentence, effectively exiling Watson for three years. The sentence may not stand, however. Canada arrested Watson upon his re-entry to Canada and Watson faces a hearing on possible revocation of his permanent residence status in Canada. Furthermore the DA has pledged to appeal the sentence, despite previously approving it, citing the huge and unforeseen public outcry that the case has received in Canada. Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty stated their determiniation to have Malcolm Watson deported from Canada.
After a hearing in Canada, Malcolm Watson was deemed to be not a threat and released pending a final determination of his admissibility to Canada. (Canadian law allows for the removal from Canada of a permanent resident who has been convicted of an offence punishable by 10 years in prison. Watson's offense was a misdemeanour, punishable by up to one year in prison.) On November 8, 2006, the Cheektowaga judge, Thomas Kolbert, claimed that the existing punishment did not amount to exile, because Canada was already Watson's permanent place of residence. Malcolm Watson's lawyer, Tom Eoannou, pointed out that if the judge now requires Watson to serve his sentence in the U.S., it will "destroy" the family, since Watson's wife and her child from a previous marriage are not U.S. citizens and could be prevented by U.S. immigration laws from joining him in the United States. "Can the Canadian government, without lawful procedure, take away his home and take away his family and, in essence, banish him to the U.S.?" Eoannou said outside the court. [1] A decision by the judge is pending.
[edit] Personal exile
Exile was used particularly for political opponents of those in power. The use of exile for political purposes can sometimes be useful for the government because it prevents the exilee from organizing in their native land or from becoming a martyr. People feared being exiled and banishment so much because it effectively meant that they were going to die. In European history, at a time prior to Roman invasion, people lived completely codependtly in farm towns where everyone had a function.
Exile represented a severe punishment, particularly for those, like Ovid or Du Fu, exiled to strange or backward regions, cut off from all of the possibilities of life as well as their families and associates. Dante describes the pain of exile in The Divine Comedy:
- «. . . Tu lascerai ogne cosa diletta
- più caramente; e questo è quello strale
- che l'arco de lo essilio pria saetta.
- Tu proverai sì come sa di sale
- lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle
- lo scendere e 'l salir per l'altrui scale . . .»
- ". . . You will leave everything you love most:
- this is the arrow that the bow of exile
- shoots first. You will know how salty
- another's bread tastes and how hard it
- is to ascend and descend
- another's stairs . . ."
- Paradiso XVII: 55-60
Exile has been softened, to some extent, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as exiles have received welcome in other countries and have either created new communities within those countries or, less frequently, returned to their homelands following the demise of the regime that exiled them.
[edit] Government in exile
During a foreign occupation or after a coup d'etat, a government in exile of a such afflicted country may be established abroad.
[edit] Nation in exile
When large groups, or occasionally a whole people or nation is exiled, it can be said that this nation is in exile, or Diaspora. Nations that have been in exile for substantial periods include the Jews, who were deported by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 597 BC and again in the years following the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem in the year AD 70.
After the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, and following the uprisings (like Kosciuszko Uprising, November Uprising and January Uprising) against the partitioning powers (Russian Empire, Prussia and Austro-Hungary), many Poles have chosen - or been forced - into exile, forming large diasporas (known as Polonia), especially in France and the United States.
The entire population of Crimean Tatars (200,000) that remained in their homeland Crimea was exiled on 18 May 1944 to Central Asia as a form of ethnic cleansing and collective punishment on false accusations.
At Diego Garcia, between 1967 and 1973 the British Government forcibly removed some 2,000 Ilois resident islanders to make way for a military base today jointly operated by the US and UK.
[edit] Tax exile
A wealthy citizen who departs from a former abode for a lower tax jurisdiction in order to reduce his/her tax burden is termed a tax exile.
[edit] Famous people who have been in exile
- Manuel Altolaguirre, exiled from Spain, to Cuba and Mexico.
- Michel Aoun, exiled from Lebanon, to France
- Reinaldo Arenas exiled from Cuba, to United States
- Nawaz Sharif exiled from Pakistan, to Saudi Arabia and then moved to England and some other countries.
- Shahbaz Sharif exiled from Pakistan, to Saudi Arabia.
- Jean-Bertrand Aristide, exiled from Haiti, to Venezuela and United States (1990-1994), and then to Central African Republic and South Africa (2004-present)
- Jorge de Sena exiled from Portugal, to Brazil and later on to the United States of America.
- Miguel Ángel Asturias exiled from Guatemala to France
- Francisco Ayala, exiled from Spain to Argentina
- Michel Bakunin, fled from Russia
- Emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam
- Crown Prince Bao Long of Vietnam
- Saint Thomas à Becket, fled to France
- Gioconda Belli, exiled from Nicaragua, to Mexico
- Napoleon I exiled from France to Elba and, later, St Helena
- Napoleon III went into exile in England.
- King Kigeli V of Rwanda exiled from Rwanda to Uganda and, later, received political asylum to live in the U.S.
- Willy Brandt exiled to Norway and Sweden, during the Nazi era
- Bertolt Brecht
- Breyten Breytenbach
- Joseph Brodsky, exiled from Soviet Union to United States
- Lord Byron, exiled from United Kingdom, to Italy and Ottoman Empire
- Pablo Casals, self-exiled during the Spanish Civil War, vowing not to return before democracy was restored in Spain. He died in exile, in 1973. Francisco Franco died in 1975, restoring the monarchy, which became constitutional by degrees.
- Alejo Carpentier, exiled from Cuba to Haiti and Venezuela
- Frédéric Chopin, exiled from Poland to France
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, exiled in 58 BC in a political controversy that involved his execution of six members of a conspiracy to overthrow the Roman Republic. He was recalled a year later to cheering crowds.
- El Cid, banned from Castile, served other Iberian kings ending with the conquest of Valencia
- Dante Alighieri, Medieval Itialian poet and author of the Divine Comedy, Sentenced to two years of Exile and forced to pay a fine when the Black Guelfs took control of Florence. However Dante could not pay his fine because he was staying at Rome at the request of Pope Boniface VIII and was considered to be an absconder and sentenced to permanent exile.
- Nadia Comaneci, famous Romanian gymnast, self-exiled to United States
- Celia Cruz, exiled from Cuba to United States
- Humberto Delgado, exiled from Portugal to Brazil and Algeria
- Porfirio Díaz, exiled from Mexico to France
- Ariel Dorfman, exiled from Chile, to United States
- Du Fu
- Jean-Claude Duvalier, exiled form Haiti to France
- Albert Einstein self-exiled from Germany to the United States
- Lion Feuchtwanger,
- Sigmund Freud self exiled from Austria to United Kingdom
- Alberto Fujimori, exiled from Peru to Japan
- Eduardo Galeano, exiled from Uruguay to Argentine and Spain
- Garibaldi exiled to South America
- Francisco de Goya exiled to Bordeaux as afrancesado
- Jorge Guillén
- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, exiled from Tibet to India
- Heinrich Heine
- Victor Hugo exiled from France to the Channel Islands
- Juan Ramón Jiménez, fled to United States, Cuba, and finally to Puerto Rico
- Arthur Koestler
- Kim Dae-jung
- Idi Amin, exiled to Libya, and Saudi Arabia until his death.
- Konstantinos Karamanlis
- Ruhollah Khomeini, exiled from Iran to Turkey, then exiled from Turkey to Iraq. Later exiled from Iraq to France.
- Pavel Kohout
- Jan Amos Komenský
- Tadeusz Kościuszko
- Lajos Kossuth
- Prince Norodom Sihanouk, exiled from Cambodia to China and North Korea twice.
- Peter Kropotkin
- Lenin self-exiled to Switzerland
- Lotte Lehmann
- Fernão Lopez self-exile to Saint Helena
- La Lupe, to Puerto Rico and United States
- Heinrich Mann self-exile to Switzerland and to the United States
- Thomas Mann self-exile to Switzerland and to the United States, moved back to Switzerland
- Ferdinand Marcos exiled from the Philippines to Hawaii
- Karl Marx self-exiled from Germany to Great Britain
- José Martí
- Giuseppe Mazzini
- Rigoberta Menchú, exiled from Guatemala, to Mexico
- [Dr. Joao Leal,exiled from Portugal, to England,then to Mexico, exiled along with his family in 1985.Dr Joao and his wife Dolores both died in exile in Mexico. Family lives in the United States.
- Josef Mengele, fled Nazi Germany after the war to South America
- Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov
- Ezekiel Mphahlele, exiled from South Africa to Kenya, Zambia and United States
- Adam Mickiewicz
- Mobutu Sese Seko
- Mireya Moscoso, fled to Spain
- Kwame Nkrumah exiled from Ghana to Guinea
- Juan Carlos Onetti exiled from Uruguay to Spain until his death
- Ovid
- Shahrnush Parsipur, exiled from Iran to the United States of America
- Víctor Paz Estenssoro, exiled from Bolivia to Argentina, Perú
- Carlos Andrés Pérez, exiled from Venezuela, to Colombia, Costa Rica, and United States
- Marcos Pérez Jiménez, exiled from Venezuela to U.S. and Spain
- Juan Perón exiled from Argentina to Paraguay and Spain
- Saint-John Perse exiled from Vichy France to United States
- Bob Powell
- Roman Polański, fled the United States to France to avoid prison for child rape
- Ferenc Puskás from Hungary to Spain
- Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre, fled to Mexico
- Romain Rolland, fled to Switzerland
- Wilhelm Röpke fled Germany during Nazi rule
- Prince Sauryavong Savang, lives in exile in Paris, France
- Crown Prince Soulivong Savang, lives in exile in Paris, France
- Jorge Semprún, exiled from Spain, to France
- Costas Simitis, exiled from Greece, to Germany
- Prince Mangkra Souvannaphouma, lives in exile in Paris, France
- Prince Nguyen Phuc Buu Chanh of Vietnam, lives in exile in the United States
- Prince Hso Khan Pha lives in exile in Canada
- Fernando Savater
- Benjamin Sehene
- Emperor Amha Selassie I, lived in exile in Djibouti,Israel, Great Britain, and United States.
- Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia
- Crown Prince Zera Yacob Amha Selassie lived in exile in Djibouti, Israel, Great Britain, and United States
- Juliusz Slowacki
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exiled from the Soviet Union, returned after the fall of Communism
- Mario Soares
- Wole Soyinka
- Alfredo Stroessner exile from Paraguay to Brazil
- Sun Yat-sen
- Oliver Tambo
- Leon Trotsky exiled to Turkey, France, Norway and Mexico
- Xiao Qiang, exiled from China, to United States
- Miguel de Unamuno confined to Fuerteventura, fled to France.
- Clement Vallandingham, exiled to the Confederate States of America, to Bermuda, then Canada
- Mario Vargas Llosa, exiled from Perú, to France, Spain and Great Britain
- Caetano Veloso, exiled from Brazil to United Kingdom
- Bruno Walter
- Wilhelm II of Prussia and Germany, exiled from Prussia and Germany to The Netherlands
- Mohammad Zaher Shah exile from Afghanistan to Italy
- Nicholas I of Montenegro
- Carlos Salinas de Gortari self-exiled to Ireland
- The Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, by virtue of his marriage to Wallis Simpson and his falling-out with the Royal Family and his brother King George VI, to France
- John Calvin, exiled from Switzerland to France, but later let back into Switzerland, due to change in government
- Hector Gramajo, fled the United States to avoid facing charges filed under the Torture Victim Protection Act
[edit] Fictional people who have been in exile
- Romeo from Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet
- Philip Nolan in Edward Everett Hale's novel The Man Without a Country
- The Jedi Exile, banished by the Jedi Council after the events of the Mandalorian Wars.
- Zaalbar, exiled from Kashyyyk to Taris for madclawing his brother Chuundar.
- Obi-Wan Kenobi, after the Great Jedi Purge, going into hiding on Tatooine to watch over Luke Skywalker
- Yoda, self-exile to Dagobah after the Great Jedi Purge
- The Third Doctor was exiled to Earth by his own people, the Time Lords, as punishment for stealing a TARDIS and interfering in the events of the universe during his first two incarnations.
- Oedipus the King in the self-titled Sophocles play
- Hippolytus in the self-titled play by Euripides
- Blackthorne from the Ultima series of computer games
- Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings spent years of his youth in exile, not knowing of his ancestry and that he was Heir of Elendil
- Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender was exiled for challenging his father.
- Raskolnikov in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel 'Crime and Punishment'
[edit] Banishment laws
[edit] See also
- Ban
- Ostracism
- Penal transportation
- Refugee
- Right of asylum (political asylum)
[edit] References
