Exile
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- See Exile (disambiguation) for other meanings.
Exile is 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 is common to distinguish between internal exile, i.e., forced resettlement within the country of residence, and external exile, deportation outside the country of residence.
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History
Exile has a long tradition as a form of punishment. It has been 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).
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 anybody who killed him could expect a monetary reward from the state (usually a starosta of given region). Special forms of exile were accompanied by wyświecenie (a declaration in Church) or by issuance of a separate declaration to townfolk and peasantry. A lesser form of exile was infamy (infamia). A noble who has been infamed lost the protection of the law although there was no reward for his death (but neither was there any penalty). In additon, an infamed noble who killed an exiled one could expect his infamy to be revoked. Both exile and infamy could be revoked if the person had done a great service to the state. One of the most famous exiles of the Commonwealth was Samuel Łaszcz.
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.
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.
Government in exile
Main article: 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.
Nation in exile
Main article: Diaspora
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, Novermber Uprising and January Uprising) against the partitioning powers (Russian Empire, Prussia and Austro-Hungary), many Poles have chosen - or be forced - into exile, forming large diasporsas (known as Polonia), especially in France and 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.
Tax exile
Main article: tax haven
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.
Famous people who have been in exile
A selection of some of the famous exiles, listed alpabetically by last name:
- Dante Alighieri
- Manuel Altolaguirre, exiled from Spain, to Cuba and Mexico.
- Reinaldo Arenas exiled from Cuba, to United States
- Miguel Ángel Asturias
- Francisco Ayala, exiled from Spain to Argentina
- Crown Prince Bao Long of Vietnam
- Rafael Alberti, exiled from Spain, to Argentina
- Michel Aoun, exiled from Lebanon, to France
- Jean-Bertrand Aristide, exiled from Haiti, to Venezuela and United States (1990-1994), and then to Central African Republic and South Africa (2004-present)
- Emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam
- Gioconda Belli, exiled from Nicaragua, to Mexico
- Lord Byron, exiled from United Kingdom, to Italy and Ottoman Empire
- Napoleon Bonaparte exiled from France to Elba and, later, St Helena
- Willy Brandt exiled to Norway and Sweden, during the Nazi era
- Bertolt Brecht
- Breyten Breytenbach
- Joseph Brodsky, exiled from Soviet Union to United States
- Alejo Carpentier, exiled to Haiti and Venezuela
- Frédéric Chopin, exiled from Poland to France
- Celia Cruz, exiled to United States
- Humberto Delgado, exiled from Portugal to Brazil
- Porfirio Díaz, exiled from México to France
- Ariel Dorfman, exiled from Chile, to France
- Du Fu
- Jean-Claude Duvalier, exiled form Haiti to France
- Albert Einstein self exiled from Germany to the United States
- Bobby Fischer from the United States to the Philippines, Japan and Iceland
- Lion Feuchtwanger
- Sigmund Freud self exiled from Austria to United Kingdom
- Alberto Fujimori, exiled from Peru to Japan
- Eduardo Galeano, exiled from Uruguay to Spain
- Garibaldi exiled to South America
- Francisco de Goya exiled to Bourdeaux 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
- Pavel Kohout
- Tadeusz Kosciuszko
- Lajos Kossuth
- Prince Norodom Sihanouk, exiled from Cambodia to China and North Korea twice.
- Peter Kropotkin
- Lenin self-exiled to Switzerland
- Lotte Lehmann
- 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
- Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov
- Ezekiel Mphahlele, exiled from South Africa to Kenia, Zambia and United States
- Adam Mickiewicz
- Mobutu Sese Seko
- Mireya Moscoso, fled to Spain
- Kwane Nkrumah
- Juan Carlos Onetti exiled from Uruguay to Spain until his death.
- Ovid
- 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 USA and Spain
- Juan Perón exiled from Argentina to Paraguay and Spain.
- Saint-John Perse exiled from Vichy France to United States
- Bob Powell
- Ferenc Puskás
- Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre, fled to Mexico
- Romain Rolland, fled to Switzerland
- Saint Thomas Beckett, fled to France.
- Prince Sauryavong Savang, lives in exile in Paris, France
- Crown Prince Soulivong Savang, lives in exile in Paris, France
- Prince Vong 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 Jerry Remigius Kanagarajah lives in exile in London, England
- Prince Nguyen Phuc Buu Chanh of Vietnam, lives in exile in the United States
- Prince Shwebomin lives in exile in London, England
- PrinceHso Khan Pha lives in exile in Canada
- Fernando Savater
- 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
- Miguel de Unamuno fled to France.
- Mario Vargas Llosa, exiled from Perú, to France, Spain and Great Britain.
- Bruno Walter
- Mohammad Zaher Shah exile from Afghanistan to Italy
- Nicholas I of Montenegro