Editing Scorched earth (section)

==19th century==
===Napoleonic Wars===
During the third [[Peninsular War|Napoleonic invasion of Portugal]] in 1810, the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] population retreated towards [[Lisbon]] and was ordered to destroy all the food supplies the French might capture as well as forage and shelter in a wide belt across the country. (Although effective food-preserving techniques had recently been invented, they were still not fit for military use because a suitably-rugged container had not yet been invented.){{sfn|Pivka|2013}} The command was obeyed as a result of French plundering and general ill-treatment of civilians in the previous invasions. The civilians would rather destroy anything that had to be left behind, rather than leave it to the French. When the French armies reached the [[Lines of Torres Vedras]] on the way to Lisbon, French soldiers reported that the country "seemed to empty ahead of them". Low morale, hunger, disease and indiscipline greatly weakened the French army and compelled the forces to retreat, see also [[Attrition warfare against Napoleon]].

[[File:Napoleons retreat from moscow.jpg|thumb|upright=1|right|Napoleon's retreat from Moscow]]
In 1812, Emperor [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]] was able to render [[Napoleon's invasion of Russia]] useless by using a scorched-earth policy.{{sfn|Riehn|1990|p=321}} As Russians withdrew from the advancing French army, they burned the countryside over which they passed ([[Fire of Moscow (1812)|and allegedly Moscow]]),{{sfn|Chandler|1966|p=813}} leaving nothing of value for the pursuing French army. Encountering only desolate and useless land Napoleon's [[Grande Armée]] was prevented from using its usual doctrine of living off the lands that it conquered. Pushing relentlessly on despite dwindling numbers, the Grand Army met with disaster as the invasion progressed. Napoleon's army arrived in a virtually-abandoned [[Moscow]], which was a tattered starving shell of its former self, largely because of scorched-earth tactics by the retreating Russians. Having conquered essentially nothing, Napoleon's troops retreated, but the scorched-earth policy came into effect again because even though some large supply dumps had been established on the advance, the route between them had both been scorched and marched over once already. Thus, the French army starved as it marched along the resource-depleted invasion route.{{sfn|Kuhn|2008}}

===South American War of Independence===
In August 1812, [[Argentina|Argentine]] General [[Manuel Belgrano]] led the [[Jujuy Exodus]], a massive forced displacement of people from what is now [[Jujuy Province|Jujuy]] and [[Salta Province|Salta]] Provinces to the south. The Jujuy Exodus was conducted by the patriot forces of the [[Army of the North]], which was battling a [[Royalist (Spanish American Revolution)|Royalist]] army.

Belgrano, faced with the prospect of total defeat and territorial loss, ordered all people to pack their necessities, including food and furniture, and to follow him in carriages or on foot together with whatever cattle and beasts of burden that could endure the journey. The rest (houses, crops, food stocks and any objects made of iron) was to be burned to deprive the Royalists of resources. The strict scorched-earth policy made him ask on 29 July 1812 the people of Jujuy to "show their [[heroism]]" and to join the march of the army under his command "if, as you assure, you want to be free". The punishment for ignoring the order was execution, with the destruction of the defector's properties. Belgrano labored to win the support of the populace and later reported that most of the people had willingly followed him without the need for force.

The exodus started on 23 August and gathered people from [[San Salvador de Jujuy|Jujuy]] and [[Salta Province|Salta]]. People travelled south about 250&nbsp;km and finally arrived at the banks of the Pasaje River, in [[Tucumán Province]] in the early hours of 29 August. They applied a scorched-earth policy and so the Spaniards advanced into a wasteland. Belgrano's army destroyed everything that could provide shelter or be useful to the Royalists.{{sfn|Thomas|2015}}

===Greek War of Independence===
In 1827, [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt]] led an Ottoman-Egyptian combined force in a campaign to crush Greek revolutionaries in the [[Peloponnese]]. In response to Greek guerrilla attacks on his forces in the [[Peloponnese]], Ibrahim launched a scorched earth campaign that threatened the population with starvation and deported many civilians into slavery in [[Egypt Eyalet|Egypt]].{{sfn|Bostock|2010|p=155}} The fires of burning villages and fields were clearly visible from Allied ships standing offshore. A British landing party reported that the population of Messinia was close to mass starvation.{{sfn|Blackmore|2014|p=306}} Ibrahim's scorched-earth policy caused much outrage in [[Europe]], which was one factor for the [[Great Powers]] ([[United Kingdom]], the [[Kingdom of France]] and the [[Russian Empire]]) decisively intervening against him in the [[Battle of Navarino]].

===American Civil War===
[[File:Sherman railroad destroy noborder crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1|[[William Tecumseh Sherman]]'s troops destroying a railroad near [[Atlanta]]]]

In the [[American Civil War]], Union forces under [[Philip Sheridan]] and [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] used the policy widely:{{sfn|Grant|2017}}
{{Blockquote|supplies within the reach of Confederate armies I regarded as much contraband as arms or ordnance stores. Their destruction was accomplished without bloodshed and tended to the same result as the destruction of armies. I continued this policy to the close of the war. Promiscuous pillaging, however, was discouraged and punished. Instructions were always given to take provisions and forage under the direction of commissioned officers who should give receipts to owners, if at home, and turn the property over to officers of the quartermaster or commissary departments to be issued as if furnished from our Northern depots. But much was destroyed without receipts to owners when it could not be brought within our lines and would otherwise have gone to the support of secession and rebellion. This policy I believe exercised a material influence in hastening the end.}}

General Sherman used that policy during his [[Sherman's March to the Sea|March to the Sea]].

Another event, in response to [[William Quantrill]]'s [[Lawrence massacre|raid on Lawrence, Kansas]], and the many civilian casualties, including the killing of 150 men, Brigadier General [[Thomas Ewing Jr.]], Sherman's brother-in-law, issued US Army [[General Order No. 11 (1863)]] to order the near-total evacuation of three-and-a-half counties in western [[Missouri]], south of Kansas City, which were subsequently looted and burned by [[US Army]] troops.{{sfn|Pringle|2010|pp=20-25}} Under Sherman's overall direction, General [[Philip Sheridan]] followed that policy in the [[Shenandoah Valley]] of [[Virginia]] and then in the [[American Indian Wars|Indian Wars]] of the [[Great Plains]].

[[File:Richmond va 1865 cropped 8x5.jpg|thumb|upright=1|The ruins of [[Richmond, Virginia]], after it was burned by retreating Confederate soldiers in April 1865]]
When General [[Ulysses S. Grant|Ulysses Grant]]'s forces broke through the defenses of [[Richmond, Virginia]], Confederate President [[Jefferson Davis]] ordered the destruction of Richmond's military supplies. The resulting fires quickly spread to other buildings, as well as to the Confederate warships docked on the [[James River]]. Civilians in panic were forced to escape the city as it quickly burned.

===Native American Wars===
[[File:Navajo on Long Walk.gif|thumb|upright=1|[[Navajo people|Navajo]] on the "[[Long Walk of the Navajo|Long Walk]]"]]

During the wars with [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes of the [[American West]], [[Kit Carson]], under [[James Henry Carleton]]'s direction, instituted a scorched-earth policy, burning  fields and homes destroying any livestock. He was aided by other Indian tribes with long-standing enmity toward the Navajos, chiefly the [[Ute tribe]]. The Navajo were forced to surrender because of the destruction of their livestock and food supplies. In the spring of 1864, 8000 Navajo men, women, and children were forced to march 300 miles to [[Fort Sumner]], New Mexico. Navajos call it "[[Long Walk of the Navajo|The Long Walk]]."

===Second Boer War===
[[File:VerskroeideAarde1 crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1|[[Boer]] civilians watching British soldiers blow up their house with dynamite after they had been given 10 minutes to gather their belongings]]

During the [[Second Boer War]] (1899–1902), British forces applied a scorched-earth policy in the occupied [[Boer republics]] under the direction of General [[Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]]. Numerous [[Boers]], refusing to accept military defeat, adopted guerrilla warfare despite the capture of both of their capital cities. As a result, under Lord Kitchener's command British forces initiated a policy of the destruction of the farms and the homes of civilians in the republics to prevent the Boers who were still fighting from obtaining food and supplies.{{sfn|Downes|2007}} Boer noncombatants inhabiting the republics (mostly women and children) were interned in [[Second Boer War concentration camps|concentration camps]] to prevent them from supplying guerillas still in the field.{{sfn|sahistory|2008}}

The existence of the concentration camps was exposed by English activist [[Emily Hobhouse]], who toured the camps and began petitioning the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]] to change its policy.{{sfn|Hobhouse|1901}}{{sfn|Hobhouse|1907}} In an attempt to counter Hobhouse's activism, the British government commissioned the Fawcett Commission, but it confirmed Hobhouse's findings.{{sfn|Fawcett|1901}} The British government then claimed that it perceived the concentration camps to be humanitarian measure and were established to care for displaced noncombatants until the war's end, in response to mounting criticism of the camps in Britain. A number of factors, including outbreaks of infectious diseases, a lack of planning and supplies for the camps, and overcrowding led to numerous internees dying in the camps.{{sfn|Doel|2017|p=60}} A decade after the war, historian P. L. A. Goldman estimated that 27,927 Boers died in the concentration camps, 26,251 women and children (of whom more than 22,000 were under the age of 16) and 1,676 men over the age of 16, with 1,421 being above the age of 16.{{sfn|rootsweb|1999}}
The number of Black Africans who also suffered the same is unknown.

===New Zealand Wars===
In 1868, the [[Tūhoe]], who had sheltered the [[Māori people|Māori]] leader [[Te Kooti]], were thus subjected to a scorched-earth policy in which their crops and buildings were destroyed and the people of fighting age were captured.{{sfn|Snaith|2014|p=125}}