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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HOR-I25 |
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HOSTAGE (through Fr. ostage, modern otage, from Late Lat. obsidaticum, the state of being an obses or hostage; Med. Lat. ostaticum, ostagium) , a person handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war. The practice of taking hostages is very ancient, and has been used constantly in negotiations with conquered nations, and in cases such as surrenders, armistices and the like, where the two belligerents depended for its proper carrying out on each other's good faith. The Romans were accustomed to take the sons of tributary princes and educate them at Rome, thus holding a security for the continued loyalty of the conquered nation and also instilling a possible future ruler with ideas of Roman civilization. This practice was also adopted in the early period of the British occupation of India, and by France in her relations with the Arab tribes in North Africa.' The position of a hostage
1 The sultan of Bagiemi, in Central Africa, in 1906 sent his nephew to undergo military training with a squadron of Spahis, and at the same time to serve as a guarantee of his fidelity to the French (Bulletin du Comite de l'Afrique francaise, Oct. 19(36). to be retained till the negotiations or treaty obligations were carried out, and liable to punishment (in ancient times), and even to death, in case of treachery or refusal to fulfil the promises made. The practice of taking hostages as security for the carrying out of a treaty between civilized states is now obsolete. The last occasion was at the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, when two British peers, Henry Bowes Howard, rith earl
Breton
In modern times the practice may be said to be confined to two occasions: (I) to secure the payment of enforced contributions or requisitions in an occupied territory and the obedience to regulations the occupying army may think fit to issue; (2) as a precautionary measure, to prevent illegitimate acts of war or violence by persons not members of the recognized military forces of the enemy: During the Franco-Prussian War of 187o, the Germans took as hostages the prominent people or officials from towns or districts when making requisitions and also when foraging, and it was a general practice for the mayor and adjoin' of a town which failed to pay a fine imposed upon it to be seized as " hostages " and retained till the money was paid. The last case where " hostages " have been taken in modern warfare has been the subject of much discussion. In 187o the Germans found it necessary to take special
engine
Pretoria
Hall
In France, after the revolution of Prairial (June 18, 1799), the so-called " law of hostages " was passed, to meet the insurrection in La Vendee. Relatives of emigres were taken from disturbed districts and imprisoned, and were liable to execution at any attempt to escape. Sequestration of their property and deportation from France followed on the murder of a republican, four to every such murder, with heavy fines on the whole body of hostages. The law only resulted in an increase in the insurrection. Napoleon in 1796 had used similar measures to deal with the insurrection in Lombardy (Correspondance de Napoleon I. i. 323, 327, quoted in Hall
' Article 5o of the Hague War Regulations lays it down that " no general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, can be inflicted on the population on account of the acts of individuals for which it cannot be regarded as collectively responsible." The regulations, however, do not allude to the practice of taking hostage
In May 1871, at the close of the Paris Commune, took place the massacre of the so-called hostages. Strictly they were not " hostages," for they had not been handed over or seized as security for the performance of any undertaking or as a preventive measure, but merely in retaliation for the death of their leaders E. V. Duval and Gustave Flourens. It was an act of maniacal despair, on the defeat at Mont Valerien on the 4th of April and the entry of the army into Paris on the 21st of May. Among the many victims who were shot in batches the most noticeable were Monsignor Darboy, archbishop of Paris, the Abbe Deguery, cure of the Madeleine, and the president of the Court of Cassation, Louis Bernard
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