War memorial

A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.

Symbolism

Historic usage

For most of human history war memorials were erected to commemorate great victories. In Napoleon's day, the dead were shoveled into mass, unmarked graves. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris and Nelson's Column in London contain no names of those killed.

However, by the end of the nineteenth century, it was common for regiments in the British Army to erect monuments to their comrades who had died in small Imperial Wars and these memorials would list their names. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 was the first war in Europe in which rank-and-file soldiers were commemorated in war memorials. Every soldier was granted a permanent resting-place as part of the terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871). By the early twentieth century some towns and cities in the United Kingdom raised the funds to commemorate the men from their communities who had fought and died in the Second Anglo-Boer War.

Wars of national liberation

Wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by nationalities to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) to establish separate sovereign states for the rebelling nationality. From a different point of view, these wars are called insurgencies, rebellions, or wars of independence.Guerrilla warfare or asymmetric warfare is sometimes used by national liberation movements, often with intervention from other states.

The term wars of national liberation are most commonly used for those fought during the decolonization movement. Since these were primarily in the third world against Western powers and their economic influence and a major aspect of the Cold War, the phrase itself has often been viewed as biased or pejorative. Some of these wars were either vocally or materially supported by the Soviet Union, which stated itself to be an anti-imperialist power, supporting the replacement of western-backed governments with local communist or other non pro-western parties. However, this did not always guarantee Soviet influence in those countries. In addition to and increasingly in competition to the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China presented themselves as models of independent nationalist development outside of Western influence, particularly as such posturing and other longterm hostility meant they were regarded as a threat to Western power and regarded themselves as such, using their resources to politically, economically and militarily assist movements such as in Vietnam. In January 1961 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pledged support for "wars of national liberation" throughout the world.

National War Memorial

There are numerous monuments around the world designated as a National War Memorial:

Memorial

A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person (who has died) or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks.

Types

The most common type of memorial is the gravestone or the memorial plaque. Also common are war memorials commemorating those who have died in wars. Memorials in the form of a cross are called intending crosses.

Online memorials and tributes are becoming increasingly popular especially with the increase in natural burial where the laying of gravestones, or memorial plaques, is often not permitted.

When somebody has died, the family may request that a memorial gift (usually money) be given to a designated charity, or that a tree be planted in memory of the person.

Sometimes, when a high school student has died, the memorials are placed in the form of a scholarship, to be awarded to high-achieving students in future years.

Examples of notable memorials

National

National may refer to: