The Exile reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Exile

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See Exile (disambiguation) for other meanings.

To be in exile means being away from your home (i.e. city, state or country) and being either explicitly refused permission to return or being threatened by prison or death upon return.

Table of contents
1 Personal exile
2 Government in exile
3 Nation in exile
4 Tax exile
5 Famous people who have been in exile
6 Related article

Personal exile

Exile has historically been used as a form of punishment, 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 a coup, a government in exile of a country may be established.

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 BCE and again in the years following the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70.

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.

Famous people who have been in exile

(Listed alpabetically by last name)

Related article