Villagization

Villagization (sometimes also spelled villagisation) is the (usually compulsory) resettlement of people into designated villages by government or military authorities.

Villagization may be used as a tactic by a government or military power to facilitate control over a previously scattered rural population believed to harbour disloyal or rebel elements. Examples include Indian removal to reservations by the United States, General Order No. 11 (1863) in the American Civil War, the British New Villages programme to defeat communist rebels during the Malayan Emergency, the U.S. "Strategic Hamlet Program" in the Vietnam War and the "protected villages" strategy adopted by Rhodesia, South Africa, and Uganda in combating modern insurgencies.