Guerrilla Warfare

Guerrilla warfare is irregular combat waged by small, mobile bands using ambush, sabotage and the support of a sympathetic population to wear down a stronger conventional force rather than confront it in open battle. The word itself, meaning little war, was coined during the Peninsular War of 1808 to 1814, when Spanish irregulars harassed Napoleon Bonaparte's occupying forces, but the underlying tactics are far older and have been used by irregular forces across many eras and traditions, from ancient raiding warfare to twentieth-century revolutionary and anti-colonial movements such as the Viet Cong's campaign in the Vietnam War.