Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove their superiors or orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, but it can also sometimes mean any type of rebellion against any force. Mutiny does not necessarily need to refer to a military force and can describe a political, economic, or power structure in which subordinates defy superiors.
During the Age of Discovery, mutiny particularly meant open rebellion against a ship's captain. This occurred, for example, during Ferdinand Magellan's journeys around the world, resulting in the killing of one mutineer, the execution of another, and the marooning of others; on Henry Hudson's Discovery, resulting in Hudson and others being set adrift in a boat; and the famous mutiny on the Bounty.
Mutiny is widely considered a serious crime, punishable by imprisonment, penal labour or death. Failure to prevent or suppress a mutiny may also be punishable depending on the circumstances; negligent failure may result in dishonourable discharge while wilful failure may bring any punishment including death. The United Kingdom has passed various Mutiny Acts to establish procedure and punishment, the latest of which is the Armed Forces Act 2006. Military mutineers are usually tried at court martial, represented by counsel. Pirate captains have been known to mete out punishment ad hoc without due process.
Contents
Penalty
Those convicted of mutiny have often faced capital punishment.
United Kingdom
Until 1689, mutiny was regulated in England by Articles of War instituted by the monarch and effective only in a period of war. In 1689, the first Mutiny Act was approved, which passed the responsibility to enforce discipline within the military to Parliament. The Mutiny Act, altered in 1803, and the Articles of War defined the nature and punishment of mutiny until the latter were replaced by the Army Discipline and Regulation Act in 1879. This, in turn, was replaced by the Army Act in 1881.
Today the Armed Forces Act 2006 defines mutiny as follows:
(2) For the purposes of this section a person subject to service law takes part in a mutiny if—
(a) in concert with at least one other person subject to service law, he—
(i) acts with the intention of overthrowing or resisting authority; or
(ii) disobeys authority in such circumstances as to subvert discipline;
(b) he agrees with at least one other person subject to service law to overthrow or resist authority; or
(c) he agrees with at least one other person subject to service law to disobey authority, and the agreed disobedience would be such as to subvert discipline.
The same definition applies in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
The military law of England in early times existed, like the forces to which it applied, in a period of war only. Troops were raised for a particular service and were disbanded upon the cessation of hostilities. The crown, by prerogative, made laws known as Articles of War for the government and discipline of the troops while thus embodied and serving. Except for the punishment of desertion, which was made a felony by statute in the reign of Henry VI, these ordinances or Articles of War remained almost the sole authority for enforcing discipline until 1689. That year, the first Mutiny Act was passed and the military forces of the crown were brought under the direct control of Parliament. Even the Parliamentary forces in the time of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell were governed not by an act of the legislature, but by articles of war similar to those issued by the king and authorized by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons exercising in that respect the sovereign prerogative. This power of law-making by prerogative was however held to be applicable during a state of actual war only, and attempts to exercise it in times of peace were ineffectual. Subject to this limitation, it existed for considerably more than a century after the passing of the first Mutiny Act.
United States
The United States' Uniform Code of Military Justice defines mutiny in section 894 of title 10 (Article 94 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice) as follows:
§894. Art. 94. Mutiny or sedition
(a) Any person subject to this chapter who-
(1) with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority, refuses, in concert with any other person, to obey orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or disturbance is guilty of mutiny;
(2) with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or other disturbance against that authority is guilty of sedition;
(3) fails to do his utmost to prevent and suppress a mutiny or sedition being committed in his presence, or fails to take all reasonable means to inform his superior commissioned officer or commanding officer of a mutiny or sedition which he knows or has reason to believe is taking place, is guilty of a failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition.
(b) A person who is found guilty of attempted mutiny, mutiny, sedition, or failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.
U.S. military law requires obedience only to lawful orders. Disobedience to unlawful orders (see superior orders) is the obligation of every member of the U.S. military, a principle established by the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials following World War II and reaffirmed in the aftermath of the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. However, a U.S. soldier who disobeys an order after deeming it unlawful will almost certainly be court-martialed to determine whether the disobedience was proper. In addition, simple refusal to obey is not mutiny, which requires collaboration or conspiracy to disobedience.
Famous mutinies in history
16th century
Sack of Antwerp, one of the many mutinies in the Spanish Army of Flanders during the Eighty Years' War; this mutiny caused the provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands to temporarily unite in rebellion against Philip II of Spain and sign the Pacification of Ghent.
Sack of Rome (1527), military event carried out by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
17th century
Discovery mutiny in 1611 during the 4th voyage of Henry Hudson, after having been trapped in pack ice over the winter, his desire to continue incited the crew to casting him and 8 others adrift.
Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), built in 1628 in Amsterdam, which suffered both mutiny and shipwreck during her maiden voyage.
Second English Civil War
Corkbush Field mutiny (1647)
Banbury mutiny (1649)
Bishopsgate mutiny (1649)
18th century
The Wager Mutiny – the main body of the crew of the British war ship HMS Wager mutinied against their Captain after she was wrecked on a desolate island off the south coast of Chile in 1741. The ship was part of a squadron bound to attack Spanish interests in the Pacific.
A failed 1787 mutiny aboard Middlesex occurred two weeks before HMS Bounty's final departure from England, which included the lead mutineer of HMS Bounty Fletcher Christian's older brother Charles.
Mutiny aboard HMS Bounty, a mutiny aboard a British Royal Navy ship in 1789 that has been made famous by several books and films.
Quibéron mutinies were major mutinies in the French fleet in 1793.
HMS Hermione was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy. While operating in the Caribbean in 1797 a portion of the crew mutinied, killing the captain, eight other officers, two midshipmen and a clerk before surrendering the ship to the Spanish authorities. The mutiny was the bloodiest recorded in the history of the Royal Navy.
Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the British Royal Navy in 1797.
Schemes for mutiny onboard nine British warships between June and mid-August 1798, resulting in courts-martial for crew from HMS Adamant, HMS Atlas, HMS Caesar, HMS Defiance, HMS Glory, HMS Haughty, HMS Neptune, HMS Queen Charlotte and HMS St George
The Vlieter Incident was a mutiny of a squadron of the fleet of the Batavian Republic which caused it to be surrendered to the British without a fight in 1799 at the start of the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland.
19th century
HMS Dominica – in May 1806, crew members mutinied, took over the ship and turned her over to the French. She was later recaptured by the British and the mutiny's ringleader hanged.
Vellore Mutiny, outbreak against the British East India Company on 10 July 1806, by sepoys forming part of the garrison of a fortress and palace complex at Vellore (now in Tamil Nadu state, southern India).
The Froberg mutiny by the Froberg Regiment in Fort Ricasoli, Malta in 1807. The mutiny was suppressed and 30 men were executed.
The US whaler Globe mutiny of 1824. Captain and several crewmen were brutally murdered by whaler Samuel Comstock of Nantucket. Comstock was then murdered on Mili, a remote but inhabited Pacific island that he intended to take over and make his own, by the ship's remaining survivors.
Barrackpore Mutiny, (2 November 1824), incident during the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26), generally regarded as a dress rehearsal for the Indian Mutiny of 1857 because of its similar combination of Indian grievances against the British.
St. Joseph Mutiny (1837): rebellion, led by Daaga, of forcibly conscripted African soldiers in the 1st West India Regiment in British Trinidad.
La Amistad, in 1839. A group of captured African slaves being transported in Cuba mutinied against the crew, killing the captain.
The brig USS Somers had a mutiny plotted onboard on her first voyage in 1842. Three men were accused of conspiring to commit mutiny, and were hanged.
Lady Franklin (1854) seized by convicts
The Indian rebellion of 1857 was a period of armed uprising in India against British colonial power, and was popularly remembered in Britain as the Indian Mutiny or Sepoy Mutiny. It is remembered in India as the First War of Independence.
20th century
Mutiny aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin, a rebellion of the crew against their officers in June 1905 during the Russian Revolution of 1905. It was made famous by the film Battleship Potemkin.
The Revolta da Chibata ("Revolt of the Lash") was a Brazilian naval mutiny of 1910, where Afro-Brazilian crewmen rose up against oppressive white officers who frequently beat them. Their goal was to have their living conditions improved and the chibata (whips or lashes) banned from the navy.
Guaymas Mutiny On 22 February 1914, Mexican Navy sailors under Lieutenant Hilario Rodríguez Malpica seized control of gunboat Tampico off Guaymas, Mexico. This event led to a naval campaign off Topolobampo during the Mexican Revolution.
Curragh Incident, also known as the Curragh Mutiny of 20 July 1914 occurred in the Curragh, Ireland, where British officers threatened to resign rather than enforce the Home Rule Act 1914.
Etaples Mutiny by British troops, 1917
French Army mutinies in 1917. The failure of the Nivelle Offensive in April and May 1917 resulted in widespread mutiny in many units of the French Army.
Wilhelmshaven mutiny broke out in the German High Seas Fleet on 29 October 1918. The mutiny led directly to the Kiel mutiny a few days later.
Kiel mutiny: Major revolt by sailors on 3 November 1918 in response to arrests of suspected Wilhelmshaven ringleaders. It sparked the German Revolution of 1918-1919, which led to the collapse of the monarchy and the establishment of the Weimar Republic.
Luxembourg Rebellions: After two failed communist revolutions in November and after a minor mutiny in December, the Luxembourg Army took over the Chamber of Deputies, and proclaimed a republic.
Black Sea mutiny by crews aboard the French dreadnoughts Jean Bart and France, sent to assist the White Russians in the Russian Civil War. The ringleaders (including André Marty and Charles Tillon) received long prison sentences.
21st century
2003 Oakwood mutiny – A group of 321 officers and personnel of the Philippines Armed Forces took over the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center serviced apartment tower in Makati to show the Filipino people the alleged corruption of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
2003 Fort Bonifacio Crisis – Members of the Philippine Marines staged a protest over the removal of their Commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda.
2009 Bangladesh Rifles revolt – A group of Bangladesh border guards revolted, demanding equal rights to the regular army and killed several of their officers.
2011 Mutiny on Lurongyu 2682, a Chinese fishing trawler in the South Pacific. After a month of killings, 11 of the 33 crew returned to China.
2013 Eritrean Army mutiny on 21 January 2013, when around 100 to 200 soldiers of the Eritrean Army seized the headquarters of the state broadcaster, EriTV, to resist the rule of President Isaias Afwerki.
2013 1st Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, British Army – Sixteen soldiers were jailed after a court martial for staging a 'sit-in' protest against their Captain and Colour Sergeant
2014 Nigerian Army: A total of 54 soldiers were sentenced to death by firing squad by a court martial in two separate trials, after they had refused to fight to recapture a town that had been captured by Boko Haram insurgents. The sentences are subject to the approval of senior officers.
2020 Malian mutiny, where elements of the Malian Armed Forces mutinied before developing into a coup which overthrew the civilian government of President Ibrahim Keïta.
2022 Russian Ground Forces: Obozrevatel reported that around 5,000 contract soldiers in the city of Belgorod rioted after being told that they would be sent to fight in Ukraine. Russian soldiers had also been surrendering en masse, and many had reportedly sabotaged their own vehicles, with prime examples being instances of gas tank sabotage among soldiers in the Russian Kyiv convoy.