Origins and Definitions of Civil Defence

While the term ‘civil defence’ seems to be a twentieth-century coinage, its origins can be traced back to the beginning of urban history. A large part of the original conception of the city is based upon the joint provision of physical shelter and political protection for the citizens who dwelt within the city walls. It was largely through providing protection against the potential assaults of enemies that the rulers of the city gained their legitimacy. For centuries, according to the urban historian Lewis Mumford: The wall… served as both a military device and an agent of effective command over the urban population. Aesthetically it made a clean break between city and countryside; while socially it emphasised the difference between the insider and outsider, between the open field, subject to the depredations of wild animals, nomadic robbers, invading armies, and the fully enclosed city, where one could work and sleep with a sense of utter security, even in times of military peril. With a sufficient supply of water within, and a sufficient amount of stored grain in bins and granaries, that security would seem absolute.1