The United States never recognized that the Southern States could secede and form their own country, and thus, never recognized the Confederate States as a different country. That is sort of why the whole war was fought.

In Skyrim's case, I guess it does depend on who wins. If Ulfric and the Stormcloaks win, it was a war for Independence. If The imperials win, it was a provincial uprising. In either case, it is a civil war, as you have the Jarls, representing the leadership of Skyrim, fighting among each other. The Jarls are basically fighting over whether to remain a part of the Empire, or to break off. The Empire obviously supports one side of the conflict.

IMO it is a matter of scale rather than nationality. In my head, at least, a rebellion happens when a bunch of people decide they do not like the government and then proceed - themselves - to fight this government, for a certain time period until the government either changes or stamps them down. Usually the latter of the two. However, a civil war is more of a large group of people with clearly defined leadership and governmental system wage a 'war' (Which is to say, battlefields are involved, cities are taken, etc) in an effort to -destroy- the government previous. A war only occurs when one government is trying to replace another. A civil war is when one government is a split off of another.

Put in those terms, I would say it is a civil war. It would be a rebellion if Ulfric and his boys were going town to town to kill government officials. They are not, though. They are sitting in their own cities, sending armies to conquer other cities. Thus it's a war. That is why the American Civil War was a 'war', it was the Confederate Government attempting to replace the Union Government. However, the French Revolution, was a 'rebellion' because there were no armies attempting to replace the government - it was common every day people rising up and massacring government officials regardless of position or influence, for the most part. That is the difference.

Considering a large chunk of the Imperial Army in Skyrim is composed of Nords, they are slaying their own people. Also considering Skyrim is the birthplace of the Empire, they're killing their own nation.

It is a civil war.

I WANT A SWEET ROLL YOU JERK!!! CHANGE UR PIC!!! IT TAUNTS ME!!

It's only a revolution if the rebels win.

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state. Seems to me that is what is going on.

Historically the OP is actually correct in a way. The Empire includes Skyrim, Cyrodiil and High Rock. The fight is limited exclusively to Skyrim itself as far as we know, and technically the empire still controls the entire province except for a few locations where the Stormcloaks have sway. Given that it is limited to a single province and is trying to free Skyrim of Imperial control, it is a rebellion. But at the same time, because it has split Skyrim in half with one faction siding with the Rebellion and the other siding with the Empire, it is also a civil war. So it depends on the context that you are looking at it. Looking at the big picture, it is a rebellion. Looking at just Skyrim, it is a civil war.

Along those lines, what's the best group to side with? Empire or Stormcloaks? The Stormcloaks seem to be fairly racist and a bit jerky. But the Empire is, well, the big-bad Empire. Who to choose?

Skyrim is a province in the empire. Just that, a province. Not a country. Equivalent to a state in the US. It is below the overall government, which is the the emperor and elder council. A civil war is just inside of a country, but the empire is an outside force. Therefore it is a rebellion against imperial control in skyrim.

well seeing as skyrim has different holds with different views, I'd rather compare it to the yugoslav wars in the late 90s.

you know, the country made up of like 5 countries or whatever, where the leader died,
and then the leader for one of the smaller countries decides he wants to do his own thing,
people decide to fight back, because they dont wanna be a part of his thing.
then russia decides to back the crazy guy,
and then the US is like you better behave!
crazy guy decides to just ignore them.

and then the complexity of the situation ends up screwing over all the history nerds who cant deal with more than 2 sides in a war...

What makes the Empire big and bad? I think people are just naturally predisposed to think that anything 'Empire' like is evil inherently. The Empire is very much so Roman-like, and not just the way they dress and name eachother. They pretty much let each province practically self-govern. They just law down a few base laws. The only thing I could see the Empire being called evil over is the banning of Talos, which I feel I came up with a good anology for. Banning of Talos is like speed limits on roads, IRL. Lets say you live near a road, out in the country, where EVERYONE goes 60 on. But the speed limit, for whatever reason, is 50. Now, no one really cares that everyone goes 60 on that road. However, if someone goes out there, starts making tons of videos about him breaking the speed limit and going 'Lulz, no one obeys this law anyhow, should be changed. [censored] is dumb' then the police are going to have to crack down. That is what Ulfric did, he drew attention to it where before everyone had a 'Live and let live' attitude towards it as the Empire rebuilt itself.

That's a dead on explanation....very well put.


Reading some of the responses also makes me wonder if the movie Idiocracy is coming true...lol