EMBARGO may be either civil or hostile. Civil embargo is the restraint placed by a sovereign upon his own subjects, by prohibiting them or their vessels from leaving the realm. This measure was taken by the United States in retaliation for the Berlin and Milan Decrees of Napoleon of 1806 and 1807, and the British Orders in Council of 1807 and 1809, declaring inter diction of all intercourse with their respective subjects or the subjects of their allies on the part of neutrals. An embargo was consequently laid upon all American shipping by the president. Hostile embargo is the seizure and detention by the sovereign of one State of the subjects and property of another State with a view to obtain redress for some injury by exercising pressure on the latter State. If such seizure leads to war the embargo becomes retroactive, and the persons and property—usually merchant vessels and their crews—become tainted ab initio as enemy persons and property. In either case embargo is an act short of war. The seizure and detention of enemy ships lying in its ports by a belligerent on the outbreak of war is not within the meaning of the term.
See ANGARY ; PACIFIC BLOCKADE ; REPRISALS ; RETORTION ; WAR.
(H. H. L. B.)