First Rebellion
The First Rebellion happened when the districts of Panem rose up against the Capitol's rule. This time period is known as The Dark Days. The rebellion was orchestrated by District 13.
The war saw heavy use of genetically modified animals, commonly known as "muttations" or "mutts". One of the most infamous was the jabberjay, birds that had been genetically modified by the Capitol to mimic human voices. They would fly to the districts during the rebellion and spy on insurrectionist meetings. They would then fly back to the Capitol and report back with direct information from the districts. Upon discovering this, the rebels fed the jabberjays false information. The Capitol abandoned the jabberjays, releasing them into the wild and inadvertently creating mockingjays, which became the symbol of the Second Rebellion.
At one point, rebel forces had managed to reach the Rocky Mountains around the Capitol, and attempted a mass invasion of the city. However, as the rebels had to scale the mountains, which was a brutal job, Capitol aircraft were easily able to find and destroy the rebel contingents trying to reach the other side.
Near the end of the war, District 13 trained nuclear missiles on the Capitol, hoping to destroy the Capitol even if the result was mutually assured destruction. However, District 13 set up a secret deal with the Capitol - they would withdraw their forces from the war and present the illusion that Capitol bombers equipped with Toxic bombs destroyed District 13. 13 withdrew and rebuilt their district underground. The Capitol's bombers then destroyed the district on the surface. Without 13's aid, the remaining rebel forces were put down by the Capitol.
After the war, the Treaty of Treason was put into effect, stating that each district had to put forth one male and female each year between the ages of 12 and 18, and that they were to fight to the death until only one remained.
Second Rebellion
The Second Rebellion began when rebels across the country backed by District 13 rose up in armed conflict against the Capitol's military forces 75 years after The Dark Days. The leader of the second rebellion was officially President Alma Coin, but the rebellion itself began to gain momentum during the 74th Hunger Games when District 12 tributes Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark threatened to commit suicide. This caused the Gamemaker Seneca Crane to let them both win, and which showed that they could overcome the power of the Capitol. The common symbol of defiance in the new group of rebels is Katniss's mockingjay, a bird that the Capitol never intended to create.
The first known rebellious activity took place in District 8 after the Victory Tour for the 74th Hunger Games concluded. After the train left District 8, a violent riot erupted. Rioters seized control of several strategic positions throughout the district, all the while engaging in an active fight with large contingents of Peacekeepers. Although the rebels initially had the upper hand due to the surprise assault, they were unorganized and ill-equipped to engage in sustained fighting between themselves and the better trained and equipped Peacekeeper force. Capitol hovercraft gave air support to the Peacekeepers, bombing rebel positions as the Peacekeepers advanced. Eventually, the Peacekeepers quelled the rebellion and set the entire district under martial law. For a week, no one was permitted outside and electricity and food supply was cut. After this, the martial law was lifted and life was allowed to return to normal. However, a Capitol bomb destroyed the textile factory in the district, after receiving information that the rebellion had been plotted from there.
As the 75th Hunger Games drew nearer, civil unrest in the districts grew. When those Games drew near a close, rebel hovercraft composed of aircraft from District 13 rescued Katniss Everdeen, Finnick Odair, and Beetee Lantier. The raid was launched after Katniss destroyed the force field enclosing the arena. Capitol aircraft captured Peeta Mellark, Johanna Mason, and Enobaria. Annie Cresta was also taken from District 4 by the Capitol.
Shortly after the force field was destroyed, Capitol aircraft launched a massive fire bombing raid on District 12 (Katniss's district), burning it to the ground. Only about 800 of District 12's original 8,000 survived the raid. Gale Hawthorne was credited with helping most of the refugees escape into the woods around District 12. After the attack, hovercraft from District 13 appeared and began evacuating the refugees back to 13, where they were granted citizenship and given places to live that far outstripped their poverty-stricken conditions in 12.
Mellark and Everdeen were both used to conduct propos, or propaganda spots, for the side they had been taken by. There was a stark contrast in the videos as Mellark's called for a general ceasefire while Everdeen was told to rally the rebels to fight. When Everdeen was taken from the arena, many rebel divisions were struggling to maintain footholds in several districts. However, after one particular propo, in which Everdeen stood in front of the wreckage of a destroyed field hospital in District 8 after a Capitol bombing and announced "if we burn, you burn with us," the rebels rallied enough to solidify their forces and launch a major offensive into Capitol-occupied territory.
After the fighting in 8, one Capitol propo featuring Mellark accidentally leaked information regarding a surprise long range missile attack on 13. Several long-range missiles were launched at 13, but due to the warning, casualties were reduced to a minimum, if any at all.
During a retribution propo after the missile attack, Katniss suffered a mental meltdown due to learning that any actions by her caused pain to Mellark. Finnick also suffered one right after Katniss. In response to both Katniss and Finnick's mental meltdowns, rebel forces launched a rescue mission aimed at freeing Annie Cresta, Peeta Mellark, and Johanna Mason. The rescue mission involved knock out gas, power failures and a bomb explosion as diversions.
General ground fighting and bomber strikes were the hallmarks of much of the war. Soon, every district had sided with the rebels, save for District 2, which was the supplier of most of Panem's military force and also served as their primary base of operations. The primary command center for the Capitol's military forces was a mountain known to the rebels as "the Nut" after Plutarch Heavensbee's comment on the district; "it's a tough nut to crack." After several failed attempts at capturing the mountain complex, Hawthorne, who had previously taken part in both the fighting in 8 and the liberation of the tributes from the Capitol, put forth the idea of causing avalanches with rebel bombers and suffocating the Capitol forces inside. Several rebel bombers began dropping their payloads on the Nut's upper elevations, triggering avalanches that buried most of the exits from the mountain and crippled the base inside. Several trains carrying survivors made it out of the train tunnel, as the rebels had decided to leave that one path open. Fighting began in the central square of District 2, and a rebel offensive secured the square and the surrounding area. Katniss gave a speech amidst the fighting that turned District 2's forces to the rebel side, but was later wounded from a gunshot to the spleen.
The destruction of the Nut and 2's defection crippled the Capitol's military forces, forcing the Capitol's military to withdraw to the city itself. Rebel forces then invaded the city, pushing through in intense urban warfare. The destruction of the Nut meant the loss of the Capitol's air force, leaving the defense of the city to the ground forces. The rebel advance was severely hindered by strategically placed traps, called pods, that were positioned all around the city. These pods ranged from automated gun systems to tracker jackers. Midway through the battle for the city, rebel forces set four central routes directly to the heart of the Capitol--the A, B, C, and D lines. After intense block-by-block fighting, the rebels reached the City Circle, the center of the Capitol itself. As a final defensive measure, President Coriolanus Snow had had a group of children form a ring around the presidential mansion. A hovercraft marked with a Capitol insignia dropped parachutes similar to those that Hunger Games tributes received in the arenas, but these turned out to be bombs that killed most of the children in the ring and rebel medical teams who responded. The Capitol fell that day. It was later revealed that the aircraft was actually owned by District 13, under orders from President Coin to drop the bombs on the children to end the war by shattering what remained of the Capitol's image. In what was supposed to be Snow's execution, Katniss instead shot President Alma Coin in retaliation for killing her sister, Primrose, who was serving as a medic when the parachute bombs went off. Snow was later found dead, and a trial was to be set for Katniss for killing Panem's acting president. Katniss was cleared of her charges in abstentia under a plea of insanity until Gale and Beetee's testimony of their involvement of the fire bombs at Snow's mansion to justify Katniss's action in killing Coin which helped reclaim her reputation as a hero to Panem, and allowed to return to the under-reconstruction District 12, where she later married Peeta and had two children. Katniss's killing of Coin was symbolically seen as the last shot of the war.
Of the 59 known members of the second rebellion, only 30 survived it.
Notable members of the second rebellion
The Capitol
- Castor (deceased)
- Cinna (deceased)
- Cressida
- Effie Trinket
- Flavius
- Fulvia Cardew
- Messalla (deceased)
- Octavia
- Plutarch Heavensbee
- Portia (deceased)
- Tigris
- Venia
District 2
- Lyme (deceased)
District 3
District 4
- Annie Cresta
- Finnick Odair (deceased)
- Mags (deceased)
District 6
- Female Morphling (deceased)
- Male Morphling (deceased)
District 7
- Blight (deceased)
- Johanna Mason
District 8
- Bonnie (missing, presumed deceased)
- Cecelia (not in movies) (deceased)
- Commander Paylor
- Eddy (deceased)
- Eddy's Sister (deceased)
- Twill (missing, presumed deceased)
- Woof (not in movies) (deceased)
District 10
- Dalton (later moved to District 13)
District 11
District 12
- Delly Cartwright
- Gale Hawthorne
- Greasy Sae
- Greasy Sae's granddaughter
- Haymitch Abernathy
- Hazelle Hawthorne
- Katniss Everdeen
- Leevy
- Mrs. Everdeen
- Peeta Mellark
- Posy Hawthorne
- Primrose Everdeen (deceased)
- Rory Hawthorne
- Thom
- Vick Hawthorne
District 13
- Boggs (deceased)
- Dr. Aurelius
- Jackson (deceased)
- Homes (deceased)
- Leeg 1 (deceased)
- Leeg 2 (deceased)
- Mitchell (deceased)
- President Alma Coin (deceased)
- York