Genocides in history (before World War I)

Skulls of victims of the Rwandan genocide

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group. The term was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin. It is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) of 1948 as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the groups conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."^[1]

The preamble to the CPPCG states that "genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world" and that "at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity."^[1]

Alternate definitions[]

The debate continues over what legally constitutes genocide. One definition is any conflict that the International Criminal Court has so designated. M. Hassan Kakar^[2] argues that the definition should include political groups or any group so defined by the perpetrator. He prefers the definition from Chalk and Jonassohn: "Genocide is a form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group so defined by the perpetrator."^[3] The international (CPPCG) definition of 1948 was influenced by Joseph Stalin to exclude political groups.^[4][5]

In this article, atrocities that have been characterized as genocide by some reliable source are included, whether or not this is supported by mainstream scholarship. The acts may involve mass killings, mass deportations, politicides, democides, withholding of food and/or other necessities of life, death by deliberate exposure to invasive infectious disease agents or combinations of these. Thus examples listed may constitute genocide by the United Nations definition, or by one of the alternate interpretations.

Before 1490[]

According to Canadian scholar Adam Jones, if a dominant group of people had little in common with a marginalized group of people, it was easy for the dominant group to define the other as subhuman. As a result, the marginalized group might be labeled as a threat that must be eliminated.^[6] Jones continues: "The difficulty, as Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn pointed out in their early study, is that such historical records as exist are ambiguous and undependable. While history today is generally written with some fealty to 'objective' facts, most previous accounts aimed rather to praise the writer's patron (normally the leader) and to emphasize the superiority of one's own gods and religious beliefs."^[7]

Wrote Chalk and Jonassohn: "Historically and anthropologically peoples have always had a name for themselves. In a great many cases, that name meant 'the people' to set the owners of that name off against all other people who were considered of lesser quality in some way. If the differences between the people and some other society were particularly large in terms of religion, language, manners, customs, and so on, then such others were seen as less than fully human: pagans, savages, or even animals."^[8]

Neanderthals[]

Hypotheses which suggest that genocidal violence may have caused the extinction of the Neanderthals have been offered by several authors, including Jared Diamond^[9] and Ronald Wright.^[10] However, several scholars have formed alternative theories as to why the Neanderthals died out, which means there is no clear consensus as to what caused their extinction within the scientific community.^[11]

Neolithic period[]

The mass grave near Schletz, part of Asparn an der Zaya, was located about 33 kilometres to the north of Vienna, Austria, and dates back about 7,500 years. Schletz, just like the Talheim Death Pit, is one of the earliest known sites in the archaeological record that shows proof of genocide in Early Neolithic Europe, among various LBK tribes.^[12]

Ancient genocides[]

Scholars of antiquity differentiate genocide from gendercide, in which groups of people were conquered and the males who belonged to the conquered groups were killed but the children (particularly girls) and women were incorporated into the conquering groups. Jones notes, "Chalk and Jonassohn provide a wide-ranging selection of historical events such as the Assyrian Empire's root-and branch depredations in the first half of the first millennium BCE, and the destruction of Melos by Athens during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE), a gendercidal rampage described by Thucydides in his 'Melian Dialogue'".^[13]

Massacres recorded in religious scriptures like the Hebrew Bible have also been described as genocides, such as the destruction of the Midianites by the Israelites described in Numbers 31:7-18 which took place in the 2nd millennium BCE. Jones notes this as an example of the destruction of an enemy ethnicity and also partial incorporation.^[13]

Destruction of Carthage[]

Ben Kiernan has labelled the destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War (149–146 BCE) "The First Genocide."^[13]

Asiatic Vespers[]

In 88 BCE, King Mithridates VI of Pontus ordered the murder of all Italics in Asia Minor, resulting in the deaths of about 100,000, mainly civilians. This action provoked the Romans leading to the First Mithridatic War.

Tencteri and Usipetes[]

Julius Caesar's campaign against the Tencteri and Usipetes has been characterized as genocidal.^[14]

Gallic Wars[]

During the Gallic Wars Caesar reported that he burnt every village and building that he could find in the territory of the Eburones, drove off all the cattle, and his men and beasts consumed all the corn that the weather of the autumnal season did not destroy. He left those who had hid themselves, if there were any, with the hope that they would all die of hunger in the winter. Caesar says that he wanted to annihilate the Eburones and their name, and indeed we hear no more of the Eburones. Their country was soon occupied by a Germanic tribe with a different name, the Tungri. However, the report of Tacitus that the Tungri were the original "Germani" that came earliest over the Rhine, and the way this matches the description by Caesar of the Eburones and their neighbours, leads to the possibility that they survived under a new name.

However, Heinrichs (2008) argues that the genocide of the Eburones in 53 BCE could not have happened as it is claimed by Caesar.^[15] If the systematic destruction of infrastructures by the Roman forces was intended to prevent the local people from regaining power, physical extermination proved to be impractical. The available areas of refuge hardly accessible to the Roman legions were numerous: the low mountain range of the Ardennes, the swamps and wastelands towards the Menapii, the coastal islands, etc. Moreover, Caesar's second attempt to annihilate the tribe two years later demonstrates that the community survived, and even probably regenerated in such a way that further actions were apparently needed.^[15] According to Roymans (2004), their disappearance from the political map may have resulted from "a policy of damnatio memoriae on the part of the Roman authorities, in combination with the confiscation of Eburonean territory".^[16] A great part of their gold fell into Roman hands during repeated Roman raids on the Eburones in 53–51 BCE, and was then melted down and carried off.^[17]

Bar Kokhba revolt[]

The Bar Kokhba revolt (Hebrew: מֶרֶד בַּר כּוֹכְבָא‎; Mered Bar Kokhba) was a rebellion of the Jews of the Roman province of Judea, led by Simon bar Kokhba, against the Roman Empire. Fought circa 132–136 CE,^[18] it was the last of three major Jewish–Roman wars. The revolt erupted as a result of religious and political tensions which existed in Judea since the end of the failed First Revolt in 66–73 CE. These tensions were exacerbated by the establishment of a large Roman military presence in Judea, changes in administrative life and the economy, together with the outbreak and suppression of Jewish revolts from Mesopotamia to Libya and Cyrenaica.^[19] The proximate reasons seem to be the construction of a new city, Aelia Capitolina, over the ruins of Jerusalem and the erection of a temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount. The Church Fathers and rabbinic literature emphasize the role of Rufus, governor of Judea, in provoking the revolt.^[20] The Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in the extensive depopulation of Judean communities, more so than during the First Jewish–Roman War of 70 CE.^[21] According to Cassius Dio, 580,000 Jews perished in the war and many more died of hunger and disease. In addition, many Judean war captives were sold into slavery.^[22] The Jewish communities of Judea were devastated to an extent which some scholars describe as a genocide.^[21][23] However, the Jewish population remained strong in other parts of Palestine, thriving in Galilee, Golan, Bet Shean Valley and the eastern, southern and western edges of Judea.^[24] Roman casualties were also considered heavy—XXII Deiotariana was disbanded after serious losses.^[25][26] In addition, some historians argue that Legio IX Hispana's disbandment in the mid-2nd century could have been a result of this war. In an attempt to erase any memory of Judea or Ancient Israel, Emperor Hadrian wiped the name off the map and replaced it with Syria Palaestina.^[27][28][29]

Wu Hu and Jie[]

Ancient Chinese texts record that General Ran Min ordered the extermination of the Wu Hu, especially the Jie people, during the Wei–Jie war in the fourth century CE. The Jie were an ethnic group which possessed racial characteristics which included high-bridged noses and bushy beards, and as a result, they were easily identified and killed. In total, 200,000 of them were reportedly massacred.^[30]

Zandaqa[]

Zindīq (زنديق) or Zandik (