Anti-environmentalism is a set of ideas and actions that oppose environmentalism as a whole or specific environmental policies or environmental initiatives. Criticism of environmentalism originates from multiple ideologies,
interest groups, and political objectives. Oppositions can take the form
of an organized countermovement,
aimed at scientific claims about climate change, environmental policies
and regulations, in both national or international spheres.
Anti-environmentalist actors may include workers in industries and
companies that are threatened by environmental policies, and
anti-environmentalist think tanks.
The reasons for opposition vary. They range from economic
interests to ideological and political positions that are hostile
towards environmental social and political change, including critical
perspectives that encourage environmentalists to think about more
inclusive approaches toward sustainability.
History
Criticism of environmentalism has taken different forms in
different historical periods. Many oppositions to environmentalism have
arisen within the environmental movement itself, from the internal
contrasts and debates.
During the 1960s and 1970s, environmentalism was inspired
by concerns about resource scarcity and over-exploitation: fear of the
future well-being of humanity in relation to the planets health. This
concept is known as neo-Malthusianism. These ideas came under criticism from neoclassical economists,
who felt that the role of scientific and technological innovation in
securing additional resources was overlooked. Some challenged the
reliability of mathematical models, including that of the famous Club of Rome's Limits to Growth
Report: critics argued that it had not adequately considered feedback
and the effects of human decisions. Criticism also came from the left,
for example from thinkers such as Murray Bookchin, who attributed environmental problems to political and social causes rather than natural resource scarcity. Marxist
critics argued that environmentalist ideas, influenced by
neo-Malthusianism, had racist, elitist, and imperialist overtones, and
considered them reactionary.
Meanwhile, business interests affected by the rapidly
expanding environmental legislations formed alliances to counter it.
These coalitions reflected the same methods of social and environmental
movements: community-level mobilization and collaborative partnerships,
as well as public awareness campaigns, media engagement, research
publications, and providing testimony during hearings.
During the 1980s, environmentalism gained traction as a
social and political force in many Western countries. National
environmental legislation and international environmental initiatives
grew in response to scientific findings. Oppositions arose against
perceived excesses among environmentalist positions (e.g., against
apocalyptic visions of the future). Radical and organized oppositions
also arose in the form of countermovements.
The 1990s witnessed the full emergence of public relations
applied to environmental issues. The corporation-led coalition-building
efforts from the 1970s continued to expand. Some corporations even went
beyond their corporate allies by hiring specialized PR firms to
establish front groups, creating the illusion of grassroots support for
corporate interests to persuade politicians to oppose environmental
reforms. Environmental public relations, often referred to as greenwashing,
has become a lucrative industry for PR firms. Tactics that were enacted
to defend Tobacco companies by minimizing or denying health effects are
applied today by the fossil fuel industry; in some instances employing
the same actors[3].
American companies now invest hundreds of millions of dollars annually
in greenwashing and strategic counsel, which involves shaping public and
governmental perceptions of environmental problems and devising
strategies to counter environmentalists and regulations. Misinformation around climate change is spread via think tanks,
political actors, influencers, conservative media creating information
echo chambers.
The United States, which since the 1970s had first
developed models of environmental legislation later imitated around the
world, has repeatedly seen the rise of pressure and initiatives to
reduce environmental legislation among Republican politicians and
administrations. For example, President George W. Bush
stated in his campaign platform that he would "ensure that the federal
government, which is the country's largest polluter, complies with all
environmental laws" and that the United States would even exceed the set
standards.[4]
Though once elected, Bush verged from what he had promised during his
campaign, and instead reversed the initiatives of the previous Clinton
administration on drinking water, and advocated for oil exploration in protected regions.[5]
Bush's administration also moved forward in withdrawing its support of
the Kyoto Protocol, a worldwide global warming agreement created in
1997.[5]
Bush stated that he would work with allies to the United States to
reduce greenhouse gases, but would not carry out a plan that would "harm
the economy" and "hurt American workers".[5]
The conflict between support and opposition to environmental policies
has become an important factor in the growing social and political
polarization in the United States.[6]
Anti-environmentalist movements and ideologies
Anti-environmentalism is fueled by both social and economic
reasons and ideological positions. The ideological underpinnings of
anti-environmentalism can be very diverse and sometimes opposed to each
other: from neoliberal to anti-capitalist ideologies.
In some contexts, especially in the United States,[7]
anti-environmentalist social movements and initiatives are frequently
inspired by conservative or neoliberal political ideologies:[8]
these favor a free market economy over government regulation. Such
political positions find support in corporate interests that feel
threatened by environmental concerns or environmental regulations.
Although many observers of anti-environmentalism point out the frequent
association between these initiatives and specific business interests
threatened by environmental policies, others consider that there are
cultural factors in certain social groups that underlie their
anti-environmentalism.[9]
For example, a study of the American right has suggested
that many of the anti-environmentalist positions are rooted in its
traditional distrust, widespread within the right-wing electorate, of
government intervention, its support for the free market as a symbol of
the American dream, and its defense of Christian values, family, white
identity and traditional masculinity. This resistance is fueled by
concern about political and cultural changes resulting from the social movements of the 1960s
out of which environmentalism emerged. Some anti-environmentalist
positions may arise from genuine anxiety related to the consequences of
environmental regulations feared for the economic well-being of families
and communities. Opposition to environmentalists may also be widespread
among social sectors that see environmentalists as linked to urban
life, alienated from local realities and knowledge, and closer to
specialized knowledge.
Many experts argue that ideological explanations of
anti-environmentalism, based on traditional concepts of the political
left and right, are of little use in interpreting current political
positions, especially regarding climate policies. Research in the social
and political fields suggests that populist and nationalist ideologies are more relevant factors.
In Europe, anti-environmentalism is widespread in the radical right
and is generally associated with typical opposition to immigration,
nationalism, welfare chauvinism (i.e., social policies must favor the
country's citizens), and euroscepticism. The anti-environmentalism of the radical right can be understood as a materialist reaction against the post-materialism
of the left and the greens, i.e., that ideology that elevates the need
for political freedom and participation, self-actualization, personal
relationships, creativity, and care for the environment over the
satisfaction of material needs.
The reasons behind the prevalent anti-environmentalism expressed by right-wing populists
in Europe and North America are subject to debate and remain intricate.
On one hand, economic and social factors play a role: a significant
portion of these parties' supporters comprises individuals who have felt
the economic impacts of globalization and modernization,
viewing climate policies as linked to their struggles and exacerbating
their situation. On the other hand, ideological considerations come into
play and can be categorized in two ways. Firstly, there is a disdain
for climate policies perceived as initiatives championed by liberal,
globally oriented individuals who are seen as not prioritizing the
nation's interests. Secondly, there is a preference for a direct
connection between ordinary citizens and those in positions of power.
The complexity of climate change, demanding intricate solutions,
contrasts with their inclination toward simplicity. Additionally, there
is a belief that figures in authority, including climate scientists and
environmentalists, are influenced by special interests, fostering
skepticism toward climate initiatives.
Actors supporting anti-environmentalism
Opposition to environmentalism is often supported by corporations and coordinated through conservative think tanks, alongside sham public support campaigns (known as astroturfing)
orchestrated by public relations firms. These actors create links
between corporate interests, conservative intellectuals, and segments of
the public who share conservative perspectives or are concerned about
the impact of environmental policies on communities and workers in
specific sectors.
Conservative think tanks or sometimes academic researchers
participate in the development of anti-environmentalist analysis and
policy positions. Among the intellectuals and authors who have
distinguished themselves internationally are Danish academic Bjørn Lomborg, Canadian former Greenpeace activist Patrick Moore, Canadian journalist Rex Murphy, and the US commentator Vivian Krause.
Public relations firms regularly assist the communication
and lobbying of large companies whose interests are affected by
environmental policies. Some communications initiatives may support the
establishment of social front groups capable of lobbying legislators to
reduce environmental regulations. Conservative foundations and
philanthropic entities that fund anti-environmental initiatives are also
active in the United States.
Some of these institutional actors (e.g., Citizens for a Sound Economy, founded by entrepreneur David Koch)
call themselves environmentalists and argue that traditional
environmental groups have overstated environmental problems. They use green marketing
techniques to convince the public of their high level of environmental
responsibility. In essence, these organizations create controversial
information and call it environmental or green ideology. They frequently
endorse campaigns to increase access to certain resources, such as
forests and mines.
Think tanks associated with companies and seemingly
independent groups can present themselves as autonomous research centers
capable of providing expertise (analysis and communication) valued by
the mass media. The media gives them space to balance environmentalist
perspectives. However, this process can lead the media to overemphasize
scientific uncertainty on some environmental issues. In other words, by
presenting such sources as independent and reliable, the media may
unintentionally amplify the perception of uncertainty, influencing
public perceptions of specific environmental issues.
Additional strategies used by corporations or support
actors like PR firms and think tanks may also include: co-opting
moderate environmentalists through donations, job offers, and deals,
while marginalizing and alienating non-cooperative individuals, often
labeling them as extremists; dirty tricks campaigns to falsely implicate
environmentalists in violent actions; threat of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation
(SLAPPs) (in the United States) to intimidate environmentalists and
citizens who engage in activities such as petitioning, writing to
officials, attending public meetings, organizing boycotts, or
participating in peaceful demonstrations, aiming to silence critics
through legal pressure.
Other conservative think tanks (e.g., Cato Institute and The Heritage Foundation)
address environmental issues as part of a broader agenda, including
discussions of fiscal policy, energy, monetary policy, education, health
care, and global economic liberalism. They consider that many public
interest or environmental regulations are counterproductive. They
support judicial activism to protect civil and economic liberties, an
open and competitive energy market, and the importance of consumer
choice and private incentives over a public approach to address real
environmental concerns.
Many conservative think tanks involved in climate change, mineral resources, and indigenous rights issues are connected to the Atlas Network. Since the 1980s, the Atlas Network has been a supporter of neoliberal
ideas, promoting these through international networking and funding of
conservative think tanks. The organization operates globally,
encompassing hundreds of think tanks across all continents.
Notable cases
Climate change skeptics
The most widespread contemporary example of organized anti-environmentalism is the climate change denial or skepticism movement. Skeptics attack the evidence for climate change. Skepticism can target the observed trend ("global warming does not
exist"), the identification of causes ("warming exists, but humans are
not responsible"), or the impact ("warming could be harmless or even
beneficial"). This kind of skepticism is intended to fuel uncertainty about climate science: the goal is to undermine scientific discourses of environmental policy or to confuse the public and policymakers.
Another type of skepticism is so-called response
skepticism, that is, skepticism directed at actions taken to address
climate change. It can be associated with climate denialism, but can
also be expressed without opposing the evidence of climate change
("climate change exists and is caused by humans, but the prevailing
responses are wrong or overly harmful").
Climate skepticism is widespread among European parties of
the far right and radical right. However, a study of the positions
expressed by these parties in the European Parliament indicated that
they rarely manifest climate denialism: opposition is more often
directed at climate policies. Anti-environmentalist positions are
intended to fuel a pro-sovereignist
and anti-elite desire and speak to issues close to voters, such as
economic welfare. They also include pro-environmental and pro-climate
positions and support for the fight against climate change. They are
accompanied by a critique of liberal climate policies as causing
pollution, and of global capitalism and in favor of localism and economic nationalism.
The climate skeptic movement is supported by certain
corporate or national interests that wish to maintain the profitability
of economic sectors (especially those related to fossil fuels) in the
face of growing environmental concerns. It also draws on anxieties about
environmental protection among segments of the public that rely on
fossil fuel-intensive economies. The countermovement is supported by a minority of scientists who have been visible promoters of climate science skepticism and by an extensive network of think tanks, which often also pursue
other neoliberal or conservative agendas (e.g., against government
regulation).
Libertarian movements in the United States
In the 1980s, the so-called "wise use" movement
emerged, consisting of local groups mainly in the western part of North
America. This movement emerged as a diverse alliance of ranchers,
miners, loggers, hunters, off-road vehicle drivers, oil workers, and
farmers who, despite their differences, united against
environmentalists. They oppose public environmental management
initiatives, which are perceived as authoritarian and detrimental to
individual freedoms. They share the belief that a limited,
non-interventionist government is more just, believing that a large
bureaucracy threatens individual rights and freedoms. They support the
individual right to use natural resources as part of the right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Their proposals include logging
in national forests, revising the Endangered Species Act to eliminate protection of "non-adaptive" species such as the California condor, immediate oil extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and opening all public lands, including national parks and wilderness areas,
to mineral and energy production. They also support the development of
national parks run by private companies and civil penalties for anyone
who legally challenges economic activity or development on federal
lands. Some members have also supported violent actions.
Internal criticism
External criticisms of environmentalism often arise from
or are related to internal disputes between different currents within
the movement. Over the past two decades, the environmental movement has
undergone significant changes and has not only faced external criticisms
but also internal challenges with the emergence of environmental justice movements, civil environmental movements, and those focused on sustainable development choices and the transformation of production and technological systems. In particular, the tension between deep or ecosystem-centered ecology (accused of anti-humanism by external opponents) and humanist or social justice-oriented
environmentalists has generated new perspectives that are more
attentive to the social aspects of environmental choices. The
environmental justice perspective deals with the disproportionate and
unjust distribution of environmental risks and harms within and among
societies.
In recent years, environmental social sciences, such as environmental history, political ecology, and environmental sociology,
have been growing in importance. These disciplines have contributed to a
deepening understanding of the complex link between the environment and
society. This progress has overcome the simplified views that often
underlie anti-environmentalist positions, paving the way for new
perspectives and more sophisticated approaches.The new knowledge has had
a significant impact on the formulation of alternative concepts of
sustainability and the practice of more conscious environmental
policies.
One example of this tension relates to the application of nature conservation models inspired by North American ideals of wilderness
conservation. The use of such models in different contexts has caused
conflicts with local traditions of land use. This tension and the
criticism of traditional conservation models have often led to an
evolution of the models themselves, seeking to better integrate
pre-existing relationships between local people and their land. In general, in developing countries, local environmentalist ideas and
actions are not necessarily influenced by the post-materialist
perspectives of Western environmentalism. For communities in these
countries, environmental challenges are often linked to struggles over
natural resources, as in the case of disputes between farmers and
companies over timber or between rural and urban residents over water
and energy. Such conflicts often focus on the environment, as poorer
communities seek to preserve control over their natural resources to
prevent them from being lost to increasing state control or the
expanding market system.
As a result of these debates and criticisms,
environmentalism is changing the way it deals with environmental science
and the management of environmental problems, moving away from
intransigent principled positions and accepting the complexity of the
issues. This shift recognizes the uncertainties in establishing
cause-and-effect relationships, especially when dealing with large-scale
environmental problems. In addition, there is an increasing emphasis on
understanding power dynamics, winners and losers in environmental
change and legislation. Although some changes are taking place,
traditional ways of thinking, such as neo-Malthusian, romantic, and
catastrophist perspectives, persist in the environmental movement.
Examples of national and local conflicts
Alberta oil sands in Canada
The Alberta oil sands
has also been a point of contention between environmentalists and those
who exclusively consider economic growth to be important.
Anti-environmentalists maintain that the oil sands have improved
Canada's relations with the United States as Canada is their number one
foreign supplier of oil.
As well, the oil sands have brought a secure source of energy to Canada, as well as tremendous economic gains for Alberta. There are environmental efforts in place to mitigate the effects that
the mining involved in operating the oil sands mine has on animal
species, though some environmentalist groups are not satisfied.
Environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace are concerned with the
environmental, social and health impacts of mining the oil sands,
particularly on First Nations communities in Alberta.
The
source of this conflict is that on January 25, 2016, Dakota Access
announced that it received permit approval to move forward with the
construction of a four-state crude oil pipeline which would transport
470,000 barrels of oil per day from North Dakota to Illinois. Anti-environmentalists defended the construction of the Pipeline as it
would create thousands of jobs, make the United States more energy
independent and create a more cost-effective method of transporting oil
to major refining markets. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe took issue with this as the pipeline
would run through their communities, tainting their sacred land as well
as contaminating their water supply. What followed in the next ten months was a response from Sioux
communities, protestors and environmentalist groups in the form of
peaceful protests in which over 400 arrests were made by local law
enforcement.Environmentalist groups responded to the event with an open letter
condemning the actions of the North American banks who helped fund the
pipeline, and encouraged them to stop any future payments contributing
to it.
The Czech Republic and the Highway by-pass project
In 1991, Plzeň, Czech Republic
experienced immense air pollution that citizens felt was the source of
their health problems. The government decided they needed to build a new
highway so the traffic could no longer create pollution in the city.
Two different plans were created, one being the K variant which put the
highway south of the city, and the S variant which would go through
protected land, and would have negative impacts on rural areas as
opposed to the city. This event began environmental movements in the
Czech Republic that protested the S variant. In previous years, Czechoslovakia had been focused on the Soviet model
of industrial expansion which lacked environmental regulation. This had
effects on the environment, such as low-grade coal used in houses and by
industries as well as lead gasoline used in automobiles. In the 1980's
environmental activists protested the governments lack of environmental
regulation. Political campaigns thereafter became increasingly
anti-environmental through media outlets and newspaper coverage. Media
coverage shared statements such as "Environmentalists believe that bugs
are more important than people" and "Beware of environmentalists – they
are extremists." These statements created fear of environmental causes
in the population.
Situation in some countries
Canada
Stephen Harper: Stephen Harper
criticized Canada's prior environmental policy for having high
restrictions on industry, as Harper sought to industrialize. He wanted
to ensure that industries could have better access to natural resources
with the goal of increasing Canada's Economy. In May 2011, Harper and
the Conservative Party of Canada
won the Canadian federal election with a majority government, which
allowed them to make significant changes to Canada's environmental
policy. A bill passed May 2012 titled the "Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act." The Harper government focused more economic growth, such as the oil
industry in Alberta. Northern Alberta has oil in their tar sands and
extracting it was seen by environmentalists as destruction to the
environment and a source of Greenhouse gas emissions. The Harper government focused on expanding the economy over the interests of environmentalists. Also environmental groups were also deemed "extremists" by the Harper
Government and listed them under the anti-terrorism strategy as a
national security threat.
In 2014, Environment Canada
released its annual emissions trends report, which showed that Canada
was not going to meet emission reduction targets as was promised in
2009. In fact, Canada is on track to increase its emissions up until
2020. Harper's government, while committed to reducing emissions over the
long term, disapproved of limiting oil and gas emissions as the price of
oil rose higher.
This was consistent with Harper's decision to withdraw Canada from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011. The main reason given for this by Harper was that Canada was not having success in meeting the protocol's targets. In the following years, Harper's administration made it difficult for
foreign-based environmental groups to obstruct Canadian economic growth.
Environmental charities experienced frequent audits by the federal
government which resulted in less productivity and being at risk of
losing their charitable status. Harper also repealed a significant environmental policy which had previously been in place; the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Later, a new version of the act was created. In 2015, with the election of Justin Trudeau, the environment became one of Canada's main concerns, with Trudeau eventually signing the Paris Agreement in 2016, and has been aggressive at curtailing the oil and gas industry.
United States
Former President Barack Obama promised to make the United States more environmentally conscious, and implemented the Clean Power Plan,
invested significantly in clean energy, and improved standards for fuel
economy of vehicles; this reduced pollution and was also economical. Obama also made a joint agreement with China to reduce the emissions
of both countries, and to reduce emissions in the United States by 27%
by 2025. The state of environmental affairs in the United States changed drastically under the Donald Trump
administration. Trump had been open about his plans to alter or
withdraw entirely from many climate change and environmental agreements
the United States was then involved in, such as the Paris Agreement. As this agreement is voluntary, the United States faced no penalty for
declining to participate. However, as the United States is the second
largest emitter of carbon after China, their lack of participation in
the agreement would greatly impact global efforts to reduce carbon
emissions. While in 1999, President Bill Clinton announced that the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) would enforce the toughest standards to date, Trump's
administration instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove
the climate change page from its website. EPA employees stated at the time that if the page were to be taken
down, years of research on global warming would be gone, as well as
detailed data on emissions and links to scientific global warming
research. On June 1, 2017, Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation. Trump stated that "The Paris accord will undermine (the U.S.) economy," and "puts (the U.S.) at a permanent disadvantage."
China
In China, the city of Maoming became the focus of an environmental dispute in 2014, relating to the municipal government-sponsored Para-Xylene
(PX) industry - a chemical used in manufacturing plastics, such as
those in water bottles and polyesters. The industry has been promoted in
Maoming for its economic benefits due to the jobs provided by the
factories. Despite the industry's economic benefits, citizens organized PX protest
in 2014 as there was increasing concern for the chemical's
environmental and health risks to the citizens of the city. To
counteract the environmentalist social movement, the government took
action by creating an agreement that all civilians must sign stating
they will not engage in protests or speak of the industry negatively,
which high school students had to sign in order to graduate, as well as
implementing an education campaign by providing lectures to the citizens
on PX project.
France
In June 2023, Minister of the InteriorGérald Darmanin announced that the French government would be forcibly dissolving the Les Soulèvements de la Terre. The announcement came following a series of raids by anti-terrorist police against the group, resulting in 18 arrests.
Human Rights Watch
stated that the dissolution was "wholly disproportionate" and was part
of "a growing trend of stigmatization and criminalization of individuals
and civil society organizations raising awareness about the
consequences of climate change" in France under Emmanuel Macron.
According to certain genocide experts, including Raphael Lemkin – who coined the term Genocide – colonialism is intimately connected with genocide.Lemkin saw genocide as a two-stage process: (1) the destruction of the
targeted group's way of life, followed by (2) the perpetrators'
imposition of their own national pattern. Other scholars view genocide as associated with but distinct from settler colonialism. The expansion of various Western European colonial powers such as the British and Spanish empires and the subsequent establishment of colonies on indigenous territories frequently involved acts of genocidal violence against indigenous groups in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
The designation of specific events as genocidal is frequently controversial. Lemkin originally intended a broad definition that encompassed colonial violence, but in order to pass the 1948 Genocide Convention, he narrowed his definition to physical and biological destruction (as opposed to cultural genocide) and added the requirement of genocidal intent. Although some scholars use the Genocide Convention definition, others have "criticized [it] as a highly flawed law for its
overemphasis on intent, the imprecision of a key phrase 'destruction in
whole or in part', and the narrow exclusivity of the groups
protected"—factors which reduce its applicability to anti-indigenous
violence.
The determination of whether a historical event should be
considered a genocide is a matter of scholarly debate. Issues of
contention include what construes genocidal intent and whether or not cultural destruction (sometimes called cultural genocide or "ethnic cleansing") constitutes genocide.
Some scholars narrowly define genocide so that it requires the intent to eliminate an entire group of people. Without this genocidal intent, a group or individual may commit "crimes against humanity" or "ethnic cleansing," but not genocide. Steven Katz defines genocide in the context of the Holocaust,
arguing it requires the complete physical eradication of a group. He
believes this distinguishes the Holocaust from other instances of
violence against groups, including the genocide of Indigenous peoples.
Scholars focusing on genocides of Indigenous peoples
criticize the view of the Holocaust as unique, arguing it diminishes the
significance of Indigenous genocides, which are often seen as lesser or
primitive and reinforce Eurocentrism.
They believe this comparison undermines the moral standing of
Indigenous survivors compared to Jewish survivors. There are differing
views on genocide, with liberals focusing on intent and post-liberals on
broader structural factors. Certain scholars and genocide experts draw on broader definitions of
genocide such as Lemkin's, which considers colonialist violence against
indigenous peoples inherently genocidal.
For Lemkin, genocide included all attempts to destroy a
specific ethnic group, whether they are strictly physical, through mass
killings, or whether they are strictly cultural or psychological,
through oppression and through the destruction of indigenous ways of life.
A people group may continue to exist, but if it is
prevented from perpetuating its group identity by prohibitions of its
cultural and religious practices, practices which are the basis of its
group identity, this may also be considered a form of genocide. Examples
of this include the treatment of Tibetans and Uyghurs by the Government of China, the treatment of Native Americans by the United States Government, and the treatment of First Nations peoples by the Canadian government.Some modern scholars advocate for defining forcible assimilation, such as the Canadian residential schools, as genocide.
The concept of genocide was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin:
New
conceptions require new terms. By "genocide" we mean the destruction of a
nation or of an ethnic group. This new word, coined by the author to
denote an old practice in its modern development, is made from the
ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide
(killing), thus corresponding in its formation to such words as
tyrannicide, homicide, infanticide, etc. Generally speaking, genocide
does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except
when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is
intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions
aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of
national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The
objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political
and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings,
religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the
destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even
the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide is
directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions
involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual
capacity, but as members of the national group.
Lemkin
wrote: "Genocide has two phases: one, destruction of the national
pattern of the oppressed group: the other, the imposition of the
national pattern of the oppressor. This imposition, in turn, may be made
upon the oppressed population which is allowed to remain, or upon the
territory alone, after removal of the population and the colonization of
the area by the oppressor's own nationals." Some genocide scholars
separate the population declines of indigenous peoples which are due to disease from the genocidal aggression of one group towards another. Some scholars argue that an intent to commit a genocide is not needed,
because a genocide may be the cumulative result of minor conflicts in
which settlers, colonial agents or state agents perpetrate violent acts
against minority groups. Others argue that the dire consequences of European diseases among many New World populations
were exacerbated by different forms of genocidal violence, and they
also argue that intentional deaths and unintentional deaths cannot
easily be separated from each other. Some scholars regard the colonization of the Americas as genocide,
since they argue it was largely achieved through systematically
exploiting, removing and destroying specific ethnic groups, which would
create environments and conditions for such disease to proliferate.
According to a 2020 study by Tai S. Edwards and Paul
Kelton, recent scholarship shows "that colonizers bear responsibility
for creating conditions that made natives vulnerable to infection,
increased mortality, and hindered population recovery. This
responsibility intersected with more intentional and direct forms of
violence to depopulate the Americas... germs can no longer serve as the
basis for denying American genocides."
Other scholars have said that the population decline cannot
be explained by disease only. The vectors of death raised by
displacement, warfare, slavery, and famine played an important role.
Ethnocide
is a term also created by Lemkin in 1944, to describe the destruction
of a people's culture. Lemkin did not see a clear distinction between
ethnocide and genocide, both relating to the persecution of groups.
The UN's 1948 definition, which is used in international law, is narrower than Lemkin's definition. Lemkin supported including cultural genocide in the Genocide Convention to protect groups tied to their culture. The term was excluded from the Genocide Convention due to objections
from colonial states such as Australia, Canada, Sweden, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. A draft by the UN Secretariat included a definition of cultural
genocide, which encompassed acts intended to destroy a group's language,
religion, or culture. The final version of Article 2 of the Genocide
Convention did not mention cultural genocide. Instead, it included
"forcible transfer of children from one group to another" as a
punishable act.
According to the UN, for an act to be classified as
genocide, it is essential to demonstrate that the perpetrators had a
specific intent to physically destroy the group, in whole or in part, based on its real or perceived nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion. Intention to destroy the group's culture or intending to scatter the group does suffice. The following five acts comprise the physical element of the crime:
(a) "Killing members of the group;"
(b) "Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;"
(c) "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of
life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in
part;"
(d) "Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;"
(e) "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The United Nations' definition of genocide does not offer a
broad enough explanation of all that goes into a genocide, especially
in the case of indigenous peoples. The destruction of nonhuman animals,
land, water, and other nonhuman beings constitute forms of genocide
according to indigenous metaphysics.
Ben Kiernan details how genocidal massacres were employed as a strategy in the colonisation of Ireland during the 16th century.
The numerous massacres and widespread starvation that accompanied the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) has led to it being called a genocide by some nationalist historians; during the conquest over 200,000 civilians died due to the destruction
of crops, forced displacement, and the mass killing of civilians, and about 50,000 Irish were sold into indentured servitude. In the aftermath of the conquest, thousands of native Irish were forcibly deported to Connacht in accordance with the Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652. The Plantations of Ireland
were attempts to expel the native Irish from the best land of the
island, and settle it with loyal British Protestants; they too have been
described as genocidal. The Great Famine (1845–1850) has also been blamed on British policy and called genocidal. Katie Kane has compared the Sand Creek massacre with the Drogheda massacre. R. Barry O'Brien compared the Irish Rebellion of 1641 with the American Indian Wars,
writing "The slaughter of Irishmen was looked upon as literally the
slaughter of wild beasts. Not only the men, but even the women and
children who fell into the hands of the English were deliberately and
systematically butchered. Year after year, over a great part of all
Ireland, all means of human subsistence was destroyed, no quarter was
given to prisoners who surrendered, and the whole population was
skillfully and steadily starved to death."
Throughout the 19th century, the Russian Empire conducted a genocidal campaign against the Circassians and other Muslim populations in the North Caucasus. During the genocide, many Circassians were subjected to massacres and
mass rapes, while others were deported from their homeland and resettled
in the Ottoman Empire.
Calculations including those which take the Russian
government's own archival figures into account have estimated a loss of
80%–97% of the Circassian nation in the process.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Norwegian and
Swedish governments imposed assimilation policies on indigenous and
minority peoples including as the Sámi,Kven and Forrest Finns.
During the Balkan Wars, Serbia and Montenegro conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign against indigenous Albanians through the means of expulsions, massacres, and mutilation of Albanian civilians. The goal of these massacres was to alter the ethnic composition before the London Conference of 1912–1913 to determine the new Balkan borders, with generals reportedly claiming they were going to eradicate the Albanian population.
From 18 to 20May 1944, most of the Crimean Tatars were forcibly transported from Crimea to the Uzbek SSR in freight wagons by NKVD, the Soviet secret police. The Soviet authorities tried to drown the Crimean Tatars from the Arabat Spit in the sea on a barge, and those Crimean Tatars who tried to swim ashore were shot.
It is estimated that during the initial Spanish conquest
of the Americas, up to eight million indigenous people died, primarily
through the spread of Afro-Eurasian diseases, wars, and atrocities. The population of Indigenous Americans is estimated to have decreased
from approximately 145 million to around 7–15 million between the late
15th and late 17th centuries, representing a decline of around 90–95%.
Mistreatment and killing of Native Americans continued for
centuries, in every area of the Americas, including the areas that
would become Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil,
Paraguay, Chile. In the United States, some scholars (examples listed
below) state that the American Indian Wars and the doctrine of manifest destiny contributed to the genocide, with one major event cited being the Trail of Tears.
In contrast, a 2019 book by Jeffrey Ostler at the University of Oregon has argued that genocide is not a majority viewpoint in the scholarship on the subject and he writes that,
Since
1992, the argument for a total, relentless, and pervasive genocide in
the Americas has become accepted in some areas of Indigenous studies and
genocide studies. For the most part, however, this argument has had
little impact on mainstream scholarship in U.S. history or American
Indian history. Scholars are more inclined than they once were to
gesture to particular actions, events, impulses, and effects as
genocidal, but genocide has not become a key concept in scholarship in
these fields.
According to The Cambridge World History, The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies, and The Cambridge World History of Genocide, colonial policies in some cases included the deliberate genocide of indigenous peoples in North America. According to the Cambridge World History of Genocide, Spanish colonization of the Americas also included genocidal massacres.
According to Adam Jones, genocidal methods included the following:
Genocidal massacres
Biological warfare, using pathogens (especially smallpox and plague) to which the indigenous peoples had no resistance
Spreading of disease via the 'reduction' of Indians to densely crowded and unhygienic settlements
Slavery and forced/indentured labor, especially, though not
exclusively, in Latin America, in conditions often rivaling those of
Nazi concentration camps
Mass population removals to barren 'reservations,' sometimes involving death marches en route, and generally leading to widespread mortality and population collapse upon arrival
Deliberate starvation and famine, exacerbated by destruction and occupation of the native land base and food resources
Forced education of indigenous children in White-run schools ...
Causes of indigenous deaths
According to scholars Tai S. Edwards and Paul Kelton,
colonizers bear responsibility for creating conditions that made natives
vulnerable to infection, increased mortality, and hindered population
recovery. This responsibility intersected with more intentional and
direct forms of violence to depopulate the Americas. It is false to
blame indigenous deaths on the spread of germs and diseases when
intentional and genocidal forces were at play. Kelton and Edwards
explain that Native peoples "did not die from accidentally introduced
'virgin' soil epidemics. They died because U.S. colonization, removal
policies, reservation confinement, and assimilation programs severely
and continuously undermined physical and spiritual health. Disease was
the secondary killer."
Some scholars view the term ethnic cleansing as a more appropriate designation. As detailed in Ethnic Cleansing: The Crime That Should Haunt America,
historian Gary Anderson insists that genocide does not apply to any of
American history since "policies of mass murder on a scale similar to
events in central Europe, Cambodia, or Rwanda were never implemented"
but argues that ethnic cleansing occurred.
Anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis
insists that a categorization of a genocide is accurate due to the
deliberate attempts to massacre entire societies and fatal circumstances
imposed by the colonizers.
Categorization as a genocide
Historians and scholars whose work has examined this history in the context of genocide have included historian Jeffrey Ostler, historian David Stannard, anthropological demographer Russell Thornton (Cherokee Nation), historian Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Dakota), as well as activists such as Russell Means (Oglala Lakota) and Ward Churchill. In his book, American Holocaust,
Stannard compares the events of colonization in the Americas to the
definition of genocide which is written in the 1948 UN convention, and
he writes that,
In light of the
U.N. language—even putting aside some of its looser constructions—it is
impossible to know what transpired in the Americas during the sixteenth,
seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries and not conclude that
it was genocide.
Thornton describes the direct consequences of warfare, violence, and massacres as genocides, many of which had the effect of wiping out entire ethnic groups. Political scientist Guenter Lewy
states that "even if up to 90 percent of the reduction in Indian
population was the result of disease, that leaves a sizeable death toll
caused by mistreatment and violence." The non-Indigenous ethnic studies professor Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz states,
Proponents
of the default position emphasize attrition by disease despite other
causes equally deadly, if not more so. In doing so they refuse to accept
that the colonization of America was genocidal by plan, not simply the
tragic fate of populations lacking immunity to disease.
By
1900, the indigenous population in the Americas declined by more than
80%, and by as much as 98% in some areas. The effects of diseases such
as smallpox, measles and cholera
during the first century of colonialism contributed greatly to the
death toll, while violence, displacement, and warfare against the
Indians by colonizers contributed to the death toll in subsequent
centuries. As detailed in American Philosophy: From Wounded Knee to the Present (2015),
It is also apparent that the shared history of the hemisphere is one which is framed by the dual tragedies of genocide and slavery,
both of which are part of the legacy of the European invasions of the
past 500 years. Indigenous people both north and south were displaced,
died of disease,
and were killed by Europeans through slavery, rape, and war. In 1491,
about 145 million people lived in the western hemisphere. By 1691, the
population of Indigenous Americans had declined by 90–95 percent, or by
around 130 million people.
However,
pre-Columbian population figures are difficult to estimate due to the
fragmentary nature of the evidence. Estimates range from 8 to 112
million. Russel Thornton
has pointed out that there were disastrous epidemics and population
losses during the first half of the sixteenth century "resulting from
incidental contact, or even without direct contact, as disease spread
from one American Indian tribe to another." Thornton has also challenged higher indigenous population estimates,
which are based on the Malthusian assumption that "populations tend to
increase to, and beyond, the limits of the food available to them at any
particular level of technology".
According to geographers from University College London, the colonization of the Americas by Europeans killed so many people, approximately 55 million people, or 90% of local populations, it resulted in climate change and global cooling. UCL Geography Professor Mark Maslin,
one of the co-authors of the study, states that the large death toll
also boosted the economies of Europe: "the depopulation of the Americas
may have inadvertently allowed the Europeans to dominate the world. It
also allowed for the Industrial Revolution and for Europeans to continue
that domination."
The claim that the drastic population decline is an
example of genocide is controversial, because scholars have argued about
whether the process as a whole or whether specific periods and local
processes qualify as genocide under the legal definition of it. Raphael Lemkin, the originator of the term "genocide", considered the colonial replacement of Native Americans by English and later British colonists to be one of the historical examples of genocide.
A 16th-century illustration by Flemish ProtestantTheodor de Bry for Las Casas'Brevisima relación de la destrucción de las Indias, depicting Spanish torture of indigenous peoples during the conquest of Hispaniola.
Bartolomé wrote: "They erected certain Gibbets, large, but low made, so
that their feet almost reached the ground, every one of which was so
ordered as to bear Thirteen Persons in Honour and Reverence (as they
said blasphemously) of our Redeemer and his Twelve Apostles, under which
they made a Fire to burn them to Ashes whilst hanging on them"
It is estimated that during the initial Spanish conquest of the Americas up to eight million indigenous people died, primarily through the spread of Afro-Eurasian diseases, in a series of events that have been described as the first large-scale act of genocide of the modern era.
Las Casas wrote that the native population on the Spanish colony of Hispaniola had been reduced from 400,000 to 200 in a few decades. His writings were among those that gave rise to Spanish Black Legend, which Charles Gibson
describes as "the accumulated tradition of propaganda and Hispanophobia
according to which the Spanish Empire is regarded as cruel, bigoted,
degenerate, exploitative and self-righteous in excess of reality".
Historian Andrés Reséndez at the University of California, Davis
asserts that even though disease was a factor, the indigenous
population of Hispaniola would have rebounded the same way Europeans did
following the Black Death if it were not for the constant enslavement they were subject to. He says that "among these human factors, slavery was the major killer"
of Hispaniola's population, and that "between 1492 and 1550, a nexus of
slavery, overwork and famine killed more natives in the Caribbean than
smallpox, influenza or malaria."
Noble David Cook said about the Black Legend
conquest of the Americas: "There were too few Spaniards to have killed
the millions who were reported to have died in the first century after
Old and New World contact." Instead, he estimates that the death toll
was caused by diseases like smallpox, which according to some estimates had an 80–90% fatality rate in Native American populations. However, historian Jeffrey Ostler has argued that Spanish colonization
created conditions for disease to spread, for example, "careful studies
have revealed that it is highly unlikely that members" of Hernando de
Soto's 1539 expedition in the American South "had smallpox or measles.
Instead, the disruptions caused by the expedition increased the
vulnerability of Native people to diseases including syphilis and
dysentery, already present in the Americas, and malaria, a disease
recently introduced from the eastern hemisphere."
With the initial conquest of the Americas completed, the Spanish implemented the encomienda system in 1503. In theory, the encomienda placed groups of indigenous peoples under Spanish oversight to foster cultural assimilation and conversion to Catholicism,
but in practice it led to the legally sanctioned forced labor and
resource extraction under brutal conditions with a high death rate. Though the Spaniards did not set out to exterminate the indigenous
peoples, believing their numbers to be inexhaustible, their actions led
to the annihilation of entire tribes such as the Arawak. Many Arawaks died from lethal forced labor in the mines, where a third of workers died every six months. According to historian David Stannard, the encomienda
was a genocidal system which "had driven many millions of native
peoples in Central and South America to early and agonizing deaths."
The Spanish and Portuguese genocides of Indigenous Peoples
of the Americas wiped out approximately 90% of the indigenous
population, and most agriculture and infrastructure. According to ecologist Simon Lewis and geologist Mark Maslin,
the scope of these genocides was so extensive that it prompted the
global temperature decrease between 1550 and 1700 as forest regeneration
resulted in additional carbon sequestration.
According to Clifford Trafzer, UC Riverside professor, in the 1760s, an expedition dispatched to fortify California, led by Gaspar de Portolà and Junípero Serra, was marked by slavery, forced conversions, and genocide through the introduction of disease.
According to sociologist Anibal Quijano, Bolivia and Mexico have undergone limited decolonialization
through a revolutionary process. Quijano has described the colonial
attacks on indigenous peoples, African slaves and people with mixed
ethnicity:
A
limited but real process of colonial (racial) homogenization, as in the
Southern Cone (Chile, Uruguay, Argentina), by means of a massive
genocide of the aboriginal population.
An always frustrated attempt at cultural homogenization through the cultural genocide of American Indians, blacks, and mestizos, as in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Central America, and Bolivia.
Quijano adds that in Colombia, nearly-exterminated indigenous peoples were replaced by African slaves, while black people are discriminated in Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia in a "racial democracy".
During the Beaver Wars of the seventeenth century, the Iroquois effectively destroyed several large tribal confederacies, including the Mohicans, Huron (Wyandot), Neutral, Erie, Susquehannock (Conestoga), and northern Algonquins,
with the extreme brutality and exterminatory nature of the mode of
warfare practiced by the Iroquois causing some historians to label these
wars as acts of genocide committed by the Iroquois Confederacy.
The Carib chief Tegremond
became uneasy with the increasing number of English and French settlers
occupying St. Kitts. This led to confrontations, which led him to plot
the settlers' elimination with the aid of other Island Caribs. However,
his scheme was betrayed by an Indian woman called Barbe, to Thomas Warner and Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc.
Taking action, the English and French settlers invited the Caribs to a
party where they became intoxicated. When the Caribs returned to their
village, 120 were killed in their sleep, including Chief Tegremond. The
following day, the remaining 2,000–4,000 Caribs were forced into the
area of Bloody Point and Bloody River, where over 2,000 were massacred, though 100 settlers were also killed. One Frenchman went mad after being struck by a manchineel-poisoned arrow. The remaining Caribs fled. Later, by 1640, those not already enslaved were removed to Dominica.
A 1743 copy of the Treaty of Hartford of 1638, through which English colonists sought to eradicate the Pequot cultural identity by prohibiting Pequot survivors of the war from returning to their lands, speaking their tribal language, or referring to themselves as Pequots.
The war concluded with the decisive defeat of the Pequots. The colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts offered bounties for the heads of killed hostile Indians, and later for just their scalps, during the Pequot War in the 1630s; Connecticut specifically reimbursed Mohegans for slaying the Pequot in 1637. At the end, about 700 Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity.
The English colonists imposed a harshly punitive treaty on the estimated 2,500 Pequots who survived the war; the Treaty of Hartford
of 1638 sought to eradicate the Pequot cultural identity—with terms
prohibiting the Pequots from returning to their lands, speaking their
tribal language, or even referring to themselves as Pequots—and
effectively dissolved the Pequot Nation, with many survivors executed or
enslaved and sold away. Hundreds of prisoners were sold into slavery to colonists in Bermuda or the West Indies; other survivors were dispersed as captives to the victorious tribes.
The result was the elimination of the Pequot nation as a viable polity
in Southern New England,
the colonial authorities classifying them as extinct. However, members
of the Pequot nation still live today as a federally recognized tribe.
Scholars such as Michael Freeman and Benjamin Madley have concluded that the war was genocidal in nature, with Madley arguing that it set a precedent for colonial relations with Native Americans going forward.
The Great Swamp Massacre was committed during King Philip's War by colonial militia of New England on the Narragansett people in December 1675. On 15 December of that year, Narraganset warriors attacked the Jireh Bull Blockhouse and killed at least 15 people. Four days later, the militias from the English colonies of Plymouth, Connecticut, and Massachusetts Bay
were led to the main Narragansett town in South Kingstown, Rhode
Island. The settlement was burned, its inhabitants (including women and
children) killed or evicted, and most of the nation's winter stores
destroyed. It is believed that at least 97 Narragansett warriors and 300
to 1,000 non-combatants were killed, though exact figures are unknown. The massacre was a critical blow to the Narragansett nation during the period directly following the massacre. However, much like the Pequot, the Narragansett people continue to live today as a federally recognized tribe.
On 12 June 1755, during the French and Indian War, Massachusetts governor William Shirley issued a bounty of £40 for a male Indian scalp, and £20 for scalps of Indian females or of children under 12 years old. In 1756, Pennsylvania lieutenant-governor Robert Hunter Morris, in his declaration of war against the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) people, offered "130 Pieces of Eight,
for the Scalp of Every Male Indian Enemy, above the Age of Twelve
Years", and "50 Pieces of Eight for the Scalp of Every Indian Woman,
produced as evidence of their being killed." During Pontiac's War, Colonel Henry Bouquet conspired with his superior, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, to infect hostile Native Americans through biological warfare with smallpox blankets.
Graph of population decline in central Mexico caused by successive epidemics
Apaches
In 1835, the government of the Mexican state of Sonora put a bounty on the Apache which, over time, evolved into a payment by the government of 100 pesos for each scalp of a male 14 or more years old. In 1837, the Mexican state of Chihuahua also offered a bounty on Apache scalps, 100 pesos per warrior, 50 pesos per woman, and 25 pesos per child.
Mayas
The Caste War of Yucatán was caused by encroachment of colonizers on communal land of Mayas in Southeast Mexico. According to political scientist Adam Jones: "This ferocious race war featured genocidal atrocities on both sides, with up to 200,000 killed."
A group of more than 30 women and children Yaqui Indian prisoners under guard, Guaymas, Mexico, ca. 1910
The Mexican government's response to the various uprisings of the Yaqui nation have been likened to genocide particularly under Porfirio Diaz. Due to massacre, the population of the Yaqui nation in Mexico
was reduced from 30,000 to 7,000 under Diaz's rule. One source
estimates at least 20,000 out of these Yaquis were victims of state
murders in Sonora.
Argentina launched campaigns of territorial expansion in
the second half of the 19th century, at the expense of indigenous
peoples and neighbor state Chile. Mapuche people were forced from their ancestral lands by Argentinian
military forces, resulting in deaths and displacements. During the
1870s, President Julio Argentino Roca implemented the Conquest of the Desert (Spanish: Conquista del desierto) military operation, which resulted in the subjugation, enslavement, and genocide of Mapuche individuals residing in the Pampas area.
In southern Patagonia, both Argentina and Chile occupied indigenous lands and waters, and facilitated the genocide implemented by sheep farmers and businessmen in Tierra del Fuego. Starting in the late 19th century, during the Tierra del Fuego gold rush, European settlers, in concert with the Argentine and Chilean governments, systematically exterminated the Selkʼnam people, Yaghan, and Haush peoples. Their decimation is known today as the Selknam genocide.
Argentina also expanded northward, dispossessing several Chaco peoples for example in the Napalpí massacre through a policy that may be considered as genocidal.
Paraguay
The War of the Triple Alliance (1865–1870) was launched by the Empire of Brazil, in alliance with the Argentinian government of Bartolomé Mitre and the Uruguayan government of Venancio Flores, against Paraguay.
The governments of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay signed a secret
treaty in which the "high contracting parties" solemnly bind themselves
to overthrow the government of Paraguay. In the five years of war, the
Paraguayan population was reduced, including civilians, women, children,
and the elderly. Julio José Chiavenato, in his book American Genocide,
affirms that it was "a war of total extermination that only ended when
there were no more Paraguayans to kill" and concludes that 99.5% of the
adult male population of Paraguay died during the war. Out of a
population of approximately 420,000 before the war, only 14,000 men and
180,000 women remained.
Among
its many wars (19th century) is the War of the Triple Alliance, which
may have killed 400,000 people, including more than 60 percent of the
population of Paraguay, making it proportionally the most destructive
war in modern times.
The so-called Pacification of the Araucania by the Chilean army dispossessed the up-to-then independent Mapuche people between the 1860s and the 1880s. First during the Arauco War and then during the Occupation of Araucanía, there was a long-running conflict with the Mapuche people, mostly fought in the Araucanía. Chilean settlers also participated in the Selknam genocide during the Tierra del Fuego gold rush.
Amazonian Indians enslaved during the rubber boom in the Putumayo region of Peru
From 1879 to 1912, the world experienced a rubber boom.
Rubber prices skyrocketed, and it became increasingly profitable to
extract rubber from rainforest zones in South America and Central
Africa. Rubber extraction was labor-intensive, and the need for a large
workforce had a significant negative effect on the indigenous population
across Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia and the Congo. The owners of
the plantations or rubber barons were rich, but those who collected the
rubber made very little, as a large amount of rubber was needed to be
profitable. Rubber barons rounded up all the natives and forced them to
tap rubber out of the trees. Slavery and gross human rights abuses were
widespread, and in some areas, 90% of the indigenous population was wiped out. One
plantation started with 50,000 indigenous peoples and when the killings
were discovered, only 8,000 were still alive. These rubber plantations
were part of the Brazilian rubber market which declined as rubber
plantations in Southeast Asia became more effective.
Roger Casement,
an Irishman travelling the Putumayo region of Peru as a British consul
during 1910–1911, documented the abuse, slavery, murder, and use of
stocks for torture against the native Indians: "The crimes charged
against many men now in the employ of the Peruvian Amazon Company are of the most atrocious kind, including murder, violation, and constant flogging."
United States colonization of indigenous territories
Stacie Martin states that the United States has not been
legally admonished by the international community for genocidal acts
against its indigenous population, but many historians and academics
describe events such as the Mystic massacre, the Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek massacre and the Mendocino War as genocidal in nature.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz states that U.S. history, as well as inherited indigenous historical trauma,
cannot be understood without dealing with the genocide that the United
States committed against indigenous peoples. From the colonial period
through the founding of the United States and continuing in the
twentieth century, this has entailed torture, terror, sexual abuse,
massacres, systematic military occupations, removals of indigenous
peoples from their ancestral territories via Indian removal policies, forced removal of Native American children to military-like boarding schools, allotment, and a policy of termination.
The letters exchanged between Bouquet and Amherst during the Pontiac War show Amherst writing to Bouquet the indigenous people needed to be exterminated:
"You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means
of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to
extirpate this execreble race."
Historians regard this as evidence of a genocidal intent
by Amherst, as well as part of a broader genocidal attitude frequently
displayed against Native Americans during the colonization of the Americas. When smallpox swept the northern plains of the U.S. in 1837, the U.S. Secretary of War Lewis Cass ordered that no Mandan (along with the Arikara, the Cree, and the Blackfeet) be given smallpox vaccinations, which were provided to other tribes in other areas.
The United States has to date not undertaken any truth commission nor built a memorial for the genocide of indigenous people. It does not acknowledge nor compensate for the historical violence
against Native Americans that occurred during territorial expansion to
the West Coast. American museums such as the Smithsonian Institution do not dedicate a section to the genocide. In 2013, the National Congress of American Indians
passed a resolution to create a space for the National American Indian
Holocaust Museum inside the Smithsonian, but it was ignored by the
latter.
The Family Planning Services and Population Research Act was passed in 1970, which subsidized sterilizations for patients receiving healthcare through the Indian Health Service. In the 1970-1976 period, 25% to 50% of Native American women have been sterilized by the Indian Health Service. Some of the procedures were performed under coercion, or without understanding by those sterilized. In 1977, Marie Sanchez, chief tribal judge of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation
told the United Nations Convention on Indigenous Rights in Geneva, that
Native American women suffered involuntary sterilization which she
equated with modern genocide.
Native American boarding schools
The Native American boarding school system
was a 150-year program and federal policy that separated indigenous
children from their families and sought to assimilate them into white
society. It began in the early 19th century, coinciding with the start
of Indian Removal policies. A Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report was
published on 11 May 2022, which officially acknowledged the federal
government's role in creating and perpetuating this system. According to the report, the U.S. federal government operated or funded
more than 408 boarding institutions in 37 states between 1819 and 1969.
431 boarding schools were identified in total, many of which were run
by religious institutions. The report described the system as part of a federal policy aimed at
eradicating the identity of indigenous communities and confiscating
their lands. Abuse was widespread at the schools, as was overcrowding,
malnutrition, disease and lack of adequate healthcare. The report documented over 500 child deaths at 19 schools, although it
is estimated the total number could rise to thousands, and possibly even
tens of thousands. Marked or unmarked burial sites were discovered at 53 schools. The school system has been described as a cultural genocide and a racist dehumanization.
Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830,
the American government began forcibly relocating East Coast nations
across the Mississippi. The removal included many members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations, among others in the United States, from their homelands to the Indian Territory in the eastern sections of the present-day state of Oklahoma. About 2,500–6,000 died along the Trail of Tears.
Chalk and Jonassohn assert that the deportation of the Cherokee nation along the Trail of Tears would almost certainly be considered an act of genocide today. The Indian Removal Act
of 1830 led to the exodus. About 17,000 Cherokees, along with
approximately 2,000 Cherokee-owned black slaves, were removed from their
homes. The number of people who died as a result of the Trail of Tears has
been variously estimated. American doctor and missionary Elizur Butler,
who made the journey with one party, estimated 4,000 deaths.
Historians such as David Stannard and Barbara Mann have noted that the army deliberately routed the march of the Cherokee
to pass through areas of a known cholera epidemic, such as Vicksburg.
Stannard estimates that during the forced removal from their homelands,
following the Indian Removal Act signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, 8,000 Cherokee died, about half the total population.
A mass grave being dug for frozen bodies from the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, in which the U.S. Army killed 150 Lakota people, marking the end of the American Indian Wars
During the American Indian Wars, the American Army carried out a number
of massacres and forced relocations of indigenous peoples that are
sometimes considered genocide. The 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, which caused outrage in its own time, has been regarded as a genocide. Colonel John Chivington led a 700-man force of Colorado Territorymilitia in a massacre of 70–163 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho, about two-thirds of whom were women, children, and infants. Chivington and his men took scalps and other body parts as trophies, including human fetuses and male and female genitalia. In defense of his actions, Chivington stated,
Damn
any man who sympathizes with Indians! ... I have come to kill Indians,
and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's
heaven to kill Indians. ... Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits
make lice.
The U.S. colonization of California started in earnest in 1845, with the Mexican–American War. With the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, it gave the United States authority over 525,000 square miles of new territory. In addition to the Gold Rush
slaughter, there was also a large number of state-subsidized massacres
by colonists against Native Americans in the territory, causing several
entire ethnic groups to be wiped out.
In one such series of conflicts, the so-called Mendocino War and the subsequent Round Valley War, the entirety of the Yuki people was brought to the brink of extinction. From a previous population of some 3,500 people, fewer than 100 members
of the Yuki nation were left. According to Russell Thornton, estimates
of the pre-Columbian population of California may have been as high as
300,000.
By 1849, due to a number of epidemics, the number had
decreased to 150,000. But from 1849 and up until 1890 the indigenous
population of California had fallen below 20,000, primarily because of
the killings. At least 4,500 California Indians were killed between 1849 and 1870, while many more perished due to disease and starvation. 10,000 Indians were also kidnapped and sold as slaves. In a speech before representatives of Native American peoples in June 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom
apologized for the genocide. Newsom said, "That's what it was, a
genocide. No other way to describe it. And that's the way it needs to be
described in the history books."
One California law made it legal to declare any jobless
Indian a vagrant, then auction his services off for up to four months.
It also permitted whites to force Indian children to work for them until
they were eighteen, provided that they first obtain permission from
what the law referred to as a 'friend'. Whites hunted down adult Indians
in the mountains, kidnapped their children, and sold them as
apprentices for as little as $50. Indians could not complain in court
because of another California statute that stated that 'no Indian or
Black or Mulatto person was permitted to give evidence in favor of or
against a white person'. One contemporary wrote, "The miners are sometimes guilty of the most
brutal acts with the Indians... such incidents have fallen under my
notice that would make humanity weep and men disown their race". The towns of Marysville and Honey Lake paid bounties for Indian scalps. Shasta City offered $5 for every Indian head brought to local authorities.
Over 80 Brazilian nations disappeared between 1900 and
1957. During this period, out of a population of over one million, 80%
had been killed through deculturalization, disease, or murder. It has also been argued that genocide has occurred during the modern era with the ongoing destruction of the Jivaro, Yanomami, and other nations.
Over the course of the French conquest of Algeria
and immediately after it, a series of demographic catastrophes ensued
in Algeria between 1830 and 1871. Because the demographic crisis was so
severe, Dr. René Ricoux, head of demographic and medical statistics at
the statistical office of the General Government of Algeria, foresaw the
simple disappearance of Algerian "natives as a whole". The demographic change in Algeria can be divided into three phases: an
almost constant decline during the conquest period, up until its
heaviest drop from an estimated 2.7 million in 1861 to 2.1 million in
1871, and finally moving into a gradual increase to a level of three million inhabitants by 1890. The causes range from a series of famines, diseases, and emigration to the violent methods used by the French army during their Pacification of Algeria, which historians argue constitute acts of genocide.
The conquest of the Canary Islands by the Crown of Castille
took place between 1402 and 1496. Initially carried out by members of
the Castilian nobility in exchange for a covenant of allegiance to the
crown, the process was later carried out by the Spanish crown itself
during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs. Various scholars have used the term "genocide" to describe the conquest of the Canary Islands. Mohamed Adhikhari argues that the Canary Islands were the scene of
"Europe's first overseas settler colonial genocide", and that the mass
killing and enslavement of natives, along with forced deportation,
sexual violence and confiscation of land and children constituted an
attempt to "destroy in whole" the Guanche people. The tactics used in the Canary Islands in the 15th century served as a model for the Iberian colonization of the Americas.
Atrocities against the Indigenous African population by the German colonial empire can be dated to the earliest German settlements on the continent. The German colonial authorities carried out a genocide in German South-West Africa
(GSWA) and incarcerated the survivors in concentration camps. It was
also reported that, between 1885 and 1918, the indigenous population of
Togo, German East Africa
(GEA). and the Cameroons suffered from various human rights abuses,
including starvation from scorched earth tactics and forced relocation
for use as labor.
Prisoners in German Southwest Africa, 1899
The German Empire's action in GSWA against the Herero
nation is considered by Howard Ball to be the first genocide of the 20th
century. After the Herero, Nama and Damara began an uprising against the colonial government, General Lothar von Trotha, appointed as head of the German forces in GSWA by Emperor Wilhelm II in 1904, gave German forces the order to push them into the desert where they would die. Germany apologized for the genocide in 2004.
While many argue that the military campaign in Tanzania to suppress the Maji Maji Rebellion
in GEA between 1905 and 1907 was not an act of genocide, as the
military did not have as an intentional goal the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of Africans, according to Dominik J. Schaller, the statement released at the time by Governor Gustav Adolf von Götzen did not exculpate him from the charge of genocide, but was proof that the German administration knew that their scorched earth methods would result in famine. 200,000 Africans are estimated to have died from famine, with some
areas having been left completely and permanently devoid of human life.
The Pacification of Libya, also known as the Libyan Genocide or Second Italo-Senussi War, was a prolonged conflict in Italian Libya between Italian military forces and indigenous rebels associated with the Senussi Order that lasted from 1923 until 1932,when the principal Senussi leader, Omar Mukhtar, was captured and executed. The pacification resulted in mass deaths of the indigenous people in Cyrenaica—one quarter of Cyrenaica's population of 225,000 people died during the conflict. Italy committed major war crimes during the conflict; including the use of chemical weapons, episodes of refusing to take prisoners of war and instead executing surrendering combatants, and mass executions of civilians. Italian authorities committed ethnic cleansing by forcibly expelling 100,000 Bedouin Cyrenaicans, half the population of Cyrenaica, from their settlements that were slated to be given to Italian settlers. Italy apologized in 2008 for its killing, destruction and repression of
the Libyan people during the period of colonial rule, and went on to
say that this was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage
inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era."
South Africa
After the establishment of the Dutch Cape Colony in 1652, the Dutch settlers and their Afrikaner descendants engaged in a series of conflicts against the indigenous San people.
Over the centuries, thousands of San were massacred, while others were
forced to work for the settlers. By the 1870s, the last San residing in
the Cape region were hunted to extinction. The last government license
to hunt San was reportedly issued in South West Africa (present-day Namibia) in 1936.
Before World War I, Armenians occupied a somewhat
protected, but subordinate, place in Ottoman society. Large-scale
massacres of Armenians had occurred in the 1890s and 1909. The Ottoman Empire suffered a series of military defeats and territorial losses—especially during the 1912–1913 Balkan Wars—leading to fear among CUP leaders that the Armenians would seek independence. During their invasion of Russian and Persian territory in 1914, Ottoman paramilitaries massacred local Armenians. Ottoman leaders took isolated instances of Armenian resistance
as evidence of a widespread rebellion, though no such rebellion
existed. Mass deportation was intended to permanently forestall the
possibility of Armenian autonomy or independence.
On 24 April 1915, the Ottoman authorities arrested and deported hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and leaders from Constantinople. At the orders of Talaat Pasha,
an estimated 800,000 to 1.2 million Armenians were sent on death
marches to the Syrian Desert in 1915 and 1916. Driven forward by
paramilitary escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and
subjected to robbery, rape, and massacres. In the Syrian Desert, the survivors were dispersed into concentration camps.
In 1916, another wave of massacres was ordered, leaving about 200,000
deportees alive by the end of the year. Around 100,000 to 200,000
Armenian women and children were forcibly converted to Islam and
integrated into Muslim households. Massacres and ethnic cleansing of Armenian survivors continued through the Turkish War of Independence after World War I, carried out by Turkish nationalists.
The Armenian Genocide laid the groundwork for the Ottoman
Empire to become more homogeneous. By the end of World War I, over 90
percent of the Armenians in the region were gone with most traces of
their existence erased. The women and children survivors were frequently
forced to give up their Armenian identities.
Also known as the Sayfo (Syriac: ܣܲܝܦܵܐ, lit.'sword'), the Assyrian genocide, was the mass murder and deportation of Assyrian/Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish tribes during and after World War I. Upwards of 250,000 Assyrians were killed during the period in which
anti-Christian violence was carried out through mass executions, death
marches, and starvation. The deportations, annihilation of entire
communities, and forced conversions to Islam, permanently reshaped the
demographics of the affected regions.
The Russian conquest of Siberia was accompanied by massacres due to indigenous resistance to colonization by the Russian Cossacks, who savagely crushed the natives. At the hands of people like Vasilii Poyarkov in 1645 and Yerofei Khabarov in 1650, some peoples like the Daur
were slaughtered by the Russians to the extent that it is considered
genocide. In Kamchatka, out of a previous population of 20,000, only
8,000 remained after being subjected to half a century of Cossack
slaughter.
In the 1640s the Yakuts
were subjected to massacres during the Russian advance into their land
near the Lena River, and on Kamchatka in the 1690s the Koryak, Kamchadals, and Chukchi were also subjected to massacres by the Russians. When the Russians did not obtain the demanded amount of fur tribute from the natives, Yakutsk
Governor Peter Golovin, who was a Cossack, used meat hooks to hang the
native men. In the Lena basin, 70% of the Yakut population died within
40 years, native women and children having been raped and enslaved in
order to force the nation to pay the tribute.
In Kamchatka, the Russians savagely crushed the Itelmens
uprisings against their rule in 1706, 1731, and 1741. The first time
the Itelmen were armed with stone weapons and were unprepared. However,
the second time, they used gunpowder weapons. The Russians faced tougher
resistance when from 1745 to 1756 they tried to exterminate the gun and
bow-equipped Koraks
until their victory. The Russian Cossacks also faced fierce resistance
and were forced to give up when trying unsuccessfully to wipe out the
Chukchi through genocide in 1729, 1730–1731, and 1744–1747.
After the Chukchi defeated the Russians in 1729, Russian
commander Major Pavlutskiy waged war against them. Chukchi women and
children were mass-slaughtered and enslaved in 1730–1731. Empress Elizabeth
ordered the Chukchis and the Koraks be genocided in 1742 to totally
expel them from their native lands and erase their culture through war.
Her command was that the natives be "totally extirpated", with
Pavlutskiy leading the war from 1744 to 1747. The Chukchi ended the
campaign and forced the Russian army to give up by killing Pavlitskiy
and decapitating him.
The Russians also waged war and slaughtered the Koraks in
1744 and 1753–1754. After the Russians tried to force them to convert to
Christianity, the different native peoples (the Koraks, Chukchis,
Itelmens, and Yukagirs) all united to drive them out of their land in the 1740s, culminating in the assault on Nizhnekamchatsk fort in 1746.
Nowadays, Kamchatka is European in demographics and
culture. Indigenous Kamchatkans only make up 2.5% of the population,
which accounts for around 10,000 people out of a previous number of
150,000. The genocide committed by the Cossacks, as well as the fur
trade which devastated local wildlife, exterminated much of the Native
population. In addition, the Cossacks also devastated the local wildlife by slaughtering massive numbers of animals for fur. Between the eighteenth and the nineteenth century, 90% of the Kamchadals and half of the Vogules
were killed. The rapid genocide of the indigenous population led to
entire ethnic groups being entirely wiped out, with around 12
exterminated groups which could be named by Nikolai Iadrintsev as of
1882.
In the Aleutian islands, the Aleut
natives were subjected to genocide and slavery by the Russians for the
first 20 years of Russian rule, Aleut women and children being captured
by the Russians and Aleut men slaughtered.
The Russian colonization of Siberia and the treatment of
the indigenous peoples has been compared to the European colonization of
the Americas, with similar negative impacts on the Indigenous Siberians
as upon indigenous peoples of the Americas. One of these commonalities is the appropriation of indigenous peoples' land.
The Ainu are an indigenous people in Japan, specifically Hokkaido. In a 2009 news story, Japan Today reported, "Many Ainu were forced to work, essentially as slaves, for Wajin
(ethnic Japanese), resulting in the breakup of families and the
introduction of smallpox, measles, cholera and tuberculosis into their
community. In 1869, the new Meiji government renamed Ezo as Hokkaido and
unilaterally incorporated it into Japan. It banned the Ainu language,
took Ainu land away, and prohibited salmon fishing and deer hunting."
Roy Thomas wrote: "Ill treatment of native peoples is
common to all colonial powers, and, at its worst, leads to genocide.
Japan's native people, the Ainu, have, however, been the object of a
particularly cruel hoax, as the Japanese have refused to accept them
officially as a separate minority people."
Anthropologist Ann-Elise Lewallen wrote in 2016 that the
Japanese colonisation of lands inhabited by the Ainu had "genocidal
consequences" for the Ainu, and that the Ainu were made indigenous through the "invasion and
colonial subjugation of their ancestral lands, lifeways, and attempted
genocide of their ancestors". Lewallen, alongside researchers Robert Hughes and Esther Brito Ruiz
have detailed how the assimilationist policies of Japan from the 19th
century has resulted in a cultural genocide of the Ainu, where their existence was only permitted if they ceased being Ainu. Historian Michael Roellinghoff described the bureaucratic mechanisms
that sort to assimilate the Ainu into Japanese society and erase their
distinct identity as "insidiously genocidal". In "Hokkaidō 150: settler colonialism and Indigeneity in modern Japan and beyond" historian Tristan Grunow et al.
detail how the Ainu of Hokkaido were subjected to a process of settler
colonialism and genocidal practices that align with the genocidal
actions detail in the United Nations Genocide Convention.
Ryukyuans are an indigenous people to the islands to the west of Japan, originally known as the Ryukyu Islands. With skeletons dating back 32,000 years, the Okinawan or Ryukyu people
have a long history on the islands that includes a kingdom of its own
known as the Ryukyu Kingdom.The kingdom established trade relationships with China and Japan that began in the late 1500s and lasted until the 1860s.
In the 1590s, Japan made its first attempt at subjecting
the Ryukyu Kingdom by sending a group of 3,000 samurai armed with
muskets to conquer the Ryukyu Kingdom. Indefinite take over was not achieved; however, the Ryukyu Kingdom
became an acting colony of Japan. As a result, it paid homage to the
Japanese while feigning their own independence to China to maintain
trade.
In 1879, after a small rebellion by the Ryukyu people was
squelched, the Japanese government (the Ryukyu people had requested help
from China to break all bonds from Japan) punished Ryukyu by officially
naming it a state of Japan and re branding the kingdom as Okinawa. Much like the Ainu, Ryukyuans were punished for speaking their own
language, forced to identify with Japanese myths and legends (forgoing
their own legends), adopt Japanese names, and reorient their religion
around the Japanese Emperor. Their homeland was also renamed Okinawa. Japan had officially expanded their colonization to the Okinawan
islands, where natives didn't play a significant role in Japan's history
until the end of World War II.
When America brought the war to Japan, the first area that was effected were the Okinawan Islands. Okinawan citizens forced into becoming soldiers were told that
Americans would take no prisoners. In addition to the warnings,
Okinawans were given a grenade per household, its use reserved in case
Americans gained control of the island, with the standing orders to have
a member of the household gather everyone and pull the pin for mass
suicide. Okinawans were told this was to avoid the "inevitable" torture that would follow any occupation.In
addition, the Japanese army kicked any natives out of their homes that
weren't currently serving in the army (women and children included) and
forced them into open, unprotected, spaces such as beaches and caves.
These happened to be the first places the Americans arrived on the
island. As a result, more than 120,000 Okinawans (between a quarter and a
third of the population) died, soldiers and civilians alike. Americans took over the island and the war was soon over. America
launched its main base in Asia from Okinawa and the Emperor of Japan
approved, giving Okinawa to America for an agreed 25–50 years to move
the majority of Americans out of mainland Japan. In the end, Americans stayed in Okinawa for 74 years, without showing any signs of leaving. During the occupation, Okinawan natives were forced to give up their
best cultivating land to Americans which they keep to this day.
Issues in Okinawa have yet to be resolved regarding the
expired stay of American soldiers. Although Okinawa was given back to
Japan, the American base still stays. The Japanese government has yet to
take action, despite Okinawans raising the Issue. However, this is not the only problem that the Japanese government has
refused to take action on. Okinawans were ruled an indigenous people in
2008 by the committee of the United Nations (UN), in addition to their
original languages being recognized as endangered or severely endangered
by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).
The UN has encouraged that Okinawan history and language be mandatorily
taught in schools in Okinawa, but nothing has been done so far. Okinawans are still in a cultural struggle that matches that of the Ainu people. They are not allowed to be Japanese-Okinawan, with Japanese being the only nationally or legally accepted term.
The Cham and Vietnamese had a long history of conflict,
with many wars ending due to economic exhaustion. It was common that the
antagonists of the wars would rebuild their economies simply to go to
war again. In 1471, Champa was particularly weakened prior to the Vietnamese invasion by a series of civil wars. The Vietnamese conquered Champa and settled its territory with Vietnamese migrants during the march to the south after fighting repeated wars with Champa, shattering Champa in the invasion of Champa in 1471 and finally completing the conquest in 1832 under Emperor Minh Mang.
100,000 Cham soldiers besieged a Vietnamese garrison which led to anger
from Vietnam and orders to attack Champa. 30,000 Chams were captured
and over 40,000 were killed.
The massacre of Oroi-Jalatu, 1756. Manchu general Zhao Hui attacked the Dzungars at night.
Some scholars estimate that about 80% of the Dzungar (Western Mongol) population (600,000 or more) was destroyed by a combination of warfare and disease in the Dzungar genocide perpetrated during the Qing conquest of the Dzungar Khanate (1755–1757). There, ManchuBannermen and Khalkha Mongols exterminated the Dzungar Oirat Mongols. Mark Levene, a historian whose recent research interests focus on genocide, has stated that the extermination of the Dzungars was "arguably the eighteenth-century genocide par excellence".
Anti-Zunghar Uyghur rebels from the Turfan and Hami oases
had submitted to Qing rule as vassals and requested Qing help for
overthrowing Zunghar rule. Uyghur leaders like Emin Khoja
were granted titles within the Qing nobility, and these Uyghurs helped
supply the Qing military forces during the anti-Zunghar campaign. The Qing employed Khoja Emin in its campaign against the Dzungars and used him as an intermediary with Muslims from the Tarim Basin
to inform them that the Qing were only aiming to kill Oirats (Zunghars)
and that they would leave the Muslims alone, and also to convince them
to kill the Oirats (Dzungars) themselves and side with the Qing since
the Qing noted the Muslims' resentment of their former experience under
Zunghar rule at the hands of Tsewang Araptan.
Under the command of Jan Pieterszoon Coen,
Dutch soldiers and Japanese mercenaries massacred and enslaved
thousands of Bandanese islanders and destroyed several villages in order
to force the natives to surrender.
During the Philippine–American War, on 28 September 1901, Filipino forces defeated and nearly wiped out a US company in the Battle of Balangiga. In response, US forces carried out widespread atrocities during the March across Samar,
which lasted from December, 1901 to February, 1902. US forces killed
between 2,000 and 2,500 Filipino civilians, according to most sources,
and carried out an extensive scorched-earth
policy, which included burning down villages. Some Filipino historians
have called these killings genocidal. U.S. Brigadier General Jacob H. Smith
instructed his soldiers to "kill everyone over ten years old",
including children who were capable of bearing arms, and to take no
prisoners. However, Major Littleton Waller, commanding officer of a battalion of 315 US Marines, refused to follow his orders.Some Filipino historians estimate higher at 5,000 killed during the
campaign, while other estimates are as high as 50,000, albeit the higher
estimates have since been discredited, and are now known to be a result
of typographical errors and the misreading of documents.
Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World is a book by Mike Davis
about the connection between political economy and global climate
patterns, particularly El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). By comparing
ENSO episodes in different time periods and across countries, Davis
explores the impact of colonialism and the introduction of capitalism,
and the relation with famine in particular. Davis argues that "Millions
died, not outside the 'modern world system', but in the very process of
being forcibly incorporated into its economic and political structures.
They died in the golden age of Liberal Capitalism; indeed, many were
murdered... by the theological application of the sacred principles of
Smith, Bentham and Mill."
An 1888 drawing of a massacre by Queensland's native police at Skull Hole, Mistake Creek, Australia.
In a similar manner to the United States and Canada, the British colonization of Australia was conducted under the pretense of indigenous lands being deemed "empty" in order to justify their acquisition of Aboriginal lands and deny them sovereignty or property rights. Colonization also caused a large decrease in the indigenous population from war, newly introduced diseases, massacre by colonists, and attempts at forced assimilation.
The European settlers grew rapidly in number and created entirely new
societies. The Aboriginal population became an oppressed minority in
their own country. The overall gradual violent expansion of colonies
into indigenous land during the Australian frontier wars lasted for centuries. Australia enacted the genocidal policy of "breeding out the colour" in the 1930s.
The virtual extinction of the Aboriginal Tasmanians
is regarded as a classic case of near genocide by Lemkin, most
comparative scholars of genocide, and many general historians, including
Robert Hughes, Ward Churchill, Leo Kuper and Jared Diamond, who base their analysis on previously published histories. Between 1824 and 1908 White settlers and Native Mounted Police
in Queensland, according to Raymond Evans, killed more than 10,000
Aboriginal people, who were regarded as vermin and sometimes even hunted
for sport.
Prior to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, which marked the beginning of Britain's colonization of Australia, the Aboriginal population
had been estimated by historians to be around roughly 500,000 people;
by 1900, that number had plummeted to fewer than 50,000. While most died
due to the introduction of infectious diseases that accompanied
colonization, up to 20,000 were killed during the Australian frontier wars by British settlers and colonial authorities through massacres, mass poisonings and other actions. Ben Kiernan,
an Australian historian of genocide, treats the Australian evidence
over the first century of colonization as an example of genocide in his
2007 history of the concept and practice, Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. Historian Niall Ferguson
has referred to the case in Tasmania as follows: "In one of the most
shocking of all the chapters in the history of the British Empire, the
Aborigines in Van Diemen's Land were hunted down, confined, and
ultimately exterminated: an event which truly merits the now overused
term 'genocide'.", and mentions Ireland and North America as areas that suffered ethnic cleansing at the hands of the British. According to Patrick Wolfe in the Journal of Genocide Research, the "frontier massacring of indigenous peoples" by the British constitutes a genocide. Widespread population decline occurred following conquest principally
from introduction of infectious disease. However, as the total
population of Aboriginal people was unknown at the time of colonisation
it is impossible to determine the number of lives lost only that
population declines continued well into the 20th century.
The Australian practice of removing the children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent from their families throughout most of the 20th century, which is known as The Stolen Generations, has been described as genocidal. The 1997 report Bringing Them Home,
which examined the fate of the Stolen Generations" concluded that the
forced separation of Aboriginal children from their family constituted
an act of genocide. In the 1990s a number of Australian institutions, including the state of Queensland, apologized for its policies regarding forcible separation of Aboriginal children. A national apology was also delivered by the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008.
Another allegation against the Australian state is the use of medical services to Aboriginal people to administer contraceptive therapy to Aboriginal women without their knowledge or consent, including the use of Depo Provera, as well as tubal ligations. Both forced adoption and forced contraception would fall under the provisions of the UN genocide convention. Aboriginal Australians were only granted the right to vote in some states in 1962. Some Australian scholars, including historians Geoffrey Blainey and Keith Windschuttle and political scientist Ken Minogue, reject the view that Australian Aboriginal policy was genocidal.
During the intertribal Musket Wars, members of two Māori tribes arrived in the Chatham Islands, where they massacred and enslaved the indigenous Moriori people. In the aftermath of the genocide, the Native Land Court awarded the Maori invaders ownership of the Chatham islands in 1870 and denied the Moriori any sovereignty over the islands.
Throughout the 19th century, several Pacific Islander nations such as Fiji, New Caledonia and Easter Island
fell victim to foreign diseases such as smallpox and measles as a
result of blackbirding by European and American colonists. The Peruvian
slave raids in particular led to the near extinction of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island and the depopulation of ʻAta in Tonga.
Contemporary examples
The genocide of indigenous ethnic groups is still an ongoing feature in the modern world, with the ongoing depopulation of the Jivaro, Yanomami, and other ethnic groups in Brazil having been described as genocide. Multiple incidents of rioting against the minority communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India have been documented. Paraguay has also been accused of carrying out a genocide against the Aché whose case was brought before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
The commission gave a provisional ruling that genocide had not been
committed by the state but expressed concern over "possible abuses by
private persons in remote areas of the territory of Paraguay". Yazadi genocide in Iraq remains a case of major concern.
Hitchcock and Twedt say that even though genocidal actions
against indigenous peoples continue, most states and even the United
Nations avoid criticizing other nations for this.
According to Amnesty International and Reference Services Review, the indigenous Chakma people of the Chittagong hill tracts
were allegedly subjected to genocidal violence between the 1970s and
the 1990s. Their population had been dwindling since the military rule
launched by dictator Major General Ziaur Rahman,
who took control of the country after a military coup in 1975 and
reigned from 1975 to 1981. Later, his successor Lieutenant General HM Ershad who reigned from 1982 to 1990. In response, the Chakma rebels led by M.N. Larma (killed in 1983) started an insurgency
in the region in 1977. The Bangladeshi government had settled hundreds
of thousands of Bengali people in the region who now constitute the
majority of the population there. On 11 September 1996, the indigenous rebels reportedly abducted and killed 28 to 30 Bengali woodcutters. After democracy was reestablished in the country, fresh rounds of talks began in 1996 with the newly elected prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League, the daughter of the late Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the representatives of the indigenous rebels. A peace treaty
was signed between the government and the indigenous people on 2
December 1997, ending the 20-year-long insurgency and all hostilities in
the region.
From the late 1950s until 1968, the state of Brazil
submitted their indigenous peoples to violent attempts to integrate,
pacify and acculturate their communities. In 1967, public prosecutor
Jader de Figueiredo Correia submitted the Figueiredo Report to the then-ruling dictatorship.
The report, which comprised seven thousand pages, was not released
until 2013. It documents genocidal crimes against the indigenous peoples
of Brazil, including mass murder, torture, bacteriological and chemical
warfare, reported slavery, and sexual abuse. The rediscovered documents
are being examined by the National Truth Commission
which has been tasked with the investigations of human rights
violations that occurred between 1947 and 1988. The report reveals that
the Indian Protection Service (IPS) had enslaved indigenous people,
tortured children, and stolen land. The Truth Commission considers that
entire tribes in Maranhão were eradicated and that in Mato Grosso an attack on 30 Cinturão Largo
left only two survivors. The report also states that landowners and
members of the IPS had entered isolated villages and deliberately
introduced smallpox. Of the 134 people accused in the report, the state has until date not tried a single one, since the Amnesty Law passed in the end of the dictatorship does not
allow trials for abuses that happened in that period. The report also
details instances of mass killings, rapes, and torture, Figueiredo
stated that the actions of the IPS had left indigenous peoples near
extinction. The state abolished the IPS following the release of the
report. The Red Cross launched an investigation after further allegations of ethnic cleansing were made after the IPS had been replaced.
From 2016 to 2019, the Canadian government conducted the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
The final report of the inquiry concluded that the high level of
violence directed at First Nations, Inuit, and Metis women and girls is
"caused by state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies." The National Inquiry commissioners said in the report and publicly that the MMIWG crisis is "a Canadian genocide." It also concluded that the crisis constituted an ongoing "race, identity and gender-based genocide".
The MMIWG inquiry used a broader definition of genocide from the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act which encompasses "not only acts of commission, but 'omission' as well." The inquiry described the traditional legal definition of genocide as
"narrow" and based on the Holocaust. According to the inquiry, "colonial
genocide does not conform with popular notions of genocide as a
determinate, quantifiable event" and concluded that "these [genocidal]
policies fluctuated in time and space, and in different incarnations,
are still ongoing."
From
the facts stated above the following conclusions may be drawn: ... (e)
To examine all such evidence obtained by this Committee and from other
sources and to take appropriate action thereon and in particular to
determine whether the crime of Genocide – for which already there is
strong presumption – is established and, in that case, to initiate such
action as envisaged by the Genocide Convention of 1948 and by the
Charter of the United Nations for suppression of these acts and
appropriate redress;
According to the Tibet Society of the UK, "In all, over one million Tibetans, a fifth of the population, had died as a result of the Chinese occupation right up until the end of the Cultural Revolution."
Colombia
In the protracted conflict in Colombia, groups such as the
Awá, Wayuu, Pijao, and Paez people have become subjected to intense
violence by right-wing paramilitaries, leftist guerrillas, and the
Colombian army. Drug cartels, international resource extraction companies and the
military have also used violence to force the indigenous groups out of
their territories. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia
argues that the violence is genocidal in nature, but others question
whether there is a "genocidal intent" as required in international law.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, genocidal violence
against the indigenous Mbuti, Lese, and Ituri peoples has reportedly
been endemic for decades. During the Congo Civil War (1998–2003), Pygmies were hunted down and eaten by both sides in the conflict, who regarded them as subhuman. Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti pygmies, asked the UN Security Council to recognize cannibalism as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide. According to a report by Minority Rights Group International, there is
evidence of mass killings, cannibalism, and rape. The report, which
labeled these events as a campaign of extermination, linked much of the
violence to beliefs about special powers held by the Bambuti. In the Ituri district, rebel forces ran an operation code-named "Effacer le Tableau" (to wipe the slate clean). The aim of the operation, according to witnesses, was to rid the forest of pygmies.
The Darfur genocide is the systematic killing of ethnic Darfuri people by the Al-Bashir regime of the Sudanese government, which has occurred during the War in Darfur and the ongoing War in Sudan (2023–present) in Darfur.
During the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), state forces carried out violent atrocities against Mayans.
The government considered them to be aligned with the communist
insurgents. Guatemalan armed forces carried out three campaigns that
have been described as genocidal.
The first was a scorched earth
policy which was also accompanied by mass killing, including the forced
conscription of Mayan boys into the military where they were sometimes
forced to participate in massacres against their own home villages. The
second was to hunt down and exterminate those who had survived and
evaded the army; and the third was the forced relocation of survivors to
"reeducation centers" and the continuous pursuit of those who had fled
into the mountains.
The armed forces used genocidal rape
of women and children as a deliberate tactic. Children were bludgeoned
to death by beating them against walls or being thrown alive into mass
graves where they would be crushed by the weight of an adult corpse
thrown atop them. An estimated 200,000 people, most of them Mayans, disappeared during the Guatemalan Civil War.
After the 1996 peace accords, a legal process to determine
the legal responsibility of the atrocities and to locate and identify
the disappeared ones began. In 2013, former president Efraín Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to 80 years of imprisonment but the Constitutional Court of Guatemala overturned his conviction only ten days later.
From the time of its independence until the late 1960s, the Indonesian government sought control of the western half of the island of New Guinea, which had remained under the control of the Netherlands. When it finally achieved internationally recognized control of the
area, several clashes occurred between the Indonesian government and the
Free Papua Movement.
The government of Indonesia began a series of measures aimed to
suppress the organization in the 1970s, which reached high levels in the
mid-1980s.
The resulting human rights abuses included extrajudicial
killings, torture, disappearances, rape, and harassment of indigenous
people throughout the province. A 2004 report by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School identified both the mass violence and the transmigration policies
which encouraged mostly Balinese and Javanese families to relocate to
the area as strong evidence "that the Indonesian government has
committed proscribed acts with the intent to destroy the West Papuans as
such, in violation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."
Genocide against indigenous people in the region was key to claims made in the U.S. case of Beanal v. Freeport,
one of the first lawsuits where indigenous people outside the U.S.
petitioned to get a ruling against a multinational corporation for
environmental destruction outside of the U.S. While the petitioner, an
indigenous leader, claimed that the mining company Freeport-McMoRan
had committed genocide through environmental destruction which
"resulted in the purposeful, deliberate, contrived and planned demise of
a culture of indigenous people", the court found that genocide pertains
only to the destruction of an indigenous people and did not apply to
the destruction of the culture of indigenous people; however, the court
did leave open the opportunity for the petitioners to amend their
filings with an additional claim.
In Myanmar (Burma), the long-running civil war between the Military Junta and the insurgents has resulted in widespread atrocities against the indigenous Karen people, some of whom are allied with the insurgents. These atrocities have been described as genocidal. Burmese General Maung Hla stated that one day the Karen will only exist "in a museum" The government has deployed 50 battalions in the Northern sector
systematically attacking Karen villages with mortar and machine gun
fire, and landmines. At least 446,000 Karen have been displaced from
their homes by the military. The Karen are also reported to have been subjected to forced labor, genocidal rape, child labor, and the conscription of child soldiers. The Rohingya people have also been subjected to persecution
mass killings, genocidal mass rapes and forced displacement. The
Myanmar army burned their villages and forced them to flee the country.
Mass graves which contain the remains of many victims of genocide were
discovered. By 2017 over 700,000 Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh, whose government was praised for giving shelter to them.
In 2002, the numbers of the 17 indigenous nations, who primarily live in the Chaco region of Paraguay, were estimated to be 86,000. Between 1954 and 1989, when the military dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner
ruled Paraguay, the indigenous population of the country suffered from
more loss of territory and human rights abuses than at any other time in
the nation's history. In early 1970, international groups claimed that
the state was complicit in the genocide of the Aché, the charges being kidnappings, sale of children, withholding medicines and food, slavery, and torture.
During the 1960s and 1970s, 85% of the Aché people were killed, often hacked to death with machetes, in order to make room for the timber industry, mining, farming, and ranchers. According to Jérémie Gilbert, the situation in Paraguay has proven that
it is difficult to provide the proof required to show "specific
intent", in support of a claim that genocide had occurred. The Aché,
whose cultural group is now seen as extinct, fell victim to development
by the state which had promoted the exploration of their territories by
transnational companies for natural resources. Gilbert concludes that
although a planned and voluntary destruction had occurred, it is argued
by the state that there was no intent to destroy the Aché, as what had
happened was due to development and was not a deliberate action.
Between 1996 and 2000, while under the leadership of President Alberto Fujimori, the Peruvian government carried out coercive sterilizations
on approximately 300,000 Peruvian women. The state specifically
targeted rural, impoverished, and indigenous populations through the use
of bribes, threats, and deceitful tactics in order to perform tubal
ligations and vasectomies without the individuals' informed consent.
The crackdown on the Sri Lankan Tamils during the 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom and the Sri Lankan Civil War have been described as genocidal in nature by the United Nations. Sri Lankan mobs brutally butchered thousands of Tamil people in 1958,
starting a series of genocides over the years that eventually led to a
civil war in 1983. Since the end of the civil war in 2009, the Sri Lankan state has been
subject to much global criticism for violating human rights by bombing
civilian targets, using of heavy weaponry, abducting and killing of Sri
Lankan Tamils and using sexual violence.
Human Rights Watch
was the first to accuse the Sri Lankan government of genocide under
international law in December 2009. Leading American expert in
international law Professor Francis A. Boyle held an emergency meeting
with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
to urge to stop the Tamil genocide by providing evidence of crimes
against humanity, genocide against Tamils and the international
community's failure to stop the slaughter of Tamil civilians in Sri
Lanka. In February 2020, the US State Department and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that General Shavendra Silva,
current commander of the Sri Lankan Army, was banned from entering the
United States due to war crimes committed by the 53rd division of the
Sri Lankan army, in which he has involved through command responsibility
During the Tigray War, Ethiopia and Eritrea have been accused of committing genocide against the ethnic Tigrayans, native to the northern Tigray Region of Ethiopia.
Yazidis
are an indigenous minority group in the Middle East that practices its
own monotheistic religion. They have frequently been stigmatized and
targeted for violence by Islamist extremists in Iraq (most recently in the genocide by ISIL,
and other Islamist groups also perpetrated acts of violence against
Yazidis in the past), with multiple studies leading researchers to
conclude that acts of genocide have been perpetrated against the Yazidi
community in Iraq, including mass killings and rape.
While acts of violence against Yazidis have been
documented for centuries, recent acts of violence against them include
deadly terrorist attacks such as the 2007 Yazidi communities bombings and the August 2014 Sinjar massacre. Yazidi women and girls have frequently been kept as sex slaves and have been subjected to slave trading by ISIL
terrorists during the recent events of the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL.
This resulted in the forcible displacement of over 500,000 Yazidis from
Iraq. In 2014 alone, 5000 Yazidis were killed, but long before that
year, the genocide was already being committed against the Yazidis. It
is still going on nowadays. In February 2021, the remains of 104 Yazidis killed by ISIL were found and laid to rest.
.png)
.jpg)
_(cropped).jpg)
