Unit 7.8 - Mass Atrocities After 1900 Flashcards
Genocide
The attempted killing of a (minority) group of people based on their race, religion, or ethnicity
How WWI intensified the effects of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918
The end of WWI turned the Influenza Epidemic (a concentrated group of people in a region) into a pandemic (widespread/worldwide) because soldiers were returning home to loved ones and other civilians and were coming into contact with them, spreading the disease
How many people died because of the Influenza Pandemic worldwide?
20 million
“The worldwide spread of this disease was another sign that while nationalism remained a powerful political force…”
“improvements in transportation were creating a global culture that would create global challenges
Lost Generation
Term used to describe those suffering from shell shock
Cause of Armenian Genocide
The Ottoman government believed this minority of Christian Armenians were cooperating with their enemy, the Russians, during WWI and so set them to camps in Syria/Iraq where many died from starvation, disease, execution, or exposure to the elements.
Cause of Ukraine Famine
Ukrainians revolted against Stalin’s collection of their crops by destroying or killing their crops/livestock, causing a famine by human action
Cause of Rape of Nanking
Thousands of Chinese and conquered peoples died under Japan’s policies “Asia for Asiatics”. Conquered peoples were forced to work in the military, on public work projects, on forms, or as prostitutes and died from how harsh their conditions were.
Cause of Firebombing of Tokyo
Precision bombing raids over Tokyo were ineffective so General Curtis Lemay utilized fire bombs, exploiting the fact that houses in Tokyo were made out of wood
Cause Bosnia Genocide
Ethnic conflict between Christian Serbians, Catholic Croats/Slocenes, and Muslims. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the peace between these groups in Yugoslavia did as well and Serbia committed acts of “ethnic cleansing”, killing or driving out anyone who was not part of their main ethnic group, until the balkanization of the country.
Balkanization
Disintegration into separate states
Cause of Rwanda Genocide
Tutsis and Hutus unfairly treated by their colonizers so when Rwanda gains independence and the Hutus come into power, they try to get revenge by discriminating. Tutsis run away and form a rebel group but they ultimately end up trying to compromise when the Hutu president is killed in a plane crash because of rebels and violence breaks out again, with mainly Tutsis dying.
Cause of Sudan Genocide
Darfur (non-Arabs) rebels attack the Sudanese government and so they use “Janaweeds” (evil men on horseback;
Arab-Muslim militants) to kill them
Which two extremist groups were the worst?
The Ottomans against the Armenians for their assumptions leading to them being in labor camps like the Holocaust and dying from their treatment/environment and the Serbs for their mass murdering and raping of a minority ethnic group
Is the Ukranian Famine considered genocide?
Yes because Stalin could have done something to prevent the deaths of all these Ukrainian farmers but because they were peasants and not actual Russians, he did not do anything but instead was focused on the working class in Russia so they died because of their ethnicity and class.
