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Home / Colonialism and the Holocaust Continuities Causations and Complexities

Colonialism and the Holocaust Continuities Causations and Complexities

Relationship between colonialism and genocide

The connection between colonialism and genocide has been explored in academic research.[1] According to historian Patrick Wolfe, "[t]he question of genocide is never far from discussions of settler colonialism."[2] Historians have commented that although colonialism does not necessarily directly involve genocide, research suggests that the two share a connection.

Colonization has been reinforced through various aspects of history, even throughout progressive movements such as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, a period in 17th and 18th Century Europe dedicated to progressive reform, reinforced natural social hierarchies, deeming those of an educated white European background as high-class and less educated non-European people as lower class. These natural hierarchies were reinforced by progressives such as Marquis de Condorcet, a French mathematician, who, despite supporting the abolition of enslaved people, believed slaves were savages due to their lack of modern practices. [3] The colonization process usually first works to attack the homes of those targeted. Typically, the people subject to colonizing practices are considered to lack modernity, as they do not have the same level of education or technology. [3]

The term genocide, although practiced long before, was coined in the 20th century following the Holocaust. Ralph Lemkin, a Polish lawyer, first used the term genocide. Years later, the term was unanimously accepted by the United Nations and adopted as an internationally illegal practice as a part of Resolution 96 in 1946. Various definitions of genocide exist. However, the Convention of Genocide has defined it as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." It is important to note that all definitions of genocide involve ethnicity, race, or religion as a motivational factor.[4]

The example of Tasmania is cited, where white settlers wiped out indigenous Tasmanians, which is a genocide by definition and is a result of settler colonialism.[5] Additionally, instances of colonialism and genocide in California and Hispaniola are cited below. The instance in California references the colonization and genocide of indigenous tribes by euro-Americans during the gold rush period.[6] The example in Hispaniola discusses the island's colonization by Columbus and other Spaniards and the genocide inflicted on the native Taino people.[7]

Researched examples of genocide linked to colonialism [edit]

  • Black War of Tasmania, 1820s–1832. This was a guerrilla war fought between European settlers and Aboriginal Tasmanians, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 900 Aboriginal locals and the near extinction of the island Aboriginal population.[5]
  • According to the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGIE), under the Chinese administration in Tibet from 1951 to 1984 there has been the death of an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans. Tibet expert Barry Sautman has characterized this number as highly "inaccurate", as there is "no credible evidence of ongoing mass killing, physically enforced birth control, or forced intermarriage in Tibet." Sautman also challenges the notion that Chinese practices in Tibet can be characterized as genocidal or colonial, stating that "Tibet's non-colonial nature can be derived from the nature of modern colonialism", and citing the political and legal equality of Tibetans under the current administration.[8]
  • According to Jack Norton, a Hupa and Cherokee scholar, the colonization of California was attributed to manifest destiny, and the success of European colonizers in the West was due to the genocide of indigenous people.[9] In a government-sponsored move to California, European colonizers emigrated west to further colonize the north American continent due to the discovery of gold in California. Upon arriving, Brendan Lindsay, an American behavioral scientist, notes that the euro-American group encountered nearly 150,000 indigenous tribes, in which colonizers worked to drive them away, murder them, or have them collected by militiamen or vigilante forces. As the gold rush ended and euro-American colonizers began to cultivate the land and create democracy in California, the treatment of indigenous tribes became much worse. The first California Governor, Peter H. Burnett, declared a "war of extermination" on Indians, which is recounted by numerous newspapers of the time.[10]
  • Another example of colonialism and Genocide is of the Taino tribe in Hispaniola alongside the arrival of Christopher Columbus and other Spanish colonizers. Columbus and his people arrived on the island of Haiti in December of 1942. Initially leaving behind 39 Spaniards, Columbus left and returned a year later with more Spaniards to further conquer the Dominican republic. There are no exact tallies of how many Taino people inhabited Hispaniola upon Columbus' arrival. However, estimates pinpoint the population to at least hundreds of thousands and perhaps up to a million or more. Regardless, over 25 years of Spaniards colonizing the islands of Hispaniola, the Taino people were murdered, subjected to slavery, and by the year 1514, only approximately 32,000 people of the Taino population remained. [11]

See also [edit]

  • Genocide of indigenous peoples

References [edit]

  1. ^ Kühne 2013; Moses & Stone 2013; Benvenuto, Hinton & Woolford 2014; Benvenuto & Wooldford 2015 sfnm error: no target: CITEREFBenvenutoWooldford2015 (help); Docker 2015; Short 2016; Crook, Short & South 2018; Weber & Weber 2020.
  2. ^ Wolfe 2006.
  3. ^ a b Melber, Henning (2017-10-03). "Explorations into modernity, colonialism and genocide: Revisiting the past in the present". Acta Academica: Critical views on society, culture and politics. 49 (1): 39–52. doi:10.18820/24150479/aa49i1.3. ISSN 2415-0479.
  4. ^ Melber, Henning (2017-10-03). "Explorations into modernity, colonialism and genocide: Revisiting the past in the present". Acta Academica: Critical views on society, culture and politics. 49 (1): 39–52. doi:10.18820/24150479/aa49i1.3. ISSN 2415-0479.
  5. ^ a b Moses & Stone 2013, pp. 71–78.
  6. ^ Lindsay, Brendan C. (January 2014). "Humor and Dissonance in California's Native American Genocide". American Behavioral Scientist. 58 (1): 97–123. doi:10.1177/0002764213495034. ISSN 0002-7642.
  7. ^ "Hispaniola | Genocide Studies Program". gsp.yale.edu . Retrieved 2022-10-10 .
  8. ^ Sautman 2006.
  9. ^ Reed, Kaitlin (2020). "We Are a Part of the Land and the Land Is Us: Settler Colonialism, Genocide & Healing in California".
  10. ^ Lindsay, Brendan C. (January 2014). "Humor and Dissonance in California's Native American Genocide". American Behavioral Scientist. 58 (1): 97–123. doi:10.1177/0002764213495034. ISSN 0002-7642.
  11. ^ "Hispaniola | Genocide Studies Program". gsp.yale.edu . Retrieved 2022-10-10 .

Bibliography [edit]

  • Benvenuto, Jeff; Hinton, Alexander Laban; Woolford, Andrew, eds. (2014). Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America. Duke University Press. doi:10.1215/9780822376149. ISBN978-0-8223-7614-9 . Retrieved 30 December 2021 – via Google Books.
  • Benvenuto, Jeff; Woolford, Andrew (2015). "Canada and Colonial Genocide". Journal of Genocide Research. 17 (4): 373–390. doi:10.1080/14623528.2015.1096580.
  • Crook, Martin; Short, Damien; South, Nigel (2018). "Ecocide, Genocide, Capitalism and Colonialism: Consequences for Indigenous Peoples and Glocal Ecosystems Environments" (PDF). Theoretical Criminology. 22 (3): 298–317. doi:10.1177/1362480618787176. S2CID 150239863. Retrieved 30 December 2021 – via open access institutional repository for the University of Essex.
  • Docker, John (2015). "A Plethora of Intentions: Genocide, Settler Colonialism and Historical Consciousness in Australia and Britain". The International Journal of Human Rights. 19 (1): 74–89. doi:10.1080/13642987.2014.987952. S2CID 145745263.
  • Kühne, Thomas (2013). "Colonialism and the Holocaust: Continuities, Causations, and Complexities". Journal of Genocide Research. 15 (3): 339–362. doi:10.1080/14623528.2013.821229. S2CID 144591957.
  • Moses, Dirk; Stone, Dan, eds. (2013). Colonialism and Genocide. Routledge. ISBN978-1-317-99753-5 . Retrieved 30 December 2021 – via Google Books.
  • Sautman, Barry (2006). "Colonialism, Genocide, and Tibet". Asian Ethnicity. 7 (3): 243–265. doi:10.1080/14631360600926949. ISSN 1463-1369. S2CID 145798586.
  • Short, Damien (2016). Redefining Genocide: Settler Colonialism, Social Death and Ecocide. Zed Books. ISBN978-1-78360-170-7 . Retrieved 30 December 2021 – via Google Books.
  • Weber, Heloise; Weber, Martin (2020). "Colonialism, Genocide and International Relations: the Namibian–German Case and Struggles for Restorative Relations". European Journal of International Relations. 26 (1_suppl): 91–115. doi:10.1177/1354066120938833. S2CID 222003104.
  • Wolfe, Patrick (2006). "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native". Journal of Genocide Research. 8 (4): 387–409. doi:10.1080/14623520601056240. S2CID 143873621.
  • Melber, H. (2017). Explorations into modernity, colonialism and genocide: Revisiting the past in the present. Acta Academica, 49(1). https://doi.org/10.18820/24150479/aa49i1.3
  • Kaitlin Reed. (2020). We Are a Part of the Land and the Land Is Us: Settler Colonialism, Genocide & Healing in California. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 42, 27–49.https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1131&context=hjsr
  • Schimmer, R. (1492, January 1). Yale University. Hispaniola | Genocide Studies Program. Retrieved October 9, 2022, from https://gsp.yale.edu/case-studies/colonial-genocides-project/hispaniola
  • Lindsay, B. C. (2013). Humor and dissonance in California's Native American genocide. American Behavioral Scientist, 58(1), 97–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213495034

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism_and_genocide