atrocity

Konstantin Makovsky. The Bulgarian martyresses. 1877 Atrocities of bashibazouks in Bulgaria

An atrocity (from the Latin atrox, "atrocious", from Latin ater ="matte black") is a term used to describe crimes or excesses ranging from an act committed against a single person to one committed against a population or ethnic group.

In general use, an atrocity or massacre designates a politically or ethnically motivated killing of civilians. In international law, more precise terms are war crime and crime against humanity.

An atrocity can be a single specific event or a series of events or can refer to genocide. The defining characteristic of an atrocity is its brutal or systematic nature. It is an act of killing that is in violation of most traditional moral principles, although some societies do not condemn such behavior. Often, hostilities exceed the legitimate mandate of killing enemy combatants to include attacks upon unarmed people, upon combatants after their surrender, or upon otherwise non-combative peoples. Thus, nearly every culture has in its history acts of killing which are atrocities.

The historical record is clouded by a failure to determine if mutilated bodies represent torture before death or mutilation of a dead body. In either case, the important effect is the propaganda value, and its effect on the morale of the enemy.

Sometimes mass killing is imposed on civilian populations of no military significance, simply as a warning. For example, Dresden or Hiroshima. In other cases, they are targeted at military sub-groups, such as African-American summary execution in the field by the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Small-scale atrocities may represent anything from disrespect, regional propaganda or both.

In modern settings not involving ethnic conflict, atrocities on individual leaders are rare, partially because they tend backfire or simply escalate, as in the case of Breaker Morant.

Mongol Empire

Quoting Eric Margolis, Adam Jones observes, in his book Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction, that in the 13th century the Mongol horsemen of Genghis Khan were genocidal killers (génocidaires) who were known to kill whole nations leaving nothing but empty ruins and bones.^[1] Many ancient sources described Genghis Khan's conquests as wholesale destruction on an unprecedented scale in their certain geographical regions, and therefore probably causing great changes in the demographics of Asia. For example, over much of Central Asia speakers of Iranian languages were replaced by speakers of Turkic languages. The eastern part of the Islamic world experienced the terrifying holocaust of the Mongol invasions, which turned northern and eastern Iran into a desert. Between 1220 and 1260, the total population of Persia may had dropped from 2,500,000 to 250,000 as a result of mass extermination and famine.^[2]

Before the Mongol invasion, Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census reported roughly 60 million people.^[3] About half of the Russian population died during the Mongol invasion of Rus.^[4][5] Historians estimate that up to half of Hungary's two million population at that time were victims of the Mongol invasion of Europe.^[6]

During World War II

Germany

Main article: Holocaust

During World War II, the holocaust initiated by the German National Socialist party killed millions of people: Slavs, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Serbs, and especially Jews. After the end of World War II, this genocide came to be known as the Holocaust. Poles, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma and homosexuals and anybody considered a threat to the Nazi party were rounded up and sent to labour camps, death camps, or just killed in their homes.

New Guinea, 1943. An Australian soldier about to be beheaded.

Japan

Japanese soldiers rounded up and killed millions^[7] of civilians and prisoners of wars from surrounding nations, especially from Korea, China and US during World War II.

Unit 731 was amongst one of the most notorious examples of wartime atrocities committed on a civilian population during World War II, where cruel and inhumane experiments were done to thousands of Chinese civilians and Allied prisoners of war.

The Rape of Nanking is another example of atrocity committed by Japanese soldiers on a civilian population. Hundreds of thousands of men were slaughtered, while women of all ages were systematically raped and / or killed by Japanese soldiers.

United States

The United States has its own list of World War II atrocities. For example, the bombings of Dresden and Tokyo in World War II, both operations which killed tens of thousands of civilians, were met with much criticism. Both cities were not defended and thousands of civilians were killed. In the case of Dresden, the bombing's intent was to further the goal of German defeat but was viewed as excessive. Many felt that not enough action was taken to prevent the loss of civilian life. In Tokyo's case the reasoning behind the bombing was the principle of Total War. The bombing, however, received similar criticism. The atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima have also been the topic of debate since the end of World War II. Although the intention behind the bombings was a quick end to the war, the military action was responsible for roughly 200,000 deaths.

See also

References

1. ^ Jones References, p.4 note 12 Eric s. Margolis War at the top of the World, the struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet (New York, Routledge, 2001) p.155
2. ^ Battuta's Travels: Part Three - Persia and Iraq
3. ^ Ping-ti Ho, "An Estimate of the Total Population of Sung-Chin China", in Études Song, Series 1, No 1, (1970) pp. 33-53.
4. ^ History of Russia, Early Slavs history, Kievan Rus, Mongol invasion
5. ^ The Destruction of Kiev
6. ^ Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to History
7. ^ Rummel, R.J. Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder since 1900 Chapter 3. LIT Verlag Münster-Hamburg-Berlin-Wien-London-Zürich (1999)

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