Genocide Essay, Research Paper

From the time humans existed, hatred seemed to be the dominant trait that possessed the souls of men. It was inevitable emotions could provoke people to engage in acts without thinking; but it was the acts that were premeditated which were classified as evil and brutal. A. M. Rosenthal, the author of No News From Auschwitz, described a single moment in history where these kinds of acts were invoked. This appalling endeavor is known as genocide which is the deliberate destruction of a national, racial or a religious group (Winston Dictionary). Genocide is universal rather than limited to one time and one group of people.

The Catholics in Ireland were being threatened and eliminated by the Puritans. The typical Irish lifestyle came to an abrupt halt during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Lewis 9). In 1641, the Norman-Irish, who were worried that their lands would be lost, and the native Irish, who were forced to accept an unfamiliar culture, rebelled (Lewis 9). In 1649, Oliver Cromwell, leader of the Parliamentarians in the English Civil war, lead the Puritans into a bloodbath against the Catholics (Lewis 9). “He did it brutally, massacring the Irish without mercy and called the large scale killing ?the righteous judgements and mighty works of God’” (Meyer 78). Thousands of Catholics preferred to suffer and die than deny their faith (Firth 10). By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Protestants settled on the land they seized from the Catholics and the Catholics were forced to colonize in towns which clung to wild coastlines with dangerous tides (Meyer 78). The differences

2.

between the lives of the Catholics and Protestants were clear and the foundation for their troubles had been laid (Meyer 78).

Another case of genocide occurred when the Armenians were eradicated by the Turks from the Ottoman Empire (Armenian Genocide). During 1915 and 1916, one and a half million Armenians were killed. “The Armenian Genocide was masterminded by the Central Committee of the Young Turk Party” (Armenian Genocide). The extermination of the Armenians occurred in a systematic fashion.

First the Armenians in the army were disarmed, placed into labor battalions and then killed. Then the Armenian political and intellectual leaders were rounded up on April 24, 1915, and killed. Finally, the remaining Armenians were called from their homes and told they would be relocated … and then marched off to concentration camps … in the desert … would starve and thirst to death in the burning sun (Armenian Genocide).

To this present day, the Turkish Government denied these allegations. They claimed the Armenians were only removed from a “war-zone.” The leaders of the Young Turk Government were found guilty of carrying out the killing by a secret network (Armenian Genocide). The decision to eradicate the Armenians was not an impulsive decision, but “the result of extensive and profound deliberations” (Armenian Genocide).

In the case with China, genocide resulted in the

3.

extermination of the newly born female infants. Since ancient times, the Chinese have regarded the males to be precious and more prestigious than the females. The birth of a boy signifies wealth, prosperity and luck (Chow). The Chinese Government recently passed a law which limited the birth of children to one child per family in order to decrease the current population. If the first born was a girl, the parents would kill the toddler in order to receive another chance at conceiving a son. The son is deemed as the “golden child” because he will keep the family name alive (Chow). The female babies are eliminated by suffocation immediately so the parents do not develop an emotional bond. Their lifeless bodies are wrapped in a thin cloth and are buried like meaningless possessions (Chow). These cruel acts took place without the government’s knowledge. This phenomenon is not as frequent as it was when the law was first introduced.

Undoubtably, genocide is an inhumane course of action chosen by irrational individuals. The bloodshed of the Puritans against the Catholics, Turks against the Armenians, and the Chinese parents against their very own flesh and blood were only a few examples of the numerous situations of this sort of calamity. Indeed, it was evident genocide has no boundaries, and was not confined to a specific moment in history or one category of people. It is sad but true, the beliefs of one person could eliminate the existence of people with different denominations.