History Of Torture Essay

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The History of Torture and Its Impact on the World Torture was an act of inflicting pain on someone for a specific reason.The Middle Ages was a time during the 5th and 15th centuries that harbored torture because it was a time of population decline and movement of people. The Salem Witch Trials, which started in the 14th century by some women stating that they were possessed by the devil, used torture to decide if someone was a witch or not. There are two main types of torture that you could use on a person; physical, which would be hurting or abusing physically, and Psychologically, would be using torture to break down a person mentally. Torture has showed up all throughout history and has shaped the world through events such as the Holocaust. Torture was used in the middle ages and the early 18th and 19th century for uses such as punishment, interrogation, and deterrence …show more content…

In Mesopotamia and Egypt, there are signs that torture was developing. Legal torture was developed to prove guilt or innocence. It was first legalized in the sumerian code, which is the first known set of laws in a civilization. It states in one of its rules “If a man is accused of sorcery he must undergo ordeal by water; if he is proven innocent, his accuser must pay 3 shekels.”(Code of Ur-Nammu). This was one of the laws stating that you will be punished if you torture someone. The Code also states information like you cannot kill, commit adultery, and other subject relating to that. Because of the development of torture, terrorist groups have used it to hurt innocent lives, countries have thought about using torture to help their country. Torture makes countries less safe. Cause of the development of torture, countries during wars have used it to hurt prisoners. This is widely known, torture has played a big role in event such as World War II and the Holocaust. Where Adolf Hitler tortured and killed around 80,000 jews were

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