Genocide Research Memo

Genocide is a term that most people in the world have heard of in one way or another. People may have heard it through any film viewings, books, or any other media outlet, the point is, many people have heard of genocide in one way or another. Though genocide may be generally known by most people, a fraction of those people may only have an in-depth understanding of what genocide exactly is. With all of that said, for the research memo, the topic of genocide is going to the subject of the research memo. The beginning part of the paper will focus on the history and origins of genocide. Following the origins of genocide, theories will be discussed to explain why people participate in genocide and why genocide happens for that matter. After the

theories of genocide are completed, the paper will then examine the Rwandan genocide. The origins of the Rwandan genocide, such as the history leading up to the genocide, the events that took place in Rwanda, and the aftermath will be discussed in a great ideal. Lastly, the paper will wrap up with a conclusion summarizing all of the topics of genocide and explain the importance of the subject matter.
In order to understand genocide in the modern day, it is essential to learn the origins of genocide. For the purposes of this paper, the first case of the twentieth century will be examined. This is primarily due to the origins of genocide prior to the twentieth century being a little bit foggy. Meaning that the first case is not clear cut, thus not being adequate to put into the paper. The first documented case of genocide in the twentieth century took place in South Africa. The Herero and Nama people of South Africa were massacred by the Germans between the years of 1904-1907 (sahistory.org). South Africa was declared a German colonial territory in 1884. Because of this acquisition, this encouraged the Germans to take more land away from the local Africans and implemented and enforced laws on the local population causing oppression on the locals. By 1904, the tensions had begun to rise and the fighting between the two groups started then and ended around the year 1907. The total amount of people lost in the Herero group tallied up to be around 65,000-80,000 people and in the Nama group around 10,000 people were killed in the genocide (sahistory.org). Still to this day, the groups are still reminding people of what they endured in the early portion of the twentieth century to remind people of the atrocious events they had to go through. As said before, it is important to talk about the first documented case of genocide in the twentieth century, because it serves as the foundation for having a basic knowledge for the rest of the paper.
Now that the first documented genocide case of the twentieth century has been discussed, it is now time to talk about when genocide officially became a term.

Back some couple centuries ago, genocide committed by states was seen as heroic, as they were allowed to commit such an atrocity in pursuit of building a larger empire (Lecture 9/18). Keep in mind, that the term “genocide” had not been officially defined by that time, thus not containing the same meaning as it does today. Instead of being seen as evil, states that committed genocide were seen as heroic. In-fact, William Blackstone once said “the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principal of the English constitution (Lecture 9/18). It wasn’t until 1948, that the term “genocide” had been officially labeled as an official term and international crime. This was declared by the United Nations. One of the first trials to occur due to this was the Nuremberg Trials. In the Nuremberg Trials, twenty-four Nazi leaders and six Nazi organizations were convicted on four counts (Lecture 9/18). Of those twenty-four convicted, twelve of those people were sentenced to the death penalty for the crimes they had committed. Fast-forwarding to the 90’s, 120 countries had signed an international treaty that established the International Court. The International Court was established in 1998 as a result of the treaty and it gave the ICC the jurisdiction to prosecute any related Genocide crimes (History.com). Before I move on

to the theoretical aspects of genocide, a proper definition of genocide will be listed now that the history and origins of genocide has been established. The term “genocide” is defined as the deliberate killing of members of groups for no particular reason other than the specific group being different than the perpetrator, which can include race, ethnicity, gender, and religion (Lecture 9/18).
The origins of genocide have been discussed along with the definition listed as well. Now that all of that has been discussed, the paper will now shift gears in examining why genocide happens and why people decide to take part in such a gruesome event. The first reason why genocide happens is due to social control (Campbell 155). According to Campbell, genocide is committed by groups for more morally reasons than predatory reasons. Specifically, they come up with moral grievances and use those grievances as reasons for committing the horrendous acts they commit. Campbell gave a perfect example of how the grievance reason was used in a real life example. For example, right before the holocaust happened, the Nazi’s had claimed the Jews were foolish, distant, dishonest, and were hungry for power (Campbell 155). As a result of those acquisitions, the Jewish people were blamed for the defeat of Germany in World War 1, and thus was the beginning of the Nazi hatred for the Jewish people. There were also accusations of Jewish doctors molesting and murdering children and harmed anybody who was not Jewish (Campbell 155). Because of all of those accusations and nasty words called by the Nazi’s, the Jewish people were seen as being wicked and bad for the culture and well-being of Germany. This is a perfect way to show how one of the reasons for genocide unfolds. It is almost like a certain amount of brainwashing takes place to a degree. This is said because the people did not have negative opinions of the Jewish people until the Nazi’s came up with a substantial amount of lies about the Jewish people.
Another reason why genocide occurs is due to the geometry of genocide.

This has to do with a number of things. First, genocide is more likely to happen in areas where there is immobility, cultural distance, and inequality (Campbell 160). Greater immobility’s are linked to genocide occurring, while less immobility is linked to less genocide occurring. In addition, genocide is more likely to happen in an area that is considered to be a “downward direction”. This means it would happen to groups that are a lower socially ethnic groups rather than a higher up group. In other words, genocide is less likely to happen in an upward or lateral direction (Campbell 160). In relational distance, genocide is more likely to take place as well. Relational distance refers to the extent to which participate in each other’s lives (Campbell 162). For example, ethnic groups who do not communicate as much with other groups would be deemed as and seen as being in the category of relational distance. In addition, this term can apply to refugees or migrates who flee violence to go to “safer” countries, at least in their opinion. For example, shortly before the holocaust, Eastern European Jews immigrated to cities in Germany in large amount of numbers making them highly visible to being rationally distant. Because of this, the Jews are more vulnerable to being victimized by the Nazis because of their status. As far as functional independence goes, it has been known that genocide is more likely to

take place. For example, ethnic groups that are deemed as functionally independent are less likely to be victims of a genocide attack (Campbell 164). Whereas, groups who are instead, functionally dependent on others are more likely to be victims of a genocide attack.