Human Geo 7.4 Questions Flashcards
Why are ethnic cleansing and genocide especially important for cultural geography?
Because they change the distribution of ethnicities through force and criminal violence. These processes are undertaken so that the surviving ethnic group can be the sole inhabitants of an ethnically homogeneous region. They involve the removal of every member of the less powerful ethnicity (from women to children to frail elderly included).
In Europe, when did the largest number of people impacted by ethnic cleansing/genocide occur?
Before, during, or immediately after WWII (1939-1945). The Nazis deported/exterminated 17 million people (6 million were Jews, including 1 million children). 1/3 of the world’s Jewish population and 2/3 of Europe’s Jewish population died.
What forced migrations were a result of WWII?
After WWII, millions of ethnic Germans, Poles, Russians, and more had to migrate due to boundary changes (ex: When a portion of eastern Germany became part of Poland, the Germans there had to move west, and Poles moved in. Poles were forced to move when Eastern Poland became a part of Soviet).
What are the Rohingya people living in Myanmar?
Myanmar has 54 million inhabitants; and its attacks are directed against the Rohingya, living in Myanmar’s far western (very poor) Rakhine State. They are mostly Sunnis who speak an Indo-European language, but most people in Myanmar are Theravadas speaking Sino-Tibetan languages. Most Rohingya migrated in the 19th from Bangladesh to Myanmar, when both were British colonies.
Why and how has the Myanmar government persecuted the Rohingya people?
The gov’t says that they’re living in Myanmar illegally, and in 1982, enacted laws that took away their citizenship, land, jobs, etc. In 2016, Rohingya attacked some police & military posts, and the gov’t military launched a huge ethnic cleansing operation to “eliminate” the groups attacking the police. More than 1 million have been “cleansed.” Their villages are being destroyed, and they’re being forced to move to Bangladesh.
What are the Balkans?
Texas size; named for the Balkan mountains, extending east-west across the region that includes Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and several countries that once made up Yugoslavia. There is a complex assemblage of ethnicities there, and the incident that sparked WWI. In 1924, the heir of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by a Serb.
How was Yugoslavia created?
After WWI, the Allies created Yugoslavia (“south” Slavia) to unite several Balkan ethnicities that spoke similar languages. Longtime leader Josip Broz Tito (prime minister, then president 1953-1980) forged Yugoslav nationality. Central to his vision was acceptance of ethnic diversity, and the 5 largest ethnicities were allowed to exercise control over the areas they inhabited. Rivalries resurfaced during the 1980s after his death, leading to a breakup into small countries, but it was violent & with ethnic cleansing.
What is Kosovo and why was it controlled by Serbia?
At the time of the breakup, Kosovo was 82% ethnic Albanians and 10% Serbs, but Kosovo was controlled by Serbia due to a historical claim of controlling it between 12th-14th centuries. Serbia fought an important (but losing) battle in Kosovo against the Ottoman Empire in 1389, so it was given control of Kosovo for recognition when Yugoslavia was created.
How did the ethnic cleansing in Serbia start?
With the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Albanian majority in Kosovo, and at is peak in 1999, it forced more than 800,000 of the 2 million Albanian residents from their homes, mostly to camps in Albania.
What was the world’s reaction to the ethnic cleansing of the Albanians by the Serbs?
The US and Western Europe, outraged, acting through NATO, launched an air attack, which ended when Serbia agreed to withdraw all police/soldiers from Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, and about 115 countries recognize it so, but Russia, Serbia, China, and their allies oppose it. However, the declaration of independence induced nearly 90 percent of the country’s Serbs to leave.
What steps does ethnic cleansing often follow?
- Move a lot of military equipment & personnel into a village that has no strategic value.
- Round up all of the villagers, and segregate men from women, children, and old people. Place men in detention camps or kill them.
- Force the rest of the people to leave. March them in a convoy to a place outside the territory being ethnically cleansed.
- Destroy the vacated village, like by setting it on fire.
What is Bosnia & Herzegovina?
Most ethnically diverse republic of Yugoslavia. At breakup, it was 44% Bosniaks, 31% Serbs, 17% Croats. Bosniaks are Muslim, but the republic’s Serbs and Croats fought to unite the parts of the republic that they lived in with Serbia and Croatia rather than live in a state with a Muslim plurality.
What did the Serbs and Croats to to strengthen their case for uniting with their respective countries?
They engaged in a violent ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks that ensured that areas were ethnically homogeneous and better candidates for union with Serbia & Croatia. The cleansing by Serbs was severe because the Bosnian territory inhabited by Serbs was made up of several discontinuous areas, separated from Serbia by areas w/ Bosniak majorities, so by cleansing, Serbs created one continuous area of Serb domination.
What did the Dayton (Ohio) Accords in 1996 do to the region of Bosnia & Herzegovina?
They divided it into 3 regions each ruled by one ethnicity. The Serbs were independent, but the other two were combined into a federation. The UN convicted Croat and Serb leaders of war crimes for the ethnic cleansing, but it was ultimately successful.
Serbs got control of 50% of the land though they had made up 40% of the population. Croats got 20% of land when they’d made up only 15% of population. Bosniaks went from 45% of pop to only 30% of land.
What are the terms balkanized and balnakization (once widely used by world leaders and geographers)?
- Balkanized: a small geographic area that couldn’t be successfully organized into stable countries because it was inhabited by many ethnicities with complex, long-standing antagonisms toward each other.
- Balnakization: the process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities.
