Midterm 1: Cases Flashcards
HOLOCAUST: 5 Layers of Anti-Semitism
Time frame- Form-Problem-Solution-Historical Transitions
4-18th Cent: Religious–religious beliefs–segregation/ conversion/ occasional violence–rise of Christianity/reformation
18-19th Cent: Liberal–religious traditions–assimilation, emancipation–enlightenment
18-19th Cent: Economic– parasitical nature–discrimination–Emancipation and Industrial Revolution
19th-20th Century: Racial–impurity–quarantine and elimination–Scientific racism and Colonialism
Late 19th 20th Century: Nationalistic–disloyal–nuetralization–WWI, Russian Revolution
HOLOCAUST: Why Mass Murder- Jews?
specific military and geo-political conditions turned it into an explosion of mass violence which preoccupied or self-interested bystanders did not resist with sufficient force.
Why mass murder?
- Cheapening of human life before Nazi takeover
- Domestic experimentation (1933-1939)
- International experimentation (1939-1940)
- Expansion and systematization (1940-1942)
- Peak years (1942-1943)
- Death throes (1944-1945)
HOLOCAUST: Why Germany 1930s and 1940s?
a movement in Germany, a country located at the center of several major transformations of: -enlightenment, Emancipation and Industrial Revolution, Scientific racism and Colonialism, WWI, Russian Revolution lifted this fixation to power in the 1930s
–> Hitler’s antisemitism: Took 5 Layers of Anti-Semitism (religious, liberal, racial, national, and economic) and put together in one ideology
HOLOCAUST: Peak Years 1942-1943
War–> Jewish Problem and Resources to kill–> Final Solution
Wannsee
Three steps & Problems
• Expulsion (expansion)
• Concentration (food, disease, security risk)
• Manual killing in the (labor West?) intensive, resistance
HOLOCAUST: Expansion and Systemization
Ethnic revenge through minority rule
- -> Expansion Westward
- -> Balkans
- -> Invasion SU
All lead to control over more Jews
HOLOCAUST: Experimenation
Poland and before disabled with t4
HOLOCAUST: Snyder “Bloodlands”
• Double-occupation land (SU and Germans)
• Poles perceive their Jewish neighbors as collaborators with the SU
–> Opportunity for revenge, Deployment Militias
HOLOCAUST: Intenationalism
- Holocaust happened because Hitler intended to kill the Jews early on (redemptive antisemitism)
- Devised a system to do so
- Emigration & concentration temporary stopgaps
- After invasion SU Hitler implemented his plan
HOLOCAUST: Functionalism
- No directives from higher up: Hitler never ordered for Jews to be killed, but
- Local bureaucrats developed local solutions to “Jewish problem” (e.g. in Poland).
- Over time less radical solutions were no longer available and mass killing became an option
HOLOCAUST: Bergen Explains Holocaust
BOTH Intentionalism and Functionalism
Hitler made clear what he wanted to do with the Jews.
• Local solutions were created in light of this goal
• Competition between different local actors activated a spiral of radicalization (working towards the Fuhrer).
• Hence it could not have happened without
Hitler’s clear intentions (intentionalist)
Local solutions (functionalist)
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Why the Ottoman empire in 1915?
Imperialism->Decline
Nationalism & separatism->Decline
Young Turk revolution
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Why the Armenians?
Young Turk racism
The Armenian renaissance
European interference
The Russian-Ottoman faultline
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE:
Why mass violence in 1915?
Cumulative radicalization
WWI, Van Uprising
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE:
Timelines
- –> “The Sick Man of Europe”
- –> Rise of Nationalism–> Greek independence, MULTI-ETHNIC EMPIRE
- –> Tanzimat reforms by Abdulmejid—Sultan (1839-1876)—> economic modernization, legal modernization, poor implementation
- -> Russo-Turkish war (1877-1878)—> Treaty of Berlin
- –> Sultan Hamid II (1876)–> rebuild empire, end reforms
- -> Armenian mobilization against centralization
- –> 1890s Massacres of Armenians
- -> Financial Crisis 1880s
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Treaty of Berlin
Russo-Turkish War–> Russians help Slavic Brothers
Autonomy for Serbia, Romania, Montenegro
Protection for Christian minorities
Forced entry Christian missionaries inside Ottoman Empire
CONSEQUENCES: Emboldens minorities, less diverse, muslim refugees–> revenge
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: CUP
Young Turks (Nationalist) vs. Progressive ---\> Young turks win --\> German trained, Nationalist, want less focus on empire
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Balkan wars + Counterrevolution=
MORE NATIONALISM
- -> lose territory
- ->Weakening of democracy
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Armenian Renaissance
marketization, urbanization, industrialization that had created differences between the Ottoman Empire and its neighbors
• 1878: Urban Armenians are in trade and finance (Christian networks–> diaspora community w/ international ties) Benefit from the rise of the West
—> Majority of trader, major exporters, major industrialists, bankers Armenian
• Rural Armenians (in border region with Russia) benefit from grain imports from Russia
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Reason 3: Ottoman-Russian fault line
• War of 1829-1829 (Splits)
• War of 1877-1878
Armenian Russians prominent in army
some Armenians on Ottoman side join Russian army when invading
• Berlin treaty: further annexation
–> Armenians living in this territory celebrate
Turks forced out and replaced with Armenians
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Reason 4: Armenian Mobilization
- Nationalist Mobilization (Dashnaks)
- Marxist Mobilization (Hunchnak group)
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Why mass killing?
Normalization of violence
—> 1894: Sasun massacre
• 1890s: Violent repression of Armenian Marxists in cities (Hunchak)
• Counterrevolution against CUP
WWI
—> REVENGE, TERRITORY (SPACE), RACE, MINORITY PROTECTION
Van Uprising
Jewish identity vs Armenian identity
Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust by Jason Wittenberg and Jeffrey Kopstein—> • Minority bloc in Poland
United minorities in Poland->gaining autonomy
Zionist leader
Difference: unified several minorities under that banner
• More pogroms in towns with high support for minority block
RWANDA GENOCIDE: Three Groups and Characteristics
Twa: 6th century, 1st original group, Hunters and gatherers. 1990: 1% population
Huti: 7th century, Crop cultivators. 1990: 84% population
Tutsi: 8/9th century, Cattle traders, 1990: 15% population
RWANDA GENOCIDE: Hutu and Tutsi Boundary
Not Fixed • Social class not ethnic identity--\> social mobility allowed to move • Socio-economic class status
RWANDA GENOCIDE: Why Tutsis?
- Colonial politics->Activation ethnic boundary
—> Berlin Conference (1884)
—> Germans: Introduce Hamitic myth
–> Versailes Treaty: Rwanda goes to Belgium–> further racism
—> Mid-1950s: Nationalism among Tutsis, Belgians reverse status–> inversion of Hamitic Myth - Decolonization->Envy and threat through status reversal
Independence 1960s—> 300,000 Tutsis flee to Burundi
RWANDA GENOCIDE: Tutsis in Burundi found…
RPF Try to destabilize Rwanda by launching attacks from Burundi
RWANDA GENOCIDE: Why Rwanda in 1994?
- Economic crisis creates threats to Hutu elites
- Democratization creates threats to Hutu elites
RWANDA GENOCIDE: Why Rwanda Timeline
1973: Coup Habyararimana –> strict ethnic policies, business interests first, strong informal economy
Late 1980s: economic unrest–> coffee price falls, International debt, IMF/World Bank/France–> Structural adjustment: open markets & reduce informal economy
Late 1980s: political unrest–> • IMF/World Bank/France loan for multi-party system
- –> Rise Left wing non-ethnic parties against Hutu elites
- -> Rise Hutu extremists against Hutu elites (Akazu)
Habyararimana responds:
Hutu nationalism, (Akuzu) into party, racism in school, propaganda on radio, “Hutu 10 Commandments”
RWANDA GENOCIDE: Fault-lines Activated Late 1980s:
Political elite: Hutu and Rich–> don’t want to activate wealth fault line because then would be in majority, instead invoke Hutu racial line
RWANDA GENOCIDE: Why mass killing in 1994?
• Invasion RPF (group of Tutsis in Burundi)
• Arusha accords—> peace accords in aftermath of war due to invasion of RPF International Community steps in
–> Requires Power sharing government–> ethnic groups need to share power
—> International community deploys UN troops guard the peace
• Plane crash Habyararimana
—> RPF Invasion, response killing and blockades
BOSNIAN GENOCIDE:
Three groups
Serbs (Orthodox)
Croats (Roman Catholic)
Bosniacs (Muslim)
• Mixed 1991–> people from neighboring countries living there, some concentration of groups, but largely living together in same localities
BOSNIAN GENOCIDE:
Why ethnic antagonism? TIMELINE
Faultline of Rome and Constantinople
—> 1054 Split: East Balkans: Serbs- >Orthodox (first form of Serbs) and West Balkans: Rest->Roman Catholic—> Bosnia and Serbia–> independent states
• 1400s: Both Bosnia and Serbia become Part of Ottoman Empire—> Bosnians convert to Islam
—> Battle of Kosovo (start of a myth)
• 1878: Decline Ottoman empire—> Serbian independence–> greater Serbia myth
• WWI—> Kingdom of Yugoslavia forms
—> Serbians dominate, Croats annexed, Bosnians not recognized
- WWII: Revenge through minority rule –> resistance by Chetniks and Communists—> Tito rise
- Decentralization under Tito 1960-1980
1980: Kosovo independence movement, 1981 Put down
BOSNIAN GENOCIDE: Why 1995?
Economic & political problems late 1980s
–> End Cold War, Lose Special Status, Oil Crisis, Debt IMF structural adjustments—> conditional loans for Multiparty system
SANU-Memorandum 1986: Claim Serbian oppression, Ustase returning to power, greater Serbia, denounced by Serbian pres., Milosovic support
Milosevic rides the waves of nationalism, Kosovo, Communist into nationalist party
—> Media declares Serbs under attack
Slovenia: 1991 Independence
Croatia: 1991 • Nationalist party led by Tudjman, Greater Croatia Proclaim independence
BOSNIAN GENOCIDE: Why Mass Killing?
Serbians declare open war in Slovenia–> Open war in Croatia
Bosnian Response: Leader Izetbegovic Rotating leadership (Bosnian rules, serb rules, croat rules)
Serbs and Croats abdicate—> under influence of developments in Serbia no longer want to take part
Bosnian independence
• EU declares support for independence in both Croatia and Slovenia
• Bosnian-Serbs declare independence in response
Open war breaks out in Bosnia
• Day of the referendum Serbian military invades Bosnia and circles Sarajevo
Claim to defend Yugoslavia
RESPONSE: Self-defense units form
People flee, mass murder, and rape
BOSNIAN GENOCIDE: 1993 Vance-Owen Peace plan
- NATO threatens with airstrikes—> make peace or BOMB
- Peace plan: divide between serbs, croats and Bosnians, Safe-areas for Bosniaks–> where Bosniaks live and protected by UN Soldiers
- UN protection (use of force)
- Talks fail->Fighting continues
BOSNIAN GENOCIDE: Sebrenic
• Falls to Bosnia Serb militias (led by Mladic)
• 400 Dutch UN soldiers meant protect Bosnians from Croats, don’t
NATO intervention
“Operation Deliberate Force”
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: MELSON
Social revolution linked to genocide:
- -> Social revolutions are likely to pass through a radical phase in which revolutionary vanguards attempt to destroy their supposed enemies and to create a new political community in line with their ideologies.
- –> Social revolutions create opportunities for movements that had espoused genocide even before the revolution to seize power and to implement their policies.
- -> Regimes opposing revolutions may use genocidal methods not only against their political enemies but against the social groups from which their opponents spring.
Armenian Genocide and Holocaust–MELSON
(1) Despised minorities undergoing rapid social mobilization and adaptation to the modern world
the social mobilization of despised minorities made them targets of genocidal movements
(2) Both imperial regimes were swept away by revolution and war and both were succeeded by revolutionary vanguards who became the perpetrators of the two genocides
revolutions-created the conditions for genocidal movements to come to power and radicalized the views of revolutionary vanguards who had seized power
(3) occurred in the midst of major wars.
wartime facilitated the implementation of genocide as a policy of the state.
