GFCL 100 Confrontations with Evil A Century of Genocide

1st GFCL Essay

10/7/2016

Class meeting: 10am

Pre-Modern Genocide: Comparing and Contrasting Cause and Effect

Genocide is a topic in history that is often censored by the public and government and thus many people are unable to identity an event as a genocide or not, as well as learn about our past history of genocide. It’s most defiantly for the better if students learned about our past mistakes with genocide rather than have it censored and not learning about our troubled past. This history can teach us lessons in order to not make the same mistakes again and prevent something similar from happening. In learning about pre-modern genocides, one can see what the causes were for such atrocities to occur. In class we discussed the general causes to genocide. We said that religion, property/land, racism, and resources are the major causes most genocides we’ve studied in the past and present. Different genocides will have different causes but in most cases, a war is the root of the cause.

(Hubbard, 9/9)

Of course there is always more roots to be discovered beneath the cause of war itself; what caused the war in the first place. In the two genocides that are described, the one main cause to the war and conflicts, is conquest for new territory and property/territory violations. In Southern Europe, two rapidly growing empires experienced many conflicts in the time period of 264-202 B.C.E. These empires were the Roman Republic and its rival the Carthaginian Republic. Rome was located in Central Italy and Carthage located directly across the Mediterranean from Italy. The First Punic War was the first conflict between Cartage and Rome. Carthage was expanding rapidly and in their conquest for new territory, they landed in Sicily, an island of the coast of Italy. The Greek city states in Sicily at the time did not want to be invaded or conquered by the Carthaginians or anybody for that matter, but they decided it would be better to have Rome intervene and conquer them, than be under the rule of Carthage. The people of Sicily called to Rome for help and in 264B.C.E. the Romans sailed to the island of Sicily and drive the Carthaginian army out. This starts The First Punic War which lasted form 264-241B.C.E.

(Hubbard, 10/3)

The end of The First Punic War resulted in a treaty between Rome and Carthage, but that did not end the bloodshed between the two empires. Both empires still had a desire to stretch their power and territory throughout Europe. Rome had a Particular interest in Spain and in 218B.C. E, Rome attempted to establish a foothold in Spain, right on the border between Spain and France. The Romans did not expect to run into forces form the Carthaginian Empire, who had already established that territory as their own. Hannibal Barca was the lead general of the Carthaginian troops in Spain and when the Romans arrived, Hannibal fought them off. Hannibal then declared war on Rome and planned to invade it right away. Rome laughed at Hannibal’s declaration and did not take action against him at the time. Hannibal then marched his troops from Spain all the way to Italy by land, something that nobody had ever attempted to do before then. He surprised the Roman forces when he invaded Northern Italy in 217B.C.E. Hannibal marched throughout Northern Italy, destroying every village in his path. However, he was unable to attack the larger Roman cities such as Naples and Rome due to the walls surrounding them. Still, Hannibal was satisfied marching through Northern Italy, and time and time again, sending the Roman forces on long chases throughout the region. Since Rome was attacking Greece at the same time, it was sending a large amount of its forces there, thus they had insufficient troops and experience to fight off Hannibal. After suffering many defeats, the Romans were finally able to drive Hannibal out by counter-attacking the city of Carthage and forcing Hannibal to leave Italy to defend his country. Even though Hannibal returns to Carthage, the Roman army’s strength is too much for the Carthaginians and they lose the city of Carthage to the Roman army. The war ends on the terms of the Romans, Carthage is stripped of its territory in Europe as well as its army and navy.

(Hubbard, 10/3)

The war left each empire in shambles, and create long lasting scars in the people’s hearts. Rome had lost more than 250,000 soldiers to Hannibal Barca over the time that the war was fought. The two empires did not fight for 50 years, but all along that time, a man known as Cato the Elder fought against the Roman Senate, demanding the complete annihilation of Carthage. Cato held a grudge against Hannibal Barca, who Cato felt was responsible for the continuing decline of the Roman Senate. It wasn’t until he died, however, that the Senate decided to attack Carthage and loot it of its riches. From 149-146 B.C.E. Rome invaded Carthage and destroyed the empire. The Romans effectively committed genocide against the Carthaginians. Overall, the entire root of this conflict was purely consisted of territorial disputes. Both the 1st and 2nd Punic Wars were caused by disputes over territory due to a desire to expand. Ultimately, the destruction these wars had on the Roman empire provoked them enough to desire revenge for what Carthage did to the empire. Thus, the Romans committed genocide to invoke their revenge on Carthage for devastating Italy during the 2nd Punic War.

(Hubbard, 10/3)

Many centuries later, a similar situation can be studied and examined. A country named Cambodia, located on the Indochinese Peninsula and bordered by Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand, experienced ethnopolitical violence along with a power struggle in the time period of 1600-1800. Many other countries seemed to be interested in Cambodia, most likely because of its size and location. To start, in 1642 the Islamic influence in that region attempted to seize power and succeeded with the help of many local Muslims. Kiernan writes, “…a young prince named Ponhea Chan seized the Cambodian throne in 1642, murdering the king as well as his own father.” (Kiernan 157). The Islamic power in Asia at the time seemed to have interest in Cambodia, enough that the Islamic prince went as far as killing the king as well as his own father in order to assure he gets all the power he desires. As the struggle for power continued, the people of Cambodia repeatedly called upon the Vietnamese to overthrow the Islamic prince, now known as Ibrahim. The Vietnamese successfully drove out Ibrahim and he died in exile, but the Vietnamese now took a sudden interest in Cambodia and attempted a conquest and capture on the country. Cambodia then became the sight to many different conflicts, mainly between Cambodians, Vietnamese and the Cochinchinese. Cochinchina was located to the east of Cambodia, and was also valued for its location. The Vietnamese set their eyes on the Cochinchinese coast in 1693, and within 6 years had 40,000 Vietnamese households set up there. The Cochinchinese were very displeased with living with the Vietnamese and used violence to show it. Many genocidal massacres were invoked over the years, going back and forth between Vietnamese and Cochinchinese forces.

The Cambodians also held interest in the Cochinchinese delta, and as a result of trying to claim it, created hatred with the Cochinchinese. Many massacres happened as a result of conflict between the two powers, all while Cambodia was still facing an internal power struggle for who will become the next king. In the midst of chaos, a Khmer king arose in Cambodia. The new king used violence to solve most of the issues with his country and invoked many genocides as a result. Kiernan writes “There have been great cruelties on both sides. The Cambodians have massacred all the Cochinchinese that they could find in the country, including three mandarins; several Christians were also caught up in this murder” (Kiernan 159). In order to eliminate all the other powers in his country, the king turns to violence and massacres all of the Cochinchinese and any other religion that gets in his way. In the end the people of the entire region looked down on the Cochinchinese, saying they deserved what was brought to them, and what was brought to them was devastation. Many religious locations were either burned or completely destroyed and Cochinchina’s population suffered greatly.

Overall, both these examples of genocide show how a war over territory, no matter how big or small, can lead to massacres and genocides. Comparing the violence in Cambodia to what happened during the Punic Wars is that in both cases, one power’s desire for conquest and new territory invoked another power and caused conflict. Both sides also wanted to experience revenge, in that Rome wanted revenge against Carthage and Vietnamese and Cambodians wanted revenge on the Cochinchinese. Kiernan writes, “They raised their hands to the sky saying that God is just, that he had used them to avenge us” (Kiernan 160). The Vietnamese in this case, are saying that God had used the Cambodians to kill the Cochinchinese to assert the revenge of Vietnam. Contrasting these events, the massacres in Asia were on a much smaller level as opposed to Rome and Carthage. Carthage experience a big genocide that happened in a short amount of time and all at once while in Cambodia, Vietnam and Cochinchina, they experienced the atrocities on a smaller and seemingly in more controlled levels.

Works Cited

Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. New Haven: Yale UP, 2007. Print

Hubbard, Harry. “What is Genocide?” 9 Sept. 2016. Lecture.

“Rome and Carthage.” 3 Oct. 2016. Lecture.