Raphael Lemkin: Genocide

1298 Words6 Pages
In 1944 while the Nazis occupied Europe, Raphael Lemkin introduced the term “genocide” to describe the Holocaust, but in 1948 the meaning widened to a “deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.” [i]For a mass killing to be considered genocide, there must be intent to destroy a specific group of people, which is why scholars debate whether or not some events can be classified as genocide. Even though the word “genocide” is relatively new, genocides have been occurring for over 2000 years. Most people believe that the Third Punic War between Carthage and the Roman Empire was the first genocide. The most recent genocide is the one in Darfur, Sudan that started in 2003. Though horrific, genocides…show more content…
The intent of the Spanish monarchy was only to subdue the Native American Indians, never to exterminate them. However, it was their intent to completely eliminate the French Huguenots who had established a French colony on American soil that the Spanish claimed as their own. The orders given to the Spanish conquistadors were to completely wipe out all French Huguenots; they were not to leave a trace of them or their Protestant views in Florida. Spain’s attack was deliberate and systematic with the intent to completely destroy a specific religious group, the Protestants. [iv]The Conquistadors attacked the French three times, but the most important attack was the attack at Fort Caroline. Menendez, the leader of the Conquistadors, was to drive out the French settlers ‘by what means you see fit’. They ruthlessly killed the French, and Menendez, it is affirmed, hanged his prisoners on trees, and placed over them the inscription, ‘I do this, not as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans.’ The few women and children that Menendez spared was because he feared God would punish him otherwise. Besides these view individuals, he killed any Lutherans he could. He spared the few Catholics of the French, the Spanish only wanted to rid of the…show more content…
At The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, they defined genocide very specifically. Genocide is any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group: killing members of the group, causing serious physical or mental harm to the group, inflicting unsuitable living conditions to bring physical destruction, preventing births, and transferring children to another group. Genocide is defined in the incidents I chose by the mass killing of specific religious groups and the dehumanization of the people. [vi]This is consistent with the definition of genocide created during The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. When an incident is labeled as an act of genocide, the perpetrator usually believes that their group is superior to the victims. The perpetrator looks to entirely wipe out a certain race, religion or group of people. The victim of genocide often is less powerful than the perpetrator and does not reach out for help. The genocides of the past show how important it is to realize that every human is created
Open Document