Editing Genocide (section)

== History ==
{{Main|Genocides in history}}
{{Main list|List of genocides}}{{POV section|date=February 2025}}
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[[File:Statues at the Chickasaw Cultural Center during the 2012 Trail of Tears Conference in Sulphur, Oklahoma near the Chickasaw (c5951900-ea54-4b9d-a1fa-3e8402c07289).JPG|thumb|Statues at the [[Chickasaw Cultural Center]] during the 2012 [[Trail of Tears]] Conference. The [[Indian Removal|forced displacement of Native Americans]] from their homelands in the United States was [[Native American genocide in the United States|labeled a genocide]] by many historians.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Indian Removal Act: The Genocide of Native Americans – UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog|url=https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2017/04/17/indian-removal-act-genocide-native-americans/|access-date=2021-10-16|website=sites.uab.edu|archive-date=October 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016202914/https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2017/04/17/indian-removal-act-genocide-native-americans/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Stannard|first=David|title=American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1992|isbn=978-0195085570|page=256}}</ref>]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 192-208, KZ Mauthausen, Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene.jpg|thumb|Naked [[German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war|Soviet POWs]] held by the Nazis in [[Mauthausen concentration camp]]. Political scientist [[Adam Jones (Canadian scholar)|Adam Jones]] wrote that "the murder of at least 3.3 million Soviet POWs is one of the least-known of modern genocides".{{sfn|Jones|2017|p=377|ps=: "'Next to the Jews in Europe,' wrote [[Alexander Werth]]', 'the biggest single German crime was undoubtedly the extermination by hunger, exposure and in other ways of ... Russian war prisoners.' Yet the murder of at least 3.3 million Soviet POWs is one of the least-known of modern genocides; there is still no full-length book on the subject in English. It also stands as one of the most intensive genocides of all time: 'a holocaust that devoured millions,' as [[Catherine Merridale]] acknowledges. The large majority of POWs, some 2.8 million, were killed in just eight months of 1941–42, a rate of slaughter matched (to my knowledge) only by the 1994 Rwanda genocide."}}]]
Lemkin applied the concept of genocide to a wide variety of events throughout [[human history]]. He and other scholars date the first genocides to [[prehistoric times]].{{sfn|Naimark|2017|p=vii}}{{sfn|Lemos|Taylor|Kiernan|2023|p=31}}{{sfn|Irvin-Erickson|2023|p=11}} Prior to the advent of [[civilizations]] consisting of [[sedentary]] [[agriculture|farmers]], humans lived in tribal societies, with intertribal warfare often ending with the obliteration of the defeated tribe, killing of adult males and integration of women and children into the victorious tribe.{{sfn|Häussler|Stucki|Veracini|2022|pp=203–204}} Genocide is mentioned in various ancient sources [[Genocide in the Hebrew Bible|including the Hebrew Bible]].{{sfn|Naimark|2017|pp=7–9}}{{sfn|Lemos|Taylor|Kiernan|2023|pp=50–51}} The massacre of men and the enslavement or forced assimilation of women and children—often [[urbicide|limited to a particular town or city]] rather than applied to a larger group—is a common feature of ancient warfare as described in written sources.{{sfn|Lemos|Taylor|Kiernan|2023|pp=39, 50}}{{sfn|Jones|2023|loc=The Origins of Genocide}} The events that some scholars consider genocide in ancient and medieval times had more pragmatic than ideological motivations.{{sfn|Lemos|Taylor|Kiernan|2023|p=43}} As a result, some scholars such as [[Mark Levene]] argue that genocide is inherently connected to the modern state—thus to the rise of the West in the early modern era and its expansion outside Europe—and earlier conflicts cannot be described as genocide.{{sfn|Weiss-Wendt|2022|p=170}}{{sfn|Jones|2023|p=84}}

Although all empires rely on violence, often extreme violence, to perpetuate their own existence, they also seek to preserve and rule the conquered rather than eradicate them.{{sfn|Häussler|Stucki|Veracini|2022|pp=219–220}} Although the desire to exploit populations was a disincentive to extermination,{{sfn|Häussler|Stucki|Veracini|2022|p=211}} imperial rule could lead to genocide when resistance emerged.{{sfn|Häussler|Stucki|Veracini|2022|pp=219–220}} Ancient and medieval genocides were often committed by empires.{{sfn|Lemos|Taylor|Kiernan|2023|p=43}} Unlike traditional empires, [[settler colonialism]]—particularly associated with the settlement of Europeans outside of Europe—is characterized by militarized populations of settlers in remote areas beyond effective state control. Rather than labor or economic surplus, the settlers want to acquire land from indigenous people{{sfn|Häussler|Stucki|Veracini|2022|pp=212–213}} making genocide more likely than with classical colonialism.{{sfn|Häussler|Stucki|Veracini|2022|pp=218–219}} While the lack of law enforcement on the frontier ensured [[impunity]] for settler violence, the advance of state authority enabled settlers to consolidate their gains using the legal system.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=45–46}}

Genocide was committed on a large scale during both [[world war]]s. The prototypical genocide, the Holocaust, involved such large-scale logistics that it reinforced the impression that genocide was the result of civilization drifting off course and required both the "weapons and infrastructure of the modern state and the radical ambitions of the modern man".{{sfn|Kiernan ''et al.''|2023|p=7}} [[Scientific racism]] and nationalism were common ideological drivers of many twentieth century genocides.{{sfn|Kiernan ''et al.''|2023|p=8}} After the horrors of [[World War II]], world leaders attempted to proscribe genocide via the Genocide Convention. Despite the promise of [[never again]] and the international effort to outlaw genocide, it has continued to occur repeatedly into the twenty-first century.{{sfn|Ochab|Alton|2022|pp=1–2}}
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