Editing Romani people (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of the Romani people}}
{{See also| Timeline of Romani history}}

=== Arrival in Europe ===
According to a 2012 genomic study, the Roma reached the Balkans as early as the 12th century.<ref name="IsabelMendizabal" /> A document of 1068, describing an event in Constantinople, mentions "Atsingani", probably referring to Roma.<ref name="THiM">{{cite book |last1=Bereznay |first1=András |title=Historical Atlas of the Gypsies: Romani History in Maps |date=2021 |publisher=Méry Ratio |isbn=978-615-6284-10-5 |page=18/1}}</ref>

Later historical records of the Roma reaching southeastern Europe are from the 14th century: in 1322, after leaving Ireland on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Irish [[Franciscan]] friar [[Symon Semeonis]] encountered a migrant group of Roma outside the town of Candia (modern [[Heraklion]]), in [[Crete]], calling them "the [[Kenites|descendants]] of [[Cain]]"; his account is the earliest surviving description by a western chronicler of the Roma in Europe.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://rm.coe.int/arrival-in-europe-factsheets-on-romani-history/16808b1908 |title=Arrival in Europe}}</ref>

In 1350, [[Ludolph of Saxony]] mentioned a similar people with a unique language whom he called ''Mandapolos'', a word possibly derived from the Greek word ''mantes'' (meaning prophet or fortune teller).<ref>{{cite newsgroup |title=gypsies |first=Linda |last=Anfuso |date=24 February 1994 |newsgroup=rec.org.sca |message-id=PaN9Hc2w165w@tinhat.stonemarche.org |url=http://www.florilegium.org/files/CULTURES/Gypsies-msg.html |access-date=5 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824232640/http://www.florilegium.org/files/CULTURES/Gypsies-msg.html |archive-date=24 August 2007}}</ref>

In the 14th century, Roma are recorded in Venetian territories, including [[Methoni, Messenia|Methoni]] and [[Nafplio]] in the [[Peloponnese]], and Corfu.<ref name="THiM" /> Around 1360, a [[fiefdom]] called the ''[[Feudum Acinganorum]]'' was established in [[Corfu]], which mainly used Romani serfs and to which the Roma on the island were subservient.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Charles |last1=Keil |first2=Dick |last2=Blau |first3=Angeliki |last3=Keil |first4=Steven |last4=Feld |title=Bright Balkan Morning: Romani Lives and the Power of Music in Greek Macedonia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPxA6JA49B4C&pg=PA50 |date=9 December 2002 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6488-7 |pages=50–51}}</ref>

By the 1440s, they were recorded in Germany;<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ee5eOkd62BEC&pg=PA11 |title=Ethnicity and Education in England and Europe: Gangstas, Geeks and Gorjas |author1=Dr Ian Law |author2=Dr Sarah Swann |page=11 |date=28 January 2013 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |access-date=20 December 2016 |isbn=978-1-4094-9484-3}}</ref> and by the 16th century, Scotland and Sweden.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfQ4iFhXx4YC&pg=PA42 |title=Language Contact: Theoretical and Empirical Studies |author=Ernst Hĺkon Jahr |page=42 |access-date=20 December 2016 |isbn=978-3-11-012802-4 |year=1992 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter}}</ref> Some Roma migrated from [[Persia]] through north Africa, reaching the [[Iberian Peninsula]] in the 15th century. The two currents met in France.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/roughguidetoworl00simo |url-access=registration |title=World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East |publisher=Rough Guides |author1=Simon Broughton |author2=Mark Ellingham |author3=Richard Trillo |page=[https://archive.org/details/roughguidetoworl00simo/page/148 148] |access-date=20 December 2016 |isbn=978-1-85828-635-8 |year=1999}}</ref>

[[File:Spiezer Schilling 749.jpg|thumb|upright|right|First arrival of the Romanies outside [[Bern]] in the 15th century, described by the chronicler as ''getoufte heiden'' ("baptized heathens") and wearing [[Saracen]]-style clothing and weapons.<ref>{{cite book |title=Spiezer Schilling |title-link=Spiezer Schilling |place=Bern |date=1480s |last=Schilling |first=Diebold the Elder |author-link=Diebold Schilling the Elder |page=749}}</ref>]]

=== Early modern history ===
[[File:Carl d´Unker-Gipsy Family in Prison.jpg|thumb|upright|''Gypsy Family in Prison'', 1864 painting by [[Carl d´Unker]]. An actual imprisoned family in Germany served as the models. The reason for their imprisonment remains unknown.]]
Their early history shows a mixed reception. Although 1385 marks the first recorded transaction for a Romani slave in [[Wallachia]], they were issued safe conduct by [[Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund]] in 1417. Roma were ordered expelled from the [[Margraviate of Meissen|Meissen region]] of Germany in 1416, [[Lucerne]] in 1471, [[Milan]] in 1493, France in 1504, [[Catalonia]] in 1512, Sweden in 1525, [[Kingdom of England|England]] in 1530 (see [[Egyptians Act 1530]]), and Denmark in 1536. From 1510 onwards, any Rom found in Switzerland was to be executed, while in England (beginning in 1554) and Denmark (beginning of 1589) any Rom who did not leave within a month was to be executed. [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]] began deportations of Roma to its [[Colonial Brazil|colonies]] in 1538.<ref name="kenrick">{{Cite book |first=Donald |last=Kenrick |title=Historical Dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanis) |edition=2nd |publisher=Scarecrow Press |date=5 July 2007 |pages=xx–xxii |isbn=978-0-8108-6440-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/atozofgypsiesrom0000unse}}</ref>

A 1596 English statute gave Roma special privileges that other wanderers lacked. France passed a similar law in 1683. [[Catherine the Great of Russia]] declared the Roma "crown slaves" (a status superior to [[serfs]]), but also kept them out of certain parts of [[St. Petersburg, Russia|the capital]].<ref name="Norman Davies 1996 387–388">{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Davies |title=Europe: A History |author-link=Norman Davies |isbn=978-0-19-820171-7 |year=1996 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/europehistory00davi_0/page/387 387–88] |title-link=Europe: A History |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> In 1595, [[Ștefan Răzvan]] overcame his birth into slavery, and became the [[Voivode]] ([[List of Moldavian rulers|Prince]]) of [[Moldavia]].<ref name="kenrick" />

Since a royal edict by [[Charles II of Spain|Charles II]] in 1695, Spanish Roma had been restricted to certain towns.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/roma/Source/FS2/3.3_roundup-spain_english.pdf |author=Antonio Gómez Alfaro |title=The Great "Gypsy" Round-up in Spain |page=4}}</ref> An official edict in 1717 restricted them to only 75 towns and districts, so that they would not be concentrated in any one region. In the [[Great Gypsy Round-up]], Roma were arrested and imprisoned by the [[Spanish Monarchy]] in 1749.

During the latter part of the 17th century, around the [[Franco-Dutch War]], both France and the Dutch Republic needed thousands of men to fight. Some recruitment took the form of rounding up vagrants and the poor to work the galleys and provide the armies' labour force. With this background, Roma were targets of both the French and the Dutch.<ref name="Western Europe">{{cite web |url=https://rm.coe.int/western-europe-factsheets-on-romani-history/16808b19e4 |title=Western Europe}}</ref>

After the wars, and into the first decade of the 18th century, Roma were slaughtered with impunity throughout the Dutch Republic. Roma, called 'heiden' (‘heathens’) by the Dutch, wandered throughout the rural areas of Europe and became the societal pariahs of the age. ''Heidenjachten'', translated as "heathen hunt" happened throughout the Dutch Republic in an attempt to eradicate them.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Another Darkness Another Dawn |last=Taylor |first=Becky |publisher=Reaktion Books Ltd. |year=2014 |location=London UK |pages=72 |isbn=978-1-78023-257-7}}</ref>

Although some Roma could be kept as slaves in Wallachia and Moldavia until [[abolitionism|abolition]] in 1856, the majority traveled as free nomads with their wagons, as alluded to in the spoked wheel symbol in the [[Romani flag]].{{sfn|Hancock|2001|p=25}} Elsewhere in Europe, they were subjected to [[ethnic cleansing]], abduction of their children, and [[forced labour]]. In Britain, Roma were sometimes expelled from small communities or hanged; in France, they were branded, and their heads were shaved; in [[Moravia]] and [[Bohemia]], the women were marked by their ears being severed. As a result, large groups of the Roma moved to the East, toward [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Poland]], which was more tolerant, and [[Ruska Roma|Russia]], where the Roma were treated more fairly as long as they paid the annual taxes.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8136812.stm |first=Delia |last=Radu |title='On the Road': Centuries of Roma History |publisher=BBC |newspaper=World Service |date=8 July 2009}}</ref>

=== Modern history ===
[[File:Romani palm reading, Santiago, Chile, 1944.png|thumb|upright|Romani woman conducting a [[palm reading]] in [[Chile]], 1944]]
Roma began emigrating to North America in colonial times, with small groups recorded in [[Virginia]] and [[Louisiana (New France)|French Louisiana]]. Larger-scale [[Roma emigration to the United States]] began in the 1860s, with Romanichal groups from Great Britain. The most significant number immigrated in the early 20th century, mainly from the Vlax group of [[Kalderash]]. Many Roma also settled in South America.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.sas.upenn.edu/earlyamericanstudies/2022/03/16/romani-history-is-american-history |title=Romani History is American History |website=EAS Miscellany |access-date=27 January 2024}}</ref>

==== World War II ====
{{Main|Romani Holocaust}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv R 165 Bild-244-52, Asperg, Deportation von Sinti und Roma.jpg|thumb|[[Sinti]] and other Roma about to be deported from Germany, 22 May 1940]]
During [[World War II]] and [[the Holocaust]], the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]] committed a systematic [[genocide]] against the Roma. In the [[Romani language]], this genocide is known as the ''Porajmos''.<ref name="Milton estimates">{{cite web |url=http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en&articles=true |title=Romanies and the holocaust: a reevaluation and an overview |website=Radoc.net |first=Ian |last=Hancock |access-date=14 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305105001/http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en&articles=true |archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> Romanies were marked for extermination and sentenced to forced labor and imprisonment in [[concentration camp]]s. They were often killed on sight, especially by the [[Einsatzgruppen]] (paramilitary death squads) on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005130 |title=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=2 December 2012}}</ref> The total number of victims has been variously estimated at between 220,000 and 1,500,000.<ref name="hancock2005">{{Cite book |chapter=True Romanies and the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation and an overview |chapter-url=http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en&articles= |last=Hancock |first=Ian |title=The Historiography of the Holocaust |isbn=978-1-4039-9927-6 |pages=383–96 |year=2005 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |access-date=14 February 2009 |archive-date=9 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190609233028/http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en&articles=}}</ref>

The Roma were also persecuted in Nazi [[puppet state]]s. In the [[Independent State of Croatia]], the [[Ustaša]] killed almost the entire Romani population of 25,000. The concentration camp system of [[Jasenovac]], run by the Ustaša militia and the Croat political police, was responsible for the deaths of between 15,000 and 20,000 Roma.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005219 |title=GENOCIDE OF EUROPEAN ROMA (GYPSIES), 1939–1945 |publisher=Holocaust Encyclopedia |access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref>

==== Post-1945 ====
In [[Czechoslovakia]], they were labeled a "socially degraded stratum", and Romani women [[Sterilization of Romani women|were sterilized]] as part of a state policy to reduce their population. This policy was implemented with large financial incentives, with threats of denying future welfare payments, with misinformation, or after administering drugs.{{Sfn |Silverman |1995}}{{Sfn |Helsinki Watch |1991}}

An official inquiry from the Czech Republic, resulting in a report (December 2005), concluded that the Communist authorities had practised an assimilation policy towards Roma, which "included efforts by social services to control the birth rate in the Romani community. The problem of sexual sterilisation carried out in the Czech Republic, either with improper motivation or illegally, exists," said the Czech Public Defender of Rights, recommending state compensation for women affected between 1973 and 1991.<ref name="Denysenko 2007">{{cite news |date=12 March 2007 |first=Marina |last=Denysenko |title=Sterilised Roma accuse Czechs |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6409699.stm |work=BBC News |access-date=15 September 2017}}</ref> New cases were revealed up until 2004, in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland "all have histories of coercive sterilization of minorities and other groups".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/August/200608171045451CJsamohT0.678158.html |first=Jeffrey |last=Thomas |date=16 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213203349/http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/August/200608171045451CJsamohT0.678158.html |archive-date=13 February 2008 |title=Coercive Sterilization of Romani Women Examined at Hearing: New report focuses on Czech Republic and Slovakia |website=Washington File |publisher=Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State}}</ref>