Civilized vs Primitive part 2; Cross Comparisons of Genocidal Cultures

So what is worse? "Primitive" societies or "civilized" societies? Political correctness would say the "civilized" is worse. I will now analyze that below with one case of genocide by a "primitive" society and one case by a "civilized" society.

1. Taranaki Maoris; When the Taranaki Maoris invaded the Chatham Islands, they immediately started to slaughter the native pacifistic Morioris who refused to fight back. They cannibalized the men and raped the women. Soon the last Morioris died in 1933.

2. Nazi Germany; The Nazi regime started its infamous genocidal campaign known as the Holocaust against the Jews. Thousands of Jews were brunt in ovens, gassed, shot, or starved to death. Some countries (Poland) lost 90% of its Jewish population.

So who is worse, the "primitive" Taranaki Maoris or the "civilized" Nazis.

Categorizing Popular Media Depicting Indigenous Populations; Civilized vs Primitive part 1

In simplified terms, popular media depictions of Indigenous populations can fall under 2 categories. The categories are Hobbseian and Rousseauan. The Hobbseian category is the "mindless savage" stereotype of hyper violent natives cannibalizing and scalping everybody that comes in their path. The Roussean category is the exact opposite, with the natives being peaceful and "one with their environment". These are some popular media depictions of both stereotypes.

Roussean;
1. Avatar (2011)
2. Pocahontas (1995)
3. Dances with Wolves (1990)
4. The Gods must be Crazy (1980)
5. An American Tail; The Treasure of Manhattan Island (1998)

Hobbesian;
1. Some episodes of various Scooby Doo series (c.70s)
2. Peter Pan (1953)
3. Savage Sam (1963)
4. Various Gilligan's Island episodes (1967)
If you are noticing a tread in these films, it is because in the earlier films, the Hobbesian prototype was more popular while politically correct movement was hardly noticeable. With the rise of the politically correct movement in the 80s and 90s, the Rousseauan stereotype became more popular, the movie industry started to become more sympathetic to indigenous populations depicted. I will take about my personal opinion about the stereotypes in the next post.

Analyze of Taping Revolt Painting

This painting is unusual since it claims that its subject matter is Taiping rebels capturing a British Officer.  The rebels in the painting still have pigtails, something the Taiping banned. None of the rebels have the Taiping headscarf. I have 3 possible theories for this. Theory number one is just that the painting suffers Victorian fancifulness, the artist might of had a poor understanding of the subject matter. Thus he depicted the rebels as stereotypical Chinese people. Theory number two is that the painting could be depicting rebel societies like the Small Swords that are only theoretically controlled by the Taipings, thus ignoring Taiping dress regulation. Theory number three is that painting could be actually be depicting the Boxer Revolt, and the painting is just mislabeled.

Splintering among Factions in the Sudan Civil Wars (South and Darfur)

In revolts in both the South and Darfur, rebel factions (along with pro government militias) are highly prone to infighting and splinting off, something that the Sudanese government took advantage of. The most famous rebel faction, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) had one notable split in 1991 that had surprising results. The split occurred when the Nuer tribal leaders wanted to replace the SPLA leader John Garanger. The coup failed, and the the Nuer plotters eventually became their own faction SPLA-Nasir. SPLA-Nasir somewhat bizarrely became a pro-government militia (the faction eventually resulted in the South Sudan Defense Forces or SSDF, which we will talk about latter in this post). The SPLA had at least 9 other warring splinter factions. In Darfur, all major factions suffered the curse of infighting and splinter factions. The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) suffered splits due to "unfair elections" withing the faction. The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) had the Liberation and Justice Splinter (LJM) splinter faction. Eventually two SLA splinter factions, JEM, and a splinter faction of the SPLA formed an alliance against the Sudanese government. The allaince is known as the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF). Even pro government (or at least in theory) militias are prone to split. Some factions of the SSDF split off like the South Sudan Unity Movement (SSUM) from the main organization and became a rebel group. Most factions of the SSDF became part of the SPLA rebel group. The Janjaweed (a brand name for pro government "Arab" tribal militias) of Darfur had a nasty incident of infighting when one member of a tribe in the Janjaweed shot another member of the Janjaweed form a rival tribe over stolen cattle. The resulting violence ended with Janjaweed tribesmen shooting everything in sight.

Ukriane Insurgent Army

The Ukraine Insurgent Army (UPA) was an partisan army that fought both the Axis and Allied armies (they fought Nazi Germany and the Soviets) in WW2, they manly fought the Soviet NKVD. They became infamous for their frequent massacres of the Poles and Jews, which was taken advantage of and mislabeled by Soviet propaganda as Nazi collaborators (which was false, because the UPA fought the Nazis as much as the fought against the Soviets). They were eventually defeated by the USSR in the 50's. The Ukraine Insurgent Army was influnced by the earlier Makhnovists in the Russian Civil War (which I will cover in a latter post).

North Yemen Civil War

The North Yemen Civil War is one of the many forgotten wars of this century. The Egyptian's military intervened when the Republicans overthrew Muhammad al-Badr's Monarchical regime. The pro royalist tribesmen then revolt against the Republican regime supporting the deposed royalist family. The Egyptians intervened on the side of the Republicans. The war that ensured was so disastrous for the Egyptian military that Egyptian historians say that "America's Vietnam War should have been called America's Yemen". The Egyptian military even resorted to using chemical weapons against the Royalist tribesmen. Dispute the disaster for the Egyptians, the war ended with a somewhat coalition government between the Royalists and the Republicans. The Royalists had several key members in the North Yemen government, but the Royalist family was excluded from power. The war ended with a Republican victory.

Criticism of Children at War

P.W. Singer's work "Children at War" is a great source with flaws. The works most glaring flaws is that it claims before WW2, civilians (especially children) were "never targeted by any combatants before the pre-WW2 era". This claim is almost comically inflated if the subject matter wasn't so tragic. In fact countless examples of armies deliberately targeting combatants before WW2 is so common, that I can't even put a small percentage of examples on this post. However, I will post some cases in my post of civilian massacres before WW2.
1. In the Japanese invasion of Korea in the 17th century, Japanese army has been known to sack towns and massacre every living thing they encounter. In the words of one commander "we beheading everybody of all ages and genders. Even cats and dogs were beheaded".
2. In the Peloponnesian War, a couple of Thraican mercenaries stormed a boys school and killed every single child in the school.
3. When Fredrick Barbarossa besieged the city state of Crema, he even catapulted childern aganist the walls.
4. The Mongols are notorious for slaughtering entire cities, even killing the cats and dogs. One source when mentioned the massacre of the Tanguts for refusing to give the Mongols horses, mentioned that "we might never get records from the Tanguts, since nobody survived to record the events"
Although the work has it's flaws, its greatest strength is that it gives great information on many non-state groups around the world. It would have been better if Singer give his Achilles's heel some armor.

Spanish Conflicts with the Guanches

In the Canary Islands, the Spanish had conflicts with the mysterious neolithic inhabitants known as the Guanches. The Spanish made several attempts to enslave the natives, and after several defeats. The Guanches temporarily drive the Spanish away. The most notable defeat inflicted on the Spanish is the Guanches destroy 80% of the Spanish army (which was armed with metal weapons and guns) with literally sticks and stones. However, the Spanish slowly counter attacked and crushed the resistance of the Guanches. The Guanche leaders committed suicide and soon after the complete conquest, the Guanches became extincted.

War in the Vendee

The War in the Vendee's background is that the Vendee was class differences was not as bad as it was in other parts of France, so hatred for the Monarchy, Clergy, and nobility wasn't prevalent in that region. So during the French Revolution when the radical Jacobin purged out the moderate Gourmands out of the government, they started aggressively enforcing secular laws on the Catholic church and the local peasants. The Catholic church was a big part of the Vendeean peasants lives, so they were quite alienated by the government's atheist nature. Eventually the peasants started a peasant revolt against the Jacobin government that spread through the region. The government desperately attempted to put out the revolt by using what one source called "methods of that of Nazi Germany". After several massacres and two years of war, the French Revolutionary government eventually loosened its persecution of the church in that region.

Rif War

The Rif War originated when the Spanish colonial government over Morocco was faltering, causing the hyper aggressive and independent Berber tribes to revolt. In the early stages of the war, the Berber tribes virtually annihilated the weak Spanish army and capturing 130 Spanish posts. The Berber tribes got so powerful that they even got an air force and they sank a Spanish warship. Seeing the Spanish doing poorly and the revolt was threatening their rule over Morocco, the French intervened in the War on the side of the Spanish. Soon the combined manpower of the French and the Spanish, along with much improved logistics, soon triumphed over the Berber tribes. Cruelty was practiced by both the Spanish and the Berber tribes. The Berber tribes hacked their Spanish prisoners almost immediately, even tied two Spanish commanders together and burned them alive. The Spanish in return used chemical weapons against the Berber tribes, along with collecting the heads of Berber tribesmen.

Wars of Hawaiian Unification

The War of Hawaiian Unification was a violent power-strugle between various rival kingdoms, which mainly was the Kingdom of Hawaii (the coalition of cheifdoms led by Kamehameha) and its rivals in Modern Day Hawaii. The war was fought with both native and Western technologies. After almost a decade of war, Kamehameha conquered his rivals with the help of his somewhat unwilling Western Advisers (namely John Young). The War was savagely fought with one battle, Kamehameha literally drove his opponents off cliffs with the help of muskets.