Genocide of the 20th century

  • The Congo

    The Congo
    King Leopold of Belgium commits genocide on the people of Congo by systematically killing, raping and torturing 5-21 million people. The numbers are vague because this was when genocide was not publicly recognized as a crime,
  • Period: to

    Genocide of the 20th century

  • any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including: (a) killing members of the group (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c) deliberately

  • Censorship of all telegraphic communication is announced by the government.

  • The first Armenians are killed

    The first Armenians are killed
    1,080 shops owned by Armenians are burned in the city of Diyarbekir.
  • Armenians are mass murdered

    Armenians are mass murdered
    Mass executions of Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army takes place in various public squares for the purpose of terrorizing the Armenians. Moreover, Armenians are killed by suffocation, mass burnings, drug or poisions and concentration camps
  • The Allied forces capture Damascus.

    This then lead to the liberation of other cities including Beirut. The numbers are not definite in this genocide, scholars argue between 500 000-1 5 000 000 died in this genocide
  • Josef Stalin becomes dictator of Russia

    Josef Stalin becomes dictator of Russia
    After Vladmir Lenin's death, Stalin rose to power
  • New economic plans for Russia

    Stalin launches a period of rapid industrialization and economic collectivization, this is the main cause of the famine that would occur in the later years
  • 6-7 million people in Ukraine, North Caucasus, and Kazakhstan die

    6-7 million people in Ukraine, North Caucasus, and Kazakhstan die
    Due to rapid industrialization this causes a famine throughout all of the USSR as he was exporting any available food to other countries to increase the Russian economy only causing his people to starve to death
  • Hitler becomes Chancellor

    Hitler becomes Chancellor
    Comes into power and begins his conquest to cnoquer the world
  • The Nurenburg Race Laws are implemented

    The Nurenburg Race Laws are implemented
    The Nurenburg laws are implemented in German society, depriving Jewish people of their citzenship and rights
  • Kolyma: The Arctic Death camps

    Kolyma: The Arctic Death camps
    An area near Siberia was said to have gold, platinum and uranium and after the purges Stalin decides to send the well-educated academics to mine for gold. At this time there were about 70 000 men in the mines who thought they were mining for gold but in reality were sent to die
  • The launch of the Great Terror

    The launch of the Great Terror
    After the forced famine and millions dead Stalin decides that the only way to maintain the tyrannical socialist empire in power was to kill any enemies or opposers to his beliefs and attacked the entire population
  • Stalin

    Stalin
    10 million people are dead and Stalin states “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.”
  • World War II begins

    Hitler and his army invade Poland, breaking appeasement and peace treaties that the world could not ignore any longer.
  • The Holocaust

    The Holocaust
    The first concentration camp sight, Krakow, is constructed and the first Jews deported from Germany and Poland are sent to this sight
  • Map of the concentration camps in Europe

    Map of the concentration camps in Europe
  • The word genocide is created

    The word genocide is created
    Writer and doctor, Raphael Lemkin, coins the word genocide after he sees the horrific events of the Holocaust and realizes this ought to be considered a war crime
  • The first Jews are liberated from the concentration camps

    The first Jews are liberated from the concentration camps
    Russian troops liberate the first concentration camp, at Majdanek where over 360,000 had been murdered
  • Hitler commits suicide

  • The Allies free all the concentration camps

    At this point after the war the Allies were marching in and saving as many Jews as they could, however, over the 6 year span approximately 12 000 000 Jews and others were killed due to Hitler's regime
  • The Korean War begins

    The Korean War begins
    The Communist North and invaded the south. The Chinese entered the war and the UN forces were pushed into a Christmas retreat. 2.5 million people were killed
  • The Workers' Party of Korea was officially founded.

    The Workers' Party of Korea was officially founded.
  • The PLA of China occupies the city of Changchun

    160 000 Chinese civilians are dead
  • Genocide is defined by the United Nations

    The UN creates the definition of genocide:
    any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including: (a) killing members of the group (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) forcibly transferr
  • Mao Zedong

    Mao Zedong
    a Han Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and communist leader who lead the People's Republic of China. He remains a controversial topic because he was known as a great revolutionary, political strategist, military mastermind, and savior of the nation. Yet was also responsible for the death of 40-70 million due to his damage to China
  • Josef Stalin dies

    Josef Stalin dies in his sleep, arguably from a stroke after killing
    Arrests, 1937-1938 - about 7 million
    Executed - about 1 million
    Died in camps - about 2 million
    In prison, late 1938 - about 1 million
    In camps, late 1938 - about 8 million making him one of the bloodiest, worst dictators in history
  • The camps of Kolyma in Siberia are finally closed

    After no less than 3 million deaths in the Arctic death camps they are finally closed by international forces
  • The Great Leap Forward

    The Great Leap Forward
    Mao introduces a new economic plan for growtth, similar to Soviet Union yet the same result occurs and 20-43 million are starved to death
    "The most vulnerable section of China's population, around five per cent, were those whom Mao called 'enemies of the people'. Anyone who had in previous campaigns of repression been labeled a 'black element' was given the lowest priority in the allocation of food. Landlords, rich peasants, former members of the nationalist regime, religious leaders, rightists"
  • Rwanda becomes independent

    Aftter years of colonization from the Belgians, Rwanda is granted independence and is under Hutu government causing many Tutsis to leave Rwanda
  • Mao launches the Cultural Revolution

    Mao launches the Cultural Revolution
    In order to regenerate spirit of the Chinese revolution Mao threw China's cities into turmoil in a monumental effort to reverse the historic processes occuring in China. Mao was told that China was heading in the same direction of the Soviet Union
  • Mao sent in the army to restore order to cities

    Most cities were collapsing and falling apart, so Mao sent in the Chinese army and forces which only resulted in 1.5 million deaths
  • The Cultural Revolution (2)

    The Cultural Revolution (2)
    Mao thus ultimately adopted four goals for the Cultural
    Revolution: to replace his designated successors with leaders more faithful to his current thinking; to rectify the Chinese Communist Party; to provide China's youths with a revolutionary experience; and to achieve some specific policy changes so as to make the educational, health care, and cultural systems less elitist. These ideas are seem to be very utopian driven, the root of any genocide
  • Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge overthrow the Cambodian government

    Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge overthrow the Cambodian government
    After overthrowing the government they begin their organized and systematic mission to reconstruct Cambodia to model communist, China. Pot believed that everyone must work as labourers under one giant federation. Additionally all well-educated and academics had to be killed
  • Mao Zedong dies

  • The Khmer Rouge is overthrown

    The Khmer Rouge is overthrown
    The Vietnamese overthrow the Khmer Rouge, specifically for the systematic murder of not just Cambodians but of Vietnamese and Chinese too. Approximately 2 million are found dead
  • requested Soviet troops to provide security and to assist in the fight against the mujahideen rebels

    The Afghan government requested that the USSR send 15 to 20 helicopters with their crews to Afghanistan, and on June 16, the Soviet government responded and sent a detachment of tanks, BMPs, and crews to guard the government in Kabul and to secure the Bagram and Shindand airfields.
  • Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan

    Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan
    Under leader Breznev, 700 soviet soldiers disguised as Afghans killed president, Hafizullah Ami
  • Soviet Offensives

    Soviet Offensives
    The Soviets occupied the cities and borders. Their implementation of Soviet law lead to 2 million deaths. 5 million fled to neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. In the 1980s half of the world's refugees were Afghan
  • Soviet deployment

    Due to pressures from the US, Saudi Arabia, the UK and other Muslim countries the Soviet deployed from Afghanistan leaving millions dead and even more displaced from their homeland. Additionally, the creation of rebel groups and the country in social and civil disorder
  • The West recognizes Bosnia-Herzegovina as an independent state

    Moreover, a mortar shell fired from a Serb position in the hills of Sarajevo kills 16 people waiting in line for bread. This causes the UN to impose sanctions on Serb-led Yugoslavia.
  • The first acts of genocide are committed in Saravejo by leader, Radovan Karadzic

    The first acts of genocide are committed in Saravejo by leader, Radovan Karadzic
    reports of "ethnic cleansing," a policy of slaughtering Muslim inhabitants of towns or driving them away, in order to create an ethnically pure region
    Leader Karadzic states: "Serbs and Muslims are like cats and dogs. They cannot live together in peace. It is impossible."
  • UN Mission UNOMUR is sent to Rwanda

    UN Mission UNOMUR is sent to Rwanda
    There were always conflicts between the two groups of Rwandan people, the Hutus and the Tutsis, however with the recent creation of rebel groups among both parties, international aid was required to keep peace.
  • US and NATO threaten air strikes on Serbs if they do not stop the genocide

    However, this does not stop the Serbs from fighting, yet it does bring in the Western world and influence which causes this genocide to be less bloody
  • Habyarimana and the Burundian president are killed after their plane is shot down over Kigali

    Habyarimana and the Burundian president are killed after their plane is shot down over Kigali
    This causes the rebel group of Hutus to begin their systematic mass murder of any Tutsis or moderate Hutus in the area of Rwanda
  • Uganda Genocide

    300 000 people die due to the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) attacks which include abductions, especially of children and young people.
  • The genocide in Rwanda ends

    The genocide in Rwanda ends
    After merely 100 days of 800 000 horrific killings, the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) captures Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and begins recreating a multi-ethnic government with both Hutus and Tutsis
  • Effective military intervention finally began in Bosnia

    Effective military intervention finally began in Bosnia
    A massive NATO lead bombing campaign in Bosnia begins finally stopping the genocide. Additionally the Serbs lost against hte Muslims who were receiving arms from the Islamic world.These forces caused the genocide to be surpressed, yet 200 000 Muslims were systematically murdered
  • Pol Pot dies

    Pot dies in his home, the jungle, due to natural causes
  • Fighting breaks out between the SLA and the government

    First acts of conflicts leading up to the genocide
  • A fresh round of attacks by Arab Janjaweed militias

    A fresh round of attacks by Arab Janjaweed militias
    The Janjaweed, sent out by the government systematically began killing of citizens including the burning of villages and rape of civilians
  • The UN security council tries to take action

    Expressing its deep concern about reports of human rights abuses, the Security Council issues a presidential statement calling on Khartoum to neutralize and disarm the Janjaweed.
  • Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, makes the world aware of genocide in Darfur

    Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, makes the world aware of genocide in Darfur
    "We concluded -- I concluded -- that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility -- and that genocide may still be occurring."
  • The ICC issues arrest warrants to perpetrators of Uganda

    The warrants cite war crimes and and crimes against humanity including murder, rape, sexual slavery and enlistment of children as combatants.
  • Both sides of Uganda make peace after 12 years

    The Ugandan government establishes "return camps" to begin returning families to their villages of origin. The LRA gathers its forces in South Sudan for the time being and no new attacks are reported.
  • Economic sanctions are tried in order to stop the genocide that the government is perpetrating

    Economic sanctions are tried in order to stop the genocide that the government is perpetrating
    American President George Bush orders new economic sanctions that target government-run companies involved in Sudan's oil industry, three individuals and a rebel leader suspected of being involved in the violence in Darfur with the hope that they will pressure Khartoum to resolve the crisis.
  • The United Nations reports a death toll of 300,000 after five years of conflict.

  • The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur

    The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur
  • Members of the rebel Hutu party are being tried in the UN war crimes court

    The UN is still working to this day to bring justice to those who lost their lives in Rwanda by trying as many Tutsis involved in the genocide as they can find