A question has been asked by historians: "Is genocide determined
by the structure of European civilization?" The question seems a little
strange: that "civilization", the
"enlightenment" should be fused with
"genocide"? However, historian Lucy Dawidowicz
points out the importance of "continuity" in
history, and racism, including genocides seem quite common in western
"civilization" starting in the 15th century (even before, considering
the Knights Templar). Is it possible that genocide is an integral and
necessary consequence of Western civilization? How long has
racial genocide been a conscious factor in Western civilization?
Genocide (not simply murdering large numbers of people) is hardly new,
what is new is that now it is practiced using industrial methods of
efficiency, covered up with the nice-sounding title of the "enlightenment".
To be more precise, when it is said that "Is it possible that genocide
is an integral and necessary part of Western civilization?" what is
being questioned is that a "saltus" or break in historical continuity
of Western civilization may require a concerted, conscious effort to
prevent repeated genocides.
It is time to examine the historical record of Western civilization more
closely. This page proposes to do just that.
Hannah Arendt found that the Holocaust might be thought to start not at the
end of World War I, but that it in fact was a direct consequence if the
Holocausts and genocides that took place in German Southwest Africa c.
1904-1908, including the establishment of the first "death camp" (not
merely a concentration camp) at Shark Island. This has already been
discussed above in the context of modern German overseas Colonialism that
started c. 1885 and included not only GSWA, but other Colonial countries,
not limited to Africa. However, perhaps Hannah Arendt didn't go back far
enough in time? Not to criticise Hannah Arendt: a more complete history
was not her objective. In fact, it would be best to start at a clear beginning:
Sonnets, starting with Petrarchan form, then developing into the form of Wyatt,
Spenserian form, Shakespearian form, Sidney, Donne, etc. The Elizabethan poets
used abstract metaphores, starting c. 1504, as a
Renaissance rhetoric of Imperialism. Simultaneously opposing the Spanish Black
Legend of Catholicism in opposition to a Protestant religion not based upon
Popish idolatry. This rhetorik was used to support colonies in Ireland, then
the New World, such as Sir Walter Raleigh in Ireland, then South American Guiana,
and the Virgin New World of Virginia, etc. This is where the genocide of the
Enlightenment begins: the English and Ibearian Renaissance. A more detailed account:
http://estherlederberg.com/EImages/Extracurricular/Dickens%20Universe/Victorian%20Hairdressing/Maccaroni/Flash%20Macaroni.html
1632-1704: John Locke. The thesis outlined here is
that the Holocaust of World War II, started with its conscious foundation on
the North American continent by John Locke, picked up by the founding fathers
of the U.S. (Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew
Jackson, etc.) Click for John Locke.
1744-1803: This was followed by Johann Gottfried
Herder, in opposition to the racist views of his initial mentor (Immanuel Kant).
Click for Johann Herder.
1724-1804: Immanuel Kant. This being followed by
various racists and racial ideologies, including the views of
17th-18th centuries: The age of
modern slavery and Colonialism: "The Enlightenment".
1768: Voltaire Letters to Catherine the Great
(regarding their shared "Enlightnment" views of the Ottoman peoples):
"It is clear that people who neglect all the fine arts,
and who shut up women, deserve to be exterminated...".
1865-1937: Racism finally flowered in full form at
the end of World War I as full scale genocide, with its beginning in the
Baltic area by General Erich Ludendorff (Ober OST).
As Germany was losing WW1 in the Western Front, it was more successful in the
Eastern Front. Thus as negotiations to end WW1 proceeded (in the West), fighting
continued in the East. Germany was no longer to have an army, but a police force
to oppose worker uprisings, etc. was permitted. Small groups of volunteers
(Friekorps) were allowed, but so many groups that they in fact constituted an army.
After this, it is a logical step to:
1889-1945: Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust,
as industrial genocide.
This is followed by Revolver Republic, or how France attempted to take the Rhineland and
the Ruhr from Germany at the end of World War 1, thereby setting the
groundwork for the rise of Hitler during World War II, and the Friekorps.
Click here,
closely followed by Adolf Hitler: 1889-1945.
Bibliography
Authors
Title
Arneil, Barbara
"John Locke and America: The Defence of English Colonialism"
Blackbourn, David; Retallack, James: (Editors)
"Localism, Landscape, and the Ambiguities of Place: German-Speaking Central Europe, 1860-1930"
Corcoran, Paul
"John Locke on the Possession of Land: Native Title vs. the 'Principle' of Vacuum domicilium"
Freytag, Gustav
"Debit and Credit" (Soll und Haben)
Gedye, G. E. R.
"The Revolver Republic: France's Bid for the Rhine"
Hitler, Adolf
"Table Talk"
Kakel, Carroll P., III
"The American West and the Nazi East: A Comparative and Interpretive Perspective"
Liulevicius, Vejas Gabriel
"War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity and German Occupation in World War I"
Liulevicius, Vejas Gabriel
"The German Myth of the East: 1800 to the Present"
Nelson, Robert L. (Ed.)
"Germans, Poland, and Colonial Expansion to the East"
Noyes, John K.
"Herder: Aesthetics against Imperialism"
Waite, Robert G. L.
"Vanguard of Nazism: The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany, 1918-1923"
Wolff, Larry
"Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment"
Zweig, Arnold
"The Case of Sergeant Grischa" (Burned, by Hitler's orders)
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