I mean, if we’re talking genocidal regimes of the 20th century? Germany and Japan had a really late start compared to the Americans, the British, and the Dutch.
The Germans are primarily vilified for killing other Europeans. But King Leopold’s Holocaust in the Congo Free States was nightmarish, killing as many as 13M local residents in pursuit of cheap rubber and lumber. Nevermind British massacres in India, Ireland, and Kenya.
However you slice it, the targets of these war machines are inevitably civilian. Either direct war on industrial centers to limit war time production or indirect siege of a city through embargo or attacks on transports and commercial shipping inevitably and intentionally murders the most vulnerable first and foremost.
But killing civilians wasn’t taboo at the time
Still isn’t. All war is, at its heart, a civilian slaughter. The only real way to bring a population to heel is to terrorize them past the point of resistance. From the German conquest of Poland to the American firebombing of Tokyo, mass murder of civilians plays a central role in extorting surrender.
I mean, if we’re talking genocidal regimes of the 20th century? Germany and Japan had a really late start compared to the Americans, the British, and the Dutch.
The Germans are primarily vilified for killing other Europeans. But King Leopold’s Holocaust in the Congo Free States was nightmarish, killing as many as 13M local residents in pursuit of cheap rubber and lumber. Nevermind British massacres in India, Ireland, and Kenya.
However you slice it, the targets of these war machines are inevitably civilian. Either direct war on industrial centers to limit war time production or indirect siege of a city through embargo or attacks on transports and commercial shipping inevitably and intentionally murders the most vulnerable first and foremost.
Still isn’t. All war is, at its heart, a civilian slaughter. The only real way to bring a population to heel is to terrorize them past the point of resistance. From the German conquest of Poland to the American firebombing of Tokyo, mass murder of civilians plays a central role in extorting surrender.