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Genocide: The Flaw of Civilization Essay

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Until the twentieth-century, the world was unfamiliar with the newly-named phenomenon known as genocide. The first instance of the mass killing of an ethnic group that proliferated throughout world news was the Holocaust. Under the Nazi Regime, the German government indiscriminately massacred millions of Jewish men, women and children. However, the Holocaust was by no means the first occurrence of a genocide. Historical evidence reveals a pattern of massacre on the basis of ethnicity that is markedly apparent in civilizations dating back to the time of the Roman Empire. While the Holocaust gave birth to the idea of genocide, civilizations throughout history have instituted the cruel methods of mass extermination since the introduction of…show more content…
As the world progressed toward the modern age, new factors arose in the movements toward national unity. The Age of Nationalism, where people of different regions of the world felt a new sense of national identity, had roots in the liberal ideas of the French Revolution. As people of similar cultures and national origins united with one another, the idea of self-determination, or one’s ability to choose their own path in life, proliferated across the world. These ideas led to an age of national unification, namely in Germany and Italy, but also in already-established country that sought to strengthen their stature in world affairs and achieve their goal of self-determination.
The transition into the twentieth century witnessed nationalism being taken to a new level. A new concept arose that is widely regarded as “hyper-nationalism” among historical academics. This new philosophy is known as fascism. As countries like Italy and Germany unified in the late-nineteenth century, people who resided in such places thought of themselves as superior to those around them. Such ideas led first to the Turkish-Armenian Crisis, where over one million Armenians were slaughtered, and then to the infamous Holocaust under the leadership of Adolf Hitler (Kifner). As fascist dictators rose in nations across Europe, the dangerous hyper-nationalism proliferated. Resulting from the extreme nationalist movements were genocides in the name of national
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