Genocide and Political Mass Killing in the World since 1900: Summary of Major Events
Genocide here refers to mass killing of citizens or subjects of a country, simply on the basis of their “race,” ethnicity, language, religion, or similar “essentialized” group identity. It grades into politicide: mass killing based on political ideology or other broad and general identification with opposing factions (as opposed to actual participation in such factions).
Sources: Otherwise unattributed figures are from Stanton 2010. Further notes from Anderson and Anderson 2014; figures in that book were based largely on Rummel 1998 but with much updating from later sources. Rummel is cited below where he is the last or best authority. Some updating from general media since 2014. Stanton’s figures are consistently higher than Rummel’s, reflecting better historical scholarship on these topics, and also more killing in many countries, since Rummel’s count, which ended in 1987.
N=100 countries, ca. 115 cases ranging from low-level ongoing politicide to full genocide. These include 13 major genocides. Many cases are ongoing murder with occasional over long periods, notably settler wars in 19th-century US and 19th and 20th century Brazil.
Not all that is below is genocide. Some cases, notably in the Middle East, are currently unclear. We have no idea how much killing is cold-blooded murder by government of its own peaceable subjects (i.e. genocide) and how much is wartime massacre. This makes comparison of the extent of genocide impossible in many, even most, cases. Clear genocide blends into war. To start with our first case, Afghanistan saw clear genocide of the Hazaras under the Taliban; mass killing of civilians for various reasons by them and by warlords; and a great deal of indiscriminate murder of anyone in the way of battle during the endemic wars. Indonesia in 1965-66 saw genocide, rebellion, civil war, and mob violence, all going on in different places at the same time, or in the same place at different times, but with actual genocide clearly the major killer. Sorting out numbers in such cases is impossible. The same applies to other failed-state cases, including Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and many more.
Many had multiple cases of murderous autocracies, especially when fascist (or, in the USSR case, repressive tsarist) countries transitioned to communism, with murderous regimes both times (n=11; China, Cuba, USSR, east Europe).
Interesting is that the few Communist regimes remaining have proved the most durable and the most genocidal of the classes of dictatorship. A close second is the theocracies. These are currently all Muslim but have not always been so. Christians carried out genocide in Lebanon in its civil war, and Christian genocide of Muslims was nipped in the bud in the Central African Republic in 2014. Fascism is much less durable; there are currently no really genocidal fascist regimes, in spite of several elected fascist governments (including that of the US as well as Turkey, India, Hungary, and perhaps a few other cases). These regimes may turn genocidal in time, however. Military dictatorships are especially prone to fade away. Myanmar’s is tenacious, but civic action led to the end of military rule in South Korea, Taiwan, and many other countries, and a rather chaotic alternation of militarism and civic government in Thailand.
“Democratically” elected regimes are starred. Usually the democracy was far from perfect. N=19. Some of these, most famously Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini (and also Philippines under Marcos), declared dictatorship before starting the actual genocide. Most, however, did not; they killed in spite of constitutional prohibitions. They are sometimes called “imperfect” or otherwise suspect, but Hollie Nyseth Brehm (2015, 2017) points out that they may be especially high-risk simply because they are democracies—the government being insecure and subject to defeat in elections. If they are consumed by exclusionary passions, they may move to killing.
Several brief episodes of terror in small nations are omitted here.
Major conclusion: In all cases, regimes took power through conflict, or rarely through democratic election, but often directly and solely through whipping up hate. Economic factors such as poverty, downward mobility, and local inequalities sometimes appear to be causative, but not reliably enough to predict anything. Extremist political ideology is predictive. So is chaotic conflict.
Afghanistan: 1978-present: “tens of thousands” when kingdom fell to communist government and it consolidated in and after 1978 (Totten and Bartrop 4); 228,000 by 1987 (Rummel); countless since. Impossible to sort out genocide from ordinary war or to get accurate counts, but well over a million people have died violently, most of them noncombatants. Massive persecution of Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Monguors, and other specific groups at least sometimes count as genocidal, especially Taliban killings. (The Taliban are largely Pashtun/Afghan.) These include killing of 50,000 in 1996-2001 with apparent intent to exterminate the Hazaras or at least destroy their culture.
Albania: 1941-1945, ca. 50,000, during the fascist-dominated period, Jews and religious leaders, during wartime; later another 50,000 or more, under communism (especially during consolidation, but then ongoing under Enver Hoxha), when any and all dissidents were targeted.
Algeria: 1953-1963, French genocidal repression of independence movement, 160,000 (civil war as excuse, but mass terror quite typical); subsequent genocide of secular elements by militant Islam 1991-2005 (largely in two separate episodes), 200,000 (some real combat here, and war deaths are included in this total, so actual genocide is substantially less though still serious).
Angola: 1961-1962: suppression of independence movements; 40,000, especially Kongo ethnics. 1975-2002, civil war for independence followed by random killing; about 500,000 Umbundu-Ovumbundu in genocidal suppression campaigns. Civil wars with attendant genocides.
Argentina: During the rule by the “Colonels,” 1976-1983: at least 20,000, probably 30,000; Jews, Communists, leftists, dissidents. Ongoing and increasing repression characterized the period until the “Colonels” lost power.
Armenia: thousands of killings in war with Azerbaijan, 1988-1994; marginally genocide (largely ordinary warfare). For the great Armenian genocide, see Turkey.
*Australia: Aboriginals; small and uncertain numbers, but, as proportion of total, an enormous genocide. Deliberate destruction of culture (banning of language, destroying hunting and foraging grounds, etc.) much more prevalent than killing, but plenty of killing in early decades. This largely ended by 1930, but Aboriginals were not legally citizens till the 1970s. Cultural destruction continues, but worse now is ecocide (Short 2016:127-158), though using Aboriginal lands as outright sacrifice zones is far less easy than once.
Austria: fascism in WWII; Jews and others; wartime; generally counted under the “six million” of the Nazi genocide, since Austria was part of Germany at the time.
Azerbaijan: 1988-1994: some tens of thousands of Armenians; Armenian army reciprocated with some thousands of killings. War situation, so the number of innocents killed solely for their identity is unknown.
Bangladesh: 1971-1975; non-Bengali Muslims, Hindus. At least 25,000 (a very low estimate) in what was otherwise a war of independence for Bangladesh. Many non-Bengali Muslims were driven out of the new nation in “ethnic cleansing” operations; many of these died of disease and malnutrition in refugee camps. 1980s (and to some extent ongoing), near-genocidal killings by the government of local hill peoples, largely to open their areas to wider exploitation (Levene 2010), making these a modern-day case of settler genocide.
Belgium: Largely before our time frame but overlapping with it, King Leopold II oversaw the killing of perhaps as many as 8,000,000 in his empire from 1886 to 1908.
*Bosnia: 1992-1998: Ca. 100,000 killed, largely by Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbian government, also massacres by Croatians and Bosnians. Muslims were singled out for “ethnic cleansing,” the euphemism (for genocide or expulsion) that was used in this case. However, Catholics and other religious minorities (as opposed to the Eastern Orthodox dominant in Serbia) were also subjected to mass killing. Related were thousands of deaths in Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia as part of general conflict and Milosevic government action. Situation of regime consolidation, but then simply genocide without any real trigger—a rather rare case.
*Brazil: throughout history, and ongoing, anti-Native American bias leads to regular genocide or genocidal treatment of Native American groups. Sometimes expanded to local mixed-“race” people, as in the genocidal repression of the “backlands” rebellion of the late 19th century. Many separate episodes; about 300,000 killed in 1945-1964 under repressive military regimes. Totals otherwise unknown and obscure, but many Indigenous tribes have simply vanished over the years. Ecocide—massive deforestation, dam-building, and the like—has led to mass displacements and frequent deaths.
Bulgaria: 222,000 (Rummel). Most deaths due to fascism in WWII. There were, later, reactive massacres of Germans and others 1945-1948; Communism after that, largely during consolidation period. Total probably too small.
Burundi: Tutsi purges of Hutu; 1959-62, 50,000; 1972, 150,000; 1988, 25,000; 1993-1995, 100,000, but this time the Hutus were strong enough to kill 50,000 Tutsi; 1996-present, continued unrest, 100,000 or more further deaths (both groups). Regime consolidation and then simply continuing genocide.
Cambodia: especially Khmer Rouge, from 1968, especially 1975-1979; a massive, almost indiscriminate genocide targeting all educated people, Vietnamese, Cham, opponents or suspected or conceivable opponents of the regime, and Buddhist clergy (90-95% killed by Khmer Rouge admission; Totten and Bartrop 2008:53); total of at least 1.75-2 million killed. Before 1975, a few thousand Communists and Vietnamese had been eliminated. After 1979, anti-Communists, Pol Pot loyalists, conceived opponents, few thousand (plus several tens of thousands in civil war 1979-80 and some following action). Total deaths in Cambodia during the whole period probably 3,000,000, but some of that is war death, not genocide. See details in Kiernan (2007) and sources cited there. Consolidation moving into wartime situation.
Central African Republic: Under the Bokassa military dictatorship (“Central African Empire”): real and imagined opponents including whole local groups were targeted. This was ongoing for some years. “Not even approximate figures exist” (Anderson and Anderson 2015:162). Much more recently (2010-2013), escalating conflict between Christians and Muslims was beginning to lead toward genocide, but was stopped by prompt action of other African states and international observers, in a very rare case of preventing genocide (Brown 2013).
Chad: 1965-1996, ca. 10,000 deaths in civil wars. More serious genocide 2005-2010 from Sudanese army incursions and their Chadian collaborators, targeting Darfuri and related groups; several thousand; totals uncertain.
Chile: Dictatorship of Pinochet, 1973-1989: 3000-10,000+ leftists, dissidents, protestors. Consolidation, then ongoing repression. Though small compared to most genocides, this one was cruel, bloody, and without even the pretense of excuse in rebellion or civil unrest, so it has become notorious. Also, CIA involvement (Feierstein 2010), and support by conservative economists (such as Milton Freeman and Friedrich Hayek) for Augusto Pinochet, make it particularly embarrassing to the US on an international scale. Pinochet was forced out as dictator in 1989 but remained in control of the army until 1998. Attempts to bring him to justice were beginning to look hopeful, but he died in 2006.
China: Uncounted political murders in the troubled times of 1911-1937. Then Japanese occupation and widespread genocide. (In parts of China under full Japanese control, this was not war in a foreign country but simple genocide). Possibly 4 to 6 million dead; 300,000 in the rape of Nanking (1937) alone (Totten and Bartrop 2008:69). 1948-present: non-Communists, dissidents, protestors; religious persons, Uighur, Tibetans (at least 1,200,000 Tibetans, probably more); to some extent other non-Han. Also religious repression; under Mao, all religions; more recently, only Falun Gong and locally Christians, but totals many thousand. Several separate episodes. Consolidation of the regime at first involved 3 million deaths (Totten and Bartrop 2008:269). Famine in the Great Leap Forward killed another 45,000,000 (Dikotter 2010). The Great Cultural Revolution, and further savage racist repression under Xi Jinping, killed perhaps as many again; numbers are dubious. The full total from 1948 to 1976, under Mao, is unclear, but well over 50 million. Since then deaths are uncounted and hard to classify, but at least many thousand. See details in Anderson and Anderson 2014:163-164.
*Colombia: Civil war, especially 1948-1958, but continuous since, flaring up after 1975, with peace finally achieved in 2016; totals at least 200,000, but impossible to sort out genocide, civil war, and sheer crime, since drug gangs did much of the killing and were often fused with government or anti-government militias. Rummel (1998) est. 152,000 genocidal. See Arturo Escobar’s great work Territories of Difference (2008) for an unexcelled account of the back story.
Congo (D. R.): Belgian cruelty and mass murder, especially under King Leopold in the early 20th century, led to complete chaos and almost continual mass killing since independence, but most is by local militias, not the government. It is basically about ethnic hatreds potentiated by conflict for mineral resources such as col-tan (columbium and tantalum ore). Around 5,000,000 dead in last 30 years; impossible to sort out genocide from civil war and simple massacre. Relatively few deaths from classic genocide (government killing of peaceful people); most deaths from militia and foreign-army massacres of civilians, especially in the east. (See McDoom 2010.)
Congo (Republic): Violence around the continuing power of Denis Sassou-Nguesso has killed uncertain but small numbers of people since 1997.
Cote d’Ivoire: few thousand over decades, political repression by strongman government, possibly not qualifying as genocide. Most recently, political killings of a few dozen in 2013-2014 (World Almanac 2017:767).
*Croatia: 1991-1995: Milosevich era: some mass murder of Serbian Orthodox communities in reaction to Milosevich’s killings; genocide of Muslim communities in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina; killing of dissidents. See under Serbia below.
Cuba: both the Bautista dictatorship and Castro’s Communist regime engaged in massive politicide. Totals hard to find; estimates range from 73,000 to 141,000 for Castro (Anderson and Anderson 2014:164). Full genocide only in early Castro regime (consolidation) against anti-Communists and supposed allies thereof. Political hatreds of right and left the only real hate ideology here, but sufficient to produce much bloodshed, even in diaspora communities.
Czechoslovakia: Usual genocides in WWII under Hitler. Fascist to Communist transition period led to consolidation killings. Totals perhaps 197,000, ranging from Jews killed by fascists, to Germans killed in the postwar era by Czechs, to dissidents of all sorts killed by Communists.
Dominican Republic: brutal dictatorship in mid-20th century; few thousand in political repression campaigns. Haitian refugees/immigrants singled out for genocidal killing in the 1930s.
Egypt: regular purging of dissidents and political opponents through all modern history, but no actual genocide (several episodes, none by itself really huge, came close to turning genocidal). The current military government is accused of many killings, but estimates diverge widely.
*El Salvador: under Roberto d’Aubuisson, 1980-1992, some 75,000 leftists, centrists, any and all dissidents and protestors, and suspected personal enemies were eliminated. This is a huge number for such a small country. It involved regime consolidation and later repression. Many more disappeared. Merged into this were further massive killings—thousands—by drug gangs, which often were allied politically with one side or another. Today El Salvador is run to a gtreat extent by these gangs, with murder routine in consequence.
Eritrea: In war for independence, 1961-1991, some 750,000 Eritreans were killed by Ethiopia, largely in genocidal attacks. Since independence, about 125,000 dead in constant wars with Ethiopia, but this seems to be ordinary war, not genocide, though there are the usual wartime massacres.
Equatorial Guinea: 1958-1979, ca. 50,000, by various governments suppressing dissidents; politicide, dubiously true genocide.
Ethiopia: Under Emperor Haile Selassie, about 150,000 Oromo, Eritreans, and others killed in pacification campaigns that came close to, or were, genocide. Under the Dergue, purge of anyone suspected of dissidence, including Oromo groups and Tigre; 750,000 in full-scale genocide. Hundreds of thousands of additional deaths in government-caused famine then (and to a lesser extent since). Since 2001, about 50,000 killed in pacification campaigns; again Oromo singled out, but Anuak and other groups hit hard. Ethiopia has a violent history, and killings based on ethnicity go on almost continually (see review in de Waal 2010). Famine is once again widespread as of 2017, with doubts about political management of aid and food relief.
Fiji: torture and killings after nativist coup in 2006; democracy returned in 2014 but killings still reported by human rights organizations.
France: 70,000 Jews and anti-fascists under the Vichy government, 1940-1944. Later (1950s-1960s), murders of Algerian nationalists in Algeria’s war of independence reached genocidal levels. France has a long history as one of the major developers and perpetrators of early genocide, from the Catharist crusade to Philip the Fair’s butchery of Catholic groups he claimed were “opposing” him. Witchcraft and heretic trials, mass murder of Protestants (and some back-killing by Protestants in rare moments of power), and the Terror during the Revolution followed. In 1793-1794 the Revolutionary government dealt with opposition from the Vendée region by genocidal murder and rapine there, leading to thousands of casualties.
*Germany, also involving Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, etc.: 1933-1945, Nazi killings. The Dachau concentration camp was already in business in 1933 (Totten and Bartrop 2008:83). Mass murder of Jews and others was well under way by 1938; a detailed history of the genocides is provided by Timothy Snyder in Black Earth (2015). Hate propaganda was largely against Jews, but genocide involved Roma (including Sinti; at least a quarter million; Totten and Bartrop 2008:338), Slavs, handicapped persons of all sorts, homosexuals, dissidents, religious objectors to Nazism, and other groups, even to modern artists (“degenerate” art). The main genocides were from 1941 to 1945, especially after Hitler began to realize the war was turning against him, in 1943. 1945-1949, subsequent revenge killings often turned into genocide of Germans and others in eastern Europe, especially Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary (many episodes). The classic “six million” figure for outright genocide stands, for the 1933-1945 period. There was more genocidal political killing in East Germany with Communist consolidation. Rummel lists an oddly “accurate” figure of 20,946,000 for the whole period, but does not break it down very clearly.
Religious dissidents often saved Jews. “In the Netherlands, where catholics were predominant in some disctricts and Protestants were in others, the Catholics tended to rescue Jews where Catholics were the minority, and Protestants tended to rescue Jews where Protestants were the minority” (Snyder 2015:290).
Germany had a long history of exterminating Jews and other religious dissidents, including burning witches, especially in the 15th and 16th centuries. Germany was, of course, the origin point and main battleground in the Reformation religious wars that ultimately led an exhausted Europe to the formula cuius regio, eius religio (whoever rules, his religion) and then to religious freedom as concept and, soon, practice. Many Germans were never comfortable with this. Many others in the world, of course, are still uncomfortable with it.
Also, the Germans had perfected their genocide techniques in the Herero genocide of 1904-1907, a classic settler genocide. The Herero rebelled against German rule; the Germans decided to exterminate them, by driving them into the desert and poisoning wells, or, significantly, by confining them to camps where they died of ill-treatment. Some 60,000 or more noncombatant Herero and Nama died—80% of the Herero and 50% of the Nama (Totten and Bartrop 2008:266-267).
Germans suffered considerable revenge massacre in Poland, Hungary, and neighboring countries after WWII. At least some of this should count as genocide.
Greece: 1922: Turkish communities, refugees; conflict with Turkey and consolidation of Greek authoritarian regime. 1941-45, Jews and other Nazi-targeted groups, under wartime fascist domination; killings forced by Hitler with little Greek support. (Two separate episodes.)
*Guatemala: Rios Montt and followers, especially 1980s: Maya groups (especially Ixil), leftists, dissidents, randomly selected communities, teachers and professors, aid workers, political liberals, religious minorities, etc. At least 200,000 in outright genocide, in consolidation and civil strife. Otherwise, since 1950, countless killings in civil strife and local massacres.
Guinea: Since 1958, many thousand deaths, totals unavailable, from various civil wars and guerrilla actions. The only real genocide was spillover from Liberia-Sierra Leone conflicts in 2000-2003; several thousand deaths.
Haiti: dictatorships, often genocidal, most of 20th century, especially under “Papa Doc” Duvalier.
Honduras: political murders fairly numerous in 1980s; then few, but now reaching almost to genocide level since 2009
Hungary: fascism; Communism; *hypernationalist government currently in power has not carried out killing so far, but genocide is to be expected. About 67,000 known deaths 1945-1987 (Rummel), but this does not count German occupation, and probably undercounts Communist killings.
*India: 1947-9: Muslims, some others; considerable random killing since; in recent with tacit government approval. Hundreds of thousands; exact numbers hard to find; civil unrest more than actual genocide.
Indonesia: 1965-66, about 1,000,000 (some estimates run higher) following repression under Suharto until ca 2000: Chinese, Communists, leftists, traditionalists (locally), militant Islamists, breakaway groups in general, religious dissidents, foreigners in general (at times), ecological-environmental activists (many episodes). Since 2000, several local massacres by Muslim extremists or by government pursuing them; few thousand. (See Anderson and Anderson 2014:166-167 for details.) Also uncounted thousands in West Irian, taken by Indonesia in a straightforward colonialist move, with the native inhabitants subjected to mass murder and expropriation (Deutsch 2008). The failed attempt to take East Timor (Timor Leste) led to genocidal murder of perhaps 183,000 people (Deutsch 2008), some 20-25% of the total population.
Iran: 1953-1979: 26,000; Communists, leftists, dissidents. Post-1979, 60,000, with truly genocidal targeting of Baha’i and Zoroastrians; mass killing of royalists and other dissidents; much targeting of Sunnis, lax Shi’a Muslims, and “moral” deviants.
Iraq: Saddam, 1963-2003, ca. 190,000, any dissident groups, but especially Kurds (“between fifty thousand and one hundred eight thousand” according to Totten and Bartrop 2008:198—an all too typical bit of uncertainty about genocidal killing) and the Ma’dan marsh Arabs (numbers unclear; Totten and Bartrop 2008:270). Since then, chaos with mass killings routine (two regimes, several episodes), about 100,000 outside of actual war, but impossible to sort out war, genocide, and general violence, and figures vary greatly as to total deaths.
ISIS (Daesh): Genocide of Yazidis, Christians, and to a lesser extent Shi’a Muslims in territories under their control, especially in and around Mosul; unknown total but certainly many tens of thousands. The Anne Frank Center reports 5000 Yazidis killed as of 2017 (Facebook post, May 2017). Fazil Moradi and Kjell Anderson (2017) have analyzed this case. It was made worse by international indifference. The world simply neglected the Yazidis. Hannibal Travis (2017) has analyzed this horrible neglect in great detail, providing a model account of how the world allows genocide to happen simply because the group in question is obscure and receives little media attention. It is oddly foreshadowed by the equally horrific and equally ignored fate of the Syriac Christians (see below, Turkey).
*Israel: slowly escalating attacks on Palestinians; outright genocidal threats and some actions under the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Threats of total extermination have been made by some of Netanyahu’s cabinet members. Killings usually small and in retaliation for Palestinian or other action, but Israeli government massacres and specific targeting of civilians bring this close to genocide. Back story: militant ethnicist Israeli politics was the creation of a small group of Polish Jews who emigrated to Israel in the 1930s, including Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin. They had grown up in the nationalist environment of the day. Netanyahu is the first of this group whose native language is not Polish (Snyder 2015:336).
*Italy: 1922-1945: political opponents, later Jews. About 100,000 killed in Libya by the colonial regime in the 1920s when Libya was an Italian colony (Totten and Bartrop 2008:259).
Japan: Imperial militarism, 1920s-1940; in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China; leftists, dissidents, Koreans, Chinese, outsiders in general. Rummel estimates 5,964,000-10,595,000. Real figures may be far higher. The Rape of Nanking (1937-1938) alone killed over 300,000 (Totten and Bartrop 2008:299).
Korea, North: 1,663,000 (Rummel est), 1948-1987. Some since. Political dissidents. 1949-1953 war led to about two million deaths, many of them government killings of own peaceful but dissident subjects; subsequent killings more obviously genocidal; one million died in government-caused famine in 1995-1997; uncounted thousands of other deaths.
Korea, South: 1946-53, 150,000, Communists and regime opponents; much war killing; genocidal killing hard to sort out.
Kyrgyzstan: post-USSR autocracy: regime opponents. Few thousand deaths estimated.
Laos: 1945-60, French repression and civil war, few thousand; Pathet Lao, 1960-1975, 100,000, opponents and dissidents; since 1975, few thousand further dissidents.
*Lebanon: civil war: 1974-1991, 55,000, Christian-Muslim-Druze conflict, Christians guilty of most outright genocidal massacres. Considerable subsequent killing, not clearly genocide.
Liberia: 1990-2003, 200,000 in massacres, genocides, and some actual war; especially under Sergeant Doe, then under Charles Taylor.
Libya: Murder of opponents, suspects, unfriendly tribals under Gaddafi; total chaos after Gaddafi. Precise totals seem impossible to find.
Madagascar: 1947-1948, repression of independence movement by French, around 50,000; 2009-present, coup and subsequent murders of opponents, few thousand, but apparently not true genocide.
*Malaysia: 1950s-1960s, mass killing of Chinese and Communists—actually most of the Communists were ethnically Chinese in civil war. 1970-1972, thousands of deaths in tacitly-government-backed rioting. 1972-1980, some killing of ethnic Chinese and Communists—but, uniquely in this set, no genocide.
Mali: 1990-1993: Tuareg, few thousand. Some killing and civil strife since.
Mexico: Occasional genocides of Native American groups had gone on since the Conquest. Under the Porfirio Diaz government (the Porfiriato), 1890-1910, there was genocidal killing of Native American groups, protestors, dissidents; some groups like the Seri and Yaqui were targeted for total extermination in the late 19th century, but, amazingly, outfought the Mexican army and survived. 1910-1921, civil war and general out-of-control killing—chaotic war rather than real genocide. 1,417,00 (Rummel), mostly war deaths. Some killing of Native Americans has gone on throughout Mexico’s history, though now minor.
Mongolia: communism; political and religious repression. Numbers unclear but small.
Mozambique: 194-1975, repression; independence faction fights, 1975-1994; over 1,000,000 killed in independence war, largely in outright massacres (genocide) by Portuguese forces and South Africans (of the old apartheid regime) sympathetic to white dominance, but also by leftist resistance (Finnegan 1992; Nordstrom 1997, 2004).
Myanmar: 1962-present: Any and all minority groups, especially Chinese, Muslims; also hill tribes such as Shan; also political dissidents; well over 100,000 (Rummel counted 53,000 by 1987). The military regime has been continually genocidal, targeting almost any minority. Recently, the Rohingya Muslim community has been targeted. Killings are numerous but uncounted; some 50,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh (Bengali 2017).
Nepal, 1990s, few thousand, government repression of Communists and suspected Communist/Maoists
Nicaragua: 1970-79, about 30,000, killing of leftists (Sandinistas) and opponents under Somoza; *civil war and political killings after that (several episodes, though none very large), esp. 1980-1989, again ca. 30,000, largely Somoza loyalists.
Nigeria: genocide in Biafra War, 1966-1970, about 1,000,000 dead, largely Igbo (Ibo); 2010-on, genocidal killings by Boku Haram in northern Nigeria, where they have enough power since 2010 to count as the de facto government for purposes of classifying the killings as genocide; several thousands by direct murder, probably tens (possibly hundreds) of thousands by disruption of life leading to starvation and death from easily preventable disease; they have profoundly disrupted aid and medical care (Roberts 2017). Estimates of total deaths run up to a million; reliable counts are hard to find.
Pakistan: 1948-9, non-Muslims; subsequently, non-Muslims and “deviant” Muslims; ca. 61,000. Killing of breakaway Bengalis in the future Bengladesh by the Pakistani army, 1971, 1,500,000. 1973-present, local suppression of non-Muslims and non-Sunni, few thousand, not systematic; since 2003, repression of extremist Muslim groups, few thousands or tens of thousands; politicide rather than true genocide.
Paraguay: 1954-1989: Stroessner dictatorship: leftists, real and imagined opponents even to suspected possible opponents, Native Americans; uncounted thousands (at least 4000; Feierman 2010:493). Some killings since.
*Peru: 1980-1992, especially under Fujimori: Shining Path radicals, Quechua and other Indigenous activists; leftists; protestors; 69,000
*Philippines: After Ferdinand Marcos was elected in 1965, he declared authoritarian rule in 1971 and began a genocidal campaign to eliminate Communists, protestors. Local massacres and killings at all times. He fell from power in 1986. Currently, again after free elections in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte began an extermination campaign of drug dealers and users (only small fry; big ones escape) which had killed 6000 as of the end of 2016.
Poland: fascism, communism, recent hypernationalist right-wing dominance (from recent government, no killing reported), 1,585,000 1941-1944; 22,000 1948-1987 (Rummel).
Portugal: Under Antonio Salazar, fascist dictator from 1932 to 1968: leftists and similar elements. Compared to other fascists he was a mild ruler.
Rumania: fascism; later, communism, 435,000 in the 1948-1987 period (Rummel); Communism from 1949 brought consolidation genocide; the dictatorship N. Ceaucescu (ruler 1967-1989) involved particularly bloody suppression. All these regimes targeted Hungarian and German minorities, political dissidents, religious figures.
*Russia: Under the Vladimir Putin regime since 1994: Muslims, especially Caucasus groups; 75,000 Chechen, several thousand Ingush. Some, but very little, of this was in actual war.
Rwanda: 1959-1963, 1993, general killing of Tutsi (Straus 2006). Then full genocide under the Interahamwe, 1994: over 800,000 Tutsi and suspected sympathizers, ultimately uncontrolled mass killing, with elimination of imagined opponents, general settling of scores, etc. Since then, continual violence, often displaced into neighboring Congo; few thousand killed by militias.
Saudi Arabia: repression of dissidents and non-Wahhabi Muslims since 18th century. Enough religious murders to count as what might be called a slow-motion genocide.
*Serbia: Under Slobodan Milośevič (r. 1989-2000): Catholics/Croatians, Muslims. 200,000-225,000, combined figure for Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Sierra Leone: 1991-2003, 200,000: chaotic civil war, mostly spillover from Liberia, with massacres and government or de facto government involvement enough to meet the criteria for genocide
Somalia: total chaos since 1990s. Since 1988, clan militias have killed around 100,000 people. About 40,000 have died in chaotic fighting between extremist Islamist militias and government forces as well as Ethiopian armed units. (See details in de Waal 2010.)
*South Africa: mass murder of opponents to apartheid regime until its overthrow, esp . 1987-1996; several thousand at least; Rummel est. 6000 1934-1987.
South Sudan: Formerly part of Sudan; genocide, rebellion, and civil war killed some 2,000,000 (est.); independence in 2011 merely made things worse. Killings are ongoing; totals unknown at present.
Spain: Francisco Franco regime, 1939-1975: 275,000 (Rummel). Communists, leftists, dissidents, minority activists. Michael Mann counts only “over 100,000 people in cold blood” (Mann 2004:44; see also 343-344), the rest of the 275,000 being war deaths.
Sri Lanka: 1983-2009: civil war between government and Tamil Tigers led to outright genocide of Tamils by the government, at least 60,000 noncombatant Tamil being killed. The civil war of which this was part killed somewhere between 100,000 and 318,000 (Short 2016:93), the spread indicating how poorly known was this bloody war. Most deaths appear to be government massacre of noncombatants rather than actual conflict deaths. Of interest is the point that this is one of the rare Buddhist genocides. Buddhist prohibition against taking life has had some effect. The Cambodian genociders were militantly atheistic; the Myanmar military dictators are not notably serious Buddhists; Sri Lanka is unique in that Buddhism was the essentialized ideology of the killers. After peace was declared, Sinhalese have continued to appropriate Tamil land and resources (Short 2016:114-126).
Sudan: 1956-1972, “around 500,000” (Pinker 2011:340). 1980s-2000s: genocide in Darfur, ongoing (Anderson and Anderson 2012); genocidal war in South Sudan led to its breakaway (several episodes). Total over 2,000,000 in South Sudan before and after its independence; 250,000+, possibly 400,000 (Totten and Bartrop 2008:97) in Darfur. Some killing continues there. The Nuba peoples of the Nuba Mountains were also subjected to genocide by Sudan, from the 1980s to 2005, numbers killed seem obscure (de Waal 2010; Totten and Bartrop 2008:310). Sudan’s bloody history makes genocides only relatively worse than business as usual for the rival ethnic groups; the war between Dinka and Nuer in what is now South Sudan is a traditional enmity.
Syria: Killing of dissidents and minorities since 1981 (and many episodes long before that, outside our time frame). Total chaos since 2010. Basic conflict is Shi’a vs Sunni, complicated by ‘Alwaite, Christian, Druze, and other factions, and the extreme violence of the Salafi Sunnis. Actual genocide—government mass killing of noncombatants—has certainly reached many thousands. Totals unknown, let alone what percentage of total deaths fall into the genocide category. The country has produced five million refugees, probably unparalleled in recent history as a percentage of the population.
Tajikstan: Post-USSR autocracy, 1991-1997: regime opponents; virtual civil war. Ca. 50,000.
Thailand: several cycles of authoritarian military governments since explicitly pro-Axis government in the 1930s began a militaristic tradition. These alternate with democracy on a loosely cyclic basis. The current government as of 2016-17 is military and autocratic. When in power, the fascistic governments carry out considerable killing of dissidents (several episodes)
Timor Leste: 1965-2000, 200,000 locals killed, theoretically part of war—Indonesia tried to conquer and take Timor Leste—but largely in genocidal massacres by Indonesian army. Some subsequent elimination of dissidents, especially 2007-2009.
Turkmenistan: post-USSR communism/autocracy: regime opponents.
Turkey: Under dying Empire (1894-1914, especially 1894-96) and especially under the Young Turks (1908-1916) and aftermath (1916-1918, with violence continuing to 1923), two to three million or more (see discussion in Anderson and Anderson 2014:172-173). Most were Armenians, Greeks (some 350,000 in northern and western Turkey, possibly 950,000 in total over the whole period), Syriac Christians (a.k.a. Chaldeans, Assyrians; 250,000-275,000 killed; Atto 2017; Totten and Bartrop 2008:26; higher and lower figures have been quoted), other Christians; locally other groups; any and all dissidents. The non-Armenian victims are little remembered, the Syriac Christians being a “forgotten genocide” (Atto 2017). There were several episodes, but overwhelming majority of killings were under the Young Turks in 1915-16. Current *Erdogan regime hate-based and looking genocidal, with many killings of Kurds. Since 1984 some tens of thousands of Kurds have been killed by government action, with the Kurdish nationalist PKK party doing its share of revenge, but as often the government kills so many more, typically noncombatants, that the term genocide can be applied.
Uganda: Idi Amin, 1972-1979: almost randomly selected groups—any and all suspected opponents—but Acholi, Lango, Karimoja singled out; at least 300,000 dead, possibly 500,000 (Totten and Bartrop 2008:12). Following regime killed about 250,000 Baganda, Banyarwanda, and others, 1980-1986. Milton Obote, 1966-1971 and again 1980-1985: Many more killed; confused period, numbers hard to find. Joseph Komy’s lunatic-fringe “Lord’s Resistance Army” has operated since 1986, killing tens of thousands, displacing millions, and using child soldiers and slaves. It has been shattered in Uganda but survives in Congo (DR). (See McDoom 2010.)
*United Kingdom: Northern Ireland, several thousand deaths in “Time of Troubles,” mostly 1964-2001; mutual massacres by Protestants and Catholics do not count as genocide, but British troops shot down many Catholics in what comes close to, if not actually being, genocide.
*USA: Genocides of Native groups in 19th century, reaching into 20th. Genocidal killing stopped when Native Americans became citizens in 1924, but cultural repression and occasional killing continued, and continues today, though much less than formerly. US-backed, US-trained military men carried out the genocides in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and other places noted above.
USSR: 1917-ca. 1954: non-Communists, kulaks, Jews, Cossacks, Siberian minorities, religious practitioners, white Russian loyalists, German ethnics, Tatars, Kalmyks, dissidents in general, repatriated Russians after 1945, countless other groups (multiple episodes over decades). Among notable events were the extermination of 300,000-500,000 Cossacks and rich peasants in 1919-1920 (Totten and Bartrop 2008:89; ironically, the Cossacks had been among the worst murderers of Jews and Tatars), the anti-kulak and collectivization campaigns of the 1927-1931 period that killed perhaps six million (Totten and Bartrop 2008:105), and the deliberately created famine in Ukraine 1932-1933 that killed 3.3 million (Snyder 2015:53). The Great Terror under Stalin in the 1930s killed another half million (Totten and Bartrop 2008:174). Also, in suppression of Polish identity in later-Polish parts of the USSR, “[m]ore than a hundred thousand [ethnically Polish] Soviet citizens were shot as ostensible Polish spies. This was the largest peacetime ethnic shooting campaign in history” up to that point (Snyder 2015:57). Throughout, the Soviets killed anyone dissident or “other” that the Germans missed, and vice versa. It was in the stateless realms after Poland and the Baltics were destroyed and much of the USSR was taken by the Germans that genocide was worst (Snyder 2015). 1945-1989, estimated toll around 23,000,000. Rummel’s spread of totals for the entire period 1917-1987 was 61,911,000-126,891,000, indicating a great deal remains unknown.
Part of the back story is the longstanding habit of massacring unpopular minorities, especially but not only Jews, as in the Chmielnicki Cossack rising of the 1600s and the Ukraine pogroms of the 19th and 20th century, including mass killings, apparently by all sides, in the civil war leading to Bolshevik takeover. Russia and USSR had the expected high levels of settler genocides as the state moved to take and then consolidate hold over Siberia, though no sizable groups were actually exterminated. Cultural repression (“cultural genocide,” “culturocide”) was extreme at times under the USSR; at other times the USSR supported local cultures.
Uzbekistan: Since 1991, post-USSR autocracy: regime opponents; few thousand.
*Venezuela: various regimes, killing of political opponents in general, and genocide of Native American groups, throughout 20th century though much less after 1970; in first half of century, government explicitly wanted to exterminate Native American groups, or winked at or colluded with settler massacres. Yanomami, Bari, and others targeted.
Vietnam, repression under French, several thousand; later, South Vietnam, 1954-1975, ca. 90,000 regime opponents; North Vietnam, 1954-1975, Communist: non-Communists, to some extent Cambodians, tribal groups, dissidents, etc.; one million. Unified Vietnam since 1975: several thousand regime opponents.
Yemen: frequent chaotic episodes, with genocidal killing in North/South Yemen wars, and since Houthi Rebellion (many episodes). 1962-1970, 150,000 in miscellaneous actions; 2014-present, Houthi and Saudi Arabian masssacres reaching locally genocidal levels, totals uncertain at this point.
Yugoslavia: 1941-1945, 750,000 in fascist genocides, ultimately part of Hitler’s program but carried out by local, largely Croatian, fascists. 1945-1987, est. 1,000,000 purged by Tito and Communists.
*Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe: 1982-1984, 20,000 Matabele and others; 1998-ca. 2014, few thousand general opponents of various groups—opponent families, groups, communities
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