Genocide & Mass Atrocities: Connecting History, Violence & Accountability

Contextualizing Genocide & Mass Atrocities

The term “genocide” was coined in 1944 by the Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin. While he was a student at the University of Lviv in present-day Ukraine in 1921, he learned about the Armenian genocide during discussions surrounding the assassination of one of its principal orchestrators: Talaat Pasha. Learn more

Argentina (1976-1983)

Prior to 1929, Argentina was among the wealthiest countries in the world. The Great Depression (1929–1939), however, brought massive instability, leading to several military takeovers over the coming decades. By mid-century, ongoing political unrest, widening inequality, and repeated interventions steadily undermined this economic prosperity and democratic institutions.

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Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire (1915-1923)

The Armenian Genocide occurred across the Ottoman Empire—spanning Europe, Asia, and North Africa—and its successor territories, rather than within a country called Armenia. Between 1683 and 1914, the empire lost territory through military defeats, nationalist uprisings, and expanding European imperial power. Learn more

Bosnia & Herzegovina (1992-1995)

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was long considered the most ethnically diverse country in the Western Balkans. Bosnian Muslims (Bošniaks), Bosnian Catholics (Bosnian Croats), and Bosnian Orthodox Christians (Bosnian Serbs), alongside other communities, lived together for centuries.

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Cambodia (1975-1979)

From April 17, 1975 to January 7, 1979, the Khmer Rouge enacted policies that killed nearly two million of Cambodia’s eight million people. These mass atrocities have roots in the country’s colonial and postcolonial history.

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East China (Nanjing) (1937-1938)

The Nanjing Massacre, also known as the “Rape of Nanjing,” refers to the systematic assault on Chinese civilians during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). After capturing the Chinese city of Shanghai in November 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army advanced inland toward the Republic of China’s capital city of Nanjing. Learn more

Guatemala (1981-1983)

The region that is now Guatemala was once a major center of Maya civilization. In the 1500s, Spanish colonizers imposed a racialized economic system of taxation and forced labor that endured after Guatemala’s independence. This decimated much of Maya culture; however, 23 Mayan language groups have resisted cultural extinction and are still spoken today.

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Myanmar (2011-Present)

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority indigenous to Buddhist-majority Myanmar, also known as Burma. For centuries, the Rohingya’s forebears were integrated into the Arakan Kingdom, a multi-ethnic, multi-religious entity north of the Bay of Bengal, between the then Burmese Empire and Mughal India (later British East India-controlled Bengal). Learn more

Namibia (1904-1908)

The lands of present-day Namibia were home to several tribes, including the Herero and Nama. The Nama had lived there since before recorded history, while the Herero arrived sometime in 16th century. Although both tribes encountered Europeans earlier, colonization firmly took hold in 19th century with the arrival of German missionaries.

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Northwest China (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) (2017-Present)

The Uyghurs are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group who speak a Turkic language. They live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (known locally as East Turkistan) in northwest China, alongside other predominantly Muslim communities, including Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui, and Tajiks. Learn more

Rwanda (1994)

Before colonial rule, Rwandans primarily identified with their clans and regions where they lived. Colonization, first by Germany and later Belgium, fundamentally transformed the existing social order, reclassifying Tutsi as a distinct, superior race of foreign origin, elevated above Hutu and Twa. Learn more

Sudan (2003-Present)

Sudan’s history of civilization stretches back to ancient times with its territory containing more pyramids than Egypt. The country gained independence from Britain in 1956 as the first sub-Saharan British possession to do so after World War II. Before South Sudan seceded in 2011, it was also Africa’s largest country by area.Learn more

Transatlantic Slave Trade & Black America (1525-Present)

From 1525 to 1866, an estimated 13 million African people were kidnapped from their homes along the West African coast. Confined in inhumane conditions, they were trafficked across the Atlantic to the Americas aboard massive cargo ships. Learn more

Turtle Island (North America) (1492-Present)

Turtle Island is the name many Indigenous nations, including the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Lenape, and northeastern Algonquian peoples, use for what is now called North America. Before European contact, an estimated 1.2 to 18 million Indigenous peoples lived in North America, which includes the United States (US), Canada, and parts of Mexico. Learn more

Atrocity Education Pedagogy

This book features insights from Holocaust education at QCC, as well as four approaches to designing innovative pedagogies for college students. Click here for the library guide.