Colonial Genocides

Abstract

In this paper, the author addresses the question of the justification and validity of using the term colonial genocides, as well as the place and significance of acts of extermination committed by colonial conquerors against the Indigenous peoples of the territories they seized, and the relationship and connection between the crimes of colonizers against colonized peoples and the Nazi genocides. The paper first raises the question of whether the qualification genocide can be applied to acts committed long before the term was legally defined and criminalized. The author notes that the term is applicable in a descriptive, phenomenological sense, whereas in the legal sense the situation is much more complex. The paper also observes that, starting with the very creator of the term genocide, Raphael Lemkin, various authors use the concept to describe a broader or narrower set of events— i.e., they understand it either more extensively or more restrictively. The author concludes that some of the most heinous crimes committed by colonial conquerors against Indigenous peoples cannot be called genocide because, although a significant portion of Indigenous populations was physically destroyed, the genocidal intent is absent. The paper also outlines the structural similarities between Nazi expansionism and colonialism, as well as between Nazi genocidal policies—especially the Holocaust—and colonial genocides. It then presents an overview of the genocide committed by German colonizers against the Herero and Nama peoples, the first genocide of the 20th century, considered the first modern genocide and a kind of precursor to the Holocaust.