In this essay, I will discuss about how the Rwanda genocide and the Second World War started and furthermore I will discuss what caused it to take place and conclude by talking about the differences and similarities between these two categories I have chosen.
What caused ruwanda war?
In the beginning of April, 1994, Hutus began slaughtering the Tutsis in Rwanda. As the vicious killings kept on going, the world stood quit and just watched the slaughter. As 100 days past, the Rwanda genocide left around 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu dead.
The Hutu and Tutsi are two clans who shared the same past. When Rwanda was first established the people used to raise cattle`s. Eventually, the people who had the most cattle were called "Tutsi" and the rest was called "Hutu." At this moment, a person could simply change categories by marrying or purchasing more cattle’s.
Germany was the first to colonize Rwanda in 1894. They looked at the Rwandan people and decided that the Tutsi clan had more European look, for instance they had lighter skin and similar built. And hence they put the Tutsis in command of responsibility.
When Germany lost their colonies during World War I, Belgian took control over Rwanda. In year 1933, the Belgians strengthened the categories of "Tutsi" and "Hutu" by commanding that every single person was to have an identity card that defined them either a Tutsi or Hutu.
Even though the Tutsi were only about 10 percent of Rwanda's population and the Hutu approximately 90 percent, Belgian gave the Tutsi all the power. This made the Hutu furious.
When Rwanda was struggling for independence from Belgium, the Belgians swap the status of the two groups. The Belgians let the Hutus, the majority of Rwanda's population, to be in charge of the...
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... the world and moreover to not let his country become less treated. The Hutus would walk around with their machetes, and cut people down as they saw (the Tutsis) some major attacks was perhaps planned, they gathered information on where Tutsi lived and then they went and killed a bunch of them. And if they saw someone who ran, they ran after him, and killed the persons. They would kill old, young, women and men. As the Nazis acted Hutu were against some peoples.
In both Rwanda as well in Germany a lot of propaganda was going on, about how bad Tutsis / Jews were. By hearing people talking about how bad the other are, one will start to think they are bad too and that they should get killed. In Germany you would hear people accuse the Jews for making Germany lose in World War 1. In Rwanda, it was Tutsis who had oppression, those who had the power and hated the Hutus.
The ethnic division within the Rwandan culture played an integral role during the genocide. In 1918, Belgium is given the authority to govern the territory of Rwanda-Urundi under the Treaty of Versailles. Under Belgian rule, the traditional Hutu-Tutsi relationship was morphed into a class system favouring the Tutsis over the Hutus. The Belgians eventually created a system of ethnic identity cards differentiating Hutus from Tutsis. This would become a central driver of the Rwandan genocide. In the movie there are many instances where Rwandan citizens are asked to show their identity cards. In most cases, those who were not Hutu would be punished. Another example of the geopolitical struggle between these two ethnicities was illustrated through the media. Media is used as a platform to convey a message that influences the thoughts and actions of individuals around the world. Since Hutus are the majority in Rwanda, they were able to exert their influence over the Tutsis through mechanisms such as the media. Throughout the country, local Hutu power radio stations were aired calling for the extermination of Tutsis. The station would often find ways to dehumanize the Tutsis. In most cases they would refer to Tutsis as ‘cockroaches’. In order to create an accurate portrayal of the genocide, the film used the exact recordings from the Hutu power radio.
The Hutu and the Tutsi have been in conflict with each other for years but after what happened in 1994 I don’t think that anyone will ever forget. In that year Rwandas Presidents plan was shot down and he was killed. In the days following is when the genocide started, because the Hutu believed that it was the Tutsi that shot down the plan and killed the President because he was a Hutu. The United Nations let this go because of the killing of ten of their own and because of their rules of engagement that resulted from the ten Belgian members being killed while trying to protect the Prime Minister. During a short time period of only a few months about 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu moderates were killed by the militia, other groups and even neighbors.
The Rwandan genocide occurred due to the extreme divide between two main groups that were prevalent in Rwanda, the Hutu and the Tutsi. When Rwanda was first settled, the term Tutsi was used to describe those people who owned the most livestock. After the Germans lost control over their colonies after World War I, the Belgians took over and the terms Hutu and Tutsi took on a racial role (Desforges). It soon became mandatory to have an identification card that specified whether or not an individual was a Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa (a minority group in Rwanda). The Tutsi soon gained power through the grant of leadership positions by the Belgians. Later on when Rwanda was tying to gain indepe...
In the early 20st century a horrific genocide occurred between two African groups of people in Rwanda. In the early 1900’s Rwanda was colonized by Belgium and France but by Belgium missionaries. There were two main African clans in Rwanda at the time and that was the Tutsi’s and the Hutu’s. The Belgium missionaries gave power to the church. Many Africans that were practicing African traditional religions soon were converted to catholic Christians. The Belgium missionaries chose the Tutsi clan as being “elite” because of their physical appearance over the Hutus. The Tutsi people had narrower noses, thinner lips, and lighter skin and were labeled as being “white” and the Hutu’s had wider noses, fuller lips, and were considered to be “black” between
The Tutsi race has long held control over the Rwandan government because, though they only make up an approximate 14 percent of the Rwanda population, the Europeans who took over the country chose them because they were said to resemble the Europeans more than the Hutus. The Hutus later started a revelution for independence that the Belgian, who controlled the country at the time, quickly ended it by letting the Hutu run the government instead of the Tutsi. Of course, this did not make the Hutu forget the years of oppression they suffered at the hands of the Tutsi. So, naturally, there were Hutus who believed that the Tutsi race should be exterminated. These people were called Hutu extremists. The Hutu etremists within the government blamed the Tutsi as a whole for the countrys' st...
To fully understand why this slaughter occurred, we must first look at the history of the Hutu and the Tutsi. In the early 1900's, the Tutsi were placed in positions of power by Belgium, because they looked "whiter". Governed by Belgium's racist way of thought, ethnic identity cards were introduced. The Catholic Church supported the Tutsi and the new social order and educated the Tutsi and imposed their religion on them. Though the population of Rwanda was ninety percent Hutu, they were denied land ownership, education, and positions of power. In the 1950's, the end of the colonial period, the Hutu overthrew the Tutsi government. The Hutu maintained the practices of ethnic division, and the Tutsi were forcibly removed from positions of power. Many Tutsi fled from Rwanda and were not allowed to return. Many Tutsi that stayed in Rwanda were killed. Supported by Uganda, the Tutsi formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a rebel army. The rebel army was anxious to regain citizenship and their homes in Rwanda, and began a civil war that lasted four years. The world wide coffee marke...
The Rwandan Genocide was a terrible event in history caused by a constantly weakening relationship between two groups of people. The country of Rwanda is located in Africa and consists of multiple groups of people. Majority of Rwanda is Hutu, while a smaller amount of people are Tutsis. The genocide started due to multiple events that really stretched the relationship between the two groups to its end. One of the starting factors was at the end of World War 1. Rwanda was a German colony but then was given to Belgium “who favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus, exacerbated[exacerbating] the tendency of the few to oppress the many”(History.com). This created a feeling of anger towards the Tutsis, because they had much more power then Hutus.
To find the cause of the Rwandan genocide, many people had tried to follow the path of history from the colonialism of Rwanda to the Rwandan genocide. Belgium wanted to expand just like other powerful nations like Great Britain, Spain, and France due to the lack of space and resources provided to each nation in Europe. After the great discovery of Vasco de Gamma, many European ventured towards Africa to colonize territories. After the Berlin Conference of 1884, Belgium had colonized the territory of Rwanda. After colonization, they left the Tutsis in charge as opposed to Hutus because of the fact that the Belgians thought Tutsis had a Caucasian ancestry. After the Rwandan independence, power was given to the Hutus. After the power was given to the Hutus, the Hutus took revenge on the Tutsis which resulted in some killings. In the movie, Hotel Rwanda, President Habyarimana was killed. The killing was blamed on the Tutsis which caused the enraged Hutus to start the Rwandan Genocide. Although the initial cause of the genocide could be Belgian Imperialism, in the movie it was actually the killing...
The three ethnic groups found within Rwanda come from a combination of a vast amount of immigration and several economic and social differences. Traditionally it is known that the Twa groups were the original inhabitants; the Hutu migrated from the west, and the Tutsi followed much later from the northeast. Each group naturally took on the language and most cultural practices found in Rwanda, although they implemented some of their own practices as well. The differentiation amongst the groups occurred only during the colonial period and stemmed mainly from European ideas about race and identity than from historic cultural patterns. Colonial administrators attempted to organize power in Rwanda along ethnic lines, and began instituting policies that made the Hutu pariahs and favored the Tuts...
When Rwanda was first settled, the people there raised cattle, the ones with the most cattle were considered “Tutsi” and everyone else was ‘Hutu”. Before the Europeans came and settled Rwandan, Hutu could easily change to Tutsi through marriage or by gaining cattle and Tutsi could change to Hutu by lost of cattle. It wasn’t until Belgium took control after Germany lost most of it’s colonies during World War One (and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles) that the names took on a racial role. They (the Belgians) required everyone to have an identity card that labeled them Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa- the small group of hunter-gathers who made up 1% of Rwanda’s population. The Belgians and German both thought the Tutsi minority had more European characteristics, such as lighter skin and a taller build, and gave the Tutsi all the roles of responsibility. This angered the Hutu. Later, in 1959, when
The assassination of President Habyrimana sparked political unrest in Rwanda. While flying in a plane, an unknown killer shot the plane down. There were no survivors of the crash. On that day, violence broke out in Rwanda, for the Hutus believed that the Tutsis were the cause of the death of their president. Originally, the terms ‘Tutsi and Hutu’ was based on the amount of cattle a person owned. Tutsi were the people who owned cattle while the rest were Hutus. These social groups were not set in stone, for they can change through marriage or buying cattle. Afterwards, when the Germans took over Rwanda, the terms began to identify a racial group. Since the Tutsi looked more Europeans, having lighter skin and a taller look to them. Because of this, they were given a larger amount of responsibility, upsetting the Hutus. Then, World War I happened, giving Belgium control of Rwanda. The country forced everyone to have an identity card, explaining if someone is Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa (hunters) (Rosenberg 4). Therefore, t...
Tutsi and Hutus are very similar thus categorizing then as different was a very crucial misunderstanding between them when Belgians recognized Tutsis as being the top tribe to rule Rwanda. Hutus gained control of Rwanda after independence with this giving them the power to undermine Tutsis as continued to believe that Hutus took their places in secondary and higher teaching institutions as well as employment and private sector. Hutu believed that by forbidding Tutsis to educate themselves and actively play in government or military they would marginalize them minimizing their participation in society. Who was the better race? There is a long history of the differences they had to grow up with however, one day this “difference“ becam...
The history of Rwanda is very interesting. Rwanda is located in East Africa, in East africa people were not treated as equal. Today eastern africa is way different from how it is now. Back int the 1996s the africans faced many problems. Some of the problems include how the Tutsi people were treated and also how the Hutu people. Genocide was a big problem in Rwanda.
...ause the colonial masters believed that they resembled them. It was unethical for the Belgians to interfere with the peaceful coexistence that the two communities had enjoyed in the past. As a result, the Hutus acquired negative misconceptions about the Tutsis’ origin, what they stood for, and what they had done for them in the past. The Hutus expertly planned and organized the Rwandan genocide as a result of such historical distortions created by their country’s colonial masters.
In 1897 Germany seized Ruanda-Urundi (present day Rwanda), as a piece of German East Africa. Seventeen years later World War I broke out, this brought Belgian Troops to Rwanda and eventually led to Belgium’s reign over Rwanda. Under Belgian rule the people of Rwanda were required to carry identification passes that stated their ethnicities, this solidified the ideal of ethnic division. In addition the Tutsi’s became a favored race and were given increased opportunities for education and employment. Years later in 1959 the death of Mwami (King) Mutara III created even more unrest, as well as uprising. After his death the Hutu’s rebelled against the Tutsi’s, in due course the Hutu’s acquired control of both the government and economy (Rwanda).