The Destruction of Peoples

The Destruction of Peoples considers the connections between colonial conquest and genocide in modern history. Drawing on a unique interpretation of Raphael Lemkin’s conception of genocide, it closely examines Britain’s establishment of settler colonies in Ireland, Australia and other invaded indigenous lands, with special attention to America and the fate of Native Americans. The colonial expansion of Britain and the United States in turn influenced Imperial Germany’s genocidal policies in Africa, Nazi ideology, and the pivotal role of Hitler. His terrible combination of colonizing and genocide in Europe would see the long sequence of legacies continue into the tragedies of Ukraine and Palestine. Wide-ranging source materials are employed to develop original ideas about Lemkin’s definition, the historical reasons for colonial genocides, and the interests influencing discussion about the intentional versus unintentional destruction of peoples. Complete with web links, this important new study from a key scholar in the field of genocide studies is a vital text for all students of the Holocaust, European colonization and genocide in world history.