Ethnic cleansing

In an **ethnic cleansing**, one ethnic or religious group forces another to leave an area. The goal of an ethnic cleansing is to remove a specific group of people from a certain geographical area.

Methods of ethnic cleansing include forcing people to move; deporting people;  them until they leave; rape; and mass murder.

## Definitions
### What is it? 
The United Nations defines ethnic cleansing this way:
* It is done on purpose, as part of a plan
* It is done by one ethnic or religious group
* That group wants to be the only group that lives in a certain area
* The group uses violence, conflict and terror to force other ethnic or religious groups to leave that area

### Methods 
Throughout history, methods of ethnic cleansing have included: For example, in 1492, Spain ordered its Jews to convert to Catholicism or leave, and at least 40,000 fled. In fact, there is no agreed-upon definition of "ethnic cleansing" in the law.

However, there are international laws against genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Acts of ethnic cleansing often qualify as one of these crimes (and some qualify as all three). Ethnic cleansing often involves murdering, raping, deporting, and/or persecuting large groups of people; these are all crimes against humanity under the International Criminal Court's laws.

In 2009, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) agreed that deporting a population from its home is a crime against humanity.

## Examples of ethnic cleansing
### Jews in ancient and medieval history
*Also see: Pogroms and antisemitism* 

During ancient and medieval history, Jewish people in many countries were victims of ethnic cleansing.  For example, around 1290 AD, King Edward I ordered all of the Jews in England to leave the country.  Hundreds of elderly Jews were executed.  Next, France and some German states did the same.  

Then, in 1492, Spain ordered its Jews to convert to Catholicism or leave the country.  Between 40,000 and 100,000 Jews were forced to leave Spain.

Ten years later, in 1502, Spain also forced its Muslims to leave the country.

File:Expulsion judios-en.svg|Ethnic cleansing of Jews in Europe from 1100  1600
File:BritLibCottonNeroDiiFol183vPersecutedJews.jpg|"Jews being Persecuted" (England, 13th century)
File:French Jews executed by burning.jpg|Drawing of French Jews being burned to death (1410)
File:Alhambra Decree.jpg|Spain's original law requiring Jews to convert to Catholicism or leave Spain
File:An auto-da-fé of the Spanish Inquisition and the execution o Wellcome V0041892.jpg|Jews who refused to convert or leave Spain were called heretics and could be burned to death on a stake

### Early modern history: Ireland
In 1652, Oliver Cromwell and the English military took over Ireland.  Cromwell wanted all Catholics to leave eastern Ireland. to northwest Ireland.

Cromwell and the English military took away 40% of the land owned by Irish Catholics and gave it to English Protestants. The English also massacred Irish Catholics

England's actions were "the greatest episode of ethnic cleansing ever attempted in Western Europe," according to historian John Morrill.  About 600,000 Irish people died  almost half (43%) of the Irish population. Since so many Irish Catholics were killed, some historians say it was *also* a genocide. They argue that Cromwell was trying to destroy the Irish Catholics, not just push them into the northwest.

File:Oliver Cromwell Gaspard de Crayer.jpg|Oliver Cromwell led the program to ethnically 'cleanse' eastern Ireland of Irish Catholics

File:Map of British plantations of Ireland, 1550–1610.png|Map showing Irish-controlled areas in green before Cromwell invaded

File:PRENDERGAST(1870) p 415 Map of the Settlement of Ireland by the Act of 26th September, 1653.jpg|In 1653, Cromwell ruled that all Irish Catholics had to move to the green areas on this map

File:Massacre at Drogheda.jpeg|English soldiers massacre Irish Catholic civilians

### The 19th century: Native Americans removal
In the 19th century, the United States government committed an ethnic cleansing against Native American tribes.  

At that time, the United States was much smaller than it is now, and its population was growing. People wanted more land. The area we now call the Southern United States had always belonged to Native American tribes, like the Cherokee Nation.

Some tribes signed treaties and agreed to move.  However, other tribes refused to leave the land that had always been theirs. He used this law to force tribes in the South to leave the United States. Under Jackson's command, the United States military took land away from Creek and Seminole Indians.

#### The Trail of Tears 
The Cherokee Nation refused to leave their homes.  In 1838, President Martin van Buren ordered the military to force them to leave.p.&nbsp;41  Soldiers forced about 15,000 Cherokees and 2,000 of their slaves into internment camps, where 353 Cherokee died from diseases during one summer.pp.&nbsp;41–42  

After that, the United States military forced the Cherokee to walk from the South to what is now Oklahoma and Arkansas.  Around 4,000 people died on the way, according to most historians.  This was one out of every four people in the Cherokee population.  

Because so many people died, this forced migration is now called the Trail of Tears.

File:Map of American territorial growth circa 1775 (0000001c).jpg|Map showing the U.S. states (in red) and Indian territory before Indian Removal started
File:Hunting Indians in Florida.jpg|Drawing called "Hunting Indians in Florida with Bloodhounds" (1848)
File:Trails of Tears en.png|Map showing the forced migration of Indian tribes
File:Fort Marr.JPG|Part of the internment camp the Cherokee were forced into
File:Village Creek State Park Wynne AR 61.jpg|Drawing of the Trail of Tears
File:Trail of tears map NPS.jpg|Map showing Trail of Tears routes

### The 20th century: Poles during The Holocaust
In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland.  This started World War II.  After taking over part of Poland, Nazi Germany committed an ethnic cleansing against the Polish people.  

The Nazis forced at least 1.5 million Polish people out of the country.  They wanted to make room for Germans to move into Poland and have the living space for themselves. They also used the Polish people they deported for forced labor. 

The Nazis sent hundreds of thousands of Polish people to concentration camps and death camps. During World War II, they killed at least 3 million Polish Jews and at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Poles.

File:Bydgoszcz 1939 Polish priests and civilians at the Old Market.jpg|Public execution of innocent Polish civilians (1939)

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-133-0703-19, Polen, Litzmannstadt, Juden hinter Stacheldraht.jpg|Jews inside a Polish ghetto (1941)

File:Deportation to Treblinka from ghetto in Siedlce 1942.jpg|Polish Jews who were deported from a ghetto to a death camp (1942)

File:Czeslawakwoka.jpg|A Polish child who died after 3 months in Auschwitz (1942)

File:German officer executes Jewish women who survived a mass shooting outside the Mizocz ghetto, 14 October 1942.jpg|Nazi *Einsatzgruppen* massacre Polish civilians (1942)

File:Polish farmers killed by German forces, German-occupied Poland, 1943.jpg|Polish farmers murdered by Nazis (1943)

### The 21st century: Darfur
Starting in 2003, the government of Sudan was accused of committing an ethnic cleansing against black ethnic groups in Darfur.  The Sudanese military, police, and a militia called the Janjaweed have done this by:
* Attacking and massacring civilians
* Bombing and burning down villages
* Forcing people to leave Darfur, then giving their villages to Arab people
* Raping and sexually assaulting thousands of women and girls

As of 2007, about 450,000 black Darfurians had been killed, and about 800 villages had been destroyed.

File:Darfur map.png|Map showing Darfur (in green)

File:Darfur report - Page 1 Image 1.jpg|A village that was burned down (2004)

File:Darfur report - Page 5 Image 1.jpg|More than 40,000 refugees lived in this camp in Sudan (2004)

File:Darfur refugee camp in Chad.jpg|A refugee camp in Chad for Darfurians (2005)

File:North Darfur IDP malnourished child.jpg|A starving refugee child

File:Satellite image of the burning of Tajalei, March 6, 2011.jpg|Satellite photo of a burned village (2011)

## Notes
## References