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Why did the Armenian genocide erupt in Turkey in 1915, only seven years after the Armenian minority achieved civil equality for the first time in the history of the Ottoman Empire? How can we explain the Rwandan genocide occurring in 1994, after decades of relative peace and even cooperation between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority? Addressing the question of how the risk of genocide develops over time, On the Path to Genocide contributes to a better understand why genocide occurs when it does. It provides a comprehensive and comparative historical analysis of the factors that led to the 1915 Armenian genocide and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, using fresh sources and perspectives that yield new insights into the history of the Armenian and Rwandan peoples. Finally, it also presents new research into constraints that inhibit genocide, and how they can be utilized to attempt the prevention of genocide in the future.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: 'The Symptoms of an Explosive Situation': The Temporal Model of Genocide
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE Chapter 1.'Trying Desperately to Escape History': The Armenian Question
Chapter 2. 'A Settled Plan to Slowly Exterminate': The Hamidian Massacres
Chapter 3. 'They will have to be Destroyed': From Massacre to Genocide
THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE Chapter 4. 'A European under Black Skin': Pre-colonial and Colonial Rwanda
Chapter 5. 'A Massive Rejection of the Tutsi as Fellow Nationals':
Race, Violence and Independence
Chapter 6. 'A Cockroach gives birth to another Cockroach': From Coexistence to Extermination
THE PATH TO GENOCIDE Chapter 7. 'Driven by Ethnic Exclusivism': On the Timing of Genocide
Chapter 8. 'Our only Hope, therefore, rests on the Obstacle': Constraints Against Genocide
Chapter 9. 'A Pattern ... Repeated Numerous Times': The Wider Applicability of the Temporal Model
Conclusion: 'We are all Brothers': The Temporal Model and Genocide Prevention
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Deborah Mayersen is an historian, based at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Her research expertise is in comparative genocide studies, including the Armenian genocide, Rwandan genocide and genocide prevention. Her recent publications include the edited volumes The United Nations and Genocide (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and Genocide and Mass Atrocities in Asia: Legacies and Prevention (with Annie Pohlman, Routledge, 2013).
