Reference no: EM132187300
Questions on the readings
Chapter 3
What is the difference between a "stratified" and an "organic" people as defined by Mann? Which of these two is more likely to cause ethic cleansing and genocide? Why?
What are the examples of "stratified" peoples? What elements do the "stratified" peoples consist of?
Who were not part of "the people" mentioned in the US Declaration of Independence?
How did Western Europe manage to escape large-scale ethnic conflict?Why was there relatively little resistance to linguistic assimilation in Western Europe?
How can one explain such exceptions as Ireland?
Why the "organic" version of the people prevailed in Central and Eastern Europe? What is wrong with organic nationalism?
Why was there a rise of anti-Jewish violence in Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century?
What is the role of social class in the "stratified" and the "organic" democracies?
Chapter 4
Why were settler democracies particularly likely to engage in ethnic cleansing?
What forms of colonial economy were particularly likely to result in ethnic cleansing and genocide of the native populations?
How would you describe the relation between colonial governments, European colonists and the native population?
What impact did the rivalry between European colonial powers have upon the native populations?
What role did the Church and Christian missionaries play in the relations between colonial governments, European settlers and the native populations?
How did the colonial governments and white settlers justify their treatment ofthe native populations of America and Australia?
Mann argues that the killing of the natives in the course of the Spanish conquest of Central and Southern America represented a case of ethnocide, rather than that of genocide. What factors set limits on Spanish violence with respect of the natives?
How does the British colonization of Australia compare to the Spanish colonization of America in terms of its impact upon the local population?
What factors explain the deterioration of the conflict between white settlers and the Australian natives into murderous cleansing in the course of the nineteenth century?
How did the white perception of northern American natives evolve between the seventeenth and the nineteenth century?
What were the reasons for different approaches to the native American population on the part of the US federal authorities and the authorities of the states (especially in the West)?
What is a rolling genocide according to Mann?
What distinguishes Russian policies towards the natives of Northern Caucasus from other cases murderous ethnic cleansing considered by Mann in this chapter?
How does the German genocide of Herero in South-East Africa compare to the murderous ethnic cleansing of the Australian and Northern American natives considered earlier? What are the similarities and what are the differences?