Introduction The Rwandan genocide is one of the most well-known genocides of recent history. In just a few months, over 800,000 people were killed in one small country. Although the Rwandan genocide was perpetrated by Rwandans, the cause of the genocide, and the mess of the country that came after the genocide, can be traced back to Belgian colonialism in the early to mid 1900s. Rwanda’s social climate was never perfect, but Belgian involvement deepened the problem, and created a country with violence between two ethnic groups, and leads to the troubles of Rwanda that still exist today.
History
The earliest settlements in the area of present-day Rwanda date back to around 10,000 B.C., these being the original Twa people, a minority of which …show more content…
However, for the most part, colonialism ended up hurting the area more than helping. The already clashing peoples of the Hutu and Tutsi were pulled farther apart from Belgian control, the Belgians favoring the already powerful Tutsi and further separating the two ethnic groups (22). Most Europeans highly favored the Tutsi, preferring their tall stature and lighter skin. The Belgians even “further reinforced the territory’s ethnic distinctions and corresponding hierarchy when they began requiring that an individual’s ethnic group be specified on identity cards,” (8). While before there was a hierarchy between the Hutu and the Tutsis, this hierarchy was fluid, and people could even intermarry and move within the hierarchy. Now, the social groups were assigned at birth, rigid, and controlled the rest of the person’s life. To even further the separation, Belgians fired many Hutu chiefs and replaced them with Tutsi, furthering the Tutsi power, eventually causing over 95% of the chief positions to be held by the Tutsis (25). Eventually, the Tutsis had enough power to take traditional Hutu land, and the only way Hutus could receive post-secondary education was through theology …show more content…
Even though the Belgians were now gone, the two groups had focused their hatred on each other, and despite pushback from Tutsi refugees, President Habyarimana, a Hutu, took control of the country through a military coup in 1973 (10). He established a new political party, the National Revolutionary Movement for Development, which was to be the only political party allowed in Rwanda, and for several elections, he was the only name on the ballot. This party “institutionalized ethnic discrimination through a policy known as ‘establishing ethnic and regional balance,’ whereby a substantial part of the country’s political and social life became subject to quotas established according to ‘ethnic proportions,’” (11). Since the Tutsi minority was only ten percent of the population, they were only be allowed ten percent of the jobs, which meant that some people already working were fired for their race. Due to the lack of work and education available to them under Habyarimana, by 1990, about half of the Tutsi population were refugees
History
The earliest settlements in the area of present-day Rwanda date back to around 10,000 B.C., these being the original Twa people, a minority of which …show more content…
However, for the most part, colonialism ended up hurting the area more than helping. The already clashing peoples of the Hutu and Tutsi were pulled farther apart from Belgian control, the Belgians favoring the already powerful Tutsi and further separating the two ethnic groups (22). Most Europeans highly favored the Tutsi, preferring their tall stature and lighter skin. The Belgians even “further reinforced the territory’s ethnic distinctions and corresponding hierarchy when they began requiring that an individual’s ethnic group be specified on identity cards,” (8). While before there was a hierarchy between the Hutu and the Tutsis, this hierarchy was fluid, and people could even intermarry and move within the hierarchy. Now, the social groups were assigned at birth, rigid, and controlled the rest of the person’s life. To even further the separation, Belgians fired many Hutu chiefs and replaced them with Tutsi, furthering the Tutsi power, eventually causing over 95% of the chief positions to be held by the Tutsis (25). Eventually, the Tutsis had enough power to take traditional Hutu land, and the only way Hutus could receive post-secondary education was through theology …show more content…
Even though the Belgians were now gone, the two groups had focused their hatred on each other, and despite pushback from Tutsi refugees, President Habyarimana, a Hutu, took control of the country through a military coup in 1973 (10). He established a new political party, the National Revolutionary Movement for Development, which was to be the only political party allowed in Rwanda, and for several elections, he was the only name on the ballot. This party “institutionalized ethnic discrimination through a policy known as ‘establishing ethnic and regional balance,’ whereby a substantial part of the country’s political and social life became subject to quotas established according to ‘ethnic proportions,’” (11). Since the Tutsi minority was only ten percent of the population, they were only be allowed ten percent of the jobs, which meant that some people already working were fired for their race. Due to the lack of work and education available to them under Habyarimana, by 1990, about half of the Tutsi population were refugees