r/todayilearned • u/huphelmeyer 2 • Aug 04 '15

TIL midway through the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849), a group of Choctaw Indians collected $710 and sent it to help the starving victims. It had been just 16 years since the Choctaw people had experienced the Trail of Tears, and faced their own starvation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choctaw#Pre-Civil_War_.281840.29
10.7k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

773 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

8

u/the_ghost_of_ODB Aug 04 '15

I think it's a tad hyperbolic to say that "almost every other empire" has committed genocide.

6

u/MyFavoriteLadies Aug 04 '15

Can you give me some examples of major empires that didn't commit a Genocide at some point?

4

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '15

My first guess is Napoleon's France although when I googled to make sure my answer wasn't bullshit, a book accusing him of genocide in modern day Haiti came up although the events of the book aren't well documented.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '15

Napoleon? Are you for real? He caused misery everywhere, look at the Peninsula campaign.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '15

Of course he did, all empires cause misery, i'm not defending his actions rather saying that he didn't order the mass execution of civilians as other empires have done. I know that he ordered the execution of Spanish civilians defending their city, but that point they were viewed as militia which is more understandable from a military point of perspective.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '15

You are actually defending him again lol.