Mass Execution Quotes
Crucifixion was not only practiced by the Greeks and the Romans, It was a method of capital punishment in the East as well as the West.
Two senior Chinese officials Yuan Ch`ang and Hsu Ching-ch`eng, realizing the implications and the vengeance the Western Powers would take on the Empress and China if the order were carried out, rewrote it to require that all foreigners be “protected.” This version went out to all governors except that of Shansi who had received a previous execution order {612690} . When the Empress discovered the change, Yuan Ch`ang and Hsu Ching-ch`eng were both summarily beheaded. However they saved thousands of Western lives and China from an even greater disaster.
Although Bolivar is generally seen as a great idealist and humanitarian, he had his brutal and immoral aspects. This quotation proves that Bolivar ordered the bloody massacre of helpless Spanish prisoners of war including those in the hospital. Also the beheading illustrates the bitterness and barbarity of the wars for independence from Spain. See {632671} for Bolivar’s rationale for massacring helpless prisoners of war.
This is an excellent example of a theme that has been used since biblical times to justify massacres by military men. Namely that if the first town that you conquer is treated terribly enough, the word will get around and the next town the people will pressure their military to surrender to avoid the same fate. Therefore, they argue, as Ludlow does, that the massacre will reduce future violence. That perverse ethical logic has lasted for a long time. However, that was not the only motive here—vengeance was a major factor. This is another good example of the fact that many of the worst moral atrocities of men were perpetrated and led by men who thought that there were being moral and consonant with God’s will. See {639301} for Oliver Cromwell’s description of the massacre.
Most people think that the Spanish Inquisition was the locus of witch burning, but it was not. Germany was.
This is a description of a massacre of Protestants (mostly English) by Catholic Rebels led by Phelim O’Neill. The Catholics whose religion had been compromised when English King Henry VIII severed all ties to the Pope and the Vatican and bound the Irish to that decision of his. The Irish Catholic peasants so resented the English that their hate caused massacres like this in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. Their anger was so great that Phelim O’Neill and his officers lost control of their troops who were bent on revenge.
French Protestants—Huguenots—were looking to the New World to establish a Protestant state in which they could practice their religion. They sent an expedition to the St. Johns River area of modern-day Florida and began a colony near what is now the city of St. Augustine. The Spanish sent Pedro Menendez and over 1000 troops.
