History is normally written by the conquerors, glorifying or justifying their actions, except in some instances where you might find some isolated cases of dairies kept, or maybe decades or centuries later when some historian writes a unbiased version of what actually happened.
Historically Genghis Khan has been portrayed as a blood thirsty Mongol who came from Central Asia , conquered a large part of Asia , Middle East and near Europe. According to history, he killed, raped and pillaged towns and cities and left nothing but waste in his wake. He certainly did that , as did all conquerors in history up to the modern times including World War II.
A few years ago I read " Genghis Khan And The Making Of The Modern World " by Jack Weatherford. From his book you come to realize the other side of Genghis Khan. How he brought about an "unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Genghis Khan abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege." He first put in place the early stages of globalization . He took the best skills and practices from the lands he conquered and spread them through his empire to make these uniform practices. He encouraged trade and implemented centralized administrative systems to enable him to manage his empire. You never hear about all this whenever there is mention of Genghis Khan, because Western literature always portrayed him and his tribe as wild, fanatical , blood thirsty lot.
Since the end of World War II, most of what you hear was the atrocities committed by the Germans and the Japanese, most of which is true. But the history of World War II ends there. A new book " Year Zero : the History of 1945 " by Ian Buruma which I have just finished reading presents the other side of the coin. It goes into depth the crimes committed after World War II by the liberators or who closed their eyes or tacitly encouraged the killing, raping and looting of citizens or people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most history books about the war mention very little about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people all over Europe or in Asia, including China .These were done secretly and bodies buried in unmarked mass graves.The people who were killed were not just traitors, or collaborators, but in some Jews or communists who managed to survive the concentration camps, but who were killed later.
In Europe and in other parts of the world, the conquerors or the colonialists who left behind enclaves such as Germans in Poland who had been there for decades or in some cases for generations, were targeted. Similarly the hundreds of thousands of Japanese who had been settled in Manchuria.In other instances the reasons for killing were to loot , exploit or to take over the wealth or property by extermination. With Russia being a major party in the group of Allies, they managed to carve out territories which came and remained under their sphere of influence long after the war ended. They went on a killing spree.One of the many example given in the book was the killing of the Cossacks. Apparently in the Russian Civil War, the Cossacks had fought against the Communists and when the latter took control, their lands were forfeited. During the war some of the Cossacks had sided with the Germans to regain their lands. When the war ended the British, knowing what their fate would be, effectively handed over a large group of Cossacks to the Russian, who exterminated them. In other parts of Europe it was the other way round where suspected communists were hounded and killed.
The other example of history being distorted was by the British in India. You can read about how the British ruled India and everybody lived peacefully, but no sooner had the British left it was portrayed as to how the Hindu's, Sikhs and Muslims were at each other and millions of people killed. The fact is that the British a few years before depature tacitly encouraged the Muslims to create their own homelands by portraying how they would be a minority group in the newly independent India. According to Wikipedia, on June 3rd Lord Mountbatten , the last Viceroy of India announced June 3rd the creation of the two dominions with the date of India' independence being set for August 15th, a mere 10 weeks later. At the time of independence the British brought in a bureaucrat,Sir Cyril Radcliffe who was given a mere 5 weeks to divide the country into three parts, India, East and West Pakistan, with total disregard of the history,culture and relationship of the people concerned. This led to about 14.5 million - the largest migration in history- of people moving from Indian to Pakistan and the other way around. Because of the religious bogey, killings tantamount to ethnic cleansing took place on both sides of the borders in which hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were killed.While the Holocaust still draws attention the Partition, other than for the the people in the sub-continent, is a closed book and is generally portrayed in the west as the fanatical Hindu's and Muslims running amok, killing each other, once the British left.
Things started to change with cinema and television, but there again the governments were able to control the medium and showed the version which they wanted to be seen. Apparently the American government saw fit to show the horrors of the concentration camps, but chose not to show the devastation caused by the atomic explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Its only in the last two decades with the arrival of the internet that things started changing. This has now been accelerated with the mobile phones. Social media now immediately transmits the vivid images of violence instantly in spite of the best efforts of the governments to try and stop them.
As a result history is now being written on the run rather than in the future when it is all done and dusted, and the winner decides how he wants to present it. The Arab spring in Egypt and in other hot spots are the best examples of history now. The rulers try their best to block it , but are as successful as King Canute was in trying to hold back the tide. The new media presents history as it happens, the good , the bad and the ugly not a sanitized version of what the governments want you to see.
Historically Genghis Khan has been portrayed as a blood thirsty Mongol who came from Central Asia , conquered a large part of Asia , Middle East and near Europe. According to history, he killed, raped and pillaged towns and cities and left nothing but waste in his wake. He certainly did that , as did all conquerors in history up to the modern times including World War II.
A few years ago I read " Genghis Khan And The Making Of The Modern World " by Jack Weatherford. From his book you come to realize the other side of Genghis Khan. How he brought about an "unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Genghis Khan abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege." He first put in place the early stages of globalization . He took the best skills and practices from the lands he conquered and spread them through his empire to make these uniform practices. He encouraged trade and implemented centralized administrative systems to enable him to manage his empire. You never hear about all this whenever there is mention of Genghis Khan, because Western literature always portrayed him and his tribe as wild, fanatical , blood thirsty lot.
Since the end of World War II, most of what you hear was the atrocities committed by the Germans and the Japanese, most of which is true. But the history of World War II ends there. A new book " Year Zero : the History of 1945 " by Ian Buruma which I have just finished reading presents the other side of the coin. It goes into depth the crimes committed after World War II by the liberators or who closed their eyes or tacitly encouraged the killing, raping and looting of citizens or people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most history books about the war mention very little about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people all over Europe or in Asia, including China .These were done secretly and bodies buried in unmarked mass graves.The people who were killed were not just traitors, or collaborators, but in some Jews or communists who managed to survive the concentration camps, but who were killed later.
In Europe and in other parts of the world, the conquerors or the colonialists who left behind enclaves such as Germans in Poland who had been there for decades or in some cases for generations, were targeted. Similarly the hundreds of thousands of Japanese who had been settled in Manchuria.In other instances the reasons for killing were to loot , exploit or to take over the wealth or property by extermination. With Russia being a major party in the group of Allies, they managed to carve out territories which came and remained under their sphere of influence long after the war ended. They went on a killing spree.One of the many example given in the book was the killing of the Cossacks. Apparently in the Russian Civil War, the Cossacks had fought against the Communists and when the latter took control, their lands were forfeited. During the war some of the Cossacks had sided with the Germans to regain their lands. When the war ended the British, knowing what their fate would be, effectively handed over a large group of Cossacks to the Russian, who exterminated them. In other parts of Europe it was the other way round where suspected communists were hounded and killed.
The other example of history being distorted was by the British in India. You can read about how the British ruled India and everybody lived peacefully, but no sooner had the British left it was portrayed as to how the Hindu's, Sikhs and Muslims were at each other and millions of people killed. The fact is that the British a few years before depature tacitly encouraged the Muslims to create their own homelands by portraying how they would be a minority group in the newly independent India. According to Wikipedia, on June 3rd Lord Mountbatten , the last Viceroy of India announced June 3rd the creation of the two dominions with the date of India' independence being set for August 15th, a mere 10 weeks later. At the time of independence the British brought in a bureaucrat,Sir Cyril Radcliffe who was given a mere 5 weeks to divide the country into three parts, India, East and West Pakistan, with total disregard of the history,culture and relationship of the people concerned. This led to about 14.5 million - the largest migration in history- of people moving from Indian to Pakistan and the other way around. Because of the religious bogey, killings tantamount to ethnic cleansing took place on both sides of the borders in which hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were killed.While the Holocaust still draws attention the Partition, other than for the the people in the sub-continent, is a closed book and is generally portrayed in the west as the fanatical Hindu's and Muslims running amok, killing each other, once the British left.
Things started to change with cinema and television, but there again the governments were able to control the medium and showed the version which they wanted to be seen. Apparently the American government saw fit to show the horrors of the concentration camps, but chose not to show the devastation caused by the atomic explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Its only in the last two decades with the arrival of the internet that things started changing. This has now been accelerated with the mobile phones. Social media now immediately transmits the vivid images of violence instantly in spite of the best efforts of the governments to try and stop them.
As a result history is now being written on the run rather than in the future when it is all done and dusted, and the winner decides how he wants to present it. The Arab spring in Egypt and in other hot spots are the best examples of history now. The rulers try their best to block it , but are as successful as King Canute was in trying to hold back the tide. The new media presents history as it happens, the good , the bad and the ugly not a sanitized version of what the governments want you to see.
