Greatest Man-made Tragedy in History -- Nominations

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Taiping Rebellion, hands down. 20 million died because some guy claimed he was the son of God and people didn't like it.

That's because of the collapse of Manchu legitimacy, "God's Son" just filled in that gap around a revolution always centres . A peasant revolt of sorts would have happened anyway (though its likely it either would have a) succeeded; as it was "god's son" delusions that lay behind the defeat of the Taipings and b) defeated more easily. Either way, less people would have died)

There is only one answer:

The Discovery of America and the Spanish Empire in the Americas.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Taiping Rebellion, hands down. 20 million died because some guy claimed he was the son of God and people didn't like it.

That's because of the collapse of Manchu legitimacy, "God's Son" just filled in that gap around a revolution always centres . A peasant revolt of sorts would have happened anyway (though its likely it either would have a) succeeded; as it was "god's son" delusions that lay behind the defeat of the Taipings and b) defeated more easily. Either way, less people would have died)

There is only one answer:

The Discovery of America and the Spanish Empire in the Americas.

That wasn't really man-made since disease killed most of them... but I suppose the act of shipping the disease over... hmm

Perhaps I should focused more on the Spanish Empire. The conquest was put together probably the most evil act in human history.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Other Options:
- The Manchu Conquest of China
- The Rise and the Fall of Imperial Japan 1868-1945 (A genuine Tragedy, rather than just horrible/evil stuff)
- The Atlantic Slave Trade
- The Indonesian "New order" and Suharto's Reign of Terror
- The Second Indochina War (ie. The Vietnam War)
- The Reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia 1975-79 (see the point above)
- The Settlement of Australia

Wow. Human History Sucks.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

- The Reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia 1975-79 (see the point above)

I beat you to it.

And talking about Intellectual credibility...

I submit the following:

The French Revolution
The Holomodor
Operation Keelhaul
World War I
The Khmer Rouge
The 30 Years War
Gun Control

Also The French Revolution? No (sort of: well it was a tragedy but in a different way than all those other sane opinions)

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I submit the following:

The French Revolution
The Holomodor
Operation Keelhaul
World War I
The Khmer Rouge
The 30 Years War
Gun Control

Also The French Revolution? No (sort of: well it was a tragedy but in a different way than all those other sane opinions)

The French Revolution paved the way for a socialist dictatorship that almost conquered Europe. I would call that a tragedy. I don't necessarily believe it is the greatest tragedy, but I'm just throwing that idea out there. Also, how come you criticize me for putting victim disarmament but you leave Al alone for putting a more ridiculous answer, industrialization?

lol.

Al's answer is perfectly legitimate if at all aware what industralization was actually like in Britain (and if you dare say that it was due to the forces of small government and the free market then not only are a distorter of history but a complete intellectual fraud aswell.)

[Tetro Kornbluth]

When you claim that the French Revolutionary State (which one? The Patriot Assembly?, The Girondin Assembly? The Jacobin Rule and the Committe of Public Society? The Post-Thermidor Directory? The Napeolonic State?) was a socialist dictatorship then you clearly have no intellectual credibility in terms of discussing the French Revolution at all. None. What. So. Ever.

But then we are all familiar with your abuse of the word "socialism" to mean "stuff I don't like".

As for Industrialization, I'll leave Al, who is far more knowledgable than I, on that one. Only to say, way to misread what I wrote.

Oh, yes I forgot Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

When you claim that the French Revolutionary State (which one? The Patriot Assembly?, The Girondin Assembly? The Jacobin Rule and the Committe of Public Society? The Post-Thermidor Directory? The Napeolonic State?) was a socialist dictatorship then you clearly have no intellectual credibility in terms of discussing the French Revolution at all. None. What. So. Ever.

But then we are all familiar with your abuse of the word "socialism" to mean "stuff I don't like".

As for Industrialization, I'll leave Al, who is far more knowledgable than I, on that one. Only to say, way to misread what I wrote.

Oh, yes I forgot Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

industrialization, according to Wikipedia, is a process of social and economic change whereby a human group is transformed from a pre-industrial society into an industrial one. What's wrong with that? I suppose Al and you would rather work on a farm for >12 hours a day?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I don't have an utterly negative view of industrialisation (hell, my own family is a product of it in so many different ways) but a complicated and conflicted one. To believe that an event, a process really, is tragic is certainly not the same as saying it is wholly bad or an evil.

If this is addressed to me, I know that, I just felt like popping SPCs bubble (not that he lives in anything but a series of bubbles).