The Worst History

What about the american indians (both in north and south america) ?

In recent history, American Indians have suffered more than Jews. However, Jewish suffering dates back all the way to the conception of the religion.

My vote is for the Neanderthals. Us winners are a mean bunch of hombres! :)

@cystic:

call me biased, but you forgot the Mennonites.

Even in Canada we were persecuted for our religious beliefs and our bizaare cultures.

Still, for a people of our size, there has been a near disproportionate amount of persecution relatively speaking.

First of all, if you don’t want to answer, then I’m sorry for asking.

1. You’re biased. :P

2. What bizarre cultures?

3. How big are the Mennonites?

@Grigoriy:

@cystic:

call me biased, but you forgot the Mennonites.

Even in Canada we were persecuted for our religious beliefs and our bizaare cultures.

Still, for a people of our size, there has been a near disproportionate amount of persecution relatively speaking.

First of all, if you don’t want to answer, then I’m sorry for asking.

1. You’re biased. :P

true

2. What bizarre cultures?

German speaking, pacisfist farmers who mostly kept to themselves and didn’t practice any of the “Canadian religions”. We had our own religion and education system, and had negotiated certain “rights and privileges” in order to settle Canada.
3. How big are the Mennonites?
It depends, and i’m not really certain.
There are about 1 000 000 people in 61 countries. About 500 000 outside of NA and Europe.
Here are a few tidbits about the Anabaptists:
Contemporary groups with early Anabaptist roots include the Mennonites, Amish, Dunkards, Landmark Baptists, Hutterites, and various Beachy and Brethren groups.
There is no single defining set of beliefs, doctrines, and practices that characterizes all Anabaptists.
The era of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation in Europe spawned a number of radical reform groups, among them the Anabaptists. These Christians regarded the Bible as their only rule for faith and life. Because of their radical beliefs, the Anabaptists were persecuted by other Protestants as well as by Roman Catholics.
Mennonites have been characterized historically by a love for the Word of God, and by a strict demand for holiness of life.
The evangelical and non-revolutionary Anabaptists of Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands, were somewhat of a trial to the leading reformers because of their radical views on the nature of the church and of the Christian ethic.
January 21, 1525, is generally considered the birthdate of Anabaptism.

So, i guess you or someone in your family understands “Wiedertäufer”.

@F_alk:

So, i guess you or someone in your family understands “Wiedertäufer”.

prolly.
not me tho’.

EmuGod,

The American Indians, in a mere 600 years, went from ruling two continents, numbering in the tens of millions, and being relatively civilized, to a few hundred thousand (Or maybe a million? Not sure how many are left) people who live in the desert in poverty.

Partly because of disease, mostly because of genocide.

Yanny, brush up on your history. What killed off the Indians was mostly disease, not genocide. And if you want to talk about genocide, and recent history, there was a little thing called the Holocaust, which even if you consider what happened to the American Indians a genocide (it wasnt), was more recent.

Disease and Genocide played a mixed role. For example in New England, an estimated 95%-96% of Indians died from disease shortly before the Pilgrams landed (which was why there was so much nice, clear land for the Pilgrims to use). They died at this astronomical rate because well, they lived in a clean enviroment. They bathed daily, as opposed to the bath or two a European would get per year, and lived in an enviroment where diseases did not flourish. So you are partially correct.

However, in parts of the continents where Indians did not live in such ideal conditions, Disease wiped out only the very young and very old. This was true throughout South America, the Carribean, Mexico, and the Southern and Northwestern United States. Also, after the initial shock of disease, the surviving Native Americans quickly developed a resistance to Western diseases. The Spanish thoroughly wiped out the entire native Med. Sea population, along with most of Mexico’s. South America fared better, but most of the heavily populated areas were depopulated whenever the Spanish arrived. Then of courses theres the British-American influence. Throughout the 1700s and through the mid 1800s, Indians were slowly killed and pushed out of America.

Have to agree with Yanny… the Natives use to control two entire continents and a thriving civilization (especially in central America). Howerevr in a period of less than 200 years, the vast majority of Natives were wiped out (numbers speaking). Those who survived were either forced to flee or captured an sent into harsh slavery. Unlike the Jews, which have been able to at least recover and start new lives, many Natives still live in poverty today.

Kurds and Africans have also had rough histories, where the afteraffects are still being felt today (the Kurds to a greater extent)

note that a lot of American Indians did their best to wipe each other out. Some even used blankets infected with smallpox as a form of biological warfare. So yeah, some had it rough, but they used each other, as well as brit and french immigrants too.

I think the blankets with smallpox was a English (or French?) idea.

There’s no denying the fact that Jews have been persecuted to the nth degree, however the Native Americans (and all ethnic groups listed above) have suffered too. However (legitimate or not) Jews have a place they feel they can belong. What do the Native Americans have? Patches of land that no one in their right mind would want to live in in the first place? Also in terms of percentage (Natives relative to European settlers during colonial expansion), I don’t think there has been any other minority group that has suffered more.

BTW, Welcome back TG!

Yeah, it’s been a while. 8) Good to see you too, Emu. :)

Jews have not waited for others to help them while doing nothing but have rather taken it upon themselves to help themselves and try to succeed

And other minority groups haven’t? I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that. There have been many civil rights movements by africians, hispanics, homosexuals, and native americans in the past. You see these groups standing up for their rights more than I have seen of Jews… :-?

@TG:

And other minority groups haven’t? I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that. There have been many civil rights movements by africians, hispanics, homosexuals, and native americans in the past. You see these groups standing up for their rights more than I have seen of Jews… :-?

I think that’s partially the point here. These groups are busy demonstrating when the Jews are just going out there and doing well in a variety of areas.