Have a Day! w/ The History Wizard

Day 19 - The Very Definition of Fuck Around and Find Out...

Hey, Hi, Hello, this is the History Wizard and welcome back for Day 19 of Have a Day w/ The History Wizard. Thank you to everyone who tuned in for Day 18 last week, and especially thank you to everyone who rated and/or reviewed the podcast. I hope you all learned something last week and I hope the same for this week as well. Originally this week was going to cover the currently ongoing genocide in Ukraine, but I need to do some more research before I’m ready to record that episode so instead today’s episode is going to be an interlude and we’re going to be talking aboutone of my favorite women in history. Olga of Kiev, a woman who is the very definition of fuck around and find out. But first! The Alchemist’s Table! Today’s libation is called Kissed by Summer. It’s 2 oz of bourbon, 1 oz each of amaretto and francelico. .75 oz of vanilla simple syrup, 3 dashes of angostura bitters. Shake well and pour over ice. Top with equal parts lemonade and ginger beer and enjoy! So, now onto Ola of Kiev, the Saint of Slaughter. Olga’s exact year of birth is unknown, but we know she was born somewhere between 890 and 925 CE in Pleskov. She was of Varangian origin, which was an ethnic group descended from Swedish vikingr invaders that eventually settled in the area of the Kievan Rus. She was 15 years old when she was married to Prince Igor I of the Rurik Dynasty. Igor was the son of Rurik, making him only the second ruler of this particular dynasty. During Igor’s reign and owing to a great deal of military aid from his guardian Oleg the Wise the Kievan Rus, and the many tribes of people living in it all came under Rurik control. Tragedy would strike the Rurik Dynasty in the form of a neighboring tribe known as the Drevelians, a tribe of Eastern Slavic peoples. The Drevelians were not part of the Kievan Rus, though they had joined them in military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire previously and paid a yearly tribute to Igor’s predecessors in the Rurik Dynasty. After Oleg the Wise died in 912 CE the Drevelians stopped paying their tribute to Igor, instead paying it to a local warlord.  In 945 CE Igor set out with his army to bring the Drevelians into line. No longer would he allow them to deny him what he saw as his rightful tribute. He marched his army to the traditional Drevelian capital, Iskorosten, today known as Korosten in the Zhytomyr Oblast in northern Ukraine. Now, Igor’s army was much larger than any the Drevelians could field, so they backed down and agreed to resume their payments to Igor. However, Igor became greedy and after leaving to return home he turned around and went back to Iskorosten to demand even MORE tribute, at which point he Drevelians captured him alone and killed him. According to the Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon, Igor's death was caused by a gruesome act of torture in which he was "captured by them, tied to tree trunks, and torn in two." They allegedly tied one leg each to two bent over birch trees and then let them catapult up in opposing directions, tearing him in half. Though it is possible that this exact story is apocryphal, the fact that Igor was killed by the Drevelians cannot be denied. Upon learning of the death of her husband Olga ascended to the throne to rule as regent in the name of her son Sviatoslav. Olga was the first woman to rule over the Kievan Rus. Now, there isn’t a great deal of information in the historical record regarding what Olga’s reign was like. But there is A LOT of information detailing the bloody revenge she got on those who stole her love from her. The Drevelians, now firmly in the Fuck Around stage and emboldened by their successful murder of Igor sent a missive to Olga. They proposed that Olga should marry the Drevelian prince Mal. The man directly responsible for killing her husband. According to the Russian Primary Chronicle, a document formerly thought to have been written by Nestor the Chronicler, although now it is considered to be of unknown authorship, Olga responded to their bold pronouncement thusly: “Your proposal is pleasing to me, indeed, my husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people. Return now to your boat, and remain there with an aspect of arrogance. I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say, "We will not ride on horses nor go on foot, carry us in our boat." And you shall be carried in your boat.” When they returned the next day the Drevelians repeated the words Olga had bade them and the people of the Kievan Rus lifted their boat upon their shoulders and carried them into the courtyard of Olga’s castle. The Drevelians were thrilled by this, feeling as though they were carried in great honor upon a palanquin. Once they were brought into the courtyard their porters dropped them, boat and all, into a trench that Olga had ordered dug the day before and were buried alive. It is written that Olga bent down to watch them as they were buried and "inquired whether they found the honor to their taste." The Drevelins were now squarely in the middle of the Find Out stage, although they didn’t know it yet as all 20 of the men from the initial retinue they had sent were now buried in the courtyard of Olga’s home. So Olga wrote to the Drevelians and asked them to send “their distinguished men to her in Kiev, so that she might go to their Prince with due honor.” The Drevelian, completely unaware of the fate of the previous retinue sent others to Olga, who ordered a bath be drawn so that they might wash off the dust of the road. Once the bath was drawn and the Drevelians were comfortably in the bathhouse, Olga set the damnthing on fire. No one escaped alive. But Olga’s revenge was not complete. The Drevelians, still unaware that Olga was engaged in acts of genocidal revenge over the death of her husband, received another missive from her. She was on her way to Iskotorsten and asked that they prepare great quantities of mead so that she might mourn and feast her husband as is proper. And the Drevelians compiled and a funeral feast was held by Igor’s tomb. When the Drevelians were good and drunk on mead, Olga ordered her followers to fall upon them and slaughter them all. According to the Primary Chronicle some 5000 Drevelians were killed in a single night. Olga would then return to Kiev, her capital city, and prepare her armies to march back to Iskotorsten. She swept across Drevelian land like an avenging angel until she reached, once again, their capital. Here is where things stalled and Olga entered into a year long siege. Eventually she sent another missive to the Drevelians asking them why their capital refused to surrender. “All of your other cities have surrendered and now pay tribute to me, why would you rather die of hunger than pay tribute.” The Drevelians, as you might expect, responded that they were worried that Olga ws still dead set on revenge, but Olga told them that the boat, bathhouse, and feast massacres had satisfied her. She instead asked them for 3 pigeons and three sparrows from each house and the Drevelians rejoiced that the price they were asked to pay was so low. Oh those poor fools. Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the Primary Chronicle tells it: "There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once." As the people fled the burning city, Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them, killing some of them and giving the others as slaves to her followers. Olga would go on to become a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Not because of the genocide she committed. Mostly because of her efforts to Christianize the Kievan Rus, a mission that she did not succeed in, but that was carried to fruition by her grandson Vladimir. Well… that’s it for this week folks. No new reviews, so let’s get right into the outro. Have a Day! w/ The History Wizard is brought to you by me, The History Wizard. If you want to see/hear more of me you can find me on Tiktok @thehistorywizard or on Instagram @the_history_wizard. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Have a Day! On your pod catcher of choice. The more you do, the more people will be able to listen and learn along with you. Thank you  for sticking around until the end and, as always, Have a Day.

Day 18 - Rubber Doesn't Always Bounce Back...

Hey, Hi, Hello, this is the History Wizard and welcome back for Day 18 of Have a Day w/ The History Wizard. Thank you to everyone who tuned in for Day 17 2 weeks ago, and especially thank you to everyone who rated and/or reviewed the podcast. I hope you all learned something last week and I hope the same for this week as well. This week we’re going to be diving back into learning about historic genocides as we learn about the Congolese genocide committed by King Leopold II of Belgium. We’ve talked about the Congolese Genocide previously on Day 11, Free Congo. But for today’s episode we’re going to go into much greater detail about this particular genocide and not just discuss it within the context of a current conflict. Now, before we get to The Alchemist’s Table I wanted to apologize that there wasn’t a new episode last week. Sometimes you just don’t have the energy, the motivation, the spoons or the spell slots. So, I took a week off. It might happen again. And now on to the booze! Today’s libation is called Cherries Jubilee. It’s 2 oz of Islay scotch. I'd recommend a Bowmore if you’re not a huge fan of the peat. Then 1 oz of creme de cacao. 1 oz of frangelico. Add .75 oz of cherry syrup. Shake and pour overice. Top with ginger beer or a hard cider. Garnish with luxardo cherries and enjoy. Now, with that out of the way let’s get into the Congolese Rubber Genocide. In order to understand this genocide we first need to understand European colonialism during this time. Colonialism has taken many forms over the years and in the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century it transitioned from the classic form of American colonialism into what we would consider New Colonialism. New Colonialism would rely less on direct military control of an area and would rely more on having governmental institutions in power that would directly benefit those pre existing colonial power structures. So, near the end of the 19th century there was very little European colonial and mercantile presence in Africa. There were some port towns, to be sure, and there was trade, but very little of the African continent was under the control of European powers at this time. But, European greed for gold and, especially, ivory wouldn’t allow them to ignore African riches for much longer. The Berlin Conference was organized between November 1884 and February 1885 at the request of King Leopold II of Belgium and was organized by Otto von Bismarck of Germany.   The primary purpose of the Berlin Conference was regulating European colonization and trade during the New Imperialism period. It might seem strange to need to differentiate New Imperialism from the forms of empire building that came before. Afterall, the methodology was largely the same. Conquest. And the reasoning was, mostly the same. Resources and land acquisition. But New Imperialism also came with a good deal of “civilizing” flavor. You might be familiar with the poem White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling. If you’re not. You can fully understand the entire mindset of 19th and 20th century colonialism simply by reading that poem. Now, Leopold had been using the explorations of Henry Morgan Stanley, and his own organization, the International African Association to quietly try and create his own private colony in central Africa that would be called the Congo Free State, but France found out and started making moves, and then Britain and Portugal found out and began trying to grab land which led Germany to do the same. War was brewing quickly as these various European powerhouses all sought as much land, wealth, and power as they could grab. This, ultimately, would be why the Berlin Conference was called and why it was so successful. These European powers decided, instead of going to war and killing each other over Africa they’d just all meet and carve it up like a pecan pie and settle it all peaceful like. There were 14 nations/empires in attendance at the Berlin Conference, Germany, Austria Hungary, the International Congo Society (this really means King Leopold II of Belgium), Spain, Denmark, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden-Norway, and the Ottoman Empire. And while all 14 of those countries were in attendance at the Berlin Conference and had a say in the final decisions that were made, only 7 countries were actually going to colonize Africa once it was over. Those countries were Belgium (really just King Leopold II, this would be his own private colony), Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Portugal, and Italy. At the time of the Berlin Conference, in 1885, less than 10% of the African continent was under European control, but by the time World War 1 broke out only Liberia and Ethiopia were still independent. Although, Liberia certainly only existed because of US colonial power, and so doesn’t REALLY count as independent.  Wanna know one of the most buckwild things about the Berlin Conference? I ask knowing that there is no way for you to answer or to stop me from telling you short of skipping forward by about 30 seconds. Part of the General Act, the document that was signed and ratified at the conclusion of the Berlin Conference was a commitment from the European powers involved to END AFRICAN AND ISLAMIC SLAVERY. Most of those European powers would go on to enslave the populations they conquered and colonized. This period of New Imperialism is what we tend to call The Scramble for Africa. So far we’ve been talking about this all in fairly clinical terms, as if these European countries simply sat around a table and calmly decided who would get what land in the second largest continent on the planet and then it just happened, with no additional muss or fuss. Anyone who has studied even the barest amount of human history knows that nothing happens without muss or fuss. There were wars, and battles, and massacres that led to Europe gaining control of African territory. We now need to talk a bit about the Congo Free State, and how King Leopold of Belgium, a frail weakling (compared to the other European powers) managed to worm his way into the conference and into one of the most lucrative colonies in Africa. The Congo Free State was a truly massive colony that was owned personally by Leopold. It was NOT, at least between the years 1885 and 1908, part of the Belgian Empire, it was not owned by the Belgian government and was ruled entirely separately, it just happened to be ruled by the King of Belgium. Leopold was able to gain this massive colony by convincing the monarchs of Europe that he was engaged in humanitarian and philanthropic work, and that the Congo Free State would be an area of free trade in Africa. He also then proceeded to lie to the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, and the US telling them all that he would give them special trade status. Leopold maintained a guise that he was not trying to use the Congo Basin to increase his own wealth and economic and political power. He maintained that his presence in the region was, as was a huge part of the ethos of New Imperialism, to civilize the savages of the Congo Basin and to bring them closer to God and good European cultural supremacy.  Leopold pledged to suppress the east African slave trade; promote humanitarian policies; guarantee free trade within the colony; impose no import duties for twenty years; and encourage philanthropic and scientific enterprises. Beginning in the mid-1880s, Leopold first decreed that the state asserted rights of proprietorship over all vacant lands throughout the Congo territory. In three successive decrees, Leopold promised the rights of the Congolese in their land to native villages and farms, essentially making nearly all of the CFS terres domaniales (state-owned land). Leopold further decreed that merchants should limit their commercial operations in rubber trade with the natives. Additionally, the colonial administration liberated thousands of slaves. Four main problems presented themselves over the next few years. Leopold II ran up huge debts to finance his colonial endeavour and risked losing his colony to Belgium. Much of the Free State was unmapped jungle, which offered little fiscal and commercial return. Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (part of modern South Africa), was expanding his British South Africa Company's charter lands from the south and threatened to occupy Katanga (southern Congo) by exploiting the "Principle of Effectivity" loophole in the Berlin Treaty. In this he was supported by Harry Johnston, the British Commissioner for Central Africa, who was London's representative in the region. The Congolese interior was ruled by Arab Zanzibari slavers and sultans, powerful kings and warlords who had to be coerced or defeated by use of force. For example, the slaving gangs of Zanzibar trader Tippu Tip had a strong presence in the eastern part of the territory in the modern-day Maniema, Tanganyika and Ituri regions. They were linked to the Swahili coast via Uganda and Tanzania and had established independent slave states. So very quickly Leopold began to renege on his promises. The first concession he made to his greed and desire for power was to establish a policy of terres vacantes. Vacant land, which was defined as any land that did not have a house or cultivated garden plot. This was, of course, most of the country. Any terres vacantes was now automatically property of the state to be portioned out to Leopold’s cronies and supporters. Next Leopold would decree that any locals harvesting rubber or ivory were only allowed to sell to the state. This was doubly enforced because most of the rubber or ivory harvesting was happening on “state owned land” and so it “mae sense” that they could only sell to the state, which now had a monopoly on those products and could set the prices at whatever they wanted. Trading companies were, obviously, pissed by this as part of the General Act of the Berlin Conference was a promise of Free Trade in Belgium. Now, what made The Congo so special in the history of capitalist exploitation was that it was home to something that would become one of the most important natural resources in the entire world, rubber. There are only two sources of natural rubber in the world. The sap of the Hevea brasiliensis, or rubber tree that grows in the Amazon River Basin, and the sap of Landolphia owariensis, a species of woody vines that grow in the Congo. I mean, technically there are 2500 species of plants that produce natural latex and rubber, but those two are the big ones. Today 99% of natural latex and rubber comes from the Amazon, but Leopold was able to make massive profit off of his colony. By the final decade of the 19th century, John Boyd Dunlop's 1887 invention of inflatable, rubber bicycle tubes and the growing usage of the automobile dramatically increased global demand for rubber. Now, as mentioned previously the rubber in the Congo came from vines. So while the trees in the Amazon basin could be tapped much in the same way we get Maple syrup, the Congolese workers would slash the vines and lather their bodies with the rubber latex. When the latex hardened, it would be scraped off the skin in a quite painful manner, ripping off the workers hair. The economic system in the Congo Free State was known as the red rubber system. It was a slave economy that Leopold enforced through the use of his armed forces known as the Force Publique. The officer corp of the Force Publique was made up entirely of White Europeans, and much of their rank and file was made up of slaves captured by Arabic slavers in the Upper Congo. Many of the other soldiers were children who had been kidnapped from their villages and raised in Roman Catholic missions in conditions very similar to slavery. Each slave in the Congo Free State was required to harvest a regular quota of rubber sap. What that quota was was often arbitrarily decided based purely on profit based concerns. Workers who refused to supply their labour were coerced with "constraint and repression". Dissenters were beaten or whipped with the chicotte, a bullship made of hippo hide, hostages were taken to ensure prompt collection and punitive expeditions were sent to destroy villages which refused. The policy led to a collapse of Congolese economic and cultural life, as well as farming in some areas. One refugee from these horrors described the process: We were always in the forest to find the rubber vines, to go without food, and our women had to give up cultivating the fields and gardens. Then we starved ... When we failed and our rubber was short, the soldiers came to our towns and killed us. Many were shot, some had their ears cut off; others were tied up with ropes round their necks and taken away. Failure to meet the rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Meanwhile, the Force Publique were required to provide the hand of their victims as proof when they had shot and killed someone, as it was believed that they would otherwise use the munitions (imported from Europe at considerable cost) for hunting or to stockpile them for mutiny. As a consequence, the rubber quotas were in part paid off in cut-off hands. A Catholic priest quotes a man, Tswambe, speaking of the hated state official Léon Fiévez, who ran a district along the river 300 mi north of Stanley Pool: “All blacks saw this man as the devil of the Equator ... From all the bodies killed in the field, you had to cut off the hands. He wanted to see the number of hands cut off by each soldier, who had to bring them in baskets ... A village which refused to provide rubber would be completely swept clean. As a young man, I saw [Fiévez's] soldier Molili, then guarding the village of Boyeka, take a net, put ten arrested natives in it, attach big stones to the net, and make it tumble into the river ... Rubber causes these torments; that's why we no longer want to hear its name spoken. Soldiers made young men kill or rape their own mothers and sisters.” One junior officer in the Force Publique had this to say about the quota system: The baskets of severed hands, set down at the feet of the European post commanders, became the symbol of the Congo Free State. ... The collection of hands became an end in itself. Force Publique soldiers brought them to the stations in place of rubber; they even went out to harvest them instead of rubber ... They became a sort of currency. They came to be used to make up for shortfalls in rubber quotas, to replace ... the people who were demanded for the forced labour gangs; and the Force Publique soldiers were paid their bonuses on the basis of how many hands they collected. Within the Congo Free State there was also rampant famine and disease that killed hundreds of thousands of people, a type of residential school where children were sent to learn to be either workers or soldiers. About 50% of the children who entered these schools died. There were also several reputable reports of Congolese people turning to cannibalism in the face of their lack of food resources. With everyone being forced to harvest rubber there was no one to farm or gather or hunt for food. It is generally accepted that over the course of Leopold’s rule in the Congo Free State, between 1885 and 1908 that at least 10 million Congolese people were killed. The peak year for the cost of rubber was 1903, with rubber fetching the highest price and concessionary companies raking in the highest profits. However, the boom sparked efforts to find lower-cost producers. Congolese concessionary companies started facing competition from rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia and Latin America. As plantations were begun in other tropical regions around the world, the global price of rubber started to dip. Competition heightened the drive to exploit forced labour in the Congo in order to lower production costs. Meanwhile, the cost of enforcement was eating away at profit margins, along with the toll taken by the increasingly unsustainable harvesting methods. As competition from other areas of rubber cultivation mounted, Leopold's private rule was left increasingly vulnerable to international scrutiny. Missionaries carefully and meticulously documented the many abuses of the Congolese Red Rubber system. This would finally be noted by the international community and by the Belgian government itself as a violation of the 1885 Berlin Act which gave Leopold authority and control of the Congo as long as he: "care[d] for the improvements of their conditions of their moral and material well-being" and "help[ed] in suppressing slavery." After 2 years of international pressure the Belgian government agreed to annex the Congo Free State and make it an official part of the Belgian Empire. The reason the debate lasted 2 years was that no one wanted to take on the responsibility of fixing everything Leopold had fucked up so royally (pun intended). But what happened to Leopold you ask? Did he go to jail? Did he get a slap on the wrist? Was he deposed as king and sent into exile on a small island in the Pacific where he eventually died of stomach cancer? Nah, he did die though, but he died as King of Belgium. He had surgery on December 17, 1909. He had a coronary bridging performed, aiming at correcting insufficient irrigation of the myocardium. ''A few hours after the operation, a failure of the myocardium occurred leading to death the same day’’. Leopold had ruled Belgium for 44 years, which makes him, to this day, the longest reigning Belgian monarch. You also might be please to know that his funeral procession was booed by every crowd he passed. His people fucking hated him. Exciting news y’all! We actually DO have some reviews this week! So let’s read em! And now for the outro! Have a Day! w/ The History Wizard is brought to you by me, The History Wizard. If you want to see/hear more of me you can find me on Tiktok @thehistorywizard or on Instagram @the_history_wizard. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Have a Day! On your pod catcher of choice. The more you do, the more people will be able to listen and learn along with you. Thank you  for sticking around until the end and, as always, Have a Day.

Day 17 - Juggling!

Hey, Hi, Hello, this is the History Wizard and welcome back for Day 17 of Have a Day w/ The History Wizard. Thank you to everyone who tuned in for Day 16 last week, and especially thank you to everyone who rated and/or reviewed the podcast. I hope you all learned something last week and I hope the same for this week. We’re going to do something different this week. We’ve been learning about some, frankly depressing things. War, genocide, slaughter, ethnic tensions and cleansings. These are all important things to be learning about. Especially the ones that are happening in the world right now. But it is always important to remember to take care of ourselves. We need to take some time to breathe and remember that we are human beings with thoughts and feelings and that we require rest or we will, quite simply, die. So today, after our visit to the Alchemist’s Table, we are going to learn about the history of juggling! Today’s libation is called Herb Garden. It’s 1 oz each of gin, elderflower liquor, and jagermeister. 2 splashes each of Orleans and Cardamom bitters, and a splash of lavender simple syrup. Shake well and strain into a glass with muddled mint. Top with lemonade and enjoy! So! Now onto the juggling. First let’s get the obvious out of the way. What is juggling? Juggle is a verb and it is defined as to continuously toss into the air and catch (a number of objects) so as to keep at least one in the air while handling the others, typically for the entertainment of others. Though it also bears mentioning that what we will be discussing in this episode is more specifically referred to as toss juggling. Bounce juggling and contact juggling also exist as distinct disciplines. Moving forward I’ll be using the general term juggling, but know that we are discussing toss juggling. The classic tool for juggling is, obviously, balls but you can juggle anything that you can throw. I’ve seen people juggle knives, flaming torches, chainsaws, music stands, bowling balls. Anything you can throw. Although, the three most basic juggling props are balls, clubs, and rings. The oldest archeological depiction that we have of juggling comes from ancient Egypt from around the 21st century BCE. There was some wall art in the Beni Hasan cemetery complex that appears to show 4 young women juggling balls. We say appears to be because without text based evidence describing the scene or the ability to talk to someone who made the art it’s just a guess. But you can look up the wall art, and it looks like juggling to me. The next big piece of juggling in the historical record comes from the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history and it is not only my favorite story from the history of juggling, but it is also one of my favorite historical stories to exist, full stop. Xiong Yiliao was a Chu warrior who fought under King Zhuang of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. Ancient Chinese annals state that he practiced nòngwán, "throwing multiple objects up and down without dropping". During a battle in about 603 BC between the states of Chu and Song, Xiong Yiliao stepped out between the armies and juggled nine balls, which so amazed the Song troops that all five hundred of them turned and fled, allowing the Chu army to win a complete victory. Dude just walked in between two armies about to fight and pulled one of the biggest bluffs since the Empty Fort Strategy. But also, NINE BALLS!??!?! That’s amazingly impressive. The world record for most balls juggled at a single time TODAY is only 11. The record was set by Alex Barron on the 3rd of April, 2012. Juggling 9 balls is still considered a massive achievement. I’ve never really been able to progress beyond 3. There’s another story from the Spring and Autumn period of a man named Lanzi who was known to walk around on stilts that were “twice as long as his body” while juggling 7 jian swords. Let’s put aside, for a moment, that jian swords are not weighted even remotely close to how modern juggling clubs or knives are and that they are far longer. The current record for most clubs juggled is only 8. It was set in 2023 by Moritz Rosner who managed a bare 18 tosses and catches before losing the pattern. Lanzi, by the way, was probably not the guy's actual name. Lanzi was often used as a general term for itinerant entertainers during this time. The Ancient Greek historian Manetho once described jugglers and acrobats thusly:  “birds of the country, the foulest brood of the city.” Male and female jugglers jumped forward and backward over swords or tables; girls threw up and caught again a number of balls or hoops to the accompaniment of a musical instrument; others displayed an astounding skill with their feet and toes while standing on their hands. And the Greek historian Xenophon once had this to say about the performance of a dancing girl at a party hosted by Socrates: And at the instant her fellow with the flute commenced a tune to keep her company, whilst someone posted at her side kept handing her the hoops till she had twelve in all. With these in her hands she fell to dancing, and the while she danced she flung the hoops into the air - overhead she sent them twirling - judging the height they must be thrown to catch them as they fell in perfect time. The record for ring juggling, by the way, is only 13 rings and was set in 2002 by Albert Lucas who managed exactly 13 throws and catches. Now, many of these ancient historians were known to exaggerate, so it's unclear if these historic records are real, or if they were just picking numbers they assumed were impressive. If the former, it’s wild that the records have increased by so little. If the latter, they were correct. Ancient Roman sources make mention of jugglers and juggling fairly frequently. They mention contact juggling with glass spheres a number of times and Sidonius Apollinaris, a Roman officer leading a legion in the French province of Niemen, allegedly wrote in his letters that he enjoyed juggling three or four balls as a hobby for his own satisfaction and to entertain his companions in the legions. The Boke of Saint Albans, published in England in 1486, contains one of my very favorite  juggling fun facts. It mentions a “Neverthriving of Jugglers” as part of a list of collective nouns. This is hilarious and painful and it is nearly impossible to make a thriving wage as a juggler. Stewart Culin in Games of the North American Indians, a book that was written in 2012 lists examples of juggling among the Naskapi, Eskimo, Achomawi, Bannock, Shoshone, Ute, and Zuni tribes of North America. One example, quoted from George Dorsey, describes a game played by Shoshone women who juggled up to four balls made of mud, cut gypsum, or rounded water-worn stones. Dorsey describes betting contests in which the women raced toward an objective such as a tree or tipi while juggling. This is very similar to a modern day sport called joggling where participants juggle while jogging. From 1768 onwards, when Phillip Astley opened the first modern circus he included jugglers along with his equestrian acts, acrobatics, and clowns. And in 1793 when John Bill Rickets brought the idea of the circus to the United States and performed for George Washington he juggled while on horseback. So largely from the 18th century forward juggling has been heavily associated with the circus. There have been man firsts and exciting advancements made in the field of juggling over the years. From Jim Harrigan creating the concept of comedic juggling to Dewitt Cook inventing the modern concept of club juggling when he performed a routine using Indian Clubs. Indian clubs are a heavy wooden club that was and still are used as a strengthening and conditioning tool. They are much heavier and not weighted quite the same as modern plastic clubs. There have also been more weird stories, such as Enrico Rastelli who was born in Siberia in 1896. Widely hailed as one of the greatest jugglers of all time he was the first recorded person to juggle 10 balls, though he was never able to juggle 9. There was also Charles Hoey who was the first to juggle 4 clubs, though he could not stop juggling without dropping. When performing on stage the curtain had to be closed while he was still juggling so the audience wouldn't see him drop. Juggling has a long and delightfully quirky history. It’s one of my favorite party trick, though one that I don’t practice as often as I used to or as often as I should. Still, it’s fun to do and fun to learn about. I hope you enjoyed learning about it, because next week it’s right back into the breach. That’s it for this week folks. No new reviews, so let’s get right into the outro. Have a Day! w/ The History Wizard is brought to you by me, The History Wizard. If you want to see/hear more of me you can find me on Tiktok @thehistorywizard or on Instagram @the_history_wizard. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Have a Day! On your pod catcher of choice. The more you do, the more people will be able to listen and learn along with you. Thank you  for sticking around until the end and, as always, Have a Day.

Day 16 - Free Haiti

Content warning for discussion of genocide, torture, mutilation, rape, and slavery Hey, Hi, Hello, this is the History Wizard and welcome back for Day 16 of Have a Day w/ The History Wizard. Thank you to everyone who tuned in for Day 15 last week, and especially thank you to everyone who rated and/or reviewed the podcast. I hope you all learned something last week and I hope the same for this week. This week marks the 7th part of our mini series of currently ongoing genocides and humanitarian crises. Episode 2 was on Palestine, Episode 11 was on Congo, episode 12 was on Sudan, episode 13 was on Xinjiang, episode 14 was on Rakhine State, episode 15 was on Tigray, and today’s episode will focus on the current situation in Haiti. Today’s trip to the Alchemist’s Table will look somewhat similar to last weeks. This drink is called Persephone’s Wedding. It starts with muddled mint before adding some lavender simple syrup and 2 oz of gin. Strain all that over ice and stir for about 30 seconds before topping with lemonade and garnishing with mint. Starting in 1492 Haiti became one of the first European colonies following Columbus's first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean with the settlement at La Navidad. Haiti would remain under European control until their revolution that ended in 1804. We’re glossing pretty heavily over the Haitian Revolution in today’s episode because the Haitian Revolution and the subsequent Haitian Massacre will be a later episode on this podcast. Now, just because Haiti was now an independent nation and no longer a French colony didn’t mean that the country was free of European influence or control. Spain, Germany, and Britain still had large amounts of economic and political sway in the island nation. This would especially be the case when US President Woodrow Wilson, that racist movie loving fuck, sent the Marines to occupy Port au-Prince. Germany was also heavily invested in the island nation, and while the US wasn’t in World War 1 yet, they had severe anxieties over an anti-American, and pro-German, president being installed so they took over the nation, overthrew Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, the then president of Haiti. The Marines declared martial law and severely censored the press. Within weeks, a new pro-U.S. Haitian president, Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave, was installed and a new constitution written that was favorable to the interests of the United States. The constitution (written by future US President Franklin D. Roosevelt) included a clause that allowed, for the first time, foreign ownership of land in Haiti, which was bitterly opposed by the Haitian legislature and citizenry. The US would keep a firm grip on Haitian politics, even after their occupation ended in 1934. Haiti would now enter an even greater period of political instability (which is not to say that US occupation was a good thing, an end of colonial occupation often sees old ethnic tensions flare up and massive violence enacted to dismantle colonial power structures). The president at the end of the occupation, Sténio Vincent was forced to step down under US pressure in 1941 and was replaced by Élie Lescot who served until 1946 when he was overthrown in a military coup d'etat and replaced by Dumarsais Estimé until 1950 when HE was overthrown in a military coup and replaced by the staunchly anti-communist Paul Magloire who was strongly supported by the US. Now despite the massive amounts of political instability that we just discussed, it is about to get worse with the Duvalier dynasty.  In 1956–57 Haiti underwent severe political turmoil; Magloire was forced to resign and leave the country in 1956 and he was followed by four short-lived presidencies. In the September 1957 election François Duvalier was elected President of Haiti. Known as 'Papa Doc' and initially popular, Duvalier remained President until his death in 1971. He advanced black interests in the public sector, where over time, people of color had predominated as the educated urban elite. Not trusting the army, despite his frequent purges of officers deemed disloyal, Duvalier created a private militia known as Tontons Macoutes ("Bogeymen"), which maintained order by terrorizing the populace and political opponents. In 1964 Duvalier proclaimed himself 'President for Life'; an uprising against his rule that year in Jérémie was violently suppressed, with the ringleaders publicly executed and hundreds of mixed-raced citizens in the town killed. The bulk of the educated and professional class began leaving the country, and corruption became widespread. Duvalier sought to create a personality cult, identifying himself with Baron Samedi, one of the loa (or lwa), or spirits, of Haitian Vodou. Despite the well-publicized abuses under his rule, Duvalier's firm anti-Communism earned him the support of the Americans, who furnished the country with aid. This is something you will find about the United States. While they style themselves the land of the free and the home of the brave they’re more than willing to finance and support dictators as long as they 1. Oppose communism and 2. Give the US a free hand to control their economy. So it didn’t matter to the “Greatest Country on Earth” is Papa Doc was killing mixed race people and all of his political opponents. He was anti-communist and that was good enough. Now there WAS a coup attempt against Duvalier in the first year of his reign (the first of many) led by some of the military officials he had fired. Those men thought that they could come riding back in and that the people, fed up of Papa Doc’s growing autocratic tendencies, would rally to them and they would quickly restore the old social order. But Haiti had gone through 4 presidents the year before Papa Doc came into office and while he wasn’t the best loved president, he was considered competent (having previous served as Minister of Health) and he was bringing order and stability to the country. So the coup attempters.. There’s got to be a better way of saying that, were all killed and their bodies dragged through the streets of Port au-Prince, as if each citizen was a little Achilles dragging Hector around the walls of Troy. Papa Doc, despite the multiple coup attempts, did reign as president for life. He was still President when he died in 1971 and was immediately replaced by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed Baby Doc. Baby Doc assumed the “presidency” at the age of 19, making him the youngest president in world history. Jean-Claude tried to reign back some of the harsher policies of his father, but was still deposed in a popular uprising in 1986 and forced to step down and flee the country. Haiti would then fall under the rule of its military for a brief time and then had a series of bad elections and even more coups. There was a coup in June of 1988, another in September of 1988, and a third one in September of 1991. The US would send troops in under Operation Uphold Democracy to try and bring some stability to Haiti. Though, as is always the case when the US tries to bring free market reforms and “democracy” to a country they did a shitty job of it.  Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been elected president in 1990 and had been deposed in the 1991 coup returned to finish out his term, lost in 1995, but was reelected again in the year 2000. He would then be deposed AGAIN in 2004 in another coup d’etat.  One of Aristide’s worst decisions while in office was when he outlawed pro-Duvalier militias like the Macoute, but he also ordered the disbandment of the Haitian Army. So the Army disbanded, but never disarmed and just would up forming or joining various militia groups. From 1994 to 2004, a de facto anti-Arisitide insurgency took place in Port-au-Prince, as ex-soldiers attacked the government. In response to the chaos, youth set up self-defense groups, called chimères, which were supported by the police and the government to shore up its position. Receiving de facto state support from Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party, the youth gangs took control of entire communes and became increasingly independent-minded. U.S. diplomat Daniel Lewis Foote argued, "Aristide started [the gangs] on purpose in the early 1980s, as a voice, as a way to get some power [for ordinary Hatians], [...] and they morphed over the years." Now, the precise nature of the events of the 2004 coup are disputed; some, including Aristide and his bodyguard, Franz Gabriel, stated that he was the victim of a "new coup d'état or modern kidnapping" by U.S. forces. These charges were denied by the US government. As political violence and crime continued to grow, a United Nations Stabilisation Mission (MINUSTAH) was brought in to maintain order. However, MINUSTAH proved controversial, since their periodically heavy-handed approach to maintaining law and order and several instances of abuses, including the alleged sexual abuse of civilians, provoked resentment and distrust among ordinary Haitians. So now Haiti has no standing army, armed militias and gangs fighting on and off in the streets, an UN peacekeeping mission sexually abusing civilians and they’re about to be hit with a Magnitude 7 earthquake. On 12 January 2010, at 4:53 pm local time, Haiti was struck by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake. This was the country's most severe earthquake in over 200 years. The earthquake was reported to have left between 160,000 and 300,000 people dead and up to 1.6 million homeless, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. It is also one of the deadliest earthquakes ever recorded. The situation was exacerbated by a subsequent massive cholera outbreak that was triggered when cholera-infected waste from a United Nations peacekeeping station contaminated the country's main river, the Artibonite. In 2017, it was reported that roughly 10,000 Haitians had died and nearly a million had been made ill. After years of denial, the United Nations apologized in 2016, but as of 2017, they have refused to acknowledge fault, thus avoiding financial responsibility. And now, we’re at the Haitian Gang War. The Vox journalist Ellen Ioanes summarized the beginnings of the situation quite well: "Haiti has faced serious and compounding crises, including a devastating 2010 earthquake, floods, cholera outbreaks, hurricanes, and corrupt, dictatorial, and incompetent leaders". Gangs stepped into the power vacuum, seizing political power through co-operative politicians and economic control through protection rackets, kidnappings and murders. As of 2022 researchers form the NGO Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime have estimated that there are some 200 gangs in Haiti and that most of them are set up somewhere in Port au-Prince. Sexual violence from members of these gangs is a common crime being committed nearly daily against people from rival gang territories. Rape only became a crime in Haiti in 2005 and abortion is still illegal, so rape victims are legally required to keep those children. Though as we know, making abortion illegal doesn’t stop abortions, it just stops safe ones. One of the most powerful gangs in Haiti at this time is, technically, an alliance of gangs, called the G9 alliance is lead by a former police officer named Jimmy Chérizier, nicknamed Barbecue. G9 is based in the capital's communes of Delmas, Pétion-Ville and parts of Carrefour. The G9 alliance includes many former soldiers and policemen in its ranks and was long connected to the PHTK party (which is a Center-Right political party) until distancing itself after Ariel Henry became president. The G9 now portrays itself as a revolutionary organization, and has begun to create a nation-wide alliance network dubbed "G20". Since the coalition was founded, it has been responsible for multiple massacres against civilians and clashes with other rival gangs. From 2020 to 2021, the G9 was responsible for a dozen massacres, in which at least 200 people were killed. The G9 was believed to have had close ties to the government of Moïse, which was accused of large-scale corruption. The coalition members frequently evaded prosecution after the massacres and the clashes. Chérizier stood out in that regard because despite the arrest warrants against him, he continued to move freely and to maintain an active presence on social media with no effective attempts by Haitian government forces to arrest him. The G9 also began attacking neighborhoods in which civilians protested against the president and started clashes against rival gangs with the support of the police. Now, in 2021 Jovenel Moïse, the 43rd president of Haiti was assassinated and then Ariel Henry (who some suspect to be involved in the assassination) served as acting Prime Minister of the country until he stepped down this past April. Henry’s removal from power was long sought by the G9 gang alliance. Cherizier had this to say on the issue in March 2024 "If Ariel Henry doesn't resign, if the international community continues to support him, we'll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide"  "Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us. It's out of the question for a small group of rich people living in big hotels to decide the fate of people living in working-class neighborhoods," he added. Now, while there are over 200 gangs in Haiti at the moment most of them have allied themselves with the G9 alliance, or with the gang alliance that popped up to oppose the G9, known as G-Pep. But also, as of late 2022 an anti-gang bwa kale vigilante movement emerged to attack and kill any gang members. The vigilantes often burned captured gang members alive. Of course, the gangs responded with counter attacks against both the vigilantes and anyone who expressed support of the vigilanties. By mid-2023, the gang war between G9 and G-Pep continued unabated, and the resistance by anti-gang vigilantes also grew in scope. Thousands of people were displaced by the clashes. The severity of the ongoing gang war in Haiti has led to the United Nations Security Council authorizing a one-year deployment of an international force led by Kenya to help the Haitian government deal with the crisis. Chérizier declared that G9 would resist if an international intervention force committed "human rights abuses" and claimed that it would "be a fight of the Haitian people to save the dignity of our country." Despite the horrors he is committing against his own people Cherizier really and truly believes that he is fighting on behalf of a free Haiti. There isn’t a genocide in Haiti, as of yet, but there is a massive civil war between militias and gangs with human rights abuses on all sides of this conflict. On 18 June 2024, the International Organization for Migration reported that more than 580,000 people have been displaced by the increased violence in Haiti since March of 2024. The report also warned that since most of the people displaced have been from communities already struggling with poor social conditions, there may be more tension and violence in the coming days. An international policing force, known as Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti was authorized under UN Resolution 2699 on October 2, 2023 to assist the Haitian National Police in stopping this gang war. Nations who will be taking place in this mission include Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad, Guyana, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Kenya, Suriname, and the Bahamas. The first deployment of 400 troops from Kenya has officially put boots on the ground as of June 25, 2024.  This ongoing gang war will not be resolved anytime soon and it can, and will, get worse before it gets better. Haiti has never had a chance to build a stable society or government. A long and ongoing history of foreign interference, ceaseless coups and natural disasters mean that Haiti has always been on the back foot. We also have to take into account Haiti’s natural resources, because that’s the only reason any imperial power would ever care about Haiti. According to WorldAtlas.com, recent findings suggest that Haiti might have some of the largest oil reserves in the world, potentially larger than those of Venezuela. The country is estimated to be sitting on about 159 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 142 million barrels of oil, with undiscovered reserves possibly holding up to 941 million barrels of crude oil and about 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. According the the State Department the US doesn’t currently have plans to send troops to Haiti. I’m sure that will change. That’s it for this week folks. No new reviews, so let’s get right into the outro. Have a Day! w/ The History Wizard is brought to you by me, The History Wizard. If you want to see/hear more of me you can find me on Tiktok @thehistorywizard or on Instagram @the_history_wizard. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Have a Day! On your pod catcher of choice. The more you do, the more people will be able to listen and learn along with you. Thank you  for sticking around until the end and, as always, Have a Day, and Free Haiti.

Day 15 - Free Tigray

Content warning for discussion of genocide, torture, mutilation, rape, and slavery Hey, Hi, Hello, this is the History Wizard and welcome back for Day 15 of Have a Day w/ The History Wizard. Thank you to everyone who tuned in for Day 14 last week, and especially thank you to everyone who rated and/or reviewed the podcast. I hope you all learned something last week and I hope the same for this week. This week marks the 6th part of our mini series of currently ongoing genocides and humanitarian crises. Episode 2 was on Palestine, Episode 11 was on Congo, episode 12 was on Sudan, episode 13 was on Xinjiang, episode 14 was on Rakhine State, and today’s episode will cover the genocide that is ongoing in Tigray in Ethiopia. Let’s see what the Alchemist’s Table has in store for us this time. Today’s libation is called Memories of Summer. Muddle some mint and strawberries in the bottom of your shaker, add .5 oz of simple syrup, 2 oz of gunpowder gin, stir well for about 30 seconds before double straining over ice and topping with lemonade. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint and enjoy. Now it’s time for everyone’s favorite part, it’s time for the historical context. Tigray is both the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia, as well as an ethnicity. Tigray is known as the birthplace of Ethiopian civilization and their motto is “There is no mountain we would not climb.” That’s fucking badass. When the Scramble for Africa began at the end of the 19th century CE barely 10% of africa was under EUropean colonial control, and by the time World War 1 broke out more than 90% of the country had been colonized, with only Liberia and Ethiopia remaining free states. While Ethiopia remained under its own sovereign control, this was in large part because they willingly allied themselves with Great Britain. In fact many Ethiopian troops fought on the side of Britain during the Mahdist War in Sudan that we discussed on Day 12. Part of Ethiopia’s independence also came from their alliances with Italy. King Menelik II of Ethiopia signed the Treaty of Wuchale with Italy in 1889. This treaty guaranteed Ethiopian sovereignty as long as Italy could control areas north of Ethiopia’s currently held territory (in areas that are now the nation of Eritrea) and in return Ethiopia would receive arms and munitions and Menelik would have Italian support as emperor. Menelik would remain emperor from 1889 until his death in 1913. Though, it is worth noting that Etiopia was only able to maintain its sovereignty because of their victory during the Italo-Ethiopian War that ran from January 1895 until October 1896. The beginning of Menelik’s rule was marked by severe tragedy though as it coincided with the 1890s African rinderpest epizootic. Which is a very fancy way of saying that disease killed 90% of Ethiopia’s cattle and that this, combined with a drought caused by reduced rainfall killed about 1/3rd of the country’s population. The virus, known as Rinderpest, is potentially thought to have been introduced into Eritrea in 1887 by Indian cattle brought by the Italians for their campaign against Somalia. Lack of rainfall from as early as 16 November 1888 led to famine in all but southernmost provinces; locusts and caterpillar infestations destroy crops in Akele Guzay, Begemder, Shewa, and around Harar. Conditions worsened with a typhus epidemic, a major smallpox epidemic (1889–90), and cholera outbreaks (1889–92). Making the beginning of Melenik’s rule really fucking bad. Near the end of his life Melenik was filled with with concern over issues of succession. He hadn’t yet picked an heir and if he died without one his nation would descend into civil war and would become ripe for the picking for European colonial powers. He would eventually settle on one of his grandchildren Lij Iyasu, as his heir. Iyasu would only reign for about 3 years before being deposed on charges of converting to Islam. Ethiopia had been a Christian kingdom since King Ezana of the Aksumite Empire adopted Christianity as the official religion in the 4th century CE. There’s no definitive proof that Iyasu converted to Islam at any point in his life, but there was enough “proof” that everyone felt comfortable stipping him of authority and giving it to Haile Selassie. He served as the Regent for Empress Zedwditu from 1916 until her death in 1930, and after her death served as Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 until he was deposed in 1974 by the Derg following the 1973 oil crisis. Derg or Dergue is Amharic (a Semitic language descended from Ge’ez, which is the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It translates as committee or council. Now, Ethiopia would fall under partial Italian control during the 1930s as part of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War between Fascist Italy and Ethiopia, and while Italy would have some successes during this war, they’d never attain full control over Ethiopia, making Ethiopia the only African nation to not ever fall under colonial control. Some would argue that Liberia would fall under that umbrella as well, but considering that Liberia, as a nation, was artificially created by the US as a place for freed slaves to return to, I don’t think it qualifies. Haile Selassie as the emperor of Ethiopia would be one of the founding members of the United Nations. Haile Selassie's rule ended on 12 September 1974, when he was deposed by the Derg, a committee made up of military and police officers. After the execution of 60 former government and military officials, the new Provisional Military Administrative Council abolished the monarchy in March 1975 and established Ethiopia as a Marxist-Leninist state. The abolition of feudalism, increased literacy, nationalization, and sweeping land reform including the resettlement and villagization from the Ethiopian Highlands became priorities. Mengistu Haile Mariam would become the ruler of Ethiopia following the fall of Haile Selassie until in May 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) forces advanced on Addis Ababa from all sides, and Mengistu fled the country with 50 family and Derg members. He was granted asylum in Zimbabwe as an official guest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Now the period of Derg rule is also known as the Ethiopian Civil War. It lasted from 1974 until 1991. The Derg in its attempt to introduce full-fledged socialist ideals, fulfilled its main slogan of "Land to the Tiller", by redistributing land in Ethiopia that once belonged to landlords to the peasants tilling the land. Although this was made to seem like a fair and just redistribution, the mismanagement, corruption, and general hostility to the Derg's violent and harsh rule coupled with the draining effects of constant warfare, separatist guerrilla movements in Eritrea and Tigray, resulted in a drastic decline in general productivity of food and cash crops. Although Ethiopia is often prone to chronic droughts, no one was prepared for the scale of drought and the 1983–1985 famine that struck the country in the mid-1980s, in which 400,000–590,000 people are estimated to have died.  Hundreds of thousands fled economic misery, conscription and political repression, and went to live in neighboring countries and all over the Western world, creating an Ethiopian diaspora community for the first time in its history. Insurrections against the Derg's rule sprang up with ferocity, particularly in the northern regions of Tigray and Eritrea which sought independence and in some regions in the Ogaden. The Ethiopian Civil War left at least 1.4 million people dead, with 1 million related to famine and the remainder from violence and conflicts, which is one third of population.  In July 1991, the EPRDF convened a National Conference to establish the Transitional Government of Ethiopia composed of an 87-member Council of Representatives and guided by a national charter that functioned as a transitional constitution. In 1994, a new constitution was written that established a parliamentary republic with a bicameral legislature and a judicial system. Mengistu's authoritarian military regime faced organized opposition for all of its fourteen years of rule. Opposition groups including the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), a rival Marxist–Leninist group, and the Tigray-based Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, a coalition of ethnic democratic forces, led armed resistance to the Derg in a conflict known as the Ethiopian Civil War. The Derg used violence, commonly enacted through military campaigns, to suppress dissidents. In 1976, the Derg instigated the Qey Shibir (Ethiopian Red Terror), a violent political repression campaign targeting the EPRP.  Under Mengistu's leadership, the Derg did not only rely on state personnel to carry out the Qey Shibir; it also armed militias and civilian supporters and granted "genuine revolutionaries and patriots" impunity, further localizing state violence.  The Qey Shibir resulted in 50,000 fatalities.  In addition, many victims of the Qey Shibir were subjected to torture, exile, and sexual assault. The Qey Shibir and the 1983-1985 famine, an event partly created and exacerbated by the government's military policies, increased popular support for the EPRDF, which successfully overthrew Mengistu's regime in 1991. As we entered the 21st century ethnic tensions began to increase between the people of northern Ethiopia, specifically in the Tigray region and the rest of the nation.  Data from the Minorities at Risk (MAR) project were used by Charles E. Riddle to study the degrees of discrimination by the dominant Amharas against the non-dominant ethnic groups in Ethiopia from 1950 to 1992, during the later reign of Emperor Haile Selassie and that of Mengistu Haile Mariam of the Derg. Amharas dominated during the Haile Selassie epoch.  Systematic discrimination against Afars occurred throughout the period. Tigrayans were initially culturally assimilated with the Amharas, speaking Amharic, and suffered little discrimination. Under the Haile Selassie government, the Oromo language was legally banned from education, public speaking and use in administration. During the Haile Selassie regime, the Harari people were persecuted. The imperial forces ordered the confiscation of Harari property and mass arrests of Harari men, as a result an estimated 10,000 Hararis fled their homeland in 1948. The Derg culturally rejected the Tigrayans, who decreased their usage of Amharic, reverting to Tigrinya, and discrimination against the Tigrayans became strong. Eritreans, treated by MAR and Riddle as an ethnic group, and Somalis were strongly discriminated against throughout the period. The Oromos were initially strongly discriminated against, but adopted Amharic as their official language when the Derg came to power, and discrimination against them dropped. Both the Haile Selassie and the Derg governments relocated numerous Amharas into southern Ethiopia where they served in government administration, courts, church and even in school, where Oromo texts were eliminated and replaced by Amharic. In the aftermath of the Ogaden War during the 70s, Hararis, Somalis and Oromo Muslims were targeted by the Derg Government. This leads us to needing to talk about the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. The Tigray People's Liberation Front, also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist, paramilitary group, and the former ruling party of Ethiopia. The TPLF was in charge of Ethiopia from the time the Derg was overthrown in 1991 until 2018. Now it’s finally time to get to the beginnings of the Tigray Wart and the Tigray genocide. To do that we need to discuss the 2020 Tigray regional election. As we stated previously, Tigray is a regional state of Ethiopia, and in 2020 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia postponed the 2020 general election over concerns of COVID 19. Tigray decided to hold their elections anyway, regardless of the proclamation made by Ahmed. Their election was considered illegal by the Ethiopian federal government. The TPLF won 98.2 percent of the vote. After years of increased tensions and hostilities between the TPLF and the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, fighting began when TPLF forces attacked the Northern Command headquarters of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), alongside a number of other bases in Tigray. The ENDF counterattacked from the south – while Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) began launching attacks from the north – which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described as a "law enforcement operation". The war officially ended in November 2022. On 2 November 2022, the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan leaders signed a peace accord, with the African Union as a mediator, and agreed on "orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament". The agreement was made effective the next day on 3 November, marking the two-year anniversary of the war. As part of this process, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed TPLF's Getachew Reda as head of the Interim Regional Administration of Tigray, and the Ethiopian parliament removed the TPLF from its terrorism list. But where does the Tigray Genocide come into play? Why are we talking about this civil war in this podcast? Let’s get into it. Issued on Tuesday, June 4th  by the United States-based New Lines Institute, aa 120-page draft quotes multiple, widespread and credible independent reports that Ethiopian forces and their allies carried out “acts constituting the crime of genocide” during the conflict, which ran between 2020-22. The authors call for Ethiopia to be brought before the International Court of Justice. In a report issued in September 2023, the United Nations said war crimes and crimes against humanity were still being committed nearly a year after government and Tigrayan regional forces agreed to end the fighting. It says the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), alongside the allied Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) and assorted regional militia “possessed the intent to destroy Tigrayans as an ethnic group”. At least four acts constituting the crime of genocide are noted in the report: killing Tigrayans, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life upon Tigrayans calculated to bring about their destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births among Tigrayans. Additionally, the finger is pointed at social media posts made by “certain individuals” that constitute public incitement to genocide. Ethiopia, which has been accused of seeking to prevent international scrutiny, has repeatedly denied that its forces carried out war crimes during the conflict. Eritrea has claimed such accusations against it are defamatory. However, the new report, which took two years to compile and features the contribution of dozens of legal experts, backs up the findings of the UN by stating that there is “reasonable basis to believe” that the countries are responsible for war crimes and/or crimes against humanity. In conclusion, the authors call on the international community to put pressure on Ethiopia via bilateral relations, as well as bringing the country before the ICJ. The war had a devastating impact on the healthcare system of Tigray; of the 853 health facilities in the region, 86% were at least partially damaged; 232 of them were left "completely unusable", and 28 were destroyed entirely. It also led to a higher rate of maternal and infant mortality in the Tigray Region. In a study funded by UNFPA Ethiopia and UNICEF Ethiopia, it was estimated that maternal mortality rates had increased from 186 deaths per 100,000 people pre-war to 840 deaths per 100,000 people post-war. According to Tigrayan health official Tsegay Gidey, 81% of mothers in the Seharti Samre woreda had birth defects, and 32 newborn infants had died between January–June 2023. Although the war largely came to a halt after the peace agreement was signed, Eritrea continues to occupy parts of Tigray as of mid-2023. The EDF has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in northern Ethiopia since November 2022; from 17 to 25 November alone, Eritrea was reported to have destroyed 241 houses and killed at least 111 people. by 30 December, it was estimated that Eritrean and Amhara forces killed 3,700 since the signing of the peace deal. The Tigray Health Bureau noted that 852 cases of rape and sexual assault were reported between November and December 2022; according to aid workers and interviews with survivors, most of these were committed by Eritrean forces. As of January 2023, over half of Irob district was occupied by Eritrea. Irob advocacy groups and former residents have described it as a "de-facto annexation" of the area. A religious Irob leader told The Guardian in August 2023 that Eritrea was blocking off international aid to the area, and lamented that "there has been no improvement for us since the peace."  In January 2024, Human Rights Watch reported that authorities and regional forces were still forcibly expelling Tigrayans from their homes in the Western Tigray Zone, which is largely inaccessible to humanitarian agencies. Additionally, nearly 40% of the Tigrayan population is suffering from extreme food shortages, a situation made worse by the World Food Program's suspension of aid deliveries in May 2023. All the available evidence points to a continued genocide against the Tigray people from the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea as they as systematically denied food, water and access to medical care.  The Tigray Genocide is often described as “The War The World Forgot”, and based on the West’s general attitude towards Africa this feels right. Especially when I account for the fact that I, a genocide studies scholar didn’t even know about the Tigray Genocide until 2024. I account this a failure on my part, but also on the part of the global mainstream media that this never even came across any of the news websites I frequent, nor the social media websites I, more often, get reputable news from. That’s it for this week folks. No new reviews, so let’s get right into the outro. Have a Day! w/ The History Wizard is brought to you by me, The History Wizard. If you want to see/hear more of me you can find me on Tiktok @thehistorywizard or on Instagram @the_history_wizard. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Have a Day! On your pod catcher of choice. The more you do, the more people will be able to listen and learn along with you. Thank you  for sticking around until the end and, as always, Have a Day, and Free Tigray.