Uganda

Uganda

The area known today as Uganda was part of the charter of the British East Africa Company in 1888, and was ruled as a protectorate in 1894. As more territory was added to the British claims, the boundaries of what now form Uganda took shape in 1914. It was ruled as a British protectorate until given autonomy in 1962.

Apollo Milton Obote was prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to 1966 and state president from 1966 to 1971 and again from 1980 to 1985. Although he began his adult life as a schoolteacher, he is best known for leading Uganda to independence on October 9, 1962, in a relatively peaceful revolution. Prior to independence, Obote served on the Ugandan legislative council beginning in 1957, and in 1960 he founded the Ugandan People’s Congress.

Obote created a political coalition with his rival, Sir Edward Mutesa, king of Buganda, in preparation for the peaceful handover of colonial power to indigenous black African rule. Obote used the position of his rival political leader to gain political favor in the region of Buganda. In a practical political move, Mutesa was installed as president with Obote as prime minister.


As prime minister, Obote held formal state power in his hands. His nominally socialist rule after independence made him unpopular with Western states, particularly Britain. While the country was peaceful and economically stable, the period immediately following independence in Uganda was a difficult time for both Mutesa’s presidency and Obote’s prime ministership.

At the time of independence, Uganda was the only peaceful nation in the region and it become a safe haven for refugees from Zaïre, Sudan, and Rwanda. This placed a huge drain on Uganda’s scarce resources and economy.

Sir Edward Mutesa, first president of Uganda

This period also made it clear that Obote was not going to share power with coalition president Mutesa. This made confrontation inevitable. The trigger for confrontation was Obote’s indictment in a gold-smuggling plot with Idi Amin, then deputy of the Ugandan Armed Forces.

Instead of complying with President Mutesa’s investigations, Obote suspended the Ugandan constitution under the power of his prime ministership, abolishing the role of the leaders of Uganda’s five tribal kingdoms, removing power from Mutesa, and giving himself unlimited emergency powers. The corrupt Ugandan judiciary cleared Obote of all charges of gold smuggling.

The incident, however, incited Obote and his supporters to stage a coup against Mutesa in 1966. He then had himself installed as president on March 2. Obote’s first act as president was to have his attorney general, Godfrey Binaisa, rewrite the Ugandan constitution, transfer all powers to Obote’s presidency, and nationalize all foreign assets.

Obote’s first presidency did not last long. In 1971 Obote was disposed by his army chief, Idi Amin, who had assisted him in overthrowing Mutesa fewer than 10 years prior. Obote fled to Tanzania with many of his supporters. After nine years in exile, Obote gathered Ugandan exiles in Tanzania and ousted Amin in 1979.

In an attempt finally to gain Western support for his second presidency, Obote ordered that Uganda be ruled by a presidential commission before democratic elections were to be held in 1980. Although Obote won the 1980 elections, his second rule was marked by civil war, further distancing him from Western approval.

Apollo Milton Obote was prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to 1966
and state president from 1966 to 1971 and again from 1980 to 1985

Believing the 1980 elections to be rigged, the opposition parties staged a guerrilla rebellion under Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army. Obote was deposed in July 1985, again by his own army commander, Bazilio Okello, and General Tito Okello in a military coup. This time Obote fled to Zambia. Obote remained in southern Africa until his death on October 10, 2005, of kidney failure at a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Idi Amin is perhaps best known for ousting his predecessor, Apollo Milton Obote, and for instituting a totalitarian regime that would devastate Uganda both politically and economically. Amin’s rise to power began in January 1971, when President Obote headed off to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings in Singapore.

Suspecting trouble, Obote left his staff with the order to have Idi Amin and his supporters arrested upon his departure. On the morning of January 25, 1971, forces loyal to Idi Amin stormed strategic military targets in Kampala and the airport in Entebbe.

The first shells fired at Entebbe Airport killed two Roman Catholic priests, setting off a wave of violence throughout the country. Despite the initial disorganization on the part of Amin and his troops, they managed to carry out mass executions of pro-Obote troops and supporters. Obote chose exile in Tanzania.

Military Dictatorship

Idi Amin was the third President of Uganda, ruling from 1971 to 1979

After assuming power, Idi Amin repudiated Obote’s soft socialist foreign policy, resulting in Uganda’s recognition by Israel, Britain, and the United States. However, many African nations and organizations, including the Organization of African Unity, refused to recognize Idi Amin and his military government.

Nevertheless, Idi Amin embraced the label "totalitarian" and renamed the government house the Command House, later instituting an advisory defense council composed of military commanders.

In an attempt to place Uganda under his military dictatorship, he extended military rule to his cabinet members, who, if not drawn from the military, were advised that they would be subjected to military discipline. Army commanders, with Amin’s blessing, acted like warlords, representing the coercive arm of the government.

Foreign policy was revised again in 1972 so that the country could obtain financial assistance and technical support from Libya. In doing so, Amin expelled all remaining Israeli advisers and became anti-Israeli in accordance with Libyan policy.

Idi Amin went in search of foreign help in the form of monetary aid from Saudi Arabia. In doing so, Amin rediscovered Uganda’s previously neglected Islamic heritage. In attempts to recoup profits from lost Western foreign aide, Amin went on to expel the Asian minority in Uganda and seize their property.

However, this appropriation proved disastrous for the already failing Ugandan economy, which was fueled by export crops. Yet the money from the sale of export crops was being recycled back into the purchase of imports for the army.

As a result, rural farmers turned to smuggling from neighboring countries. This became an obsession for Idi Amin toward the end of his rule. He went on to appoint his mercenary adviser, British citizen Bob Astles, to take all necessary steps to end the problem.

The end of Amin’s rule also faced another problem—a counterattack from former Ugandan leader Obote. Idi Amin feared this with good reason. Shortly after Idi Amin expelled the Asian minority in 1972, Obote did attempt an attack into southern parts of Uganda.

Although the attack was launched by a small contingent of only 27 army trucks, his ambition was to capture the strategic military post of Masaka near the border. Obote’s troops decided to settle in and wait for a general uprising against Amin, which did not occur.

Map of Uganda

Obote also attempted a seizure of Entebbe Airport by allegedly hijacking an East African Airways flight out of Tanzania. The attempt failed to accomplish much when the pilot blew out the tires on the passenger plane, and the flight remained in Tanzania.

Amin is internationally known for the hostage crisis at Entebbe Airport in June 1976, when Amin offered Palestinian hijackers of an Air France jet from Tel Aviv a protected base from which they could press their demands in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages.

The dramatic rescue of the hostages by Israeli commandos was a severe blow to Amin. Amin’s rule is also marked by a number of disappearances of priests and ministers in the 1970s. The matter reached a climax with the formal protest against army terrorism and death squad activity in 1977 by Church of Uganda ministers, led by Archbishop Janani Luwum.

In response to Luwum’s outspoken agenda against Amin’s violent domestic policies, it appears that Idi Amin had Luwum assassinated. Although Luwum’s body was recovered from a clumsily contrived "auto accident", subsequent investigations revealed that Luwum had been shot by Amin himself.

This last in a long line of atrocities was greeted with international condemnation, but apart from the continued trade boycott initiated by the United States in July 1978, lisan condemnation was not accompanied by action.

Idi Amin went on to claim that Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere—his perennial enemy, partially due to Nyerere’s acceptance of Obote after the coup—had been at the root of his troubles. Amin accused Nyerere of waging war against Uganda. Idi Amin invaded Tanzanian territory and formally annexed a section across the Kagera River boundary on November 1, 1978.

Declaring a formal state of war against Uganda, Nyerere mobilized his citizen army reserves and counter-attacked, joined by Ugandan exiles united as the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA). The Ugandan Army retreated steadily. Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi sent 3,000 troops to aid fellow Muslim Idi Amin, but the Libyans soon found themselves on the front line.

Tanzanian troops and the UNLA took Kampala in April 1979, aided by Obote, and Amin fled by air, first to Libya and later into permanent exile in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where he died on August 16, 2003, after being in a coma for over a month. The current president of Uganda is Yoweri Museveni, who was elected in February 2006.

Scenery around Kibale Forest in Kibale National Park, Uganda

Turkey

Turkey flag

Present-day Turkey lies in southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia and shares borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. It is made up of 780,580 square kilometers. It contains the Bosporus Strait, which connects, the Black and Marmara seas, and is one of the busiest shipping lanes, in the world. Turkey also has coastline on the Aegean and Mediterranean seas.

Turkey has 81 provinces, and Ankara is the capital city. Turkey’s population is almost 70 million, of which a majority are Turkish, with a significant minority of Kurds, as well as Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Circassians, Assyrians, Arabs, and Laz communities. Turkey is overwhelmingly Muslim.

Turkey is a republican parliamentary democracy with a civil law system derived from several European legal systems such as the Swiss Code. The legislative branch is the unicameral Grand National Assembly, which contains 550 popularly elected seats.


Turkey’s economy is a mix of industrial, agricultural, and commercial. The private sector is expanding, but the state still controls most basic industries and the banking, transport, and communication sectors. The main export industries are textile and clothing production, with automotive and electronic export production close behind.

The main agricultural products include tobacco, cotton, grains, olives, sugar beets, pulses, citrus products, and livestock. In the 1990s Turkey’s economy suffered severe fluctuations, which culminated in financial disaster in February 2001. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provides heavy backing, but the economy faces high debt and deficits.

Ismet Inönü took over as president upon the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1938, and the Republican People’s Party (RPP) held the majority until 1950. Inönü managed to stay out of World War II until 1945, when Turkey declared war on Germany as a symbolic gesture in order to qualify as a founder of the newly forming United Nations. Under the Truman Doctrine, Turkey, due to its close proximity to the Soviet Union, qualified for massive financial aid.

Despite these achievements, the economy was weak, and the RPP and Inönü grew increasingly unpopular. Turkey had by then formed a multiparty system, and in 1950 the Democratic Party (Demokrati Partisi, or DP) received the majority in the elections, forcing the RPP to relinquish its 27-year majority.

Turkey map

Celal Bayar became president, and Adnan Menderes became prime minister. The economic boom of the early 1950s strengthened Menderes and the DP’s position. By 1952 Turkey had become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), largely due to the fact that Turkey had immediately volunteered troops for the Korean War. Turkey’s entry into NATO ensured protection along its borders and allowed NATO a closer position against the USSR.

After the 1954 elections the DP became more authoritarian. Conflict was exacerbated when a Greek citizen placed a bomb at the Turkish consulate in Thessalonica. The island of Cyprus, under British control and with an 80 percent Greek majority, also became a point of conflict. These two issues culminated in riots in 1955 that targeted Greek homes, shops, and businesses and wrought havoc throughout Istanbul.

Many Turkish citizens of Greek origin fled Turkey after these riots. During this period, Greek nationalists of the EOKA movement on Cyprus also began a struggle against the British forces. Turkey strongly opposed British suggestions that the Greeks might be allowed to annex Cyprus. Ultimately Cyprus became an independent nation.

Turkey prime minister in 1950s, Adnan Menderes

The DP lacked the support of the military, which had been vital to the RPP. This led to the DP’s downfall in 1960. Because of training, aid, and financial support gained as a result of joining NATO, the Turkish military was a strong and powerful mechanism within Turkey. Menderes grew increasingly unpopular with the military.

In 1960, the military overthrew the Menderes government. The coup was popular among students, who had been repressed by the DP. A new constitution was drawn up that justified military intervention if the ruling government acted unconstitutionally. The military was also given a role in government.

In January 1961 political activity was allowed once again, and 11 parties registered for the elections to be held at the end of 1961. One of the parties, the Justice Party (Adalet Partisi, or JP) appeared to be a phoenix of the old, outlawed DP. Menderes and two of his cabinet members were tried by a military tribunal and executed in September 1961. Elections were held in October 1961.

Süleyman Demirel

The Justice and Republican People’s Parties formed a shaky coalition. In 1965 the JP, led by Süleyman Demirel, won a major victory in elections. Under Demirel, Turkey saw significant economic growth. The JP espoused Islamist and traditional beliefs that ran directly counter to communist and leftist thought. The left grew increasingly popular among the student population and industrial proletariat.

The right also emerged as a strong force in the 1960s, setting the stage for the crisis of the 1970s. The formation of two strong, Islamic-leaning parties, the National Action Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi) and the National Order Party (Millî Nizam Partisi), seriously threatened the JP’s hold on the government in 1969.

Demirel’s JP government started to fall apart in 1971. On March 12, 1971, the army forced the Demirel government from office.

Free elections were held in 1973, with a victory by Bülent Ecevit’s RPP. However, because they failed to capture the majority vote, they were forced into coalition governments. This continued throughout the 1970s as rightist and leftist violence escalated. Kurdish separatism also flared up in the 1970s. Kurdish nationalist Abdullah Öcalan formed the left-leaning Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in 1978.

The sectarian violence escalated, and the military stepped in. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, Islamic groups in Turkey were suspected of receiving aid from Iran. The religious demonstrations in Konya in September 1980 provided an excuse for direct military intervention.

The Purge

Kenan Evren : president of turkey 1980-1989

The military suspended all political parties and groups and instituted martial law and curfews. General Kenan Evren was declared acting head of state. The National Security Council (NSC) arrested 122,000 people during 1980–81 in order to stop the violence. Academics and politicians were purged from the system. A new constitution was enacted in 1982. Kenan Evren was then elected president, and the military began to restructure the political system.

Elections were held in 1983, with the Motherland Party (Anavatan Partisi) gaining the majority under Turgut Özal. The old parties then reincarnated and changed their names in order to enter the 1984 elections. After Kenan Evren’s term ended in 1989, Turgut Özal became president. Turgut Özal’s presidency, although fraught with corruption and scandal, was also marked by impressive modernization.

Turgut Özal : President of Turkey 1989-1993

The 1990s were also marked by the rise of the PKK. After the 1980 coup the Kurdish language was forbidden, as was the term Kurdish as a separate identity. Abdullah Öcalan had fled to Damascus after the 1980 coup. Turkey until 1991 refused to acknowledge the presence of Kurds in the country and referred to them as "mountain Turks". The government forbade their language, songs, customs, and names.

Öcalan’s followers carried out their missions with an almost religious zeal. Talabani of the Kurdish PUK faction based in Iran helped Öcalan get financial support from Kurds living throughout the Middle East, which brought the PKK beyond the sphere of Turkey. The PKK also received support from Kurds living in Europe.

The PKK used guerrilla warfare to launch attacks within Turkey. The Turkish army responded brutally to the terrorist attacks. Villages thought to be harboring PKK terrorists were destroyed, and thousands were arrested, detained, and tortured. Many innocent people were killed and their homes destroyed.

After the U.S. defeat of Iraq in 1991, Turkey feared the creation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq that would be used as a base for Kurdish attacks on Turkey. Subsequently, President Özal officially recognized the existence of Kurds in Turkey and implemented a bill that would allow the Kurdish language to be used in everyday conversations but not in business, government, or any other official agency.

Despite this, the PKK stepped up their campaigns against the Turkish government, committing more atrocities, which further enraged the Turkish public. Öcalan was captured in Nairobi, Kenya, by Turkish commandos in 1999. He was sentenced to death and imprisoned on an island in the Marmara Sea, where he remained for years.

Tansu çiller : first female prime minister of Turkey 1993-1996

In 1993 the True Path Party came into power, and Tansu çiller became the first female prime minister of Turkey. Necmettin Erbakan was the leader of Refah, which was supported by the young, professional middle class and students. Erbakan did not engage in a radical Islamic changeover.

He personally championed reforms to change the working hours during bulan pahala and loosen control of the Directorate of Religious Affairs to make it harder for the government to monitor Islam. Erbakan also proposed lifting the ban against wearing headscarves in universities and government institutions. The Erbakan/çiller coalition also made significant overtures to Libya and Iran, and at the same time condemned Israel.

With the advent of new freedoms under Erbakan, many other Islamic leaders eagerly expressed their long-silent opinions. Refah wanted to abolish the Swiss legal code instituted by Atatürk, and secularists feared a return to sharia, or Islamic law.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan : Prime minister of Turkey 2003-2014,
Present days president of Turkey

Erbakan and çiller both left government, and in 1998 the Constitutional Court formally disbanded Refah and forced its members out of Parliament. Bülent Ecevit emerged as the new president, in large part because of his handling of Öcalan and the Kurdish conflict. In 1999 a huge earthquake struck Izmit, near Istanbul, killing between 15,000 and 40,000 people.

The government was extremely slow to respond, and the public was enraged by the lack of support from both the government and the military. Memories of the earthquake played a role the emergence of the Justice and Development Party (JDP, or Ak Partisi). In the 2002 elections the JDP, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won a majority in the Grand National Assembly.

Although the JDP espoused a moderate Islamic line, it was careful to respect the secular state. Erdogan also instituted reforms to help pull Turkey out of its financial troubles. Erdogan and the JDP also scored a major victory with the October 2005 decision by the European Union (EU) to start Turkey’s EU membership bid.

Present days Istanbul, Turkey

Jonestown

Jonestown

Jonestown is the elevate of the short town inward Republic of Guyana founded inward the 1970s yesteryear the Reverand Jim Jones together with populated yesteryear members of his religious commune, the People’s Temple. The elevate “Jonestown” has come upwards to refer to the 1978 termination where over 900 people died, including Jones himself.

While official accounts keep that the deaths were caused yesteryear a Jones-led volume suicide, conspiracy accounts fence that most of the dead were murdered. In conspiracy-theory circles, Jonestown is an lawsuit of a mind-control cult experiment (with links to the CIA) that went awry.

The official explanation of Jonestown is good known, having dominated intelligence accounts, mass-market paperbacks, documentaries, together with made-for-television movies. It states that on eighteen Nov 1978 Jim Jones, the charismatic together with fanatical guru who founded the People’s Temple together with established the religious commune Jonestown, persuaded his followers to potable cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.


Over 900 members did so, together with Jones himself died via a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Around the same moment, U.S. Congress fellow member Leo Ryan (on an official investigation mission) together with 3 reporters were gunned downward on the Port Kaituma airstrip every bit they tried to teach out Jonestown.

The assassins did non choke inward the “White Night” of volume suicide, only fled together with went into hiding. One of the gunners, Larry Layton, was afterwards tried together with convicted of the murders. The entire termination of Jonestown was attributed to the psychotic leadership of Jones, together with engendered full general suspicion of idealistic, alternative, together with experimental religious groups.

Mass Suicide or Mass Murder?

Conspiracy accounts challenge this official explanation on ii major counts: that most of the members died yesteryear murder rather than suicide, together with that Jim Jones, far from existence a lonely nut leader, was enmeshed inward the shadowy network of intelligence together with heed control.

Evidence for the old begins alongside the initial intelligence accounts, which listed the suicide cost at 400, together with claimed that 700 had fled into the jungle. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 calendar week afterwards the accounts were revised to say that 913 people had consumed the poisoned concoction.

Not entirely did this teach out almost 200 people unaccounted for, it indicated a shift inward the number of suicides. U.S. armed forces together with diplomatic mission officials on the scene start explained the inconsistency yesteryear claiming that the Guyanese people could non count, that they had missed a pile of bodies (even after days of searching together with counting), together with that the discrepancy was due to bodies existence stacked on ane another. However, the start photographs from the scene (150 of them, both aerial together with close-up) showed no stacking.

In addition, skeptics detect it hard to believe that 408 bodies (82 of them children) could conceal over 500 others. Instead of this revised flush together with number counting, skeptics similar John Judge believe the initial reports that stated that the bulk of Jonestown members fled into the jungle.

But what happened to them then? C. Leslie Mootoo, the compass Guyanese pathologist, was the start to examine the bodies. He noted that the vast bulk of the dead did non exhibit symptoms of cyanide poisoning (which include muscular contortions, particularly inward the face).

At the Guyanese grand jury hearing, Mootoo testified that 80–90 pct of the victims had fresh needle marks inward their shoulder blades, that a number of others had been shot or strangled, together with that at to the lowest degree 700 had been murdered.

The grand jury, after hearing Mootoo’s testimony together with considering other evidence, concluded that entirely ii people had committed suicide. In addition, some photos showed gunshot wounds, patch others displayed drag marks leading to the bodies, indicating that the bodies were moved after death.

Initially, the U.S. Army spokesperson declared that no autopsies were needed, every bit the crusade of decease was non an issue. While the U.S.A. of America dispatched large armed forces aircraft for the retrieval of bodies to the United States, they performed the chore slowly. The bodies were left to decompose inward the oestrus for almost a week, making autopsies impossible.

Relatives together with the National Association of Medical Examiners complained that the remains were ineptly handled, oftentimes illegally embalmed or cremated, together with nearly impossible to identify. These badly botched procedures signaled a cover-up for skeptics (since forensic reconstruction of the White Night could non endure done), farther indicating a volume slaughter.

But who performed the killing? Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 number of theories emerge here. One version is that Jones’s elite armed guards (about 20 men) hunted the fleeing members. These guards were an all-white grouping who had special privileges during the Jonestown remain (90 pct of the dead were women together with eighty pct were black).

Some of these armed guards were responsible for gunning downward Congressperson Leo Ryan together with the reporters on the airstrip. Witnesses together with survivors depict the killers every bit glassy-eyed “zombies” together with their killing every bit mechanical together with methodical. Most of these armed guards escaped together with are soundless unaccounted for.

Other theories implicate U.S. Green Berets who were inward Republic of Guyana at the time, every bit good every bit British Black Watch troops also preparation inward the region. Guyanese troops together with law (some of whom were on the scene of the Ryan killings only did rattling lilliputian to defend them) accept also been implicated.

Jim Jones’s fate has also come upwards nether suspicion. While the official flush maintains that he committed suicide, conspiracy theories dot to the fact that the gun allegedly used was found some 200 feet away from the body. Photos of Jones’s torso produce non demo his identifying tattoos. The FBI examined Jones’s fingerprints twice (highly odd for what is supposed to endure an exact science), patch his dental records were never checked.

Putting all of these pieces together, the conspiracy theory argues that what happened on eighteen Nov 1978 was a volume murder, set into activeness because of Congress fellow member Ryan’s investigative findings that uncovered the truthful nature of the People’s Temple.

Messianic Cult, Government Mind-Control Experiment, or Both?

Beyond the events of that day, however, conspiracy theorists also position Jonestown inward a larger context, implicating the rattling nature of the religious commune into the shadowy footing of intelligence. In a tape recording made during the White Night, Jim Jones is heard yelling, “Get Dwyer out of here!” He was referring to Richard Dwyer, who was working every bit deputy master copy of mission for the U.S. Embassy inward Guyana.

Dwyer was listed inward the publication Who’s Who inward the CIA, together with was allegedly an agent since 1959. He was found at the airstrip where Ryan together with the others were killed, stripping the dead of their belongings. Other diplomatic mission members, some of them unopen to Jones, were also involved inward intelligence work.

Jones’s childhood friend Dan Mitrione joined the CIA-financed International Police Academy. Mitrione was a law advisor inward Brazil during Jones’s ministering at that spot inward the early on 1960s, where neighbors found Jones’s wealthy lifestyle to endure suspicious (he claimed he was getting paid yesteryear the U.S. government).

Jones’s early on operate inward founding the People’s Temple inward 1965 inward Ukiah, California, his moving of the church building to San Francisco (where supporters Mayor Miscone together with Harvey Milk were afterwards mysteriously killed), together with his eventual relocation to Republic of Guyana were all implicated inward mysterious deaths, large fiscal dealings, together with illegal activities. Most of Jones’s wealth (estimated at betwixt $26 1000000 together with $2 billion) disappeared after the volume death.

According to survivors together with ex-members, Jonestown was anything only the socialist utopia or religious commune its self-promotional literature claimed. These survivors described the scheme every bit a cult, consummate alongside routine harassment, forced labor, together with torture (including repeated “White Night” drills).

After the collective death, investigators discovered a massive cache of drugs, alongside large quantities of thorazine, sodium pentathol, together with numerous other tranquilizers together with psychotropic drugs used inward the CIA’s MK-ULTRA behavioral change experiments.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 number of survivors ended upwards alongside mysterious fates fifty-fifty after they avoided the gruesome “White Night.” Former Jones aide Michael Prokes held a press conference where he defendant the U.S. authorities of hiding an audiotape of the massacre.

After coming together the press, Prokes went to the bath together with allegedly killed himself. Jeannie together with Al Mills, who planned on writing an exposé of Jones, were found murdered inward their home. Yet some other old fellow member was involved inward the 1984 volume murder of Los Angeles schoolhouse children.

In 1980 the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence found no prove of CIA activity inward Jonestown. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 twelvemonth before, based on many of the discrepancies, sinister links, together with prove around Jonestown, old Ryan aide Joseph Holsinger came to the decision that sums upwards the Jonestown conspiracy theory.

He argued that Jonestown was a volume mind-control experiment alongside CIA involvement, inward which MK-ULTRA techniques (officially halted inward 1973) were transferred from institutions to religious groups. Holsinger also argued that Ryan’s congressional investigation found incriminating prove of this experiment, together with that Ryan together with the 900 members of the People’s Temple were murdered to foreclose exposure.

Sudanese Civil Wars

Sudanese Civil Wars

The Sudan has been the theater for several major intercommunal conflicts since the 1950s. During the British administration of the Sudan under the Condominium Agreement, North and South Sudan had been administered separately. The north, with historic ties to Egypt, was predominantly Muslim and Arabic speaking.

The population in the south was primarily black and a mixture of Christians and animists, speaking a variety of African languages. The British restricted Sudanese living north of the 10th parallel from traveling farther south, and the Sudanese living below the 8th parallel from traveling north. This helped sow the seeds of future conflicts.

The first Sudanese civil war broke out shortly before Sudanese independence in 1956 and lasted until 1972. The Addis Ababa Agreement was signed in 1972, ending hostilities and giving the southern Sudan considerable self-rule and autonomy.


The peace held until President Jaafar Muhammad Numeiri broke the agreement in 1983 by trying to create a federated Sudan. President Numeiri moved to implement Islamic sharia law over all of the Sudan, including the Christian population.

Newly discovered oil reserves in the southern territory also provided a motive for more northern interference in the region. Led by Colonel John Garang, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) launched an all-out war against northern domination, further weakening Numeiri.

The Numeiri regime was overthrown in a military-led coup in 1985, but the civil war continued as Islamist forces gained power in Khartoum. Negotiations for a cease-fire ended in 1986 when SPLA forces shot down a civilian aircraft.

The National Islamic Front (NIF) then joined the northern forces to ensure that Islamic law was retained. This endangered hopes for future peace talks because one of the primary demands of those in the south had been the repeal of Islamic law.

Southern forces retained control over most of the southern countryside, and in 1989 further negotiations collapsed over the issue of Islamic law. In 1991 the tide changed when the Ethiopian government was deposed, depriving the south of its main ally and arms supplier. Inter-rival fighting among groups in the south further weakened the resistance against the north.

As almost all of the fighting had occurred in southern provinces, the region had experienced massive population dislocation, food shortages, and destruction. Throughout the 1990s, the south was torn apart by inter-tribal warfare as well as numerous offensives from the north.

With substantial international pressure, the 2003 peace talks made progress, and the two sides signed the Naivasha Treaty on January 9, 2005. The treaty guaranteed autonomy for southern Sudan for six years, after which a referendum was to be held regarding complete independence. Monies from oil reserves were to be divided equally between the north and south, and both north and south armies were allowed to remain in place.

The peace treaty was imperiled after John Garang, the new co-vice president, was killed in a helicopter crash. Riots broke out in the south, where many believed the regime in Khartoum had been responsible for Garang’s death. However, a tentative peace held, and Salva Kiir Mayardit became the new SPLA leader and Sudanese vice president.

The United Nations (UN) established the UN Mission to Sudan under UN Security Council Resolution 1590 in March 2005; the mission was to protect and promote human rights in southern Sudan and to help to maintain the peace. However, an uprising in the western Darfur region put the mission and Sudanese unity in danger.

The Darfur region, predominantly Muslim, rebelled in 2003, accusing the government of neglect; it used this as a basis for secessionist claims. The central government launched a brutal campaign of scorched earth against Darfur and aligned itself with Arab militias known as the Janjaweed.

Many in Darfur fled into neighboring Chad, thereby creating an international crisis. By 2006 the government in Khartoum claimed victory and signed the Darfur Peace Agreement supervised by the African Union Mission in Sudan, but this failed to halt hostilities, and the conflict continues.

These ongoing civil wars have decimated large sectors of the Sudanese economy. The fluctuating price of cotton, the primary cash crop, has further weakened Sudan’s economic prospects. The discovery of small oil reserves raised hopes, but with the ongoing violence, it is difficult to gauge the positive effects of this resource.

Severe labor shortages and the emigration of large portions of the educated elite in both the north and south have also had negative impacts on Sudan’s recovery. Therefore it seems likely that the Sudan will remain a volatile and unstable region for the foreseeable future.

Somalia (1950–2006)

Somalia civil war

Following the end of World War II, the British administered Somalia until 1950, when it was divided, with southern Somalia put under Italian trusteeship and the Ogaden returned to Ethiopia, with the remainder of Somalia, held by the British, prepared for independence.

The decision to allow the Italians to supervise any part of Somalia was controversial given their colonial record in the region, and it sparked riots in 1950. Elections were held in southern Somalia in 1956, and these were won by the Somali Youth League.

In February the Somali National League won a majority in elections in northern Somalia. The platforms of both groups were to reunify Somalia and achieve independence which was granted on July 1, 1960.


The first president of Somalia was Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, who had served in the Italian colonial administration until 1941. He had been president of the National Assembly until 1960 when he became president of the Constituent Assembly, a position he held until independence.

The first prime minister, Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, was from British Somaliland; he joined the Somali National League Party in 1956 and became its secretary-general two years later.

He held the position for just over two weeks before stepping down on July 12, 1960, to become minister of defense. Replacing him was Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, from the Somali Youth League, who had studied political science at the University of Rome.

Unfortunately, not long after independence, Somalia became embroiled in a dispute with the British who granted the Somali-dominated Northern Frontier District of Kenya to the Republic of Kenya. Somalia broke off diplomatic relations with Britain in 1963.

The main masalah facing Somalia was the integration of the two halves of the country, plagued by ethnic rivalries, and worries that infrastructure development in one part of the country was disadvantaging the other.

Tensions with Kenya and Ethiopia proved intractable. War with the latter broke out over the Ogaden in 1964. Although it did not last long, it served to destabilize the country, which was becoming beset with factional troubles and the proliferation of political parties and corruption.

In 1964 Shermarke was replaced as prime minister by Abdirizak Haji Husain, also from the Somali Youth League, and on July 10, 1967, Shermarke was elected as president of Somalia, a post he held until his assassination on October 15, 1969, by Somali police officers.

The assassination led to a military coup six days later, which brought Major-General Mohammed Siad Barre to power. He then became president of the Supreme Revolutionary Council and head of state, also serving as prime minister until January 30, 1987.

Siad Barre was involved in introducing a jadwal he called "scientific socialism", by which he sought to integrate Somalia. One of these policies was the creation and dissemination of a written Somali language.

In 1975 a drought struck Somalia, and this led to a famine which saw thousands of people in Somalia, and also in neighboring Ethiopia, dying. Two years later Somalia attacked Ethiopia, with Siad Barre keen to create his Greater Somalia which was to include the Ogaden (from Ethiopia), Djibouti, and also northern Kenya.

In 1977 Somalia was in news headlines all over the world when a German Lufthansa Flight 181 from Majorca, Spain, was hijacked to the Somali capital, Mogadishu. There the GSG-9, a crack German antiterrorist commando force formed after the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, stormed the plane and released the hostages unharmed.

Forced to Flee

Surviving an attempted military coup in April 1978, Siad Barre came to lead an increasingly autocratic regime that started to face trouble from internal Somali resistance groups. In particular, the Somalia Salvation Democratic Front used bases in Ethiopia to attack Somali soldiers, eventually overrunning parts of northern Somalia.

In August 1990 the Somali Salvation Democratic Front allied with two other groups, the Somali Patriotic Front and the Somali National Movement (SNM), to form a loose coalition. Siad Barre himself had been seriously injured in a car accident in May 1986, but remained in control of Mogadishu. He was forced to flee the country on January 26, 1991, going first to Kenya and eventually settling in Nigeria in 1992.

With the victorious rebels seizing control of Mogadishu, Ali Mahdi Muhammad became the president of the country, with the task of bringing together the various factions. Northern Somali separatists appointed the leader of the SNM, Abdurahman Ahmed Ali, as president of the breakaway Somaliland Republic.

Fighting continued, and Ali Mahdi hastily left the Somali capital in November 1991 after the supporters of General Mohammad Farrah Aydid attacked Mogadishu, capturing the city after bloody street fighting. Aydid then proclaimed himself head of the new government, managing to fight off an attack in April 1992 by supporters of Siad Barre.

Aid agencies estimated that as many as 2,000 people were dying each day from hunger in and around Mogadishu alone. With Aydid holding food supplies only for his supporters, the United Nations felt the duty to act, and on August 12, 1992, they had permission from Aydid to deploy troops to protect the aid workers.

The result was 500 armed United Nations soldiers being deployed and a massive relief operation taking place. This part of the aid operation went well, although there were some problems in the towns of Baidoa and Bardera in the west of the country.

By mid-1993 the aid mission had been changed with the U.S. marines being deployed to achieve political objectives. This seemed to include the overthrow of the Aydid government, which led to a U.S. helicopter attack on an alleged Aydid munitions base on July 12, 1993, killing a large number of Somali clan leaders who had gathered for a conference.

The political climate moved against the Americans as the clan alliances reformed. On October 3, 1993, some 140 U.S. marines abseiled from Black Hawk helicopters into Mogadishu, with their mission being to abduct two senior lieutenants of Aydid.

The operation was planned to last no longer than an hour, but some U.S. Marines were pinned down by thousands of armed Somalis; by the time they were evacuated the following morning, there were 18 U.S. Marines killed and more than 70 badly injured.

Factional Shifts

With the United States clearly against General Aydid, he moved to form alliances with some of his erstwhile enemies, the Americans unable to keep up with the factional shifts. In November 1994 Aydid called a General Conference on Somali Reconciliation, but Ali Mahdi boycotted it, as did the Somali Salvation Alliance.

In June 1995 Aydid himself was ousted by Osman Ali Ato. Following the death of Aydid in 1996, his son, Hussein Aydid, a former U.S. Marine who had been involved in the Somali operation, became the leader of the United Somali Congress and took his father’s title as interim president of Somalia.

Hussein Aydid refused to take part in the National Salvation Council when it was formed by leaders of 26 of Somalia’s factions in January 1997. They agreed on a peace formula that saw the introduction of a federal system for the country, allowing the warlords to retain their local power bases.

This meant that by 1998 the country was effectively divided into three parts: Somalia, consisting of the southern provinces around Mogadishu; the former British areas in the north becoming Somaliland; and Puntland in the northeast. Frequent peace conferences were to be held to try to work out common policies on certain issues.

Although the infighting had died down, the problems over the famine continued with 650,000 people facing food shortages in April 2000. This led to food riots and instability in Mogadishu, forcing the warring factions to declare Baidoa the "provisional capital". By this time, large numbers of educated Somalis had fled.

An interim Somali National Assembly was formed in October 2001 with Salad Hassan Abdikassim (Abdiqasim Salad Hassan) as the interim president. Problems with Ethiopia continued, and the interim prime minister, Ali Khalif Galaydh, accused Ethiopia of trying to destabilize the country, supporting some of the clans that wanted separatism. Abdikassim appointed himself interim president of the Transitional National Government, and in November 2001 Abshir Farah Hassan was elected as the interim prime minister.

The September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the subsequent War on Terror saw the U.S. military take a keen interest in Somalia and the level of Islamic fundamentalist influence in the country. Since then the Somali "government" has gradually come to support, however reluctantly, the United States in its War on Terror. The United States has consequently rewarded pro-U.S. groups in the country.

On October 14, 2004, Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed became president, taking over from Salad Hassan Abdikassim, and in November 2004, Ali Mohammed Ghadi became prime minister of the transitional federal government. However, after a failed assassination attempt, Prime Minister Ghadi fled Mogadishu, returning in 2006 when Ethiopian troops, aided by the United States, backed him and on December 21, 2006, started a new war in Somalia.

Native Americans

Native Americans

Native Americans were the featured villains inwards what were likely the inaugural off non-supernatural conspiracy fears experienced past times European migrants to America.

Fear in addition to Loathing inwards the American Woods

The early on American frontier was inwards many ways a deeply fearful place, especially inwards the inaugural off decades of white settlement inwards whatever given region. Settlers knew footling nigh their novel home’s existing occupants, in addition to possessed only the sketchiest notions of how many at that spot were, where they lived, in addition to what their intentions mightiness be.

Though equally many equally 7 1000000 people lived to a higher identify the Rio Grande at the fourth dimension of inaugural off contact, Europeans thought of North America as, inwards Pilgrim leader William Bradford’s words, a “hideous in addition to desolate wilderness”.


In traditional Judeo-Christian culture, wilderness was a identify to live feared rather than cherished, a identify where monsters in addition to devils lived to assay the faith of good, civilized people.

Especially amid the New England Puritans, it was commonly believed that the Indians were devil worshippers out to create their master’s bidding, though non actual devils themselves. (However, it was considered quite probable that the Indians lived amid existent monsters, including dragons!) Thus the expectation of confronting ultimate evil was built into the Puritans’ sense of their “errand into the wilderness”

Certainly non all the colonists shared the Puritans’ high marking of theological dread, but some fearfulness of the Indians was fairly constant in addition to non without justification, since over the inaugural off 3 centuries of European settlement, at that spot was ever some business office of North America where the natives were resisting their ain conquest in addition to displacement.

This resistance often took the cast of a raiding vogue of warfare that was intended to spread terror in addition to normally preferred striking at weakly defended targets, similar an outlying cabin or an isolated outpost. Always seeking ways of fighting that minimized their ain casualties, Indian state of war leaders were non to a higher identify using devious tactics such equally ambushes, sneak attacks, in addition to feigning peaceful intentions.

One of the keen Indian victories during Pontiac’s Rebellion (or War or Conspiracy, depending on your indicate of view) of 1763, the Ojibways’ triumph over the British at Ft. Michilimackinac was accomplished past times lulling the soldiers into complacency amongst a friendly game of ball. The Indian players hitting the ball into the opened upwardly gates of the fort, chased after it, in addition to thus all of a abrupt attacked amongst weapons the Ojibway women had smuggled within the transportation service piece the whites were watching the game.

Native american human foot soldiers

Though the European armies of the Early Modern Period were no slouches at wreaking decease in addition to devastation on the civilian population, Indian warfare was perceived equally peculiarly in addition to intimately awful. In some ways Indians were improve at distinguishing their targets than whites were—the French were often spared inwards raids on European outposts— but their military machine customs made few allowances for noncombatants.

Indian massacre stories invariably featured a scene inwards which a warrior tore an babe from her mother’s arms in addition to dashed her caput against a hearth or a tree; this became a cliché, but past times no way 1 without a footing inwards reality. Numerous mutual practices of Indian warfare haunted the dreams of European settlers, soldiers, in addition to officials, especially the scalping or other mutilation of victims’ bodies in addition to the taking of captives to live assimilated into Indian society.

(It should live noted that whites fighting Indians made few such allowances themselves, in addition to showed far less involvement than the Indians inwards taking captives. Nevertheless, white attacks on Indian villages were called “raids” or “battles,” piece successful Indian attacks on white settlements or military machine posts were termed “massacres.”)


This fearfulness of assimilation past times an alien, collectively minded society, a recurrent theme inwards the annals of American conspiracy theory, has 1 of its roots inwards tales of captivity amid the Indians. Some of the stories fifty-fifty admitted what historians receive got flora to live true, that many captives, especially women in addition to children, were successfully assimiliated, in addition to showed footling want to provide to European ways. Ever to a greater extent than lurid Indian captivity narratives became a staple of American pop culture, in addition to perhaps its inaugural off unique contribution to populace literature.

The before comment nigh Indians haunting settlers’ dreams should live taken quite literally. Recent interpretations of the 1692 Salem witchcraft crisis receive got emphasized the purpose of New England’s lateseventeenth-century Indian wars (1675–1678 in addition to 1688–1691) inwards generating the psychological stress in addition to supernatural fears that exploded inwards Massachusetts.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 large number of the accusers had some at in 1 lawsuit or immediate household unit of measurement sense amongst the Indian wars, in addition to those who didn’t had likely read Mary Rowlandson’s popular, in addition to thus lately published volume on her sense equally a captive during the before conflict, King Philip’s War. The witchcraft evil was thought to receive got inaugural off come upwardly from Indian powwows inwards the forest, in addition to the devil appeared to several Massachusetts women equally “a thing similar an Indian,” or “a Tawny man”.

Accuser Mary Toothaker of Billerica finally admitted nether questioning that she had lashed out because she was “troubled w’h feare nigh the Indians, & used to dream of fighting amongst them.” Toothaker claimed to receive got signed upwardly amongst the devil herself because he had “promised to maintain her from the Indians”.

At to the lowest degree these colonial New Englanders had some at in 1 lawsuit or nearly at in 1 lawsuit sense of the Indians they feared thus much. In afterwards centuries, far to a greater extent than white Americans eagerly consumed Indian atrocity stories some the household unit of measurement tabular array in addition to inwards pop literature in addition to newspapers than ever interacted amongst Indians or witnessed an Indian raid.

Given the emphasis placed on the depredations of “murderous savages” inwards their information nigh the Indians, it is perhaps non surprising that nineteenth-century migrants heading to the Pacific coast on the Overland Trail brought hair-trigger emotions to all their thoughts in addition to actions concerning Indians.

Many reported their scalps itching at the really thought of Indians. Most westering travelers suffered “far more,” according to historian Glenda Riley, “from their ain anxieties what could come about to them than from what really did happen”.

Unfortunately, the Indians themselves did suffer, at the hands of settlers who were easily panicked into acts of violence in addition to prejudice, in addition to eager to back upwardly harsh regime policies against Indians, having learned to bargain amongst their anxieties past times fearing in addition to hating the natives.

The Myth of the Superchief

Although it would live stretching the Definition of conspiracy theory to include all fears of Indian assault inwards this category, much of what settlers, soldiers, in addition to regime officials believed nigh the Indians sure does qualify. Whites often became convinced that the Indians of different villages, tribes, in addition to languages were leagued against them, in addition to secretly plotting mayhem fifty-fifty when relations were peaceful in addition to friendly.

In some respects, a conspiracy model of Indian conduct came naturally to Europeans, who struggled to sympathize or fifty-fifty perceive the complex cultural, social, in addition to political distinctions amid the diverse Indian groups they encountered. As amongst many cross-cultural conspiracy theories, it was slow to displace from lumping all Indians together culturally to believing that all Indians were working together against the colonists.

This pattern emerged fifty-fifty before the get-go of permanent settlement. The leaders of the 1585 lost colony of Roanoke abandoned their isle off the coast of introduce North Carolina out of a belief that Pemisapan, the weroance of the local Indian village, had organized a region-wide conspiracy, involving many tribes, to starve in addition to and thus wipe out the colony.

According to historian Michael Oberg, Pemisapan had likely done naught to a greater extent than than “grown weary of an intolerant, violent, contagious, in addition to subject people”, and, quite understandably, moved his hamlet off Roanoke Island to a to a greater extent than congenial neighborhood. Even so, colony commander Ralph Lane led a forcefulness that brought dorsum the weroance’s head, the culmination of a pattern of precipitous, threatening actions past times Lane.

“No conspiracy is needed,” writes Oberg, to explicate the growing hostility of the region’s Indians to the Roanoke colony. The English linguistic communication settlement abruptly shifted locations after Pemisapan’s death, in addition to disappeared completely a few years after that.

Pemisapan represents the original version of 2 ideas that became touchstone parts of conspiracy theories nigh the Indians: the Indian mastermind or monarch inwards command of tens of thousands of warriors, in addition to the unfaithful Indian ally or convert.

From “Pemisapan’s Conspiracy” on, serious or widespread Indian resistance was normally attributed past times Europeans in addition to afterwards chroniclers to the machinations of some preternaturally brilliant, all-powerful “superchief” (Bourne, 202).

This analysis may receive got been somewhat accurate for the Powhatan Indian rebellions against Virginia inwards 1622 in addition to 1644, which almost destroyed the colony in addition to are to a greater extent than often than non thought to live the run of the state of war principal turned paramount principal Opechanacanough, Pocahontas’s uncle, in addition to the reputed ability behind her manlike someone raise Powhatan’s throne.

The reputations of most other putative Indian masterminds were built on much shakier foundations. In many cases, a widespread conflict was blamed on someone who was really only a major figure inwards some critical early on encounter, or promoted himself equally the primary conspirator inwards a afterwards treaty amongst the white authorities.

For instance, New England propagandists depicted their apocalyptic, region-wide Indian state of war of 1675–1678 equally the run of Philip, sachem of Pokanoket, whom they dubbed “King Philip” to reemphasize their claim that the conflict was, equally Russell Bourne puts it, “not a serial of separate raids past times provoked people but a brilliantly orchestrated war, conducted past times a devilish military machine genius”.

Besides personalizing the conflict equally conspiracy theories thus often do, this conspiratorial stance of the New England Indians’ resistance was a political in addition to ethical convenience for whites, who were authorized past times their belief inwards this evil plot to ignore the purpose of their ain conduct inwards the Indians’ unrest, choose extreme measures against tribes whose the world rights conflicted amongst their ambitions, in addition to to declare the occupation solved when the designated villain was eliminated.

Philip (who changed his cite from Metacom when he became sachem) was the boy of Massassoit, the Indian principal who had befriended the Pilgrims in addition to allowed their Plymouth Colony to survive. Relations had deteriorated after Massassoit’s decease equally the local fur merchandise dried upwardly in addition to agricultural settlement expanded, bringing livestock that consumed the Indians’ open-field crops in addition to forcing them into economical dependence upon whites.

Philip in addition to his people also chafed nether Plymouth’s unequal laws, which had lately been used to travail to hang 3 of Philip’s followers. Plymouth leaders coveted the Pokanokets’ land, in addition to eagerly accepted rumors circulated against Philip past times the sachem’s Indian political rivals, to the final result the sachem planned a major war, mayhap inwards concert amongst the French.

When Philip was recorded at a coming together amongst Rhode Island officials complaining nigh his people’s mistreatment past times Plymouth, in addition to vowing that he was “determined non to alive until I receive got no country”, the drapery of conspiratorial mastermind was fitted in addition to cook to live forced on him.

Philip was thought to live seeking the extermination of New England’s white population. The Pokanokets did get hostilities amongst a much exaggerated raid on the nearby town of Swansea, but Philip himself spent the state of war running piece the Narragansetts, Abenakis, in addition to other tribes some New England did most of the fighting.

He nonetheless ever remained New England’s primary target, in addition to past times the terminate of the war, his hamlet had vanished, his married adult woman in addition to boy had been sold into slavery, in addition to his dismembered trunk was on display inwards the town of Plymouth.

Pontiac played a similarly inflated purpose inwards accounts of the 1763 “conspiracy” that bears his name. An obscure Odawa state of war leader (not a chief), Pontiac touched off a frontier-wide uprising but really led only 1 stage of it, the failed siege of Ft. Detroit.

Both he in addition to the British tried to advance their interests inwards the aftermath of the war, finally a peace treaty that bolstered British claims to the Trans-Appalachian West in addition to acknowledged Pontiac an Indian potentate, but likely got the old rebel assassinated equally a traitor to the Indian cause.

As they had long done amongst the alleged “conquests” of the Iroquois “Empire,” the British authorities in addition to the Anglo-American colonists exaggerated Pontiac’s ability in addition to condition inwards ways that magnified both the military machine threat he posed in addition to the glory in addition to ability that accrued to those who had pacified him.

The operative theory regarding Pontiac in addition to many other superchiefs was good expressed inwards “Ponteach, or the Savages of America,” a drama published inwards 1766 past times French in addition to Indian War hero Robert Rogers.

Rogers’s Ponteach is a haughty woods emperor set tragically depression past times his pride. “This Country’s mine, in addition to hither I reign equally King,” a Rex whose “Empire’s measured only past times the Sun,” the grapheme asserts inwards explaining his disdain for British authority.

In fact, it is unlikely that full general Indian uprisings could ever receive got been the run of a unmarried conspiratorial mastermind, or fifty-fifty a knot of them. The primitive nature of the available way of communication alone—symbolic state of war belts of clamshell beads (“wampum”) were used to coordinate the 1763 risings—precluded whatever variety of command in addition to control. Conspiracies were unlikely for to a greater extent than fundamental cultural reasons equally well.

Most North American Indian tribes lacked whatever variety of truthful principal executive who could impose his volition on his followers. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 chief, different a European general, governor, or king, drew his ability non from police line or force, but only from the honour in addition to dear that his prowess, wisdom, in addition to generosity had garnered amid his people, who could obey him or non equally they chose.

The superchief mythology, from the exaggerations of the leader’s influence in addition to the depth of his scheming to the pop dramas (and often identify names) that celebrated his nobility inwards defeat, was applied successively to every meaning Indian resistance leader after Pontiac, from John Logan of the 1774 Lord Dunmore’s War (immortalized inwards Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia for his oratorical prowess) to Tecumseh, Black Hawk, in addition to Osceola inwards the early on nineteenth century and, inwards a somewhat less conspiratorial vein, to such far western Indian rebels equally Cochise, Geronimo, Sitting Bull, in addition to Crazy Horse. It was applied retroactively to Philip inwards 1 of the antebellum era’s most pop plays, “Metamora.”

The celebrity that the superchief myth brought all of these men should non obscure how damaging it was to Indian people when they were soundless struggling to remain inwards their homelands. In their time, the names of all of these leaders were capable of plunging whole frontiers into panic, in addition to such panics normally brought on white military machine campaigns that would live followed past times the expropriation of Indian lands.

“Our Most Dangerous Enemies”: Indian Converts in addition to Allies equally Victims of Conspiracy Fears

Far to a greater extent than harmful than the “superchief” myth, inwards damage of the brutality it inspired inwards whites, was the related conspiracy theory that all Indians alike were actual or potential enemies, no affair what mental attitude they professed to concur toward whites. Even Indians who had acquire Christians, pursued white occupations, in addition to lived peaceably nigh white towns for decades were treated equally probable traitors, spies, in addition to saboteurs.

Since the get-go of European contact, the colonizers had been urging the natives to lay downward their weapons, adopt European ways of life, in addition to convert to the Christian religion. Most Indians resisted this pressure level when they could, but for many resistance became impossible in 1 lawsuit European settlement had engulfed their homelands.

Some responded to the urgings of Christian missionaries in addition to adopted the faith, piece others sought to only alive equally quietly equally they could, at peace amongst the settlers or fifty-fifty joining inwards the whites’ battles amongst other Indians.

In most of the colonies, then, at that spot were at to the lowest degree small-scale communities of peaceful in addition to often Christian Indians living nigh white towns in addition to farms. In times of full general Indian conspiracy scares, these communities became deeply suspicious to whites, in addition to often suffered equally much or to a greater extent than than the tribes really engaged inwards hostilities.

The residents of Puritan missionary John Eliot’s “praying towns” discovered this during King Philip’s War. Stories circulated of “Praying Indians” joining inwards raids on Christian towns in addition to spying for the rebels. According to historian Jenny Hale Pulsipher, “The English linguistic communication were quick to believe tales of Christian Indian perfidy,” in addition to the burning of English linguistic communication barns or haystacks “became pretexts for English linguistic communication violence against the praying towns”.

The Christian Indians at Wamesit had to abandon their hamlet in addition to nutrient supplies inwards belatedly 1675 after furious English linguistic communication militiamen fired on them without alarm on 2 separate occasions, inwards 1 incident wounding a number of women in addition to children, a twelve-year-old fatally. Various Puritan commentators questioned the sincerity of Indian religious conversions in addition to depicted the “Praying Indians” equally contemptible mockeries of Christianity.

Sometimes amongst in addition to sometimes without official approval, New England troops sacked the villages of Indian Christians in addition to Indian allies. Meanwhile, the authorities close downward many praying towns in addition to interned numerous friendly natives on barren Deer Island inwards Boston Harbor. Some praying Indians fifty-fifty shared the fate of Philip’s family, enslavement inwards the Caribbean.

Other groups of peaceful Christian Indians were visited past times some of the worst atrocities inwards the annals of European-Indian relations inwards North America. The infamous Paxton Boys massacre, for instance, was business office of the fallout from the conspiracy theories surrounding Pontiac.

The Pennsylvania frontier had been wracked past times Indian raids both during the 1763 rebellion in addition to the French in addition to Indian War that preceded it. There were a number of Christian Indian villages inwards the colony, including Conestoga, where a handful of people eked out a meager living selling bowls in addition to baskets.

Looking for payback in addition to charging that some of the Conestoga men had fought amongst Pontiac, a number of men from the town of Paxton, on the Susquehanna River inwards east-central Pennsylvania, concluded that these supposedly friendly Indians amounted to a “Basket & Broom-making Bandittey” who were “in Reality our most unsafe enemies”.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 calendar week in addition to a one-half before Christmas, 1763, fiftyfour Scots-Irish men from Paxton rode to Conestoga, in addition to shot in addition to hacked to decease 6 Indians they flora there, allegedly inwards revenge for Pontiac’s Rebellion. Local authorities gathered the surviving Conestogas (who had been lucky plenty to live out) in addition to placed them inwards a workhouse for protection. The men from Paxton presently rode inwards in addition to killed the rest.

Far from horrifying their beau Pennsylvanians, the “Paxton Boys” flora themselves at the caput of a pop cause. Their numbers swelled amongst novel recruits, the Paxton Boys rode downward to Philadelphia, inwards arms, to choose some Christian Delaware Indians beingness protected at that spot in addition to topple the regime itself if necessary. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 manifesto was issued inwards which the supposedly Quaker-dominated regime of Pennsylvania was charged amongst beingness insensitive to frontier needs because it was also soft on the Indians.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 poetry form called “The Cloven Foot Discovered” expressed the settlers’ stance that whites who gave sympathy or assistance to whatever Indians were traitors to their beau colonists in addition to beau travelers of the Indians’ subway plots against the frontier settlements:

Go, skilful Christians, never spare
To give your Indians Clothes to wear
Send ’em skilful Beef, in addition to Pork, in addition to Bread,
Guns, Powders, Flints, in addition to Stores of Lead,
To Shoot Your Neighbours Through the Head;...
Encourage every friendly Savage
To murder, burn, destroy, in addition to ravage.

Only some fast talking past times leading Pennsylvania political leader Benjamin Franklin finally defused the Paxton Boys situation, but non before to a greater extent than than 50 of the “protected” Christian Delawares died of diseases inwards the city.

Time in addition to in 1 lawsuit again inwards early on America, peaceful Christian Indians flora that the most unsafe identify to live was anywhere nigh their supposed allies in addition to coreligionists, the Anglo-American settlers.

No affair how devout a Christian in addition to firmly committed to peace in addition to friendship amongst whites a grouping of Indians mightiness be, many settlers assumed all Indians were secretly conspiring against them, in addition to inwards the correct circumstances mightiness slaughter whatever Indians they happened to run across. The biggest occupation that the immature the States had inwards recruiting Indian allies during the Revolutionary War was the fact that pro-American chiefs kept getting killed past times American soldiers.

By far the most heinous illustration of intentional “friendly fire” on Indians during the Revolution tin live flora inwards a 1782 incident that came to live known equally the Gnadenhutten massacre, inwards introduce east-central Ohio. The “Ohio Country” was a bitter battleground betwixt the British in addition to Indians on the 1 hand, in addition to the settlers exactly southward of the Ohio River inwards Kentucky on the other.

High German American missionaries from a sect called the Moravians had converted large numbers of Delaware Indians who lived inwards this expanse to Christianity in addition to kept them on the American side. The Moravians were pacifists, thus in 1 lawsuit converted these Indians did non fifty-fifty believe inwards fighting.

The Christian Indians of Gnadenhutten happened to live harvesting their corn 1 24-hour interval inwards 1782 when a state of war political party of American settlers appeared. They were pursuing some hostile Indians who had been seen inwards the area.

The settlers charged the friendly villagers of Gnadenhutten amongst beingness warriors, pointing to the existence of European implements, such equally axes, spoons, in addition to tea kettles, inwards this hamlet of Indians who had adopted white lifestyles, equally evidence they had killed in addition to stolen from whites.

On the strength of this flimsy evidence, the Gnadenhutten Indians were sentenced to death. They spent the black praying to the European God, in addition to inwards the morning time the settlers dragged the Indians out of their cabins inwards groups of 2 or 3 in addition to executed them amongst a mallet thus equally non to waste matter ammunition.

These sorts of incidents often turned white suspicions nigh Christian in addition to friendly Indians into self-fulfilling prophecies. With friends similar the American settlers, many Indians reasoned, who needed enemies?

During wars in addition to state of war scares amongst neighboring colonial powers similar Great Britain, France, in addition to Spain, most Indians amongst whatever access to the “foreign” ability were quite willing to run amongst them against the settlers and/or the the States if they mayhap could, though the Indians’ fondest want was ever to live left relatively independent of whatever European power.

Colonial in addition to U.S. officials oftentimes turned this rational pattern of Indian conduct into the footing of some other variety of conspiracy theory, of the Indians equally cat’s-paws of foreigners out to split upwardly off pieces of their territory or curb American expansion.

Andrew Jackson inaugural off made a cite for himself past times brutally precluding the possibility that the southeastern Indians mightiness collaborate amongst the Castilian or British to block the the States from accessing the Gulf Coast in addition to its ports.

This was the basic aim of his campaigns against the Creeks, the British, in addition to the Seminoles betwixt 1813 in addition to 1818, which began amongst a settler panic nigh a “massacre” at Ft. Mims inwards Alabama, in addition to ended amongst the summary execution of 2 British citizens in addition to an Indian religious leader in addition to the forcible U.S. annexation of Castilian Florida.

But at to the lowest degree Jackson’s enemies were really hostile to the United States. Unfortunately, the mistreatment of friendly in addition to Christian Indians continued long after the indicate had passed when Indians posed whatever existent threat to the the States in addition to fifty-fifty inwards cases where they could hardly receive got done to a greater extent than to demonstrate their loyalty. Perhaps the most egregious illustration of many occurred inwards Civil War era Minnesota.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 grouping of Winnebago Indians, previously removed past times the regime from their Wisconsin homeland, were living peacefully inwards the vogue of white farmers inwards the expanse some Blue Earth. When a Sioux uprising broke out inwards 1862, the Winnebago were forced out of their homes equally a safety threat, in addition to sent to a novel reservation inwards a barren department of introduce Nebraska.

The Winnebago had no connection to the Sioux outbreak, in addition to could non receive got made much of a military machine contribution to it inwards whatever case, since most of the fighting-age Winnebago men were serving inwards the Union regular army at the time. The Winnebago veterans would observe no homes to provide to after the war. At that point, many of them doubtless wished they had been conspiring against the United States.