Military-Atrocities

Balangiga Massacre Triggers Samar Pacification - Scorched Earth Retaliation

| Importance: 8/10

Filipino resistance fighters in Balangiga, Samar conduct a surprise attack on Company C of the U.S. 9th Infantry Regiment, killing 54 American soldiers in what becomes described as the “worst defeat of United States Army soldiers since the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.” The …

Jacob H. Smith Littleton Waller Adna Chaffee Theodore Roosevelt Filipino civilians +1 more imperialism war-crimes military-atrocities philippines counterinsurgency +1 more
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Philippine-American War Begins - Liberation Becomes Brutal Occupation

| Importance: 9/10

Fighting erupts between U.S. forces and Filipino independence fighters led by Emilio Aguinaldo, transforming America’s supposed “liberation” of the Philippines from Spain into a brutal three-year war of imperial conquest. The conflict begins just two days before the Senate ratifies …

Emilio Aguinaldo William McKinley U.S. Army forces Philippine independence movement Filipino civilians gilded-age imperialism war-crimes military-atrocities counterinsurgency +1 more
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Wounded Knee Massacre - U.S. 7th Cavalry Kills 250+ Lakota, Primarily Women and Children, Ending Ghost Dance Movement

| Importance: 10/10

The U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry surrounds a band of Lakota Sioux Ghost Dancers under Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and massacres over 250 Lakota people, primarily unarmed women, children, and elders. The 7th Cavalry—the same unit …

U.S. 7th Cavalry Big Foot (Lakota Chief) Sitting Bull Lakota Sioux War Department indigenous-genocide military-atrocities ghost-dance religious-persecution war-crimes
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Sand Creek Massacre - Colorado Militia Slaughters 150 Peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Under Protection Flag

| Importance: 10/10

A 675-man force of the Third Colorado Cavalry under the command of U.S. Volunteers Colonel John Chivington attacks and destroys a peaceful village of approximately 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho people camped at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. The village, consisting of around 100 lodges …

Colonel John Chivington Third Colorado Cavalry Black Kettle (Cheyenne Chief) Colorado Territory Captain Silas Soule +1 more indigenous-genocide war-crimes military-atrocities impunity institutional-corruption
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