Posts

Nigerian Civil War war [1967–1970]

Image
Nigerian civil war between Nigeria’s federal government and the secessionist state Biafra that lasted from 1967 to 1970. Nigeria became an independent country on October 1, 1960. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was its first federal prime minister—he had held that position since 1957—and Nnamdi Azikiwe became its president of the Senate, which was a largely ceremonial role. Following a UN-supervised referendum in 1961, the northern part of the Trust Territory of the Cameroons joined Nigeria’s Northern region, while in October the Southern Cameroons united with Cameroun to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. On October 1, 1963, Nigeria became a republic, with Azikiwe as its president, although, as prime minister, Balewa remained more politically powerful. In Nigeria and its surrounding region, long-standing regional stresses—ethnic competitiveness, educational inequality, and economic imbalance being the most prominent—again came to the fore in a controversial census during 1962–63. In an
Post a Comment
Read more

The Invention of the Guillotine and Its Role in the French Reign of Terror

Image
 Most of us are familiar with the guillotine, a means of execution and a symbol of the Reign of Terror, a particularly bloody period of the French Revolution. For the revolutionaries, it was the “peoples’ avenger,” the symbol of their righteous anger, while for their opponents, the guillotine represented the uncontrolled violence of the masses. Even today, guillotine imagery is used the world over in art and activism critical of class and wealth disparities.  However, the guillotine was not originally designed as a symbol or even a weapon of class warfare. It was conceived as a practical, simple, and humane means to an inhumane end—a way to put someone to death quickly and cleanly, without the suffering that many other commonly used methods of execution tended to inflict. Beheadings were already an accepted form of execution in the late 18th century, after all, and the guillotine as we know it was not even the first mechanical means to perform the operation. Similar devices were alre
Post a Comment
Read more

The Gruesome History Of Rat Torture, From Medieval London To 20th-Century South America..

Image
 Humans have a long history of developing inventive ways to hurt each other. There’s seemingly no end to the horrifying torture devices that people have conceived. But one of the most terrifying methods of torture ever created doesn’t require a man-made device at all — it just requires a rat. Many people naturally feel a sense of fear and revulsion toward rats. The animals will chew through nearly anything, including human flesh, and that made them the perfect tools for torture. Especially if the torturer knew how to use them. Various methods of rat torture have been practiced around the world for centuries. From ancient Rome and medieval London to 20th-century South America, this is the grisly history of one of the world’s most chilling torture methods. It’s unclear exactly where and when rat torture first originated, but it was used at least as far back as 60 C.E. in the Roman Empire. Then, according to the Torture Museum, Emperor Nero used the rodents as tools of “justice” agains
Post a Comment
Read more

The 'Hanged, Drawn and Quartered' Execution Was Even Worse than You Think..

Image
  Let's say you're the king of England in the 13th century. You enjoy absolute power and authority, but only if you can keep your grip on the throne, and there are all sorts of plotting pretenders and rebellious radicals keen on toppling your reign and seeing you dead. So, what can you do to scare them off? You can't post a bunch of threatening Tweets (heck, the printing press is still a few centuries away). But maybe, just maybe, you can devise a form of punishment so twisted and sadistic that only a lunatic would even entertain the thought of committing high treason. That's how historians believe medieval monarchs came up with the wildly violent execution method known as hanging, drawing and quartering. If you've seen the film "Braveheart," then you've had a (nauseating) taste of just how torturous and cruel the practice was. The Scottish rebel William Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered in 1305 (accused of being a traitor to King Edward I) and i
Post a Comment
Read more

Medieval Execution Methods That Are The Definition Of Cruel And Unusual

Image
  Boiling someone to death was an unspeakably agonizing endeavor. Though the Roman emperor Nero reportedly killed thousands of Christians with this method long before the Middle Ages, it would also become a popular way of punishing coin forgers, especially in the Holy Roman Empire. Later on in Britain, King Henry VIII introduced the practice of boiling to death as a way to execute people who used poison to commit murder. As one might expect, people sentenced to this punishment were simply placed in a large container of heated liquid, which might be water, oil, wax, or even molten lead. And then they basically got cooked. The sensation of being boiled alive was an absolutely horrific one. The method could be made even worse if the water had yet to reach boiling temperatures by the time the person was submerged. Oftentimes, the limbs and extremities were the first things to burn. After the person’s outer layers began to cook, their organs began to cook as well. The fluids rose in tempe
Post a Comment
Read more

Most Horrifying Methods of Execution in the Roman Era...

Image
  Poena cullei , also known as sacking, was one of the most gruesome Roman execution methods. In this method, the guilty person is put in a sack and thrown into the water to be left to die. This punishment is given to people who are guilty of paricide, which means killing their parents. The person would be put alive in a leather sack with several animals, including a dog, monkey, snake, and rooster. The sack would then be tied and thrown into deep water to ensure the person inside the sack died underwater.This method of punishment was first used around 100 BC. However, the initial existence of this method of execution is estimated to have existed a century earlier. At first this punishment was simply putting the snake in a sack. The entry of other animals began after the Roman Empire. The penalty of poena cullei is said to have become famous during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. During his reign, the emperor was said to have had the punishment of putting the convict in a sack with a roo
Post a Comment
Read more

The pirate William Kidd was executed in London on 23 May 1701.

Image
  William Kidd spent his last days on earth in Newgate Gaol, where on Sunday 18 May 1701, he heard his final sermon, preached by the prison chaplain on the cheerful text, ‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.’ Kidd still hoped for a reprieve, and the others who had been condemned with him for piracy received it – all except one, an Irishman named Darby Mullins.  On the afternoon of 23 May, they were taken, with two Frenchmen who were also to die, from Newgate in two horse-drawn carts, guarded by marshals and led by the Admiralty Marshal and the silver oar which was the Admiralty’s symbol. To the chaplain’s shocked disapproval, Kidd was the worse for drink. At five o’clock, low tide, they reached Execution Dock at Wapping, a few yards below Wapping Old Stairs, in the presence of a large and lively crowd.  There was a permanent gallows for pirates there and after the hanging the corpses were customarily chained to a post on the foreshore, where they were left until
Post a Comment
Read more