Rwanda Genocide BackgroundAll you need to know about planning of the genocide in RwandaDo you know how Rwanda genocide background was,when,how it was planned,who were behind it?stay tuned. In the fifteenth century the Tutsis ruled most of modern Rwanda with some Hutus among the nobility. Tutsis were a minority of the population, mostly herders, and the majority Hutus were mostly croppers. 
When the kings, known as Mwamis, began to centralize their administrations, they distributed land among individuals rather than agreeing for it to be held by the hereditary chieftains, who were mainly Hutu. Consequently, the aristocracies of Rwanda under the Mwamis were mainly Tutsi. With Mwami Rwabugiri on the throne, Rwanda became an expansionist state. Its rulers did not bother to assess the ethnic identities of conquered peoples brought under their sway, simply labeling all of them "Hutu". The "Hutu" identity, consequently, was to be a trans-ethnic one. Eventually, "Tutsi" and "Hutu" were seen as economic, rather than ethnic, distinctions. There was social mobility between the Tutsis and Hutus, on the basis of hierarchical status. One could and would kwihutura, lose "Hutuness", with the accumulation of wealth. Conversely, a Tutsi bereft of property could gucupira, or lose "Tutsiness". Redistribution of land between the 1860s and 1890s resulted in its owners demanding manual labor in return for the right to occupy their property. This system of patronage, known as uburetwa, i.e. work for access to land, left Hutus in a serf-like status, with Tutsis as their feudal masters. At the Berlin Conference of 1886, Rwanda and its neighbour Burundi, under a similar Tutsi-Hutu monarchical arrangement, were annexed by the Germans, with this state of affairs in effect until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, when they were ceded to Belgium. The Belgians sought an explanation for the complex hierarchies they found in the colonies, and the simple distinction of Tutsi and Hutu, on the basis of race, rather than class, was theirs. The Belgians brought in identification cards for every Rwandan. These meant there was a continuation of preferential treatment for Tutsis over Hutus, on the basis of ethnic, rather than of economic, alignment. A social revolution led by the Hutu nationalist party Parmehutu (Parti du Mouvement de l'Émancipation Hutu), in 1959, was the foundation of a Hutu-led republic of Rwanda, with independence in 1961. It was ultimately the first stage of the Rwandan Civil War. With the deaths of some 20,000 Tutsi, and exile of some 200,000 others, the Tutsi rebellion against the Hutu regime found its roots. Until the time of the genocide, there were sporadic killings of Tutsi citizens. In an official action between December 1963 and January 1964, roughly 14,000 Tutsis were killed after a rebel incursion into southern Rwanda. In 1973, with the political turmoil in neighboring Burundi, there was an influx of Hutus into Rwanda, while Grégoire Kayibanda, the founder of Parmehutu, and first president of the republic, and his army chief Juvenal Habyarimana began the institution of Committees of Public Safety, which led to several hundred deaths and an exodus of over a hundred thousand Tutsis from the country.
Rwandan history and the Colonial Times Rwanda History and Catholic Influence • Rwandan history and strife for Independence • Rwandan History and Military rule • Rwandan history and Genocide aftermath and Peace_ • How the Rwanda Civil War led to Rwanda genocide • Catalyst and initial events that prompted Rwanda genocide
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