in preparation for their
removal to Indian Territory, months prior the "
Trail of Tears". , 1896. The
American Heritage Dictionary defines the term
concentration camp as: "A camp where persons are confined, usually without hearings and typically under harsh conditions, often as a result of their membership in a group which the government has identified as dangerous or undesirable." Although the first example of civilian internment may date as far back as the 1830s, the English term
concentration camp was first used in order to refer to the
reconcentration camps (Spanish:
reconcentrados) which were set up by the
Spanish military in
Cuba during the
Ten Years' War (1868–1878). The label was applied yet again to camps set up by the United States during the
Philippine–American War (1899–1902). And expanded usage of the
concentration camp label continued, when the
British set up camps during the
Second Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa for interning
Boers during the same time period. During the 20th century, the arbitrary internment of civilians by the state reached its most extreme forms in the
Soviet Gulag system of concentration camps (1918–1991) and the
Nazi concentration camps (1933–1945). The Soviet system was the first applied by a government on its own citizens. and at least 715,000 simultaneous internees. The total number of casualties in these camps is difficult to determine, but the deliberate policy of
extermination through labor in many of the camps was designed to ensure that the inmates would die of starvation, untreated disease and
summary executions within set periods of time. Moreover, Nazi Germany established six
extermination camps, specifically designed to kill millions of people, primarily by
gassing. near
Weimar photographed after their liberation by the
Allies on 16 April 1945 As a result, the term "concentration camp" is sometimes conflated with the concept of an "
extermination camp" and historians debate whether the term "concentration camp" or the term "internment camp" should be used to describe other examples of civilian internment. and camps set up in
Chile during the
military dictatorship of
Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990). According to the
United States Department of Defense as many as 3 million
Uyghurs and members of other
Muslim minority groups are being held in
China's
re-education camps which are located in the
Xinjiang region and which American news reports often label as
concentration camps. The camps were established in the late 2010s under
Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping's
administration. ==Impact==