Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 December 27

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December 27

Anti-neutron bomb parody ad

Was there ever a full-page ad taken out in The Washington Post (or some other prominent US paper) sometime in the 1970s by an anti-nuclear organization (perhaps Greenpeace) promoting a parody of the idea of a neutron bomb -- that is, a device which would somehow destroy military infrastructure and weapons but not harm people? (The question is based on the recollection of a friend that we've not been able to verify.) -- ToE 03:24, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

The neutron bomb is supposed to kill people and leave the infrastructure relatively intact[1] AboutFace 22 (talk) 15:45, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

The question reads like he knew that. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:23, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Correct. The neutron bomb was the center of protests and political uproar in "1977-78 and again in 1981".[2] The ad my friend recalls was from this period and advocated, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, for a device which worked oppositely. (Though our article doesn't mention it, I assume The Nude Bomb AKA The Return of Maxwell Smart, released in May 1980, similarly parodied the neutron bomb.) -- ToE 14:19, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

Additional cases of demographic reversals?

Which cases have there been where a country's or territory's demographics significantly changed only to eventually return to what they previously were?

Off the top of my head, I can think of:

• German settlement in Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages (Ostsiedlung) and beyond, only to see this reversed in the 20th century as a result of mass expulsions of Germans from Eastern Europe in the aftermath of World War II and also mass emigration of Germans from Romania and the former Soviet Union back to Germany after the end of the Cold War.
• Polish settlement in the Kresy (the eastern territories of Poland before 1939). A lot of Poles settled in the Kresy in the second millennium only to have this trend be reversed in the 20th century as a result of Stalin's deportation of Poles from the Kresy back to Poland.
• The exodus of the Jews from Palestine in Roman times and their subsequent return to Palestine through mass aliyah by the millions in the 20th and 21st centuries.
• Russian settlement in the "Near Abroad" during Tsarist and Soviet times, which was in large part (though certainly not completely) reversed after the collapse of the Soviet Union--when many of these Russians moved back to Russia.
• The settlement of large numbers of Europeans (pieds-noirs) in Algeria in the 19th and early 20th centuries only to see these Europeans be expelled from Algeria in 1962 (which is when Algeria gained its independence from France). A similar trend might have also occurred on a smaller scale in various other African and Third World countries.
• The settlement of large numbers of Non-Hispanic White people in the Southwestern U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries, followed by a massive increase in the Hispanic percentage of the total population in the Southwestern U.S. in the late 20th and 21st centuries as a result of large-scale Hispanic immigration. The Southwestern U.S. had a huge Hispanic percentage before it was conquered by the U.S. in 1848 and its demographics are gradually reverting to what they were before the U.S. conquest of these territories.
• The Greco-Turkish population exchange in the early 1920s eliminating the millennia-long Greek presence in Anatolia.
• The Reconquista of Spain by Christian Europeans between 1000 and 1492, which ultimately culminated in the expulsion of Arabs, Muslims, Moors, and Moriscos from Spain in spite of them having a centuries-long presence in Spain up to that point, ever since the Umayyad conquest of Spain back in 711. What applies to Spain is, of course, also true for Portugal, which was also liberated from Muslim rule in the early second millennium.
• The flight of the Muhacirs (some of whom were Turks and the rest of whom were other Muslims) from places such as the Balkans back to the Ottoman Empire/Turkey over the last couple of centuries as the centuries-long Ottoman presence in the Balkans disappeared and ended. There were no (or few) Turks and Muslims in the Balkans in 1200, a lot more Turks and Muslims in the Balkans in 1700 at the heyday and peak of Ottoman rule there, and again few Turks and Muslims in most of the Balkans right now, in the 21st century.

Anyway, which examples of demographic reversals am I missing/forgetting to list here? Futurist110 (talk) 07:42, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

The "millennium-long Greek presence in Anatolia" lasted closer to two-and-a-half millennia.  --Lambiam 09:33, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks! I meant to write "millennia" but accidentally wrote "millennium" instead. I have now corrected this typo. Futurist110 (talk) 18:15, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

There was large-scale emigration of Indians to Burma in the late 19th century and early 20th century, resulting in the population of Burma being 16% ethnically Indian by 1939. The Second World War and then Ne Win's expulsions drove most back to India, so that the figure is less than 2% today. Likewise the Rohingya conflict has driven many of the Rohingya, reckoned to be of Bengali descent, back to Bangladesh. --Antiquary (talk) 11:01, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Excellent examples! Futurist110 (talk) 18:17, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

The Panama Canal Zone used to have a large expatriate American community with all the amenities you'd expect; they all left after the Panama Canal Treaty. I think I have also mentioned at some point the large Indian communities in East Africa that were largely "invited" to leave in the 1960s after Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania achieved independence. That said, more common than leaving is some of these populations being so assimilated into the mainstream that only vestigial traces of their foreign origin remain after a few generations. Xuxl (talk) 14:18, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Was there a lot of intermarriage between African Indians and Sub-Saharan Africans? Futurist110 (talk) 18:17, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Indian diaspora in Southeast Africa doesn't answer the question directly, but may contain links and references worth investigating. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.56.237 (talk) 19:58, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks! Futurist110 (talk) 00:11, 28 December 2020 (UTC)