Talk:Urbicide

Michael Moorcock and Urbicide

• Michael Moorcock uses the term 'urbicide' in the Elric novella, Dead God's Homecoming (Science Fantasy #59, Nova Publishing, June 1963), the first part of the novel Stormbringer (Herbert Jenkins, 1965). The precise quote is found in chapter two:

"Across a war‑torn world rode Elric, his crimson eyes burning with a fierce anger at the sights of wanton destruction he witnessed. Although he had himself lived by his sword for many years and had committed acts of murder, robbery and urbicide, he disliked the senselessness of wars such as this, of men who killed one another for only the vaguest of reasons."

Stormbringer was reprinted in the the omnibus Elric: The Stealer of Souls, which might be what the editor who mentions Moorcock in the article is referring to. Whether Moorcock could be said to have coined the term however...you probably need to refer to the Oxford English Dictionary to find out when the first occasion of the word in print. 1963 would certainly precede 1987 though. Demos99 (talk) 09:44, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Add Mongol/Turkic Depredations?

I just wanted to point out many of the actions carried out as a part of the Mongol conquests could be characterized as urbicide. Cities not valuable enough to keep as vassals were often depopulated, and agricultural land of the conquered destroyed to make room for grazing land. This destruction of farmland had a direct effect of killing off part of the urban conquered populations. I am not prepared to write a section myself, perhaps someone with an interest in history and the right books to reference might do it. edit: Also IIRC they ripped up a network of canals that used to make East Iran productive. 76.95.140.129 (talk) 02:52, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Rather shortsighted description of this phenomenon, isn't it?

Armie have been besieging and destroying cities ever since humans started building cities; the fact that Ur, Babylon, Nineveh, Ctesiphon, Persepolis, Carthage, Tenochtitlan, Vilcabamba, Sukhothai, Angkor, Sarai, Mycenae, Petra, Troy, Samaria, Antioch, and thousands of other cities are no longer inhabited is a testament to that fact. This neologism of "urbicide" seems like it was invented to accuse the Serbs of committing some uniquely terrible war crime on par with genocide when in fact Sarajevo was just a run-of-the-mill siege, the kind that every military has practiced in every war between nations with cities, and not evenly a particularly bloody one, if viewed on the historical continuum that runs all the way up to sieges like Leningrad.

Now I understand that just because a theory is absurd or politically propagated, that doesn't mean that Wikipedia can't or won't give it due coverage. However, I feel that this article fails to provide a sufficient look at the hypocrisy or the very narrow window of time those who invented this term have applied it to. The fact that Vukovar and Sarajevo are the first examples on the list is an absurdity; in my view, it will either be necessary to extend the concept backwards in time to the various sackings, sieges, and destructions of cities throughout human history, or to find sources for a controversy/criticism section, to explain how this term has somehow only been used to describe the actions of the Serbs and Zimbabwe. 64.53.212.198 (talk) 15:26, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

This article risks engaging in a victimisation game of whose cities were more destroyed and therefore urbicided. Unless there is string academic consensus for applying this term, we should avoid applying it ourselves, to avoid political sensationalism games in Wikipedia . --Armatura (talk) 16:47, 23 January 2022 (UTC)

Urbicide of Azeri cities?

Toghrul R, I removed the Azerbaijani cities from Urbicide, as no reliable sources or academic consensus to use that specific term. Please avoid engaging in WP:OR and WP:SYNTHESIS, to avoid your edits being viewed as WP:ADVOCACY. I understand in Azerbaijani government's eyes Armenians are simply Nazis, but this is English Wikipedia and poorly sourced material incriminating another nation does not have a place here, the living persons biography guidelines apply. --Armatura (talk) 11:26, 23 January 2022 (UTC)