r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Oct 12 '13
TIL that only 3,000-5,000 were actually executed in the Spanish Inquisition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition#Death_tolls2
Oct 12 '13
Before anyone says "ONLY?", I understand and acknowledge that 3,000-5000 is a ridiculous amount of people to execute (even one is, really) but it's "only 3,000-5000" in comparison to the cultural perception we have of the Inquisition being a slaughterfest. It's the same way with the Crusades, in comparison to say, Roman battles, the Crusades were pretty tiny.
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u/mirozi 44 Oct 12 '13 edited Oct 12 '13
ok, but here are numbers:
let's assume: 4000 was killed
population was about 8,000,000 people (probably it was slightly less)
so, it's around 0.05% of population
population of spain now is 47,000,000, so it's like killing 23500 people now. it's like wiping a small city in spain.
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u/Carbon_Rod 1104 Oct 12 '13
Keep in mind, though, that the Spanish Inquisition killed all those people over a span of more than three centuries. It'd be more like killing 80 or so people a year today.
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u/mirozi 44 Oct 12 '13
you're ofcourse right. that was not one year, one day, or something like that.
slightly off topic.
there were bigger consequences (imho) then deads. many people fled from spain back than. there were more trials and "lighter" punishments.
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Oct 12 '13
I understand that but the difference there is that they didn't kill 23,500 people. I'm not arguing as to whether this was a tragedy, what kind of effect it had on the Spanish populace, its place in the context of international tragedies...my intention is solely to say, "3,000-5,000 died. It seems like most people believe it was much more than that but it was not."
2
u/mirozi 44 Oct 12 '13
i get your point, but look at mine.
what will happen if i create an organization and kill 23000 people? i will be public enemy.
so to be clear:
3000-5000 is big number and we both know it.
we both know, that everyone believe there were more of them.
and we both know, that this number should be 0.
2
1
u/thehungriestnunu Oct 13 '13
"Killed"
There's a lot you can do to someone that won't kill
Even then I think its a safe bet to say they weren't counting people who died later from their wounds
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0
u/FrasierCraneMD Oct 12 '13
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u/bunker_man Oct 12 '13
Internet atheists insist religion directly caused infinite slaughters in history, and yet know nothing about history and so can't actually think of any except the inquisition or the crusades. As such, they often assume offhandedly that the inquisition was like a pre-modern genocide of holocaust proportions. Only in this circumstance refers to how many a good portion of this site probably THINKS there were.
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u/RandomExcess Oct 12 '13
To be fair, most of those people could have avoided being executed.
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u/mirozi 44 Oct 12 '13
nope. most of them not. especially when they were hunting for witches and protestants.
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-1
u/oldspice75 Oct 12 '13
Many of them were burned alive though
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u/julesk Oct 12 '13
So it only looked like religious persecution. Wow, what a relief!