Indeed. Some people call beatings "spankings" even though it's left the flesh raw.

Yep. It's about establishing authority, building trust, rewarding good behavior, teaching empathy, and actually being the adult and teaching children how their behavior and choices affect others. It's almost impossible to do any of those things effectively if you're using fear and negative reinforcement on a child.

I was spanked, and it definitely changed my behaviour. Myself and my brothers were all spanked as a form of discipline and we all turned out to be really good kids/adults. We all also respect our parents for doing it. With that said, our parents never spanked us while they were angry. They always sent us to our room to think about what we did, then they'd come have a talk with us and tell us that they didn't enjoy spanking us. Anyways point being that you're not actually correct in your assumptions. It does in fact change the behaviour of some kids (not all). And those kids can even grow up into adults and respect that their parents did it and thank them for keeping us as well mannered children and not letting us run wild like a lot of parents do now.

It honestly sounds like the spanking was unnecessary in your case, as your parents actually took steps to discipline you instead of simply punishing you.

My mother did everything you you described your parents doing, just not the spanking part. I'm a well mannered, productive adult now. Sorry, but the spanking doesn't do anything, its the time you put in correcting the behavior and most parents who spank don't put in that time.