‘The Most Profound Changes’
“The 20th century has witnessed the most profound and wide-reaching changes of any century in human history.”—The Times Atlas of the 20th Century.
WHEN reviewing the 20th century, many will no doubt agree with Walter Isaacson, managing editor of Time magazine, who said: “As centuries go, this has been one of the most amazing: inspiring, at times horrifying, always fascinating.”
Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, likewise says that this century has been called “the century of extremes, . . . in which human vices reached unfathomable depths.” She notes that it has been “a century of great progress [and in some places of] unprecedented economic growth.” At the same time, however, poor urban areas face a bleak future of “overcrowding and a disease pattern linked to poverty and an unhealthy environment.”
Political Upheavals
When the 20th century began, the Manchu dynasty in China, the Ottoman Empire, and several European empires controlled much of the world. The British Empire alone covered one quarter of the globe and ruled over as many as 1 out of every 4 persons on earth. Long before the end of the century, all these empires had been relegated to the history books. “In 1945,” says The Times Atlas of the 20th Century, “the age of imperialism was dead.”
The demise of colonialism permitted the wave of nationalism that swept Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries to move into other parts of the world. The New Encyclopædia Britannica says: “After World War II nationalist fervour died down in many European nations . . . In Asia and Africa, however, nationalism grew rapidly, chiefly as a reaction against colonialism.” Finally, according to The Collins Atlas of World History, “the Third World had made its appearance on the historical scene, and an era begun five centuries before with the dawn of European expansion had now come to an end.”
As empires crumbled, independent nations took their place—a goodly number of them with democratic-style governments. Often, democratic rule met with stiff opposition, such as from powerful totalitarian governments in Europe and Asia during World War II. These regimes restricted personal freedom and maintained strong control over the economy, the media, and the armed forces. Their attempts to achieve world domination were finally halted, but only after a tremendous expenditure of money and human lives.
A Century of War
Indeed, what particularly sets the 20th century apart from all previous centuries is war. Regarding World War I, German historian Guido Knopp writes: “August 1, 1914: No one suspected that the 19th century, which had presented Europeans with a long period of peace, ended on that day; and no one noticed that the 20th century actually began only at that time—with a time of war lasting three decades and demonstrating what men can do to fellow humans.”
Hugh Brogan, a professor of history, reminded us that “the impact of that war on the United States was immense, appalling, and is still felt today [in 1998].” A professor of history at Harvard University, Akira Iriye, wrote: “The First World War was a landmark in the history of East Asia and of the United States in many ways.”
Understandably, The New Encyclopædia Britannica designates the first and second world wars as “the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history.” It notes that “World War I led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties . . . , resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and . . . laid the groundwork for World War II.” It also tells us that the world wars were virtually “unprecedented in their slaughter, carnage, and destruction.” Guido Knopp likewise says: “Cruelty and human brutality exceeded the worst expectations. In the trenches . . . seeds were sown for an era in which humans were viewed as material, not as individuals.”
To prevent more catastrophic wars like these, the League of Nations was formed in 1919. Failing in its goal to preserve world peace, it was replaced by the United Nations. Although successful in preventing a third world war, the UN was unable to prevent the Cold War, which for decades threatened to escalate into a nuclear holocaust. Nor has it prevented smaller conflicts throughout the world, such as in the Balkans.
As the number of nations in the world has increased, so also has the difficulty in preserving peace among them. A comparison of a pre-World War I map with a modern one reveals that at the beginning of the century, at least 51 African and 44 Asian nations that exist today did not even exist as such then. Of the present 185 members of the United Nations, 116 did not exist as independent states at its founding in 1945!
“One of the Most Dramatic Spectacles”
As the 19th century drew to a close, the Russian Empire was the largest land power in the world. But it was rapidly losing its support. According to author Geoffrey Ponton, many people thought that “revolution rather than reform was necessary.” He adds: “But it took a major war, the First World War, and the consequent chaos, to precipitate the revolution proper.”
The assumption of power in Russia by the Bolsheviks at that time laid the basis for a new empire—world Communism sponsored by the Soviet Union. Although born in the midst of global war, the Soviet Empire did not expire in a hail of bullets. Down With Big Brother, a book by Michael Dobbs, claims that by the late 1970’s, the Soviet Union was “a vast multinational empire already sinking into irreversible decline.”
Still, its downfall was sudden. The book Europe—A History, by Norman Davies, comments: “The speed of its collapse has exceeded all the other great landslides of European history,” and “it happened through natural causes.” Truly, “the rise, development and collapse of the Soviet Union,” says Ponton, was “one of the most dramatic spectacles of the twentieth century.”
Actually, the collapse of the Soviet Union was just one of a series of profound changes in the 20th century that have had far-reaching consequences. Of course, political changes are nothing new. They have been taking place for thousands of years.
However, one change in the field of government during the 20th century is especially significant. What this change is and how it affects you personally will be discussed later.
First, though, let us examine some of the achievements of science in the 20th century. Regarding these, Professor Michael Howard concludes: “The peoples of Western Europe and North America seemed to have every reason to greet the twentieth century as the dawn of a new and happier age in the history of mankind.” Would these advances lead to what is called the good life?
[Chart/Pictures on page 2-7]
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1901
Queen Victoria dies after 64-year reign
World population at 1.6 billion
1914
Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated. World War I erupts
The last czar, Nicholas II, with his family
1917
Lenin leads Russia into revolution
1919
The League of Nations is formed
1929
U.S. stock market crash leads to the Great Depression
Gandhi continues his struggle for India’s independence
1939
Adolf Hitler invades Poland, beginning World War II
Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of Great Britain in 1940
The Holocaust
1941
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
1945
United States drops atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II ends
1946
United Nations General Assembly holds first meeting
1949
Mao Tse-tung proclaims the People’s Republic of China
1960
Seventeen new African nations are created
1975
Vietnam War ends
1989
The Berlin Wall is torn down as Communism loses its hold
1991
Soviet Union breaks apart