20th century

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The twentieth century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar. Some historians consider the era from about 1914 (the start of World War I) to 1991 (the dissolution of the Soviet Union) to be the Short Twentieth Century.

[edit] General

The 20th century witnessed radical changes in almost every area of human actions. Scientific discoveries such as the theory of relativity and quantum physics radically changed the worldview of scientists, causing them to realize that the universe was much more complex than previously believed, and dashing the hopes at the end of the 19th century that the last few details of scientific knowledge were about to be filled in. Accelerating scientific understanding, better communications, and faster transportation greatly transformed the world in those hundred years more than nearly any time in the past. It was a century that started with steam-powered ships and ended with the space shuttle. Horses and other pack animals, Western society's basic form of personal transportation for thousands of years, were replaced by automobiles within the span of a few decades. The century also gave rise to humanity's first footsteps on the Moon and computer technology.

The wars prompted nations such as the United States of America and the Soviet Union to gain power and also gave them the ability to persuade other nations to do their biddings.The conflict saw the beginning of international American involvement which would accelerate as that nation began to find itself in a position of extreme power. The period saw a remarkable shift in the way that vast numbers of people lived, as a result of technological, medical, social, ideological, and political innovation. Arguably more technological advances occurred in any ten-year period following World War I than the sum total of new technological development in any century before the industrial revolution. Terms like ideology, world war, genocide, and nuclear war entered common usage and became an influence on everyone's lives.

Nazi massacre in Kerch, 1942. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, about half of all World War II casualties.^[1]

The massive arms race of the 19th century finally culminated in a war which involved every powerful nation in the world - The Great War. After more than four years of horrifying trench warfare, and 20 million dead, those powers who had formed the Triple Entente emerged victorious over the Triple Alliance. In addition to annexing much of the colonial possessions of the vanquished states, the Triple Entente exacted punitive restitution payments from their former foes, plunging Germany in particular into economic depression. The Russian Empire was plunged into revolution during the conflict, and the Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires were dismantled at the war's conclusion. War reached an unprecedented scale and sophistication; in the Second World War (1939-1945) alone, approximately 57-62 million people died, mainly due to massive advances in weaponry. The trends of mechanization of goods and services and networks of global communication, which began in the 19th century, continued at an ever-increasing pace.As the British Empire, its economy ruined by the war, began to shrink, a power vacuum began to develop. Fascism, a movement which grew out of post war angst, gained momentum in Italy, Germany and Spain in the 1920s and 1930s, finally culminating in the Second World War, sparked off by a revitalized Germany's aggressive expansion at the expense of her neighbours. The largest and most devastating war ever fought, World War II claimed the lives of 60 million people. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the most powerful nations when the conflict ended in 1945, and subsequently began a new arms race, with new technologies such as nuclear weapons and space age technology, in the Cold War.

[edit] Wars and politics

Warfare in the early 20th Century (1914-1918)
Clockwise from top: front line Trenches, a British Mark I Tank crossing a trench, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the battle of the Dardanelles, a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes

• After decades of struggle by the women's suffrage movement, all western countries gave women the right to vote.
• Rising nationalism and increasing national awareness were among the many causes of World War I (1914–1918), the first of two wars to involve all the major world powers including Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United States and the British Empire. World War I led to the creation of many new countries, especially in Eastern Europe. Ironically, it was said by many to be the "war to end all wars".
• A violent civil war broke out in Spain in 1936 when General Francisco Franco rebelled against the Second Spanish Republic. Many consider this war as a testing battleground for WWII as the fascist armies bombed some Spanish territories.
• The economic and political aftermath of World War I and the Great Depression in the 1930s led to the rise of fascism and nazism in Europe, and subsequently to World War II (1939–1945). This war also involved Asia and the Pacific, in the form of Japanese aggression against China and the United States. Civilians also suffered greatly in World War II, due to the aerial bombing of cities on both sides, and the German genocide of the Jews and others, known as the Holocaust. In 1945, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place.
• During World War I, in Russia the Bolshevik putsch took over the Russian Revolution of 1917, precipitating the founding of the Soviet Union and rise of communism. After the Soviet Union's involvement in World War II, communism became a major force in global politics, notably in Eastern Europe, China, Indochina and Cuba, where communist parties gained near-absolute power. This led to the Cold War and proxy wars with the West, including wars in Korea (1950–1953) and Vietnam (1957–1975).
• The Soviet authorities caused the deaths of millions of their own citizens in order to eliminate domestic opposition. More than 18 million people passed through the Gulag, with a further 6 million being exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union.^[2][3]
• The civil rights movement in the USA and the movement against apartheid in South Africa successfully challenged racial segregation.
• The two world wars led to efforts to increase international cooperation, notably through the founding of the League of Nations after World War I, and its successor, the United Nations, after World War II.
• The creation of Israel by the British, a Jewish state in the Middle East fueled many regional conflicts. These were also influenced by the vast oil fields in many of the other countries of the mostly Arab region.
• The end of colonialism led to the independence of many African and Asian countries. During the Cold War, many of these aligned with the USA, the USSR, or China for defense.
• The Great Chinese Famine was a direct cause of the death of tens of millions of Chinese peasants between 1959 and 1962. It is thought to be the largest famine in human history.
• The revolutions of 1989 released Eastern and Central Europe from Soviet supremacy. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia dissolved, the latter violently over several years, into successor states, many rife with ethnic nationalism. This left the United States as the world's only superpower.
• After a long period of civil wars and conflicts with European powers, China's last imperial dynasty ended in 1912. The resulting republic was replaced, after yet another civil war, by a people's republic in 1949. At the end of the century, though still ruled by a communist party, China's economic system was well on its way to an almost complete transformation to capitalism.
• European integration began in earnest in the 1950s, and eventually led to the European Union, a political and economic union that comprised 15 countries at the end of the century.

[edit] Culture and entertainment

• As the century begins, Paris is the artistic capital of the world, where both French and foreign writers, composers and visual artists gather. By the end of the century, the focal point of culture had moved to the United States, especially New York City and Los Angeles.
• Movies, music and the media had a major influence on fashion and trends in all aspects of life. As many movies and music originate from the United States, American culture spread rapidly over the world.
• After gaining political rights in the United States and much of Europe in the first part of the century, and with the advent of new birth control techniques women became more independent throughout the century.
• In classical music, composition branched out into many completely new domains, including dodecaphony, aleatoric and chance music, and minimalism. Electronic musical instruments were developed as well, vastly broadening the scope of sounds available to composers and performers.
• Rock and Roll and Jazz styles of music are developed in the United States, and quickly become the dominant forms of popular music in America, and later, the world. Many other styles of music develop and spread as well, also branching off and influencing each other, including Pop Music, Heavy Metal, Alternative, House or Dance, Soul, Rap and Hip-Hop.
• The plastic arts developed new styles such as expressionism, cubism, and surrealism.
• Modern architecture evolved within Europe with a radical departure from the excess decoration of the Victorian era — streamlined forms inspired by machines became more commonplace. Developments in building material technologies furthered this shift. European architects moved to the United States prior to World War II, where modern archiectural theory continued to blossom.
• The automobile provided vastly increased transportation capabilities for the average member of Western societies in the early to mid-century, spreading even further later on. City design throughout most of the West became focused on transport via car. The car became a leading symbol of modern society, with styles of car suited to and symbolic of particular lifestyles.
• Sports became an important part of society, becoming an activity not only for the privileged. Watching sports, later also on television, became a popular activity.

[edit] Disease and medicine

[edit] Medicine

• Placebo-controlled, randomized, blinded clinical trials became a powerful tool for testing new medicines.
• Antibiotics drastically reduced mortality from bacterial diseases and their prevalence.
• A vaccine was developed for polio, ending a worldwide epidemic. Effective vaccines were also developed for a number of other serious infectious diseases, including diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), chickenpox, influenza, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B.
• A successful application of epidemiology and vaccination led to the eradication of the smallpox virus in humans.
• X-rays became powerful diagnostic tool for wide spectrum of diseases, from bone fractures to cancer. In the 1960s, computerized tomography was invented. Other important diagnostics tools developed were sonography and magnetic resonance imaging.
• Development of vitamins virtually eliminated scurvy and other vitamin-deficiency diseases.
• New psychiatric drugs were developed. This includes antipsychotics which are efficient in treating hallucinations and delusions, and antidepressants for treating depression.
• The role of tobacco smoking in the causation of cancer and other diseases was proven during the 1950s (see British Doctors Study).
• New methods for cancer treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy, were developed. As a result, cancer could often be cured or placed in remission.
• The development of blood typing and blood banking made blood transfusion safe and widely available.
• The invention and development of immunosuppressive drugs and tissue typing made organ and tissue transplantation a clinical reality.
• As research on all aspects of sleep and circadian rhythms exploded, dozens of sleep disorders were defined.
• New methods for heart surgery were developed.
• Cocaine and heroin were found to be dangerous addictive drugs, and their wide usage had been outlawed.
• Contraceptive drugs were developed, which reduced population growth rates.
• The development of medical insulin during the 1920s helped raise the life expectancy of diabetics to three times of what it had been earlier.
• The elucidation of the structure and function of DNA initiated the development of genetic engineering and the mapping of the human genome.

[edit] Diseases

• An influenza pandemic, the Spanish Flu, killed 25 million between 1918 and 1919
• A new viral disease, AIDS, arose in Africa and subsequently killed millions of people throughout the world. AIDS treatments remained inaccessible to people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries, but even with the best available treatment, most patients eventually died from complications of the disease.
• Because of increased life spans, the prevalence of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and other diseases of the aged increased.

[edit] Energy, natural resources and the environment

Oil field in California, 1938 The first modern oil well was drilled in 1848 by Russian engineer F.N. Semyonov, on the Apsheron Peninsula north-east of Baku.

• The dominant use of fossil sources and nuclear power, considered the conventional energy sources.

• Widespread use of petroleum in industry — both as a chemical precursor to plastics and as a fuel for the automobile and airplane — led to the vital geopolitical importance of petroleum resources. The Middle East, home to many of the world's oil deposits, became a center of geopolitical and military tension throughout the latter half of the century. (For example, oil was a factor in Japan's decision to go to war against the United States in 1941, and the oil cartel, OPEC, used an oil embargo of sorts in the wake of the Yom Kippur War in the 1970s).

• A vast increase in fossil fuel consumption, caused, according to some, smog and other forms of air pollution, global warming, local and global climate change, and an accelerating depletion of natural resources.

• Studies showed that pesticides, herbicides and other toxic chemicals were accumulating in the environment and within the bodies of humans and other animals.

• Many believed that overpopulation and world-wide deforestation, which additionally caused a loss of biodiversity, further diminished the quality of the environment.

[edit] See also

• The 20th century in review
• Infectious disease in the 20th century
• Death rates in the 20th century
• Technology
• Infant mortality
• Life expectancy
• Maternal death
• List of battles 1901-2000
• 20th century inventions
• Timeline of 20th century Muslim history

[edit] References

[edit] Decades and years

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20th century