The term 'extreme' is used to describe something that is 'exceeding the ordinary, usual or expected. '1 The 20th century witnessed two truly global world wars, fought on a scale that was unprecedented in terms of destruction, international reach, and systemic impact; vast economic and social change, stemming in part from the developed world's greatest financial meltdown; and great improvements to technology that revolutionised the way states interacted.
Although it could be argued that events in the 20th century were merely continuations of similar events in previous centuries, the scale on which events occurred in the 20th century differed completely from earlier eras. On this basis, Eric Hobsbawn is correct to class the 20th century as an 'Age of Extremes,'2 as the international system following the 20th century had been forever changed by events within that period. According to Hobsbawn, the Age of Extremes began in 1914 with the First World War, which constituted the first real 'extreme' event and initiated a series of changes seen across the globe.Leading up to, and at the turn of, the 20th century, a fragile and flammable tinderbox was being constructed that was eventually sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. German historian Fritz Fischer writes that 'German aggression, motivated by the internal political needs of an autocratic elite, was responsible for the war,'3 but Germany's actions cannot be seen in isolation. Deeper systemic causes lay in European regional and international events, including a shifting balance of power among the European Great Powers and a race for influence abroad in the form of Imperialism and colonisation.
The war ended in armistice in June 1918, but its impact lasted for decades to come. Many states experienced a revolution in government with a shift towards democracy. Prior to World War I, Europe had nineteen monarchies and three republic governments; afterwards, there were thirteen monarchies, fourteen republics and two regency governments. After the war, a more liberal way of governing state citizens emerged, and new states were formed on this basis.
The war also saw the emergence of a potential rival power to the European Great Powers: the United States, which was founded on democracy.Though expressions of democracy such as Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points were neither widely popular at the time nor wholly adopted, the monarchical structure was becoming antiquated and a shift towards democracy began that continued throughout the 20th century. 4 Woodrow Wilson pushed for diplomacy based on 'open agreements, openly arrived at,' and for collective security institutions instead of old-fashioned alliances. 5 Though the League of Nations did not achieve its founders' aims, this trend towards placing reliance in international institutions resumed in the wake of the Second World War, as did the shift towards democratisation.Dramatic economic change also followed the First World War.
European economies struggled to cope with the toll that the war took on their public finances and physical resources, in addition to the human emotional and physical capital. During the war, demand in consumer goods increased greatly, causing shortages. Economies were working at full employment to cope with demand. Unprecedented demand and a scarcity of resources caused inflation rates to rise beyond any previous level.Those dependant on fixed incomes, such as the elderly or those surviving on subsidies from the government, were affected most by the inflation and were sent into poverty as their income did not correspond with the soaring cost of living. During the course of the war, Britain (and other states) borrowed vast amounts of money from the United States in order to finance the war.
The world's financial centre shifted from Britain to the United States, which became the unrivalled financial centre for the better part of the 20th century.One of the greatest impacts from the war on society and politics, evident especially in Great Britain, was emerging equality between men and women. As men were enlisted into the military, labour forces significantly weakened and women were called upon to take men's places. When the men returned from the trenches to reclaim their jobs, they met resistance from those women who relished their newfound roles and the resulting sexual equality. Increasing pressure from the suffragettes lead to the Representation of the People Act in 1918, which gave women who were both property owners and over the age of thirty the right to vote.
In a society where women were, for decades, denied the right to participate in politics, this law represented a major change and signalled the beginning to advances in sexual equality. In 1929 the world economy experienced a disaster on a scale so unprecedented that those subsequent years became known as the Great Depression. The stock market in the United States crashed on 'Black Tuesday', 29 October 1929. This sparked a massive sale of stocks and investment assets, and runs on banks.Many businesses were forced to make redundancies, and the unemployment rate in the United States went from 3% in 1929 to 25% in its highest 1933, translating to millions of Americans. 6 What was notable about the Great Depression however was how it spread from the United States to other prominent international states, which highlighted how intertwined the international economy had become.
The Second World War, occurring despite grand hopes to keep together fragile European alliances, was even more devastating than the First World War. More lives were lost and more property destroyed than in any past war.It led to the fall of Western European states as great powers and to the rise of the new superpower, the Soviet Union, to rival the United States. After the Second World War many of the themes that emerged from the First World War were revisited, including democratisation, more thoroughly intertwined economies, and a greater reliance on international institutions. World War II also produced major technological developments, including atomic power and the nuclear bomb, which played a major role in global politics and the balance of power in the remainder of the 20th and into the 21st centuries.
World War II will always be remembered as an extreme event of the 20th century, in part because of Nazism, but more because of the genocide committed under Adolf Hitler's command. Baylis, Smith and Owens in The Globalization of World Politics describe the Holocaust as the 'German treatment of civilian populations and prisoners of war [reflecting] the Nazi ideas of racial supremacy. '7 Estimations of the death toll are at 11 million people, 6 million of which were Jewish. 8 The Holocaust remains one of the worst genocides in history and led to a great number of significant events, including the foundation of Israel.
Continuing on from the legacy of the League of Nations, the United Nations was created after the war in an attempt to avoid conflict in the future and pool security resources into one collective unit. Today, the United Nations has a much larger role than protecting international security, in 'developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. '9 The rise of influence of international institutions can be compared to the fall in influence of the European Great powers, which were left destitute and destroyed after the war.At the same time, the United States and Soviet Union emerged as the new world superpowers, which were diametrically opposed in terms of state ideology and economic practice. This was the first time that the international system became bipolar, and the Cold War saw these two states pitted against each other in a battle of communism against capitalism. At the height of the Cold War the United States and Soviet Union were extremely close to initiating nuclear war and realising the dreaded Mutually Assured Destruction.
10 Democracy was ultimately seen as the ideal political system, and very few states today practice communism.Martin Gilbert, author of A History of the Twentieth Century, commented that '[no] year passed in the twentieth century in which death, conflict, turmoil and destruction were not in evidence in many parts of the globe. Yet at the same time, no year passed without efforts being made, and initiatives taken, to push ahead along a path of co-operation and mutual benefit. " 11 This is a good summary of the 20th century, as outlined above-extremes of violence and destruction could be compared with collective peace efforts, the spread of democracy, and a greater emphasis on human rights.
Economic despair occurred in the same century as an increase in wealth in many parts of the world. Strides in sexual equality can be compared with state-sponsored racist policies. There is today a greater emphasis on social and political structures that are aimed at reducing conflict while benefiting state development and well-being. As has been shown above, extreme events occurred throughout the 20th century which have had a lasting impact on international politics today, and which will continue to do so for some time to come.
