20th Century: The Deadliest In Human History
The "Miracle of the Sun" on October 13, 1917 marked the final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, having already appeared several times since April of that year. Those Marian apparitions in Portugal were a harbinger, a warning sign of what was to come within the next 100 years: the most brutal century that the world has ever seen. The casualties of conflicts in the 20th century completely dwarfed those of any centuries that came before it. With a much larger global population in the 21st century, greater technology, and civilizations once again retreating to their own ideologies, we may yet see a carnage on par with the 20th century, through war or otherwise. Even if we should believe conventional warfare to be in decline, other human security issues suggest that our era is no less bloody than those of our ancestors.
Our Lady of Fatima appeared during an unprecedented period of history. For the first time, entire societies were pitted against each other directly in war. "The Great War" encapsulated the size of destruction that occurred primarily in "civilized" Europe between 1914 and 1918. The World War I period is also important because the West found themselves in the same predicament then as they do today. In each case, there was a golden age of peace (Belle Epoque and post-Cold War), economic and technological revolutions (Industrial Revolution and Information Age), rising powers leading to hostilities (the rise of Germany and the rise of China/Russia), and political scientists predicting a continued peace, appealing to liberalism and trade interests ("The End of War" and "The End of History"). Though we do not yet know the end result of our era, World War I ended in around 10 million deaths, and the drastic change of political boundaries that had existed since the Congress of Vienna. Since then, no European state has been able to challenge for dominant global hegemony, at least as an individual power. Therefore, all the "progress" made by humans technologically amounted to nothing socially.
More importantly, the last Fatima apparition occurred three weeks before the Russian Revolution, launching a global ideological war that would last until the 1990s. Having established the first Marxist state, it provided a serious threat to conservatism, liberalism, monarchy, and capitalism all at the same time, ideas that had dominated the world centuries before. World War II was a culmination of the conflict of these ideologies. It remains the deadliest war in history, with around 60 million people perishing during the war. In addition, it was the only truly global war so far, in that there was no nation on earth that remained unaffected by the war, whether or not they were neutral. The end of the war came about with the development of nuclear weapons, the first weapon powerful enough to destroy the earth. While the United States and the Soviet Union did not devolve into direct war with one another, there were several instances where nuclear war was a real possibility, especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This time period in history was also brutal enough that it prompted the recognition of genocides. The Armenian Genocide, Holocaust, Holodomor, genocides in Russia, Cambodian Genocide, Great Leap Forward, and Cultural Revolution all occurred between World War I and the end of the Cold War, and with the exception of the Armenian Genocide, these events were part of the ideological warfare between capitalism and communism. Together, these events alone have caused at least 100 million deaths. While none of these events were unique from any other historical atrocities with similar consequences, they came at a time when genocide awareness existed, and were done on a more massive scale than any time period before it. In addition, none of these examples except Armenia and the Holocaust took place during a war. The Holodomor and genocides in Russia occurred under Stalin in the 1930s. The Khmer Rouge were enabled by their victory in a war to carry out their atrocities in the 1970s, after they had gained power. Many of the victims died from execution, but also dysentery, malnutrition, starvation, or being physically worked to death. Famine during the Great Leap Forward killed tens of millions of Chinese in the 1950s. And social upheaval claimed the lives of millions during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, though no war was declared.
The post-Cold War era itself has already had many humanitarian crises as well. The Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syrian wars are all well documented. Nuclear weapons are also still an issue, as India and Pakistan developed nukes after the Cold War, with the threat of Iran and North Korea gaining capabilities as well. On top of those issues, however, the Yugoslav Wars resulted in the ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks. In Rwanda, the Hutu murdered 800,000 Tutsi over the course of 100 days in 1994. The Second Congo War raged on from the late 1990s and early 2000s, resulting in an estimated 2.5-5.4 million deaths, the largest death toll since World War II. The War in Darfur has killed about 300,000 and displaced several million since 2003.
While diplomacy in the 20th and early 21st centuries has reduced the sheer number of conflicts, a mountain of evidence, past and contemporary, suggests that the world is still very capable of barbaric acts, and that leaders will seek to circumvent either diplomacy or direct war to abuse their people.
I agree with your statement noting that the 20th century has by far been the most deadly. I personally do not know the stories of Our Lady of Fatima, however, you make good points about the atrocities of the time. I also agree with you about the importance of the humanitarian crises as well. The build up of nuclear weapons and other issues that arise from such crises are an important aspect of the destruction of the century. Another interesting point you make is the technological innovation of the time in contrast with the lack of social progress. In recent times, development in technology and machinery has continued to progress and it makes me question if the 21st century will have a similar outcome. Perhaps even if we have major technological improvements, there is still the possibility of a lack of social progression. Thus, I question how the 21st century will compare to the century prior.
ReplyDeleteThere is no arguing the fact that the 20th century was the deadliest in history. However, I don't think we will see a as deadly 21st century. I believe the technological advances made in the past 20+ years plays a huge role in the way conflict is dealt with in the 21st century. Since the Great Wars, the world has made huge leaps in military weapons. Battles can now be fought with drones, and weapons have become even deadly. I think because of this, the idea of liberalism and diplomacy is on the rise in recent years. A lot of the wars you mention were fought with a lot of ground troops because it was land in which they were fighting over. Now that land is no longer being fought over (on a large scale), the approach to war has changed. It will be interesting to see in the near future how these new technological advancements affect the way conflicts are fought.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the 20th century was littered with conflicts and heinous acts, and is likely the deadliest in history. However, I feel a large portion of the conflicts stemmed from previous centuries of imperialism/ colonialism, and general issues that arose around as Renee mentioned: land. Whether it be societal divides created by colonialists in foreign lands that stemmed to deep seated resentments (e.g. the Hutu and Tutsi conflict that you mentioned, stemming from Belgian defined societal statuses for the groups during Belgian control), or attempts to gain resources from other countries, to impose ideological or political control over a region, all of these factors contributed. People were pushed to breaking points, and I feel that the 20th century greatly reflects this. It was an era where people had had enough with the way things had been and decided to act. There were a few potential exemptions to this, but I feel the majority were responses to the previous world order. I feel as the world begins to stabilize, and find healthier ways of existing as people and nations than they had in the centuries prior to the 20th, that while there may be some more conflicts to find that stability, the 21st century may actually bring more peace by its end than we often acknowledge the possibility of.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that the 20th century was the deadliest due to the heinous acts of World War I and World War II. However, the shift in the nature of combat, seeing as it has evolved to be more sophisticated, will lower the number of total deaths. In the two World Wars, we saw many deaths from medical shortcomings that we have since solved. Further, nations are more conscious of the repercussions and implications of such brutal combat tendencies. I think we have witnessed the most dangerous century that we will (hopefully) ever see. This, I believe, is very attributed to the advances in technology that we've seen, that I previously mentioned. It allows for more efficient diplomacy.
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