Summaryby K. Fakhruddinova

HIST 5

In order to avoid history repeat itself, we need to examine the

causes of the bloody conflicts…

Ethnic conflict

+

economic volatility

+

empires in decline

=

WAR

WHY?

Ethnic Conflicts

• Times of multinational empires was over by the beginning of 20th century. New radical ideologies were calling for ethnic cleansing within empires which resulted in large scale genocide.

• In 1862, Herbert Spencer developed a theory he called “Social Darwinism.” Spencer applied Darwin’s ideas to human societies, and argued that the “fittest” within any given society would survive, while those who were deemed “unfit” eventually would die out.

• Later, imperialists, communists, and fascists further extended Spencer’s theory and applied it to relationships between people of different races and cultures. As a result, numerous ethnic conflicts took and continue to take place.

The beginning of 20th century was marked by very different political environment in Western countries where industrialization triggered huge social, political and demographic change.

These changes, in turn, facilitated the division of the societies into economic classes. Poor working class grew disproportionally. As a result, many workers' movements advocating for better living and working conditions emerged in many countries.

Some of these movements came under the influence of radical leaders that followed ideologies like Communism, Fascism, and Socialism.

Economic Volatility

Empires in Decline

Global Imperialism and Nationalism yielded an arms race. The aggressive attitude of this policy as well as conflicting ideologies drove nations to form alliances for protection against each other. European countries were competing for power and global dominance.

Nationalism become both a uniting and dividing force!

World War I & World War II

RACISM was used to justify the killing within nations…

RACISM

was used to justify wars…

Genocide of Armenians in Turkey

Russian Ethnic Wars

Holocaust

The hundred years after 1900 were the bloodiest in the history of

humanity!

Significantly larger percentage of the world's population were killed in just the two world wars than in Thirty Years War, Napoleonic Wars, War of the Spanish Succession, Seven Years' War, War of the League of Augsburg, French Revolutionary Wars, Dutch War of Louis XIV, Ottoman War, and War of the Austrian Succession together (e.i., 1.84% vs. 1.58% respectively).