Here's a history-based question I'd like to ask.?

Question

How did Europe turn to savagery and war (WWI, WWII, the Holocaust, Communism, gulags) in the 20th century after nearly two hundred years of "enlightenment" and modernization?

This question came up in one of my undergraduate courses in history a couple of years ago (as well as "In Bluebeard's Castle" by George Steiner) and I am curious to know what some of you think.

This isn't an assignment; it's out of mere curiousity.

Answer 1

Maybe I'm boiling this down too far, but I've seen too many old articles that kinda discredit the 'conflicting ideology' thing. Public face of the villany. Not that the public figures weren't crazed and all, but the motivation for about everything listed was control of commerce and cosolidation of resources, which are  today in the hands of the winners of those conflicts.

Answer 2

The enlightenment and modernization were at least as much in terms of better ways to murder each other (and outsiders at least as much) as they were about anything else. It would take a peculiar outlook indeed to consider there was a "turn" at all. Rather, more centralized and enlightened government, industrialization, and industry supplied the means to transform war from an activity of the few to a mobilization of entire countries, and advances in technology allowed greater firepower. It wasn't a turn but a natural progression.

Answer 3

Lao Tsi (Taosim – Ying/Yang) would have said that in all “good” things, there is always a piece of “evil”  (and vice versa in all bad things a piece of good) and that the 2oth Century simply saw the bad grow out of all proportion, before returning to it’s point of balance. The raw truth, however, is that in the 19th Century, after the Napoleonic wars,  the World simply took a breather before returning to the usual brutal behaviour it has always favoured. The history of Mankind is a long, long chain of brutal slaughter, more often than not  based on  religious grounds. The “ideology” of the 20th Century was simply another form of “religion”. Today we are back to square one, where the “big Endians” are convinced their way of breaking eggs (Gulliver’s Travels) is the “only true path” and every body else has to follow suit or die. “Death to the Little Endians” has become a current slogan. Utter balderdash, but, alas, that is human nature. People will never stop trying to force their particular brand of “egg breaking” on the rest of humanity. Why was the 20th century so massively brutal?  Industrialisation, weapons of mass destruction, total, dictatorial power, the wish to lash out after nearly a century of relative peace. Why are we so “peaceful” today? Are we really? Have we perhaps not turned to the destruction of our habitat, tired of destroying each other?  One of the main reasons for the lack of further Holocausts and Ethnic destruction is the balance of power and the upper hand that the European  desire for peace has taken, in ever so recent times.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the “egg nuts” calm down, that the “power nuts”  are kept in check, that we begin to appreciate Mother Earth and that we do not tire of “peace”.

Answer 4

Wars in the 20th century were caused by ideological conflict - Communism vs. Democracy, for example.  As these wars seemed to be between good and evil, they took on a crusade-style level of savagery.

In other words, in the 20th century we played out something like the Crusades - except that instead of two religions fighting each other, two political ideologies fought each other; ideology had replaced religion as the sign of good and evil.

Answer 5

This is an excellent question.

1914 makes me shake my head with disgust at our own selfishness.

In my opinion, the savage warfare of the 20th century was related to population growth and human greed.

Germany's population increased about 50% from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 to 1914.  They needed "Lebensraum" - living space - for excess people.  The willingness of people to kill other people to take their "stuff" - land, food, wealth, etc - had been noted throughout recorded human history from the Assyrians to the Romans to all the other conquerors as you well know.

The enlightenment era was a beautiful time with limited wars - except for the massive warfare of the Napoleonic period.  The pre-WWI era seemed to be a time for great hope - marvelous advances in communication, health, food production, industrial prosperity, the wonders of manned flight - - and we threw it all away with industrialized warfare.  Why?  Human greed.  Wanting more.  Willingness to kill others to get it.

If you observe rats, they can be nice, clean animals if well fed and cared for.  When rats become crowded with severe competition for food, they become very nasty.  We humans are even worse.  We don't just fight to have enough food to survive.  We fight to have more "stuff" for ourselves and our children.  Many of us want "more" of everything.  Rats will kill to have enough food to survive.  We will kill with much less justification.

Answer 6

hello

it can be said that the end of ww1 ,resulted in unfinished business ... and directly caused ww2

communism came about as a result of the russian peoples discontent ,and allowed a scenario where the bolsheviks could stage a coup in 1917 ... and the gulags came as a result of the new communist govt trying to silence critics

the germans blamed the "jews back home" for undermining their war effort in ww1, and therefore payback was to be expected ... in the form of the holocaust

so we need to look at the causes of ww1 ... the catalyst!

Fervent and uncompromising nationalism

-the 1900's brought about a desire for people of the same blood to be reunited into the same country

Unresolved previous disputes

- Germany (Prussia) had attacked France (franco prussian war 1870/1) and taken french territory ... alsace lorraine etc

-france was humiliated and wanted revenge

-Austria allied with Germany, and Russia more aggressively supported pan-slavism in the Balkans

Intricate system of alliances

(many of them requiring participants to agree to collective defense if attacked)

-German-Austrian treaty (1879) or Dual Alliance,

-Italy joining Germany and Austria in 1882,

-Franco-Russian Alliance (1894),

-"Entente" (less formal) between Britain and France (1904) and Britain and Russia (1907) forming the Triple Entente

-Russia proclaiming herself the "protector of the Southern Slavs" in the Balkans through several treaties

Misperceptions of intent – e.g., the German belief Great Britain would remain neutral

Delays and misunderstandings in diplomacy

-Austro-Hungarian and German diplomatic efforts during the lead up to ww1 were initially focused on localizing the conflict to one strictly between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. This of course would lead to complete Serbian defeat. When it became clear to Germany that Russia, France and probably Britain would back Serbia

- no one seriously believed that a war would be fought over a little provence of the austro hungarian empire

Arms races of the previous decades

-The German naval build-up is seen by some historians as the principal cause of deteriorating Anglo-German relations

-by creating a fleet the germans forced the british to make alliances with france and russia

Colonial rivalry (imperialism)

-Rivalries among the great powers were exacerbated starting in the 1880s by the scramble for colonies which brought much of Africa and Asia under European rule in the following quarter-century

Economic rivalry

-Historically, many of the economic causes of the war can be attributed to a growing material dependency of advancing European nations on imperialism. Nations such as Great Britain and France maintained thriving domestic economies in the late 19th century through their control of foreign resources, markets, territories, and people. As a late arrival on the world stage, Germany was locked out of the most valuable colonial regions in Africa and the Far East. In addition, the rapid exhaustion of natural resources in many European nations began to slowly upset the trade balance and make nations more eager to seek new territories rich in natural resources. Intense rivalries developed between the emerging economic powers and the incumbent great powers

Answer 7

Bad beliefs don't die. There were many negative things happening behind the apparent success of Europe.

The industrial revolution, while improving science and technology all-around, brought back the devaluation of human life that had been seen in the days of religious leadership. Workers became cogs in the machinery, living by the punchclock. As a result, WW1 generals had few qualms about sending tens of thousands of young men over the parapets and into a hail of machine gun fire to their certain deaths.

WW1 was largely motivated by the desire for empires. England was everywhere, France was doing well, and Germany wanted a piece of the international pie. Inherent to the idea of foreign empires is the idea of white supremacy (the white man always wins). Japan would later challenge that by defeating Russia's navy.

Anti-Semitism in Germany was not invented by Hitler. Far from it. Germany had a long-standing culture of anti-Semitism  going all the way back to Martin Luther, who wrote of his hatred of Jews along with his religious reforms.

Another Germany was very much used to was monarchy. Other countries had constutions and elected officials--not Germany. So you can imagine how vehemently the public rejected democracy after having it forced on them after WW1. The Weimar constitution meant nothing to the German people because they felt there was no use for it. They were glad to submit to a single ruler who promised to restore their livelihoods (aka Hitler).

And so, battles over political ideology ravaged the continent and millions were killed because human life had no value.