Difference between revisions 48544811 and 53923930 on enwiki

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Historians already try to make a '''survey of the twentieth century'''. One purpose of history is to see long periods as a whole or at least to discover some overall trends. In general there is agreement about the fact that the twentieth century was an age of extreme tensions and war, especially in Europe or through Europe.  The concrete views differ and there are several attempts to define the past century.

===The European civil war===

The "right-wing" German historian [[Ernst Nolte]] was probably the first who described 20th century history in general not as the result of two separate [[world war]]s, but as a European Civil War (1987: ''Der europäische Bürgerkrieg 1917-1945'').  The European wars were fed by irreconcilable tensions between "left" and "right".

One can add the [[cold war]] as another episode of this great European civil war and finally the [[Yugoslav wars|Yugoslav civil wars]]. In a way, the great European war started and ended with a shooting in [[Sarajevo]]. 

===The short twentieth century=== 

The "left-wing" historian [[Eric Hobsbawm]] uses the term "[[short twentieth century]]" for the period from the start of [[World War I]] to the fall of communism (1994: ''[[Age of Extremes]]''), presumably intended to evoke historians' commonly used term "long nineteenth century", referring to the period from the start of the [[French Revolution]] in [[1789]] to the start of World War I.

===The long twentieth century===

On the contrary, the Italian marxist historian [[Giovanni Arrighi]], describes a [[long twentieth century]], one that was characterised by a persistent class struggle, wars and revolutions (1994: ''The Long Twentieth Century''). In [[capitalism]] the world economy has peripheral and central areas. Arrighi defines in capitalist history four long centuries: Genoa's, the Netherlands', the British, and at last the American hegemony, which is now coming to an end.

===A turning point===

Others cite as a turning point the end of [[World War II]], dividing the century in half. The [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] in particular redefined the paramaters of warfare.

===Important phases (in Europe especially)=== 
*[[1914]] Shooting of [[Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria|Archduke Ferdinand]] in [[Sarajevo]]
*[[1914]] [[World War I]], until 1918
*[[1917]] [[October Revolution|Lenin’s Bolshevist coup]] and [[Russian Civil War]], until 1922
*[[1919]] [[Versailles Treaty]]
*[[1920]] The [[Red Army]] in Poland
*[[1922]] [[March on Rome]],  [[Mussolini]]’s [[fascism|fascist]] coup
*[[1923]] French-Belgian occupation of the German  [[Ruhr]]
*[[1923]] Unsuccessful coup in Germany by [[Hitler]]
*[[1926]] Right-wing coup d’état in Portugal 
*[[1928]] Left-wing election victory in Germany
*[[1933]] Right-wing election victory in Germany
*[[1936]] [[Spanish Civil War]], until 1939
*[[1936]] [[Front Populaire]] in France
*[[1937]] Heads of army executed in the [[Soviet Union]]
*[[1939]] German and Russian invasion of Poland
*[[1939]] Russian war on Finland
*[[1939]] [[World War II]], until 1945
*[[1944]] [[Greek Civil War]], until 1949
*[[1945]] [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]]
*[[1946]] Death sentences in [[Nuremberg]]
*[[1948]] Berlin Crisis
*[[1948]] Left-wing coup in [[Czechoslovakia]]
*[[1949]] Foundation of  [[NATO]] 
*[[1951]] First European treaty in Paris ([[European Coal and Steel Community]])
*[[1953]] Revolt in East Germany
*[[1955]] [[Warsaw Pact]]
*[[1956]] Revolt in [[Hungaria]]
*[[1958]] Beginning of [[Fifth French Republic]]
*[[1961]] East Berlin closed with a [[Berlin wall|wall]]
*[[1964]] [[Nikita Khrushchev]] dismissed
*[[1968]] [[Prague Spring]] 
*[[1971]] Terror of  [[Red Army Fraction]] in Germany
*[[1973]] First [[Helsinki Conference]] (OSCE)
*[[1977]] [[Charta 77]] in Prague
*[[1977]] Another wave of terror in Germany
*[[1978]] Terrorists  kill prime-minister [[Aldo Moro]] in Italy
*[[1978]] Election of Karol Wojtyła as [[Pope John Paul II]]
*[[1979]] Greece joining the [[European Communities]]
*[[1980]] Bomb explosion in Bologna Central Station : 86 dead 
*[[1981]] Great peace demonstrations in Brussels and Amsterdam
*[[1981]] Martial law in Poland
*[[1983]] Even greater peace demonstrations in Brussels and Amsterdam 
*[[1984]] [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] in power in the [[Soviet Union]]
*[[1989]] Fall of the [[Berlin wall]] and of other regimes in Eastern Europe
*[[1991]] End of the [[Soviet Union]] 
*[[1995]] Last gun fire in [[Sarajevo]]

==References==
*[[Eric Hobsbawm|Hobsbawm, Eric]] ''The Age Of Extremes : A History Of The World, 1914-1991'', New York : Pantheon Books, 1994. 
*[[Ernst Nolte|Nolte, Ernst]] ''Der europäische Bürgerkrieg 1917–1945: Nationalsozialismus und Bolschewismus'' Frankfurt : Proyläen, 1987. 

[[category:20th century]] 
[[Category:Warfare by period]]⏎
[[nl:Tachtigjarige Oorlog in Europa]]