Difference between revisions 59503526 and 59504355 on enwiki

{{limitedgeographicscope}}
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===

(contracted; show full)rary, 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.

The long twentieth century 
begins is generally said to begin athave begun in 1870.  It was marked by [[Reconstruction]] following the [[American Civil War]] in the United States, along with the [[Meiji restoration]] and the unification of Germany.  In this period, we see the begginings of women's liberation and the spread of democracy, as well as the commodification of agriculture and the growth of world trade, trends which played out through the rest of the century.

It is difficult to put an end date on the long twentieth century, since some would argue we are still within it.  As of this writing 2001 seems to be a likely candidate due to the rise of global terrorism.  Nevertheless, some future historian may posit a long twenty-first century beginning with the destruction of [[Pan Am Flight 103]] in 1988 and ending with the decline of high-profile terrorism as a political tool in the distant future.⏎
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===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
(contracted; show full)*[[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]]