Difference between revisions 59504355 and 59504697 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)y [[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 bemight seem 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.

===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]]
(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]]