Can the History of the Twentieth Century be summed up as the 'Age of Extremes'?

HST/257 Europe Since 1870

Can the History of the Twentieth Century be summed up as the ‘Age of Extremes’?

I agree that the history of twentieth century in Europe can be summed up as the ‘age of extremes’ . Over three quarters of the century, the period 1914-1991, was characterised by extremes. This 77 year period was dominated by the extremes of: total war, genocide, the rise of extreme political parties, the first communist revolution, and a 45 year conflict between communism and capitalism.

Total war is an extreme involving countries gearing their economies and committing all their resources, in both human and material form, towards war. The first half of the twentieth century saw the first two global conflicts in history: World War One (1914-1918) and World War Two (1939-1945). The two world wars were undoubtedly extreme, in terms of the scope and nature of the conflict, and their enormous death tolls.

World War One completely transformed the nature of warfare. It defied everyone’s expectations of conflict. It was widely expected to be short and decisive. All other major European wars had been measured in terms of weeks and months, whereas, World War One raged on for four and a half years. In the opening months of the war all six of the major European powers were involved. They were divided into two opposing alliances, each country was heavily armed and had different reasons for distrusting the other countries in Europe: the ‘triple entente’ comprised of Britain, France, and Russia, and the ‘Central Powers’ was formed by the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and Germany. The war also transformed the nature of warfare as there previously had been no war in which all the major European powers had been involved. The tactic of forming alliances with other countries increased the scope of the conflict – by 1918 all-but-six European countries had been engulfed into the war. The death toll and casualties strongly illustrate the extreme nature of the war: over 8.5 million combatants were killed and 22 million were wounded or disabled worldwide.

Although after World War One its impact was not unprecedented, World War Two can still be classed as extreme. This is because this war developed the change in warfare begun by World War One; becoming the most extreme war in history in terms of its scope, nature, and unsurpassed death toll. The Second World War saw fighting on every continent except the Americas, and all states of the world were involved either directly or indirectly. The only European countries not be directly involved were the Future Irish Republic, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The nature of the war resulted in a higher death toll than in any other in history. For the first time civilians were placed at the front line of attack; they were bombed, imprisoned, massacred, and starved to death. This resulted in more civilians dying than soldiers, with the combined death toll of combatants and civilians estimated at 55 million and 60 million civilians were displaced by bombing raids.

War also dominated the period from 1914 until 2000, as even when soldiers were not on the battlefields, Europe still thought in terms of war; either formulating peace treaties or trying to ensure that there was never a sequel to the devastation and suffering inflicted on the continent by the two World Wars.

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Genocide was also a feature of the twentieth century in Europe. Genocide is an extreme as it involves the mass murder of all or part of a national, race, ethnic, or religious group. Between 1900 and 2000 there were two main cases of genocide in Europe. The first took place between 1932-1933, when Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, seized privately owned farmland and livestock in the Ukraine, in an attempt to end the loss of support for Soviet influence. This resulted in a famine which killed over 7,000,000 people through starvation. The most extreme case of genocide in human history was the Nazi Holocaust which took place under Hitler’s regime in Nazi Germany. It was the last stage in the persecution of Jewish people, who the Nazi’s believed to be ‘subhuman’. It resulted in the death of over 6,000,000 people in the gas chambers of concentration camps.

The century can also be summed up as the ‘age of extremes’ as it saw the rise of political extremes from both ends of the political spectrum. Extremist groups came to power most notably in Russia, Germany and Italy.

It was a similar set of circumstances in Russia, Italy and Germany which boosted the popularity of extreme groups and alleviated them to a prime position in politics. The post-World War One period in these countries was characterised by severe economic problems, dissatisfaction at the outcome of the war, and weak governments who did not possess the strength to deal with its country’s problems effectively. It was in these deeply unstable environments that extremist parties grew and prospered from relative obscurity. The leaders of the extremist groups channelled the public’s discontent at these conditions, encouraging people to turn to extreme styles of leadership.

Communism is the left-wing political belief that the state should own and control the means of production on behalf of the people, so that all levels of society can be made equal. It is based upon the ideas of Karl Marx who believed that the capitalist system would inevitably demise, as all industrialised societies would undergo revolution to become communist states.

The twentieth century saw the first communist revolution. In Russia, the Bolsheviks, a group who believed that violent steps should be taken to force a communist revolution to occur, were led by Lenin. In 1917 two Russian revolutions occurred. In March the Russian people became increasingly discontented with the Tsar’s inability to end Russian involvement in World War One, which they believed was responsible for the country’s economic and social problems. This drove the people to start a revolution, which resulted in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. The provisional government established to fill this power vacuum also failed to address the severe problems in Russia. The people’s anger at the ineffectiveness of this new government drove many people to support Lenin and the Bolsheviks; this mass support enabled the Bolsheviks to stage a successful coup d’etat. To consolidate his power Lenin established a totalitarian dictatorship. After his death in 1924, Lenin was succeeded by Stalin, who continued and developed Lenin’s dictatorship to a more extreme level, until his own death in 1953.

Fascism is a right-wing, nationalistic and authoritarian political ideology. The fascist movement was led in Italy by Benito Mussolini, who held power from 1922 until 1943. Mussolini founded the Fascist Party in 1919.

Nazism was based on the principles of the Fascist ideology; however, it placed more emphasis on the ideology’s nationalistic elements. In Germany the Nazi Party was headed by Adolf Hitler.

In addition to the problems mentioned earlier, in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917 industrialists and business owners were concerned about a possible revolution in their own country. To them Mussolini and Hitler’s right-wing ideology seemed the only weapon against the threat of socialism, which would lead to state control of their businesses. Both leaders promised order, stability and strong leadership. This was deeply attractive to the Italian and German people in a time of deep economic and political crisis. The people’s frustration with their current situations led them to elect the parties as part of the German and Italian coalition governments: the Fascist party won 35 seats in the Italian parliament in 1921, and the Nazi party won 2.4% of the seats in the Reichstag in 1928. As the conditions in Germany and Italy declined, more and more people began to support the Nazi and Fascist parties. This mass public support led to the leaders of the parties being appointed to high positions of power: Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and in 1933 Hitler was chosen as German Chancellor – leader of the coalition government. Once in power both leaders consolidated their political power through a series of laws. Both leaders persuaded their country’s parliament to pass laws which gave them the power to pass legislation without the consent of parliament. This enabled both Mussolini and Hitler to abolish all other political parties, and establish dictatorships.

These leaders were not only extreme as they figure-headed extremist groups, but also because of their style of leadership. They were dictators who severely restricted the civil liberties of their people.

The twentieth century also saw a 45 year period of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States of America.

Both countries followed completely juxtaposed economic systems. The United States being capitalist, the economic system based on the theory that possession of capital leads to the making of profits through the power of investment. Whereas, the Soviet Union followed communism, the belief that the state should own and control the means of production on behalf of the people, to ensure an equal society. These ideologies could not exist together in the long-run, one system would inevitably lead to the demise of the other: communism could not be successful unless it was a worldwide revolution, and capitalist states could not exist unless there were other capitalist markets to trade with. This led the USA and USSR to take measures attempting to ensure the demise of the other system and the continuation of their own way of life. The period 1945 to 1991 is described as a ‘Cold War’, because of the absence of ‘hot’ or direct armed conflict between the two superpowers.

The Cold War was an extreme as it led to the division of Europe into two armed camps from 1948 until 1991; with the east being communist and the west capitalist. This was created as the Soviet Union tried to defend itself against the hostile west by creating a Soviet sphere of influence, establishing communist governments in Eastern Europe. The United States adopted a policy of containment to meet what they perceived to be Soviet communist expansion, confining communism to where it already existed. This policy involved supplying economic aid to the non-communist countries of Europe, as it was believed that countries who were suffering economically would be more susceptible to communism.

However, many people have disputed that the twentieth century was an age of extremes, arguing that the extremes of the century were short-lived and no different to the extremes in any other century. I agree that some of the extremes were short lived, for example: there were no world wars after 1945, and the extremist regimes of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini had all ended by 1953, although a succession of communist leaders held power in the Soviet Union until 1991. However, I would argue that the nature and effects of the extremes are most important than their duration, and that it is necessary to look at how the extremes when placed together span a whole century. I also agree that some of the extremes were not phenomenon exclusive to the twentieth century. For example: wars had saturated history before the twentieth century, and there had been political extremes before 1900, such as: the French Revolution of the 18th century. However, the extreme elements of the twentieth century were more extreme than they had been in any other century: the heavily repressive regime of Hitler, for example, under which the Nazi ideology impacted every element of life, and the two main wars of the twentieth century (World Wars One and Two) involved more countries and killed more people than in any war in history. Some extremes, to a certain extent, were unique to the twentieth century; for example: the first communist revolution took place in this century.

In conclusion, it is hard to dispute that a century which was characterised by political extremes, revolution, ideological conflict and genocide, and saw a majority of the world involved in two wars which had a combined death toll of over 60 million, can be summed up as the ‘age of extremes’.

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