What a bloody century!
By
Lubna Abdel-Aziz
Midnight struck the hour, beneath an indigo sky, crowded with twinkling stars, welcoming the arrival of the 20th century. It was to herald an incredible age of wonder, the most rapid growth of knowledge in the history of the modern world. The most fertile imagination could not have conceived of the revolution in technological inventions and scientific discoveries that the century would unfold, opening portals hitherto unknown, thrusting mankind into the space age, altering forever the face of our planet. It is therefore more than baffling that that same century was the bloodiest and deadliest period in history.
Overshadowing world developments throughout the century were the many wars raging from its dawn to its close, greater and grander than humankind had ever witnessed. For the first time in history man came to know total war, waged on land, air, sea, and even under the sea. Millions died, whole cities were destroyed and entire populations vanished. Bullets, bombs, missiles, chemicals, bacteria were used, but a new weapon was invented, more devastating and more deadly than any other -- the atomic bomb. Today, the 21st century still lives under the threat of nuclear warfare that has the potential to erase our civilisation wholly and completely.
Historians have listed 165 wars for the 20th century, averaging 1.6 wars/year. Of these 20 were major wars led by WWI and WWII. Clashes, massacres and atrocities produced far more human losses than during any other century, with the lowest estimate of casualties reaching 180 million.
The first year of the century began with electricity, telephones and automobiles already becoming a way of life. It was apparent that technological progress was limitless. The might of the British Empire extended to the four corners of the globe, and Britain was to engage in many wars throughout the century, stretching her string of victories into the 21st century.
In its first decade, the century saw the Japanese attack the Russian fleet while simultaneously landing 8,000 troops in Korea. The Russo-Japanese war ended (1904-5), but the woes of the Russian people were just beginning. Thousands of Russian strikers were fired upon by their own troops while demonstrating in front of Czar Nicholas II's Winter Palace. The Czar himself was away for the weekend in the country. Dubbed "Bloody Sunday", it was the first of many such confrontations of endless bloodshed, spawning a revolution that would change the make-up of the world map, and the colour of the century.
Danish scientist Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)
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Nature watched as man destroyed his race, but she too had her own plans for destruction. Vesuvius erupted. San Francisco was devastated by a gigantic earthquake; plagues, floods and famines, brought cries of terror and distress. But man was not done. The second decade would bring in the bloodiest war in Europe, a ruthless revolution in Russia, a Japanese conquest of Korea, Mexico's overthrow of her dictator Porfirio Diaz, and man even managed to sink the unsinkable Titanic.
The great principles of democracy were pleasing to civilised ears, a whirlpool of heady ideological pleasures intoxicating his senses. The Chinese declared themselves a Republic ending the Manchu Dynasty, the Balkans declared victory over the Ottomans, but it was a lone shot in Sarajevo, killing Austria's heir to the throne that sparked the First World War. The "Great War" as it came to be known, claimed 8.5 million lives as it ramped and raged for 4 years devastating a whole generation.
By 1918 the lamps were once again lit in the streets of Europe, its map redrawn following the cruelest and costliest war to date. It was time to join the triumphant cavalcade, put behind the horrors and restore the modern ruins. A highly sophisticated lifestyle, blessed by the wealth of new and stunning technology was soon to be threatened. A breakthrough in the understanding of the atom held many promises, but also many disasters for the century. In 1922, Danish scientist Niels Bohr received the Nobel prize for his work in understanding the atom. Radio was heard in millions of homes, Benito Mussolini became prime minister of Italy, and an autobiography entitled Mein Kampf (My Struggle), was published by Austrian-born Adolf Hitler, which included his political ideas for the Aryan race. By 1933, a 43 year-old Hitler was appointed chancellor amid torch light parades across Germany. A fiery public speaker, he blamed Germany's humiliating defeat in WWI on communism, trade unions and Jews. Meanwhile communism gains ground in China and Fascist Italy reaches Africa. Francisco Franco incites a civil war in Spain, Japan invades China, and Germany invades Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. A global war breaks out again, the greatest war of all, shattering Europe and killing 55 million people. The US enters the war following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour, and this conflict would end with the dropping of the atomic bomb, changing the face of the earth forever.
One miserable half of the century comes to a close and another is born. Israel is created in 1948, backed by 1947 United Nations resolution splitting Palestine into two States -- Arab and Jewish. Palestinians reject this injustice and another war is inevitable. Palestinians fight for their homeland.
Civil wars and internal conflicts continue to blaze. African and Asian nations revolt against their colonial rulers, communists dominate Eastern Europe exploding into armed conflicts in China, Korea, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The cold war's silent winds are as fierce and as deadly. North and South Vietnam now locked in a struggle that lasts for decades involving the US in a war they cannot win. Castro overthrows Batista, Nicaragua ousts Somoza, the USSR invades Afghanistan committing the same error the US made in Viet Nam, and still the war with Israel and the Arab nations continues. The Palestinians remain without a homeland.
The Irish Republican Army wars with Britain, the Turks and Greeks fight over Cyprus, Argentina tries to reclaim the Falklands, Iraq invades Iran in an 8- year war, and still the war for a Palestinian homeland persists.
We reflect with passionate sadness on the plight of luckless man and his violent nature that changes little while his mind and intellectual abilities grow beyond limits. The end of communism brought hope for individual liberties but was soon followed by chaotic wars, ethnic cleansing and a great division in a land once known as Yugoslavia. The last decade sees Iraq invade Kuwait in 1991, advances in genetic engineering leave us breathless, and yet the atrocities and massacres continue.
Besides the many wars individual names emerge, responsible for the death of 45 million lives -- Stalin 20 million, Hitler 15 million, and Mao Tse Tung 10 million. Other minor killers responsible for one million unnatural deaths each were despots like Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Chang Kai Chek and at least a dozen others. The more benign, responsible for hundreds of thousands are Idi Amin, Suharto, Franco, Attaturk, etc.
Is the whole of mankind guilty, or is humankind hostage to a handful of maniacs who move nations to atrocities thereby forcing the world into mass conflict? Following the First World War in 1920, the League of Nations was created, but proved powerless when President Woodrow Wilson, one of its chief planners, was unable to persuade the US Senate to join the League. A tide of aggression by Japan, Italy and Germany in the 1930s proved the League helpless.
The use of the atomic bomb at the end of WWII found man faced with his own folly and the potential of the total destruction of his magnificent civilisation. The United Nations was hurriedly established in 1945 to prevent such a calamity. While it has provided a forum for nations to discuss their problems it has yet to succeed in averting wars. We can only hope it will overcome its latest setbacks and regain its prestige as a powerful peacemaker and not simply a humanitarian organisation.
Will the new century avoid the bloodshed of the old? Will the UN finally afford the Palestinians their homeland?
