It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with The 20th century in review. (Discuss)

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. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Survey of the twentieth 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 wars, but as a European Civil War (1987: Der europäische Bürgerkrieg 1917-1945). The European wars were fed by irreconcilable tensions between "left" and "right". Ernst Nolte (January 11, 1923-) is a German neo-liberal nationalist philosopher and historian. ... A world war is a military conflict affecting the majority of the worlds major nations. ...

One can add the cold war as another episode of this great European civil war and finally the Yugoslav civil wars. In a way, the great European war started and ended with a shooting in Sarajevo. For other uses, please see Cold War (disambiguation). ... The Yugoslav wars were a series of violent conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia that took place between 1991 and 2001. ... Map of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo) Coordinates: Country Bosnia and Herzegovina Entity Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Canton Sarajevo Canton Mayor Semiha Borovac Area    - City 142 km²  (54. ...

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. Dr Eric John Blair Hobsbawm CH (born June 9, 1917) is a British Marxist historian and author. ... Created in analogy to brother era names felt to overlap specific time periods, The Short Twentieth Century is a term used by some historians to denote the period 1914—1989 (or perhaps a couple of years later - the Cold War has no exact end date), where World War I and... Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom France Italy Russia United States Serbia Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Reinhard Scheer Franz Josef I Conrad von Hötzendorf İsmail Enver Ferdinand... The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991 is a book by Eric Hobsbawm, published in 1994. ... The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a pivotal period in the history of French, European and Western civilization. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

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. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned, and capital is invested in the production, distribution and other trade of goods and services, for profit in a competitive free market. ...

The long twentieth century is generally said to have 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 beginnings 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. // Reconstruction was the period in United States history, 1865–1876, that attempted to resolve the issues of the American Civil War when both the Confederacy and its system of slavery were destroyed. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert Edward Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... The Meiji Restoration ), also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to a change in Japans political and social structure. ...

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 might seem a likely candidate. 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. Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from Londons Heathrow International Airport to New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport. ...

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. Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis Powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total dead... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ...

Important phases (in Europe especially)

• 1914 Shooting of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo
• 1914 World War I, until 1918
• 1917 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 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 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

1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Archduke Francis Ferdinand. ... Map of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo) Coordinates: Country Bosnia and Herzegovina Entity Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Canton Sarajevo Canton Mayor Semiha Borovac Area    - City 142 km²  (54. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom France Italy Russia United States Serbia Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Reinhard Scheer Franz Josef I Conrad von Hötzendorf Ä°smail Enver Ferdinand... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... The October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution or November Revolution, was the second phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the first having been instigated by the events around the February Revolution. ... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) German Empire? White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Commanders Leon Trotsky, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel The Russian Civil War was fought from 1917 to 1922. ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ... The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the Workers and Peasants Red Army, (in Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya), the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. ... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Benito Mussolini created a fascist state through the use of propaganda, total control of the media and disassembly of the working democratic government. ... Fascism is a radical political ideology that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... For the conurbation see Ruhr Area. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Combatants Spanish Republic CNT-FAI UGT POUM Soviet Union International Brigades Spanish State Falangists Carlists Fascist Italy Nazi Germany Commanders Manuel Azaña Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín Francisco Franco Casualties Civilians killed/wounded = hundreds of thousands The Spanish Civil War, which lasted from July 17, 1936 to April... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Popular Front (Front Populaire) was an alliance of left-wing political parties that came into power in France following the 1936 elections. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis Powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total dead... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Combatants Hellenic Army, Royalist forces, Republicans, British troops Communist guerillas (ELAS, DSE) Commanders Alexander Papagos Markos Vafiadis Strength 100,000 men 20,000 men and women Casualties 12,777 killed 37,732 wounded 4,527 missing 38,000 killed 40,000 captured or surrendered An ELAS soldier The Greek Civil... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg) is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... NATO 2002 Summit in Prague The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation[1] (NATO), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, the Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for collective security established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, DC, on 4 April 1949. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Members of the European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was founded in 1951 (Treaty of Paris), by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to pool the steel and coal resources of its member-states. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Unofficial Seal of the Warsaw Pact Distinguish from the Warsaw Convention, which is an agreement among airlines about financial liability. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság   listen?) or Hungary (Magyarország   listen?) is a landlocked country in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, which was introduced on October 5, 1958. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... (Russian: , Nikita Sergeevič Hruščëv; surname commonly romanized as Khrushchev, IPA: ; April 17, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... People in a café watch Soviet tanks roll past The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar, Russian: пражская весна) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5, 1968 when Alexander Dubček came to power, and running until August 20 of that year when the... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... Redirect: Red Army Faction ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is an international organization for security. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... The Charter 77 (Charta 77 in Czech and in Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in Czechoslovakia from 1977 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Coat of Arms of Pope John Paul II. The Letter M is for Mary, the mother of Jesus, to whom he held strong devotion Pope John Paul II the Great (Latin: ), (Italian: Giovanni Paolo II), born   (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005) reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from... This page refers to the year 1979. ... The European Community (EC), most important of three European Communities, was originally founded on March 25, 1957 by the signing of the Treaty of Rome under the name of European Economic Community. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...   (Russian: , Mihail Sergeevič Gorbačëv, IPA: , commonly anglicized as Mikhail Gorbachev; born March 2, 1931) was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Map of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo) Coordinates: Country Bosnia and Herzegovina Entity Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Canton Sarajevo Canton Mayor Semiha Borovac Area    - City 142 km²  (54. ...

References

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