Question

What are three reasons why the twentieth century was so violent?

Answer 1

The Twentieth Century witnessed several turning points in the world history that can be said to have lead to a distrurbing increase in violence across the world.

The major reason for conflicts and violence was unleashed in the form of colonialism and the expansion of the economic and political hegemony of Western superpowers such as Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France and Italy in Asia and Africa, and of the United States in Latin America, South America and The Pacific. The Western seupremacy over the trade and resources of the countries of the New World and theThird world meant that the indigenous culture, religion and politics were completely crippled to serve the economic ambitions of the colonising countries.

Secondly, another reason for violence can be seen in the two World Wars in 1914 and 1939 which represented severe political divides and competitions among the different countries in Europe such as Germany, Italy, Austria- Hungary the Ottomon Empire on one side and Britain, France, Russia on the other side. The involvement of the United States in the region in the bid for securing greater political domination further brought about an elongation of the Wars bringing the number of civilian casualty and destruction to thousands for both sides involved.

A third and perhaps the most remembered source of violence is traced back to the emergence of dictatorial regime s across the world which were often associated with genocide and mass violence. Thus the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy and the holocaust movement in Europe that led to the killing of millions of Jews, The disabled, sexual minorities and the Gypsie minorities from Eastern Europe, the massacre of indigenous Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge regime, the killings of liberal socialists in Greece, the disappearances and torture of intellectuals and activists in Argentina, etc all appear as instances of the rise of violence in the Twentieth century due to emergenc of military regimes or totalitarian governments which went against their own people.