The 1900s: Century of Misfortune, Part 1 - Remnants of the 1800s

 The 1900s: Century of Misfortune, Part 1- Remnants of the 1800s

By Farhan Ahmed

Imagine this: You are a 15 year old Jewish boy in 1942 being taken to a strange camp in Berlin, where the smell of blood taints your nose. You don’t know what to do, but the only thing you’ve been told to do before being separated from your parents is to run and never tell anyone who you truly are. You do so, only to live a life of pure hell for the rest of your 50 years of life. 

Needless to say, the 20th century was an eventful century, and it defined the events of the 21st century, even now as there are parts of the world still recovering from wars from feuds that started decades ago. This is the first of a three part article series breaking down the events of the 20th century, starting with the events directly affected by the previous century up until World War 1.

Boxer Rebellion (China 1899 - 1901)

Outraged by the increase of Western and Japanese influence in North China, or the then-Qing Dynasty, a secret organization called the “Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists” committed hate crimes against foreigners and Christians. These “Boxers,” as they were referred to by the west because of their common use of martial arts, eventually gained the support of Qing Dynasty’s government in 1900, meaning these hate crimes went on for two years without regulation. Churches were burnt down, Christians and foreigners alike were killed. 

At some point, Western countries had to get involved. About 20 thousand soldiers from Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States were sent to northern China for the sake of protecting the foreigners and Christians. These bloody three years led to the death of over 100 thousand citizens. China was expected to pay more than $330 Million USD to the countries involved for reparations for the scramble. 

This event not only protected thousands upon millions of innocent citizens, but also solidified the already expected demise of the Qing Dynasty, which collapsed due to an uprising in 1911, which led to the creation of the Republic of China in the same year. 

The 1910s

World War 1 (Worldwide 1914 - 1918)

After Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Hungary was assassinated, the empire declared war on Serbia, the home of the terrorist group who assassinated the archduke. Eventually Italy and Germany, close allies of Austria-Hungary, would join the war. These three countries were the Triple Alliance. Out of fear of Germany’s fast success, Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire joined the war against the Triple Alliance, forming the Triple Entente. 

Italy had nothing to lose from this war, but there was also nothing that would be gained. With this in mind, Italy eventually left the triple alliance and joined the entente, hoping to gain quite a large amount of land in their eastern front. Meanwhile, in the Balkans, war broke out between Greece and the Ottoman empire.

Former US President Woodrow Wilson was reluctant to join the war, and chose the path of neutrality for most of the war instead. However, they did take advantage of a completely available market which could easily be dominated by the US: weapons. This “neutrality” lasted for about three years; Germany had sent a telegram to Mexico asking them to invade the United States out of fear of US intervention on the European front. This telegram was intercepted by the British, pushing the US to send their troops and have soldiers actively fighting in the war by 1918. 

Booming Economy, Inhumane Working Conditions

The United States had a booming economy for decades, for the second industrial revolution was a gold mine for American innovation. Unfortunately, there was weak regulation of the moral aspects of this industry, thus immigrants had earned historically weak wages and children had been employed (18% of children aged 10-15 were employed in the 1910s). 

The Russian Revolution (1917)

 Russia had been in decline for years at the time. The Ruso-Japanese war in Manchuria defined it (Russia, a nation with some of the strongest military at the time, lost a war to Japan, a nation who hardly had the resources to meet demands from western countries). Former Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated from the throne, leading Vladimir Lenin to assume power in a new Provisional Government. 

The Russian Civil War (1917 - 1922)

Not everyone in Russia approved of the new bolshevik (communist, led by Lenin) administration, especially because of the removal of Russian troops in World War 1 (Lenin-led Russia surrendered to Germany and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, leading to the independence of Baltic nations and eventually Poland). The white army, who were anti-bolshevik, went against the provisional government, who were the red army. The red army ended up victorious in this war, leading to the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922. 

Japanese Imperialization 

Japan was an isolationist nation for a good part of its history due to its geographic distance and anti-foreigner policies. After the unification of Japan in 1603, the nation was isolated for 250 years. In 1853, Western countries took advantage of Japan's poor global influence to use their ports and force trade towards Japan. Unfortunately for Japan, there were none of the requested resources. What do you do when you don’t have the things you need? You take them (Imperialism). 15 years later, Japan reformed and returned to their original expansionist state; Imperial Japan was born. 

Japan had colonies all over the Pacific Ocean at the time, even having parts of Eastern China in its prime. By World War 1 they controlled all of Germany’s Pacific colonies, and their expansion didn’t stop for over 25 more years of horror… 

Treaty of Versailles

In 1918, Germany and the Alliance surrendered. Here are the terms by the end of the war, along with the final casualties.

Germany 

• Strict Military Restrictions: Army limited to 100,000 Soldiers, forbidden to enlist new soldiers, stripped of weapons and large navy vessels

• Large Economic Debt: Expected to pay 269 Billion Gold Marks, which is over 200 Billion USD today (it took 92 years to pay this debt)

• Loss of Land - Germany lost all of their colonies and 13% of their European land, along with 10% of their population.( Germany was blamed for the entire war, which is why they were punished so harshly).

• Austria Hungary basically dissolved into Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.

Ottoman Empire

• Lost the majority of their land, just like Austria Hungary, and was limited to just modern-day Turkey (this would be inevitable as there was mass civil unrest in the nation).

The Spanish Flu (Worldwide 1918 - 20) 

The Spanish Flu Pandemic (being called the Spanish Flu because Spain, a nation who initially stayed neutral during World War I, publicized the spread of the disease) was the largest influenza pandemic in modern history, with an estimated 500 million people infected and 50-150 million people dead. One-third of the human population at that time were infected, with 10%-30% of those people dying. This was also the latest time in humanity that the human population was declining, with a death rate 182 times higher than a modern flu season.

By the middle of 1920, the flu just disappeared. So many people had already died from the disease that people eventually became immune. This is what is known as Herd Immunity; when enough people get infected with a disease, a big enough portion of the population will develop immunities to the virus, causing the mass-spread to just abruptly stop. 

The 1920s

Ah, the 1920s. The Roaring 20s. A time of peace and prosperity, a time where everyone lived in a world free from terror - or was it? The 1920s was both a wonderland and a dark age. Many of the problems that rose up in this decade only got worse in the decades following.

Rise of White Supremacy (USA)

In 1866, former confederate soldiers who continuously opposed the end of slavery banded together against reconstruction, commiting hate crimes against newly freed people whose bloodlines were now solely based on their persecution. 

This was the story of the Ku Klux Klan, an infamous hate group that rose up in the 1860s and later in the 1920s. With millions of followers, the KKK had some of the largest opposition of equal rights, possibly since the Civil Car. Their influence was so strong in the 1920s that over 50 thousand followers stormed Washington D.C. They were never as prominent as they were in this decade ever again, however there has been a rise in white supremacy in recent years with groups like Aryan Brotherhood and Proud Boys rising into prominence, but still never as large scale as the KuKluxKlan was in their prime..                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      German Hyperinflation (Germany)

Following the pending war reparations Germany faced due to the guilt pushed onto them in World War 1, Germany faced one of the largest hyperinflation frenzies in history. Germany was so distraught because of the reparations that the exchange rate of the German Mark to USD was 4.1 to one in 1914 to 4.2 Trillion to one ten years later. Money was so worthless in this time that it was used to make fires. This is one of the events that led to German’s anger, with a certain man at its center venting it on a world stage (although immorally and unjustly).

Works Cited

Arbuckle, Alex. “When Hyperinflation Drove Germans to Use Money as Kindling.” Mashable, Mashable, 28 July 2016, https://www.mashable.com/2016/07/27/german-hyperinflation/ . 

Bettmann, Photograph by. “How the Treaty of Versailles Ended WWI and Started WWII.” Culture, 31 May 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/topics/reference/treaty-versailles-ended-wwi-started-wwii/#close. 

Finger, Michael. “Looking Back at the 1918 Spanish Flu's Impact on Memphis - Part One.” Memphis Magazine, 7 July 2020, https://www.memphismagazine.com/features/longform/looking-back-at-the-1918-spanish-flu-part-one/. 

History.com Editors. “Boxer Rebellion.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/china/boxer-rebellion.

“The Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/flood-klan/. 

“Ku Klux Klan Parade, Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 1926.” Home, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b39318/.