The Late and Unlamented 1900's
And now for
something completely different…….a (admittedly one-sided) look-back at the
century of
your birth—an era too awful for us to lament entirely its passing . Only some
of the
more awful--
mostly man-made-- catastrophes of war, terrorism, revolution, and forced
migration
are noted; omitting, therefore, the colossal natural disasters occasioned by
epidemic
disease,
famine, earthquakes, typhoons, destruction of rain-forests, nuclear accidents,
and
more, and of
which the past century has had more than its share. The starting dates shown
more
often than
not mark events that continued for many years, if not decades.<P>
1900
The era opens with the continuing (since
1899) anti-British Boer war in South Africa.
Anti-Western Boxer Rebellion in China.
Anti-colonial rebellion against the
U.S. in the Philippines.
1904
Anti-German rebellion in S.W. Africa
leads to virtual destruction of the Herero people.
Japan and Russia declare war.
1905
Revolutionary disorders in Russia.
1910
Revolution in Mexico to end
dictatorship.
1911
Revolution in China brings the Manchu
dynasty to a close.
War between Turkey and Italy.
1912
Civil war in Nicaragua.
War in the Balkans: Bulgaria, Greece and
Serbia attack Turkey.
1913
More war in the Balkans: Bulgaria
attacks Serbia and Greece.
1914
Outbreak of World War I; some 20 million die over the next 4
years.
1915
World War I's worst atrocity: the massacre
of an estimated 1½ million Armenians in Turkey.
1917
Bolshevik revolution establishes
communism in Russia, unleashing a brutal civil war in which millions die.
1919
Anglo-Irish war against British rule in
Ireland.
1922
Civil war in Ireland.
Attacks on Greeks in Turkey cause over one million to flee to
Greece.
1927
Chiang Kai-shek unleashes a three-year
terror campaign of mass slaughter against hundreds of thousands of communists
in Chinese cities.
1928
Stalin's repression of the peasants
during forced collectivization of farms; millions perish.
1932
A devastating famine in the Ukraine in
which millions die.
Peasant revolt in El Salvador put down with great slaughter.
1935
Italy invades Ethiopia.
1936
Civil war in Spain.
1937
Stalin unleashes the Great Terror
against alleged anti-Soviet elements; nearly 700,000 are executed and some 3
million sent to forced labor camps where most languish and die.
Japan's war of aggression against China
characterized by atrocious conduct of Japanese troops—rape and looting ,
bombing of non-combatants, bayoneting of prisoners, etc.
1939-45
World War II begins with Germany's
invasion of Poland. By war's end, an estimated 40 million soldiers and
civilians (including 6 million Jews in Nazi extermination camps) will have
died. It will end in 1945 with the dropping of atomic bombs on Japanese
cities, leaving a legacy of radiation deaths for decades
thereafter.
1941
Ethnic cleansing of Serb population in
Croatia; hundreds of thousands die.
Germany extends its war of aggression with the invasion of the
Soviet Union. In the opening months, troops of the German army and S.S.
will have caused the
deaths of over 3 million prisoners of war through execution and starvation.
1946
The French Indo-China war begins.
Civil war in Greece.
1947
Moslem-Hindu communal violence in India; some one million deaths.
Guerilla war waged by communists in Korea.
1948
First Arab-Israeli war.
1950
Korean war breaks out.
1952
Anti-French guerilla warfare in
Tunisia.
1953
Anti-French guerilla warfare in
Morocco.
1954
Revolt in Algeria against French rule
leads to a bloody 7½ year war.
1955
Civil war in Vietnam.
1956
Soviet repression in Hungary; 200,000 dissidents
flee into exile.
Independence of the Sudan leads to deadly civil war between over
the ensuing decade between opposed Christian and Muslim peoples; over 1½
million lives lost.
Egyptian-Israeli war.
1958
Civil war in Indonesia.
1960
Rebellion and anarchy in the former
Belgian Congo (Zaire).
1961
Anti-colonial revolt in Portuguese Angola; lasting 13 years and
leaving over one million dead.
1962
Annexation of Eritrea by Ethiopia leads
to decades of armed rebellion.
1965
U.S. involvement in Vietnam war
escalates with massive bombing campaign; over next nine years over 2 million
soldiers and civilians (including 58,000 Americans) die.
Anti-colonial revolt against Portugal
in Mozambique.
Massive repression of communist rebels
in Indonesia.
1966
Civil war in Nigeria between dominant
Hausa and Ibo peoples results in a million deaths.
Mao Tse-tung initiates the Cultural
Revolution during a power struggle for control of the communist party;
fanatical Red Guards terrorize hundreds of thousands throughout China.
1967
Arab-Israeli war.
1968
Civil war in Nigeria leaves over 2
million dead by 1970 and millions starving.
1969
Beginning of decades of sectarian
strife (Catholic-Protestant) in N. Ireland.
1970
Communist-led Khmer Rouge insurgency in
Cambodia; one to two million deaths by 1979.
1971
Civil war in Pakistan.
Idi Amin's dictatorship in Uganda;
ensuing years see brutal repression of natives with hundreds of thousands of
deaths.
1972
Tribal warfare in Burundi results in
mass slaughter.
1973
Arab-Israeli war.
Military coup in Chile leads to brutal repression.
1975
Pol Pot's dictatorship in Cambodia
leads to massive repression and butchery in which an estimated 1.7 million
die in
mass executions, forced labor, and resulting famine and disease.
Independence unleashes 16 years of
civil war in Mozambique.
Civil war in Angola involves rival
international forces.
Communist Vietminh overrun So. Vietnam,
ousting the last U.S. troops there.
Christian-Muslim civil war in Lebanon
leads to nearly two decades of bloodshed and anarchy.
1976
After independence achieved , civil war
breaks out in Angola between rival native factions.
Brutal annexation of East Timor by Indonesia.
Military coup in Argentina results in massive human rights
violations; at least 90,000 dissidents 'disappear'.
One of the worst earthquakes in history kills over 250,000 people in
China's Hebei
province.
1979
Afghanistan invaded by the U.S.S.R.
Sandinista revolt in Nicaragua.
1980
Iran-Iraq war; up to one million
killed.
Political murders by government death squads in El Salvador;
thousands perish.
1982
The Falklands war between Great Britain
and Argentina.
Arab-Israeli war in Lebanon.
Famine disaster in Ethiopia
1985
Mass repression of anti-apartheid
activists in South Africa in continuing racial strife.
1989
Civil war in Myanmar (Burma).
Civil war and political chaos in Liberia.
Massacre of dissident Chinese students in Tiananmen Square
(Beijing).
1990
Iraq invades Kuwait; results in
U.S.-supported Gulf War.
1991
Warring clans in Somalia bring chaos
and famine.
1992
Civil war in Bosnia accompanied by inter-ethnic massacres and
ethnic cleansing as Serbs drive out Muslims.
1994
Mass killings (est. 800,000
minority Tutsi
victims) in Rwanda in Hutu-Tutsi internecine
war.
1999
Ethnic cleansing of Albanian population in Serbian Kosovo
Russia's assault against rebels in
Chechnya auguring disaster for civilian population.
