Conflicts of the 20th Century: Roles of Civilizations Research Paper

Introduction

The conflict has been endemic to human affairs since times immemorial. Mankind has fought wars for diverse reasons such as ‘God, Glory or Gold’. In the 20th Century, the traditional reasons for going to war were expanded to include wars initiated for ideological reasons. The 20th century was also typified by the global nature of war encompassing the entire spectrum of conflict from low-intensity troubles to the use of nuclear weapons with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War.

The response of different civilizations to conflicts varied depending upon the power, vitality, and cultural ethos defining a particular civilization. This essay takes the list of civilizations as formulated by Huntington (1996) as “Sinic (Chinese), Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Western and Latin American” (45) for the study. The civilizations identified for the study are the Western civilization and the Islamic civilization. The essay will focus on the role played by these civilizations in the conflicts of the 20th century and its impact on the United States and the World.

Geopolitical Situation at the Start of the 20th Century

At the start of the 20th century, Europe was in a state of ferment. There were three Western empires namely the Hapsburg empire, the Romanov empire, the British Empire (outside Europe), and One Islamic empire; the Ottoman Empire. The sheikhdoms of the Middle East were monarchies sustained by alliances with one colonial power or the other. The Industrial revolution had added impetus to the scientific temper of the people, which had the consequent effect of reducing the hold of religion as a pillar of governance and the rise of new ideologies as means to regulate human societies.

America, on account of its geographical isolation, was in a better situation to address the myriad problems of nation-building and thus at the start of the 20th century, chose to distance itself from the turmoil in Europe and elsewhere. The Islamic civilization on the other hand, which had been in a state of decline since 1800 A.D continued to lag, shackled by religious dogma, Shia-Sunni divide, numerous sub-sects, and adherence to clan loyalties. Overall, the geopolitical situation pointed to the growing dominance of the Western civilization over the Islamic civilization.

Conflicts: 1900-1914

The period 1900-1914 witnessed conflicts of expansion between the three main empires in Europe interspersed with mass struggles to overturn the old system of monarchies and empires. This struggle was mirrored in the Islamic civilization too, with the abolishment of the Ottoman Sultanate in 1909 and the institution of a constitutional government in Istanbul. “The Balkan wars (1912-1913) ended the Ottoman rule in the Balkans, leading to a succession of ethnic and religious conflicts throughout the 20th century” (Holmes, 2001, p.119). The effect of this turmoil compelled the US to declare a more robust corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The essence of this corollary declared by President Roosevelt was that “Not only were European powers not welcome in the Americas but that the US had the right to intervene in the affairs of Latin American countries that were unstable and did not pay their debts”( Mitchener & Wedenmier, 2003, p.1).

World War I

By all accounts, it was the Western civilization that had initiated the war, which soon engulfed most of the world along with it. During World War I, the role of the aggressor and the defender was played out both by the Western civilization and a part of the Islamic civilization – the Ottoman Empire. The rest of the Islamic world stayed on the sidelines trying to find their legitimacy and avenues for self-determination against the colonial rule imposed upon them by the west.

The effects of World War I were profound. On the political level, it “led to the demise of the three great turn-of-the-century empires “(Muller, 2008, p.25) namely the Hapsburg, Romanov, and the Ottoman empires, giving way to societies built around nation-states. European nations along with America sought to prevent such war from ever happening again by signing the Treaty of Versailles, 1919 which imposed strict penalties on the perpetrators of World War I and established the League of Nations. Economies of all nations lay shattered as a result of the war leading to the great dissatisfaction of the masses with the prevailing system of governance and the state of affairs. Such conditions proved to be a fertile breeding ground for the rise of Fascism and Nazism.

The economic conditions of Western Europe also found their effects on Russia which embarked on a period of consolidation of its socialist, communist regime. The Ottoman Empire was reduced to the rump state of Turkey whose leader Ataturk, declared that “Turkey had to abandon its past and embrace European culture to ‘catch up with the West’” (Zakaria, 2008,p.71). Elsewhere, the Islamic civilization strove to unfetter itself from the chains of colonialism with the Arab revolt being the first successful movement. America in contrast gained power significantly on account of remaining neutral until 1917.

World War II

World War II was initiated solely by the Western civilization by Germany and soon engulfed the entire world. The Western civilization played the role of aggressors and defendants. The Islamic Civilization either chose to remain neutral or side with the allied powers. The Second World War also heralded the atomic age with the first and only (till now) use of atomic weapons by the Western civilization (America) against an Eastern civilization (Japan).

The effects of World War II were profound as the war transformed the entire global balance of power. The war saw the end of British preeminence in the world, the rise of America and the Soviet Union as Superpowers, and the relative decline of all European powers. The Second World War also led to the demise of colonialism worldwide. Colonies became independent and the Islamic civilization, which from about 1800 A.D had been under direct Western control, began getting freedom as newly independent states. The most defining effect of the Second World War was the earnest and honest effort by all civilizations to put into place world bodies for conflict resolution namely through the establishment of the United Nations in 1945.

Cold War

The struggle for the supremacy of the world began as soon as the World War had ended with the two competing powers the United States and the Soviet Union striving to establish their power blocs as the predominant force in the world. The Cold war was initiated by two opposing poles of the Western civilization and was based on ideological differences. The Cold war led to numerous proxy wars with the Western Bloc supporting one side and the Warsaw Pact countries the other. Within this tussle of competing ideologies, the Islamic world too fractured along its ‘tribal lines’. The British retreat ‘East of the Suez’ led to a power vacuum in the Middle East, which was quickly filled up by the Soviet Union and the United States.

The influence of the West on the Islamic civilization led to many consequences. In Turkey, it led to the affirmation of western democratic values. In Iran, it led to a complete rejection of Western ideals and the establishment of a fundamentalist theocracy. Elsewhere in the Islamic world, monarchs strove to protect their powers through a clever mix of religion, oil power, and western support.

Close contact with the West, provided the Islamic community access to western ideals and many of them imbibed western values suitably modified for their social conditions. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Dubai are some of the better-known moderate Islamic states who have imbibed western ideals suitably modified for local conditions. Ideologies competed within the Islamic world too. The Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s is one such example of a serious ideological divide resulting in conflict. The cynical support of the superpowers to competing for Islamic powers laid the foundation for the rise of fundamentalism and terrorism in the Islamic world.

One can justly say that the mechanics of the Cold war led to the significant radicalization of the Islamic civilization. The effects of the Cold war, through its proxy wars, had a profound effect on American society. Americans sought to initiate a social change within America through the ‘Hippie movement’ in the sixties and the seventies, which was in part, fuelled by the disenchantment with the Vietnam War.

Thus it can be seen that conflicts during the 20th century have impacted both the Western and the Islamic societies bringing far-reaching changes in the political organization, social ethos, ideological leanings, and adherence to religious beliefs of both civilizations. In the ultimate analysis, conflicts in the 20th century served to increase the power of the Western civilization over the Islamic civilization. This condition of ‘overmatch’ resulted in an asymmetric response from the Islamic civilization with the emergence of fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism.

References

Holmes, Richard. 2001. “ The Oxford Companion to Military History”. Oxford University Press Inc. New York.

Huntington, Samuel P. 1996. “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order”. Penguin Books. N.Y, USA.

Mitchener, Kris James & Weidenmier. 2003. “Empire, Public Goods, and the Roosevelt Corollary”. Web.

Muller, Jerry Z. 2008. “ Us and Them”. Foreign Affairs. Vol 87. No. 2 18-35. NY. The USA.

Zakaria, Fareed. 2008. “ The Post American World”. Penguin Books Ltd. London, UK.