Title: Changes in Europe Across the Twentieth Century - Owlcation
Headings: Changes in Europe Across the Twentieth Century
Changes in Europe Across the Twentieth Century
Map of Twentieth-Century Europe
Introduction
Interactions Between Individual Europeans
Relations with Government
Worldwide Relations with Europe
Conclusion
Works Cited:

Content: As he states, “more knowledge made the world a darker, less familiar place” (Blom, 42). While these basic advances in society resulted in many positive changes for individual Europeans and their relationships to one another, many historians do not share the more positive perspectives offered by Blom and Herzog. As they point out, advances in science and technology don’t always mean positive changes within society (particularly when these advances are used for weaponry in warfare). Moreover, they posit that these early years of positive relations were greatly overshadowed by later wars and revolutions. These violent events, in turn, created an environment that promulgated a deep sense of racism as well as hatred of other nations and nationalities across the European continent. Revolution and war always seem to have a tendency to wreak havoc upon societies – particularly its social underpinnings. In Europe’s case, the continent underwent two major World Wars, multiple nationalist uprisings across the Balkans, the collapse of empires (such as the Russian, Hapsburg, and Ottoman Empires), as well as nearly forty years of tension between the West and Soviet Union during the ensuing Cold War. As a result, historians such as Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau, Annette Becker, and Nicholas Stargardt tend to interpret the societal and individual-based changes that occurred in a far more negative light – particularly in the aftermath of the First World War. As historians Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker point out in their book, 14-18: Understanding the Great War, the Great War helped transform the mindset of ordinary Europeans (both soldiers and civilians) to a manner that encouraged racist thoughts that emphasized a dehumanization of outsiders to one’s country.