Violence In The World Wars Of The 20th Century

Great Essays
The world wars of the 20th Century were without a doubt, the most bloody and disastrous events to ever occur throughout our history. Described as“far more violent in relative as well as absolute terms than any previous era”1, these two major events shaped the modern day and overshadowed any major conflict that occurred beforehand. Events such as The American Civil War, The French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars all took place an entire century prior to these conflicts, yet none of them amount to the sheer scale and loss of life that both world wars accumulated. This essay will demonstrate the catastrophic nature of violence in both World War 1 and World War 2 in comparison to other major conflicts throughout history. The sheer scale of violence will be explored and factors such as war crimes, …show more content…
However it can 't be underestimated that no matter how violent and brutal the Civil War was it was ultimately “glorified by abolishing the curse of slavery”29. As a result violence is 'glorified ' in both these conflicts and without it, it can be suggested that the modern day would have been very different to how we see it today, as in order to be victorious, violence had to be fully utilised for full effect. The experience of War crimes and rape, violence was something that was shared in both the world wars and also previous conflicts in centuries prior. The 'Rape of Belgium ' that occurred in the opening months of the First World War was an insight to the violence that would unfold during this period. This event caused 6000 civilian deaths directly, including women and children 30 which is a very similar experience to what unfolded in the Siege of Jaffa during the French Revolutionary Wars, in which roughly 4000 prisoners were executed

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