The 20th Century - The Most Violent Century of All Time.

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The progress made in the 20th century is staggering. Advancements in science, medicine and technology alone have brought incalculable benefits to human beings. Yet on the darker side, the 20th century was also the most violent time of human history. Two world wars, the massacres of Stalin, the Holocaust of Hitler, and many other such events killed over hundreds of millions of people and inflicted extreme suffering on hundreds of millions more that will make this period in time and period that will be remembered forever. The century had a trend toward weapon improvements. It wasn't until the 20th century that weapons became common in war and on the streets. The 20th century brought automatic firearms, missiles, and nuclear warheads. There are countries with stockpiles of weapons so powerful that they could destroy the world with the push of a button. Propaganda helped increase war production by falsely misleading the public into believing they were supporting the right thing. During Stalin’s reign, he didn't kill so many million Russians because of some evil inborn of his nature but because he had to eliminate those who refused to willingly turn over property and wealth to the state. Thus, the people who supported industrialization are as responsible for the death of those millions because they failed to understand that such violence would be the ending result. Hitler quickly turned Germany into a totalitarian dictatorship in which all social and economic societies were with the Nazi Party. Up until the start of World War II the terror was relatively small compared to the murder, imprisonment, and harassment of Jews, homosexuals, and even the mentally ill of WWII. After the beginning of World War II, the murder and exterminat... ... middle of paper ... ...Forcing people to do the morally correct thing when they don't find that their own best interests usually produces a violent reply. In the Twentieth Century, the nations of the world elected leaders who promised that once they governed, they would build a great society based on the equality, peace, for the common good. What we got was a cycle of violence, death, and destruction. The killing continues as we move to the 21st century. One of our most significant concerns we should be worried about is the availability of nuclear weapons. The potential of a real nuclear holocaust is real and looms largely over the human race. It is simply unrealistic to think that humans will not use such power for evil, but could happen. We need to do everything possible to bring peace to our violent world to make our world and our lives a safer, happier, and better place.

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