NationStates Jolt Archive

What is the most significant event, in terms of altering history, to occur in the first half of the 20th century?

How would the world be different had that evet not happened?

* Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated, starting W.W. I - June 1914
* Communist Revolution in Russia - Oct. 1917
* Philo T. Farnsworth invents television - Sept. 1927
* Stock Market Crash, beginning of global depression - Oct. 1929
* Fleming, Florey, and Chain discover and develop penicillin, beginning the age of antibiotics - 1928/1943
* Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany - Jan. 1933
* U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, start of the atomic age - Aug. 1945
* Founding of the United Nations - 1945
* Berlin blockade, beginning of the Cold War - 1948
* Other

I'd have to say the communist coup in Russia. Over a billion people have suffered because of it.

I'd say the discovery and devolpment of penicillin. I believe it's saved more lives than the other events have ended. And I have absolutely no numbers backing that up, so don't bother asking.

I chose Penicillin because all the other events were inevitable. If those events had never happened, something very similar would have happened anyway.

Define the word "important."

Define the word "important."

I’m thinking of an event which meaningfully alters all subsequent events in world history, impacting the greatest number of people in a significant way. An event or discovery that was a fork in the road of history which would have resulted in a completely different planet if another path had been taken.

Penicillin started the medical revolution and helped bring the population explosion of the 20th century.

I’m thinking of an event which meaningfully alters all subsequent events in world history, impacting the greatest number of people in a significant way. An event or discovery that was a fork in the road of history which would have resulted in a completely different planet if another path had been taken.
The Aspect Experiments, which proved that instantaneous ( i.e. faster than light ) communication is possible over space-like distances.

I chose Penicillin because all the other events were inevitable. If those events had never happened, something very similar would have happened anyway.
You mean like fission bombs? I have to say that discovery of atomic energy was certainly not inevitable.

The first nationally broadcasted television show.

The Aspect Experiments, which proved that instantaneous ( i.e. faster than light ) communication is possible over space-like distances.

Didn't these experiments take place in the 1980s (the second half of the 20th c.)? Do you really think they have had that great an impact or is it more a matter of potential future impact?

the crashing of the stock market could be the most important. because most of the world has economical connection to USA, that started the worst global fall of the economies.
bad economies help dictators get control, as they did in Germany, Japan, and Russia (while stalin sucssesd to create laws that gave him more power).
also that make the allies nation decrease the investigates in their armies. that one of the reasons they had to delay the beginnig of ww2, and let hitler force grow much.
ww2 strenghen the reasons to hate between russia and USA, and create the cold war. also ww2 bring the jewish right to state to the headlines, and at last create Israel (action that strenghen the Israeli-arab conflict, and the terror).
the cold war lead to huge technology jump, create many new states, and kill lot of people.

all of that could be claimed as important event in the 20th cenutry, but the stock market crashing start it, so he would the most Important.

The first nationally broadcasted television show.

Germany began the first television broadcasting service in the world in 1935 and later televised the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Germany began the first television broadcasting service in the world in 1935 and later televised the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Yes. It's been theorized that the 1936 Munich Olympics was the first radio signal with enough strength to leave the planet.

But more important, the effect that television had on the culture, the sciences and art are larger than most people realize.

Even more stunning is the pocketwatch(wrsitwatch) but that was actually invented in the late 19th century so I didn't include it. The portable clock, however, shaped our world more than any invention since the printing press. *nod* I put TV into the #3 spot.

Frankly I'm a little surprised that there wasn't more people who said "the bomb." The threat of WMDs has prevented large scale wars for almost 60 years now and if it hadn't been for them, God only knows how many wars we would have fought between the USSR vs USA, India vs Pakistan/Islamic World, and China vs Everybody.

the crashing of the stock market could be the most important. because most of the world has economical connection to USA, that started the worst global fall of the economies.
Umm...were you aware that there were already serious economic problems worldwide before the U.S. stock market crashed?

Yes. It's been theorized that the 1936 Munich Olympics was the first radio signal with enough strength to leave the planet.

But more important, the effect that television had on the culture, the sciences and art are larger than most people realize.

Even more stunning is the pocketwatch(wrsitwatch) but that was actually invented in the late 19th century so I didn't include it. The portable clock, however, shaped our world more than any invention since the printing press. *nod* I put TV into the #3 spot.

I had a tough time between the invention of television and the assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary.

In the end I chose the event which kicked off World War I because out of that came the Communist Revolution in Russia, the development of modern weapons of warfare, the Great Depression, the rise of Hitler, the holocaust, World War II, the United Nations, the development of the atomic bomb, and the Cold War.

That is quite a number of dominos tipped over by one teenager in Sarajevo.

By the way, Philo T. Farnsworth was also a teenager when he first envisioned the idea for television. Who said kids can't affect the world?

I'll take Franz Ferdinand.


BTW, the man who invented television was John Logie Baird, in 1926.

I'll take Franz Ferdinand.


BTW, the man who invented television was John Logie Baird, in 1926.

Hmmm, not so much. Farnsworth invented electronic television.

http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/farnsworth.html

BTW, the man who invented television was John Logie Baird, in 1926.

Hmmm, not so much. Farnsworth invented electronic television.

http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/farnsworth.html

Apparently it doesn't much matter because those of us voting don't see the invention of television as all that important. I do believe that television is probably the most underrated and under evaluated invention of the 20th century. It is one of those things that has become so ubiquitous that we can't even imagine a world without it.

It has certainly changed politics, not to mention what we consider newsworthy ("if it bleeds, it leads").

If this question had been asked 40 years ago I think the Cold War or the Russian Revolution would have received the most votes.

I put penicillin.

What about plastics? Those were definitely important.

I put penicillin.

What about plastics? Those were definitely important.

Plastic was invented in the 19th century, perfected in the 20th.

Plastic was invented in the 19th century, perfected in the 20th.

Oh, I didn't know. Maybe that was just a few kinds of plastics, but not most of the useful ones? Nearly all the plastic research and revolution certainly came in the 20th Century, though, right?

I voted the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which caused WW1.
Appart from WW1 being the bloodiest conflict to date (Civillian casualties don't count, which rules out the holocaust).
And as has already been stated, the event of WW1 caused most of the problems on that list, including the Bolshevik Revolution, the Atom bomb, and Hitler's rise to power.
So I'd have to go with the kicker here.

I voted the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which caused WW1.
Appart from WW1 being the bloodiest conflict to date (Civillian casualties don't count, which rules out the holocaust).
And as has already been stated, the event of WW1 caused most of the problems on that list, including the Bolshevik Revolution, the Atom bomb, and Hitler's rise to power.
So I'd have to go with the kicker here.

Civillian casualties don't count?

Is that a rule or something? I bet they count to the civilians who were murdered.

Civillian casualties don't count?

Is that a rule or something? I bet they count to the civilians who were murdered.

No, that's just the way I'm defining a bloody conflict, as between armies.
You can define it any way you like and add civillian, animal, or even plant casualties. I was merely stating that I was not counting them.

You can define it any way you like and add civillian, animal, or even plant casualties.
I can't help but notice that you left out fungi, protists, and bacteria. Are you trying to say something by leaving out three whole kingdoms, not to mention an entire domain. I think that there's hyphal, unicellular, and prokaryotic discrimination going on here...

I can't help but notice that you left out fungi, protists, and bacteria. Are you trying to say something by leaving out three whole kingdoms, not to mention an entire domain. I think that there's hyphal, unicellular, and prokaryotic discrimination going on here...

So? Add them in too if you like.

Why don't we also add in the number of rock casualties? How mny rocks were broken as a result of the war? Or how many litres of water were contaminated... wow.. that's alot of casualties!

Lol.

So? Add them in too if you like.

Why don't we also add in the number of rock casualties? How mny rocks were broken as a result of the war? Or how many litres of water were contaminated... wow.. that's alot of casualties!

Lol.
Well, I can understand adding in viruses and prions. They can reproduce as well. But no-one cares about rocks, dude. There really aren't too many geologists out there. Though I do think that water contamination should be something we pay attention to. Amœbic dysentary, chlorinated hydrocarbons, radioactive fallout, and significant lead residues are not pleasant things for any life, including humans. Though the amœbæ get happy...

I vote TV because it has affected and continues to affect significantly, almost everyone on the planet. Think about it, just in the past year, videos of beheadings and war from the middle east, bombings in Indonesia, and this is only in the past year, add in film from Vietnam, watching the world cup soccer matches and the Olympics live, etc. Nothing has affected communication and brought the world so close together while driving it apart and nothing has a continuing, major impact on our world today like television does.

I voted the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which caused WW1.
Appart from WW1 being the bloodiest conflict to date (Civillian casualties don't count, which rules out the holocaust).
And as has already been stated, the event of WW1 caused most of the problems on that list, including the Bolshevik Revolution, the Atom bomb, and Hitler's rise to power.
So I'd have to go with the kicker here.
The 1917 Russian revolution was seperate to WWI. I think it would have arisen even if there hadn't been a war. The resentment had been simering for years previous.
I think it is more important than WWI. It's caused more deaths than WWI and II combined. Without it, No Spanish Civil war - or at least a vastly different one, you could argue that China wouldn't have gone the way it has (whose 'Great Leap Forward' policy caused the deaths of 60 mill in the 1960s), WWII would have been vastly different, the Cold war would never have occurred. Many of the social reforms in the 50s and 60s wouldn't have occured, Eastern Europe wouldn't have been under a Communist rule (probably a Fascist one). There would have been no fear of MAD*, and no fear of the 'Domino effect', which lead to the Vietnam War. Think how greatly the US would be if there had been no Vietnam war? No just politically, but also socially - all the great music that came out during that time in response to the war wouldn't have existed, along with the social politics that came with them.
So much of the World's History is tied to the Bolshevik revolution, that it's difficult to find one thing between 1917-1991 that wasn't influenced by it.

Read 'Age of Extremes' by Eric Hobsbawn for a better understanding.
Quoting from the introduction:
...for the victory over Hitler's Germany was essentially won, and could only have been won, by the Red Army. In many ways this period of capitalist-communist alliance against fascism - essentially the 1930s and 1940s - forms the hinge of 20th Century history and it's decisive moment. In many ways it is a moment of historical paradox in the relations of capitalism abd communism, placed for the most of the century - except for the brief period of antifascism - in a posture of irreconciable antagonism. The victory of the Soviet Union over Hitler was the achievement of the regime installed by the October Revolution, as a comparison of the performance of the Russian Tsarist economy in WWI and the Soviet economy in WWII demonstrates. Without it, the Western world today would probably consist (outside the USA) of a set of variations on authoritarian and fascist themes rather than a set of variations on liberal parliamentary ones. It is one of the ironies of this strange century that the most lasting results of the October revolution, whose objest was the global overthrow of capitalism, was to save it's antagonist, both in war and peace - that is to say, by providing it with the incentive, fear, to reform itself after WWII, and, by establishing the popularity of economic planning, furnishing it with some of the procedures for it's reform.





*And b4 any smartarse says it, MAD means Mutally Assured Destruction, NOT the humour comic!

Umm...were you aware that there were already serious economic problems worldwide before the U.S. stock market crashed?
sure, right after the ww1, they had big problem. then they create versai agreements (that said germany had to pay damages to france and others). after germany can't pay anymore USA gave them loans.
in that time, all the world had great economical jump (much like the hi-tech bubble days).
then, when the stock market crashed the effect, was greater. in germany for example, hitler jump from 3% of the votes, to 40% of the votes in less than 2 years.

that the reason this crash his more important than the other little crashing.

Most important event?

1985-My birth. Soon to be your new world ruler. MWAHAHAHAHA!

I'd have to say the communist coup in Russia. Over a billion people have suffered because of it.
Franz Ferdinand - started a chain reaction (or at least earliest discernible event in said chain reaction) which fucked up the whole of the 20th century.

Ironic, because he was a pacifist.

Most important event?

1985-My birth. Soon to be your new world ruler. MWAHAHAHAHA!
Erm, first half.

Erm, first half.

I found the second half. The idiot accidently cut it off! So I taped it back on.

I found the second half. The idiot accidently cut it off! So I taped it back on.
I think he posted it 54 years ago, originally. It just got lost in the ether for a while.

I think he posted it 54 years ago, originally. It just got lost in the ether for a while.

Wow... he must've posted it on paper. Like this google search engine from 1960's:

http://img151.exs.cx/img151/1461/googlecirca1960a0as.jpg

Wow... he must've posted it on paper. Like this google search engine from 1960's:

http://img151.exs.cx/img151/1461/googlecirca1960a0as.jpg
Eeeeeeeeeeeexcellent. *ripples fingers together*

bump

"Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated, starting W.W. I - June 1914"

It set a chain of events that directly to most of the above, except perhaps for these three:

* Philo T. Farnsworth invents television - Sept. 1927
* Stock Market Crash, beginning of global depression - Oct. 1929
* Fleming, Florey, and Chain discover and develop penicillin, beginning the age of antibiotics - 1928/1943

-The Great War, Also known as the 1st World War. No doubt about it!

The 1917 Russian revolution was seperate to WWI.


The problem with this idea is that although the revolution might have happened, it would have not put the communists in power, instead it was more likely to leave Nicholas II in power as a constitutional monarchy, and give the parliment more power then then Tzar.
The revolution as it happened was entirely dependant upon the first world war, as the main participants were deserters from the Russian army, who were sent into battle poorly equiped and under-supplied.
As well, the major move by the Bolsheviks to take power was the encouragment of the soldiers to ignore their officers, a tactic that worked mainly because the Russian soldiers were discontent.
As well, when the Red and White forces began to fight, most of the equipment supplied to the White armies, allowing them to continue to fight and thus causing this battle and the atrocities that coencided with it, was surplus WW1 equipment provided by the nations involved as they de-mobilized. Although I must note that I am specificly thinking of the multitudes of tanks supplied to the White Army in 1918 and 1919.
(A side note, Tzarist Russia was the only country at the outbreak of the First World War who were even seriously considering the tank as a real weapon, all other armies, and navies as the case may be, laughed it out of concept until Trench Warfare set in.)

So, as I said, the turnout of Russia, which made the world what it is today, was directly a result of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

So, as I said, the turnout of Russia, which made the world what it is today, was directly a result of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

I agree with the entire post.

It is difficult to imagine another single event that has had such far reaching repercussions as the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand at the hands of 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip.

As many people know, Princip was part of a Serbian secret society called the Black Hand. Two of the would-be assassins chickened out and didn't throw their grenades when the archduke's motorcade drove by. The third assassin threw his grenade, but it bounced off the car and the resulting explosion injured several officers, but not the archduke.

After giving a speech and visiting his officers the archduke prepared to leave Sarajevo. However, his driver got confused and turned down the wrong alley. Young Princip had given up on the assassination plan when the archduke's car stopped right in front of him to turn around.

Princip shot the archduke and his pregnant wife, Sophia.

Out of that came two world wars, a Communist Revolution in Russia (and subsequent revolutions in China and Cuba), the Holocaust, the Cold War, the Atomic age, and who knows what.

A geographically challenged driver and a hot-headed teenager and the 20th century is born.

bump

no.1 - it was indirectly responsible for all of the ones below it, except television and penicillin

no.1 - it was indirectly responsible for all of the ones below it, except television and penicillin

Well, I believe the Canadian who invented penicillin got into medicine because of his experiances in the First World War. And if that's the case, then I'd give that one as caused by the assassination too.

Well, I believe the Canadian who invented penicillin got into medicine because of his experiances in the First World War. And if that's the case, then I'd give that one as caused by the assassination too.

I believe Alexander Fleming was born in Scotland, but you are correct about the impact of his medical service during World War I, although he was already a physician when the war broke out.

December 26, 1919 - Babe Ruth is sold to the Yankees

I believe Alexander Fleming was born in Scotland, but you are correct about the impact of his medical service during World War I, although he was already a physician when the war broke out.

Yea, I realised I was mixing up Pennisilun with Insulin right after I posted.
Lol, I should remember the difference, I am allergic to the former.