Why did the World Wars break out in the 20th Century followed by the cold war?

Given that the European international soceity of states had its inception as long ago as 1648, why did two unthinkably violent world wars break out in the 20th century,f ollowed by a Cold War that threatened nuclear annihiliation of the human race? That hardly sounds like the kind of thing you would expect to see in the "society." What went wrong?|||World War 1 [the Great War, so-called] was a tragic, terrible and stupid diplomatic accident. Since 1815, there had been no Europe-wide conflict and people had forgotten how destructive and painful wars could be. All that remained after 1815 was a rising nationalism and patriotism in the new countries that emerged during the 19th century. This included Germany, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Greece and so on. To "protect" themselves, all European countries formed alliances with neighbours and pledged support in time of attack. It was this system of alliances that led directly to WW1. When a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo in June 1914, Austria mobilised an army to take revenge. But Russia had a treaty of protection with Serbia, and mobilised its army in the East. France had a commitment to support Russia in any conflict, and so mobilised the French Army also. In response, the new Germany invoked a particular strategy we now call the Schlieffen Plan - when France mobilises an army, attack immediately and go for Paris. The German army did this and attacked France through Belgium. But Britain had a treaty of protection with Belgium since 1829. Suddenly, by the end of August 1914, the whole of Europe was caught up in a war that had no purpose and no legitimate objectives. Also, for various reasons, Germany had an alliance with Ottoman Turkey and agreed to split the Balkans, Greece and Mesopotamia from European control [France and Britain] in return for assistance.





World War 2 came about because WW1 did not finish with a peace treaty; but with an Armistice - a cease-fire. Germany was ascribed the full blame by the Versailles Conference of 1918-19, and ordered to pay massive reparations to the French. The German army was limited to a few battalions for civil defence, and the navy to small flotillas of little ships. Neither USA nor Britain wanted the reparations to be so large, but both sets of politicians chickened out. The effect was a growing resentment in Germany, which developed into extreme political attitudes including Nazism. [As a matter of interest, the final payment of the 1919 reparations was made on Sunday 3 October 2010. During the Nazi period from 1933 and after the split of Germany between East and West until 1989, no payments had been made.]





In this sense, WW2 was the second part of the unfinished Great War of 1914-18. Also in the same way that Germany allied to Turkey in 1914, Germany allied to Japan in 1940 with the intention of keeping USA out of the European war. It didn't work, of course, because USA had various treaties with the United Kingdom and felt threatened by all members of the Axis. The situation of Italy is a military and diplomatic anomaly, over which historians are still arguing. Italy was formed as a single country over the period 1859-71, and never had a warlike history. How it came to be mixed up with Adolf Hitler is is still a mystery to many Italians and other Europeans.





The Cold War was an undeclared [mostly non-shooting] war that grew out of WW2 because of American fear and USSR distrust after the splitting of Europe from Danzig [now Gdansk] on the Baltic Sea to Trieste on the Adriatic Sea, by the "Iron Curtain" in 1945. It came to an end when USSR collapsed in 1991, to become the Federation of Independent States and the Russian Federation.





The people, mostly politicians, who dashed into WW1 and WW2 were pretty much the same kind of people that we see today. They were excessively proud of their own countries, talked about "making the world safe", thought they had the technology for a quick and easy war, and could whip up anti-foreign feeling. Hate the Germans, the Turks, the Japanese, the Russians, the Chinese, the Arabs. Not much has changed.





OK?|||They has never been a real era of peace full development. Every civilization that has ever appeared upon the planet used force to foster its means, take what it needed, defend it's civilization, or fail and fall.





WW1 really became with the unification of the Germans states/kingdoms in 1871. Europe had an quasi establish balance of power between Great Britain, France, %26amp; Russia. The Defeat of Napoleon place Great Britain as top dog in Europe, France was regulated to dog 2. By 1910 Germany had become more far more powerful than France. This upset the balance of power in Europe. As Great Britain and France aligned themselves with one another Germany aligned herself with Austrian and Ottoman Empires. The rivalry for dominance in Europe along with the fear created by the rapid growth of Germany just needed a spark and you had WW1. WW2 was a result of WW2, as was the Cold war a result of WW2. The reunification of Germany in 1990 was the end of that long line of tragic events.|||It was really a continuation of the previous state of affairs. We call the 1914-18 war the "First World War" but that is a misnomer. Ever since European powers had colonies in the New World, there were "world wars". The Thirty Years War, Seven Years War and the Napoleonic Wars spilled over into the Americas, Africa and Asia.





The Cold War was based on the realization that neither side would win in a mass war like WW2 with the nuclear weapons and long range delivery systems available. The US/USSR fought it out by proxy in places like Vietnam and Afghanistan, with the tacit understanding that they would not face each other directly.|||First, it wasn't until the 20th century that standing armies were large enough and technology sophisticated enough to allow true world wars. The Napoleonic wars of the 19th century came close.





Second, World Wars I %26amp; II are essentially two phases of the same war, particularly in Europe.





It's easy to see how the U.S. emerged from WWII as a superpower, but it is not so easy to understand how the U.S.S.R. also emerged. The U.S. was relatively unscathed by the war (although 400,000 dead are not to be taken lightly), unlike every other major power in the world. The U.S.S.R. arguably suffered more than any other country.





I guess that's where ideology and diplomacy enter.





So, the war ended with the emergence of two ideologically opposed superpowers. The threat of war and the fear of mutual annihilation was so great that their conflicts were almost guaranteed to be of the "cold" kind rather than direct confrontation. If that hadn't been true, we wouldn't be here today to discuss it.|||The european powers had been at each others throats since the Napoleonic wars of 1800's and well before. World War I and II was just a result of tensions and events boiling to the surface that had been in play for decades.





War is in human nature.... As long as there is Oil or Money or something for us to fight over there's going to be a fight somewhere.|||Becouse of massive struggle for power.


And stupid people, too prown of their flag|||What went wrong was human nature not being listened to in the first place. make war not peace.|||The political institutions and their ideological offshoot are to be credited for this state of affairs.


'Battleaxe' has succintly summarised it. I'd emphasise on the main aspects. The real empire in the modern sense was 'Roman Empire'. European Empires all were set in that mold.


Europeans have discovered the New World (Americas; Western Hemisphere) and as is their wont, established Empires there and exploited the people, who had no link with Eastern Hemisphere. So Imperial way has been set and that bred a hunger for raw materials and markets. Whether Industrial revolution (nominally dated 1750 in England) fed the Empires or Empires fed Industrial revolution, both grew in tandem. This led to rivalry amongst the various Imperial powers and led to chronic wars. It has become a philosophy even amongst the average populace to extoll and glorify the Empires, Wars, Man's irresistible urge to 'fight', national pride and all that. Amongst the powers it bred competition. Though I don't intend trivialising it became no different from the Football World Cup.


Technological advancements like discovery of electricity and engineering methods to generate and distribute, followed by electronics and electronic means of communications on one side and transport feeding on Petroleum as a new resource on the other side, kept up this state and rate of hunger at high levels. Empire is the only means to secure for a nation the raw material resources and markets available in far coners of the world. Invariably it implies exploitation, plunder and loot of regions and peoples unable or too weak to defend themselves. Nationalism too has become an accomplice.


Things came to a head by the early part of XX century. Contending parties needed to come to a new settlement either by nagotiations or by war. War in any case becomes inevitable. It also became heavy on cost to the people, who naturally abhor it after tasting it once. But the Empires always can tell them that the War is imposed on them.


WW I was the result of friction between Ottoman Empire and Astro-Hungarian if one is looking for a 'reason' to explain it. But WW I which ought to have reduced such a possibility by reducing the rancour of German people, actually enhanced it, being an unfinished job. WW II was the war to finish all the wars and it did that to an extent. It did it by inadvertantly reducing the role of Empires and finally winding them up altogether. It was not in the design but it just happened as an inherent process. It is as if that no sooner they bent they found their b a l l s missing.


In a way the greatest gift of WW II to mankind is the winding up of Empires, a trend that was set from Roman Empire. Instead of forcing the issue, the Empires were allowed to decay under their own weights. But the ideological tangle was still to be resolved. It grew instead to become a fashionable, modern trend. The setting of Cold War is relevant here. Without provoking each other, the two camps (First and second worlds) tested, probed and executed the rapier thrusts with each other using the third world as the proving ground and the people there as gunfodder. It explains why there were no wars in Europe even in the face of intense miltary confrontation, right in the middle of Germany, across the heart, Berlin. For whatever reason the second world succumbed ideologically after 45 years of continuous low-level warfare and bloodshed, sparing no region of globe. Still they need to be congratulated for not pushing the world into a nuclear inferno, for if it starts once there is no chance that the conflagration would stay contained. World is thankful for such small mercies.


Even now the world is not out of the strait jacket of European thinking and blue-prints for the world. In that sense the Euro-motivated series of Cold-War wars fought in third world countries were not of their making. Even now these countries are yet to take charge of their detinies with responsibility (witness the way governance is running amock in Africa) fully.