Main Turning Points of World History

There has been an astronomical amount of turning points in history that have changed the world in huge and small ways. One turning point in world history was the passing of the 19th Amendment because it gave women the right to vote in the US and empowered future generations of women. A second turning point in world history was the atomic bomb droppings on Japan because the world had never seen the destruction nuclear warfare could create. A third turning point in world history is World War I because it was the First World War that consisted of major nations battling each other and it introduced a new kind of warfare. A fourth turning point in world history was the invention of the plane because it fueled a faster way of transportation.

People, especially women, protested for their voices to be heard in politics and for their right to equal rights during the twentieth century. Women did not have the right to vote, one of the many rights that they did not possess, before 1920. American women were resisting the notion of a common woman and the required characteristics like being exclusively involved in housework and family. Women became tired of their opinions being excluded in politics which were shown early in suffrage movements. Women believed that laws made by men were not justified because they excluded women’s opinions entirely. Many people saw equal rights for women as the path to a virtuous government. American women gained the right, in most states, to vote through the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment prohibited American citizens to be denied the right to vote based on sex. The battle for this ratification took decades of protests from men and women. National women suffrage groups generated marches and protests which caused disruption in Washington, D.C. It brought awareness to the lack of women’s equal rights in the nation. Women could finally express their thoughts on matters which they could not have done in the past. The Nineteenth Amendment impacted society and empowered future generations of women. Women gaining the right to vote increased their economic progress and political agenda. Women were achieving more and more feats to equality which gave them higher education so that they could pursue real professions. “Women voters were more likely than men to attach priority to issues involving children, education. And health care” (Mintz, 2). The power that American women had on politics after the nineteenth was great and influenced future decisions for the nation. Now we see more and more women involved in government with a very high possibility of a first woman president being elected within the twenty-first century.

The atomic bomb dropping during World War II, to some people, was a necessary evil to prevent the war from continuing and to force Japan to withdraw. Germany had surrendered in 1945 and the United States had to figure out a way to make Japan do the same. It can also be seen as vengeance to Japan’s pearl harbor attack that killed thousands of Americans. “Japan’s brutal conduct of war was one of the main reasons to explain President Truman’s use of the atomic bomb (Bernstein, 550)”. Japan was conducting cruel acts on Nations belonging to the allies. President Truman most likely wanted to end the war swiftly and used the “A-bomb” to instill fear into other nations to not go to war with America. The world’s first atomic bomb to drop was called ‘Little Boy’ and it detached from Enola Gay, the bomber plane, to destroy Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. Three days later the United States dropped ‘Big Boy’ on Nagasaki. Just over two hundred thousand people died because of these bombings. In all of history, the United States remains to be the only nation to use nuclear warfare. The result of these bombings was the surrender from Japan which ended World War II on September 2, 1945. The atomic bomb droppings on Japan devastated the population which shows why the world should never repeat nuclear warfare. As soon as the bombs dropped on Japan people died, got injured, and some survived this horror. “The nature of the mass injuries and deaths in Japan was completely new, however, creating ‘injuries never before seen on mortal creatures’” (Clapson, 110). Clapson then gives a disturbing description of dangling flesh, burns on people and animals who are called doomed survivors. These are terrible scenes that are difficult to imagine and put people in disbelief that this type of destruction is possible. Japanese people lost their homes and cities in a matter of seconds. This was the first time the world experienced an atomic bomb and it is evident that we do not want to see one again. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a reminder that nuclear warfare is not of this earth and should not be used again.

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Militarism, imperialism, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand ignited the start of World War I in 1914. European nations showed militarism in the early 1900s by aggressively increasing the power of their military to defend their territories. These same nations displayed imperialism in the late 1800s and early 1900s by establishing colonies in areas like Africa. European countries were racing to become the most powerful nation in the world to boast off the tremendous nationalism that they held. War was most likely to result because of this due to the tense competition in the military power and colonies. The killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a terrorist member of the Black Hand in Bosnia sparked the quick cause of World War I because it provided a reason for Austria-Hungary to take action. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in July of 1914 marking the beginning of World War I which would last until 1918. The war involved the allied powers consisting of the United Kingdom, France, Russia, the United States, and Italy. The axis powers consisted of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire. World War I did not include any nuclear warfare and was primarily fought with new inventions that came along with the war. The war took the lives of way over thirty-five million people which made it one of the deadliest world conflicts of all time. The United States’ very late entry into the war gave the allied powers a huge edge in winning the war because it was one of the top nations in the world. Germany finally had surrendered in 1918 which influence the axis powers to stop combating so that a peace treaty could be created. World War I officially ended in 1919 through the signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the Palace of Versailles. The peace treaty exhibited that Germany had to take the blame for starting the war, pay reparations for the war, and minimize their military arsenal. World War I spawned a new type of warfare through the latest technological inventions for the current war and for wars to come. “This was a new kind of war that made use of the new technologies of communication, transportation, and combat vehicles” (Rostker, 123). These new technologies that emerged into World War I was tanks, aircrafts, and poison gas. Tanks began armored warfare, poison gas started chemical warfare, and the use of airplanes started aerial warfare. Eliminating soldiers became easier and easier as these new innovations came into the war. These were new ways of killing the enemy that would be used in future wars like World War II.

Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, also known as the Wright brothers, were inventors living in the United States. “Seven years after the death of Otto Lilienthal the Wright Brothers achieved what Otto attempted to do” (Dillon, 74). The young Wright brothers were inspired by Lilienthal and wanted to continue what he had started. They wanted to do what every other inventor at the time wanted to do which was to create the next invention that would change society. Their dream and mission now were to put us in the sky. “The Wright brothers took flight in their powered airplane on December 17, 1903” (Schlenoff, 94). Wilbur claimed the greatest struggle was controlling the plane which made him put more effort into working on the aerial control tasks. Their plane was called the Flyer 1 and covered 852 feet in 59 seconds. They used the Flyer 1 as a model for their future plane projects like the Flyer 2. They wanted to make sure their planes could take many short flights before putting the best one in production. The Wright brothers took a step forward in airplane technology that impacted the world forever. When we think about the first plane most of us picture the Wright brothers on their plane laying down. They invented the aerial age by creating their flyers. The Wright brothers educated pilots in flight school they made which created jobs in the aerial field. They made flying easier through their work and the work of others. The brothers inspired people to travel using planes and today we can go from North America to Europe within a day.

The 19th Amendment really showed that women were capable of achieving anything for themselves and showed that men and women should be equal. The atomic bomb displayed damage that should not be seen again and should be used in any type of war. World War I showed how early ideologies were taken to an extreme length that caused the deaths of millions. The Wright brothers’ planes helped the world take flight in a new way which created a faster way of transportation across the entire globe. These events shaped today’s society and we can look back at them in books, museums, and videos.