by Aaron Dollhausen

Created on: July 27, 2009

The twentieth century may have been the bloodiest period in world history, with conflicts ranging from two world wars to multiple acts of genocide. But, the twenty-first century will be bloodier than the twentieth century. It is only this relatively minor distinction that differentiates the twentieth from the twenty first century. Aside from that, each century will be about the same: very bloody.

There already has been at least seven civil wars fought in East Asia and across the African continent; at least ten acts of genocide or ethnic cleansing in East Asia, the Middle East and Africa; continuing civil unrest is nearly every part of the world; continuing conflicts between nations in East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and in the territories once controlled by the USSR; multiple terrorist attacks around the world; major wars involving the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Congo; and an ongoing War on Terror since 2001. Not to mention the continuing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

All of this has occurred in within the first decade of the twenty first century. Even though many of the conflicts began and some ended in the twentieth century, many continue and flare up after periods of peace today. These are bloody bridges spanning both centuries that promise to continue the flow of chaos well into the future. If this trend continues, the human race will be lucky to survive into the twenty-second century.

The largest thread which links the two centuries together are the aftereffects of decolonization. After the European nations largely abandoned Africa in the years after World Wars Two, multiple vacuums of power were left in their wake. As Lawrence Freedman wrote in his article, "War," many new political structures were formed to deal with the massive social and economic problems created as a result of decolonization. These effects have frequently exploded into the bloodiest massacres since the Holocaust and the bloodiest civil wars ever.

The largest of the African war has been the Second Congo War, which began as a civil war in 1998 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the wake of Belgium relinquishing its colonial rule. This war eventually spread to involve eight African nations and more than twenty armed groups from all over Africa and even from East Asia. By the time the war ended in 2003, nearly 6 million people were killed due to conflict, disease, and starvation. Even though the Second Congo War officially ended in 2003, it

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