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Humanity experienced great changes in society, technology and the standards of living throughout the 17th century- the industrial revolution revitalized the human spirit, and the people of the earth awaited the 1900's with great trepidation. And so it happened- massive technological improvements in weapons caused the world to be embroiled in two world wars where almost 80 million perished. Civil wars also ravaged these 50 years, causing more human casualties. The world wanted advances in society, and it got them: humans became more adapt at killing each other in cold-blood than ever.
The Boer war introduced the human ability to imprison each other without any remorse into crowded prison camps that quickly turned into death camps. Ironically, the British, who condemned German prisoner camps, established these death camps for the first time in Southern Africa, to defeat the morale of the Boer nationalists who were defending their nation against British territorial aggressions. The main general who created these camps was the so-called British hero of World War 1, Horatio Kitchener. He split up the country with concrete barriers, and herder all the Boers into tiny prison camps, where they were all left to rot. In the ensuing years of war, many, many thousands of Boer men, women, and children died in these camps. The civilized British showed their uncanny ability to subject a fellow human race to terrible treatment for self-gain. Remind you of somebody else, perhaps Nazi Germany?
As World War 1 raged across the European continent, with thousands of men being killed in single battles, the Ottoman Empire committed crimes that perfectly define genocide- they assaulted the Armenian people for conspiring against the Ottoman war efforts, and marched them out of their towns into the deadly deserts that surrounded Armenia. Many of the people died on the marches, and the Ottomans killed almost half of them in the desserts. In the two years of the Armenian Genocide, the Ottomans splayed almost 2 million Armenians.
After the horrors of WW 1 came to a conclusion, and millions of Europeans were left dead, the World was ready to embrace peace at last. However, only 21 years later, Europe was engulfed in another cataract of horrors- German aggression not only against enemy armies, but also against the people of conquered nations. Blood of almost 50-million people was spilt in 6 short years, sucking in the entire populations into the vortex of war. Civilians were not spared the consequences if war and they were killed without mercy. World War 2 was the epitome of human cruelty, and showed the ultimate human ability to shamelessly murder fellow humans, if only for small personal gain.
The world was shocked to its core with the occurrences of the two world wars, that killed more people than all major previous wars combined. Single battles enveloped entire populations, including civilians and soldiers, never to return them to the face of the earth again. However, human nature dictates that even these colossal struggles are not the end of human cruelty and violence towards each other. If ever man finds himself in a position when harming another person will lead to his improvement in economical or political status, he will commit the act of murder without second thought.
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