In
1928, the discovery of penicillin by Fleming begins a new era
in antibiotics. While the idea of vaccination against disease
goes back to at least the late 1700s (with a vaccine against
small pox), and the healing properties of certain molds (penicillin
is a kind of fungus) were known in traditional herbal medicine,
the new generation of penicillin- based drugs would become the
key method to combat disease after the Second World War.
DDT, invented in 1939, becomes one of the most widely used chemical
pesticides during the 1940s and 50s. It also was one of the
first chemicals to make people aware about the environmental
effects of pesticides and herbicides. The first noticeable effect
was on bird populations, especially birds of prey. DDT made
their eggs fragile and most did not hatch, but sudden declines
in the song bird population also caused alarm among the few
people who then bothered to monitor wildlife populations. DDT
also proved to be toxic to humans, but the effects took longer
to show up. DDT is still used widely around the world, although
it has been banned in many countries.
In 1937, the Republic of Ireland, also called Eire, declares
its full independence from England ending more than 300 years
of colonial rule. The Irish fought a war of liberation between
1919 and 1921, winning partial freedom. Northern Ireland, however,
remains under British rule.
The Second World War is usually said to have begun with the
German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The war grew
to include most of the countries of Europe, Asia, North America
and Africa. Click here for a list of major events.
An American, Varian Fry, helps 4000 people escape from Nazi-controlled
France between the summer of 1940 and the summer of 1941. These
included many famous artists, such as Marc Chagall, Jacques
Lipchitz and Max Ernst. Fry died in 1967, but only in the early
1990s were his heroic deeds recognized.
The Holocaust becomes the largest genocide of the 20th century.
According to racial theories of the Nazi leaders, Hitler, Himmler,
Borman, all supposedly inferior races had to be eliminated.
The main target were the Jews of Europe--but here the underlying
idiocy of the Nazi racial doctrine can be seen, since Judaism
is a religion and not a race and people of many different ethnic
backgrounds follow Judaism. But all groups considered undesirable
by the Nazis were sent to the concentration and death camps,
including Slavs, Gypsies, physically or mentally disabled, homosexuals
and political opponents. The accepted number of people murdered
between 1939-45 is 6 million, but the exact total is not known.
For example, not included in this total are Russian prisoners
of war. In the first year of the German invasion of the Soviet
Union (1941), some 3 million Russian prisoners of war were captured,
but of this number about 2 million were killed outright or worked
to death in slave labour camps--the exact fate of these people
will probably never be known.
The total defeat of Germany and its allies in May 1945 left
Europe shattered. Millions of people had been killed. Millions
more were refugees. Industry and agriculture were devastated.
The war left two world powers, the United States and the communist
Soviet Union. The United States was dominant in western Europe,
while the Soviet Union occupied eastern Europe. The two allies
were soon enemies resulting in what was called the Cold War.
Two opposing military alliances were created, NATO centred on
the United States and the Warsaw Pact, dominated by the Soviet
Union. Nuclear war was a serious threat for the next 40 years
after 1950. Tension was high in Germany, which was split into
two halves, the democratic West and communist East, but was
especially high in Berlin. The split between East and West was
symbolized by the Berlin Wall, built by the communists in August
1961.
A few of the major names in European art at this time include
Lucian Freud (born 1922). A grandson of Sigmund Freud and born
in Berlin, Lucian moved to England with his family in 1931.
Specialist in portraits and nudes, Freud paints in a realistic
manner, but with a distinctive technique that cannot be easily
classified. David Hockney (born 1937), has become the best known
British artist of his generation. He was at first put into the
Pop Art movement, but he himself never considered himself part
of this group and has since developed a more traditional, representational
style of painting.
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