1910s - Worldwide Trends

Worldwide Trends

The 1910s represented the culmination of European militarism which had its beginnings during the second half of the 19th century. The conservative lifestyles during the first half of the decade, as well as the legacy of military alliances, was forever changed by the assassination, on June 28, 1914, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The murder triggered a chain of events in which, within 30 days, World War I broke out in Europe. The conflict dragged on until a truce was declared on November 10, 1918, leading to the controversial, one-sided Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on June 28, 1919.

The war's end triggered the abdication of aging monarchies and the collapse of the last modern empires of Russia, Germany, the Ottomans and Austria-Hungary, with the latter splintered into Austria, Hungary, southern Poland (who acquired most of their land in a war with Soviet Russia), Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, as well as the unification of Romania with Transylvania and Moldavia. However, each of these states (with the possible exception of Yugoslavia) had large German and Hungarian minorities, there creating some unexpected problems that would be brought to light in the next two decades. (See Dissolution of Austro-Hungrarian Empire: Successor States for better description of composition of names of successor countries/states following the splinter.)

The decade was also a period of revolution in a number of countries. The Mexican Revolution spearheaded the trend in November 1910, which led to the ousting of dictator Porfirio Diaz, developing into a civil war that dragged on until mid-1920, not long after a new Mexican Constitution was signed and ratified. Russia also had a similar fate, since World War I led to a collapse in morale as well as to economic chaos. This atmosphere encouraged the establishment of Bolshevism, which was later renamed as communism. Like the Mexican Revolution, the Russian Revolution of 1917, known as the October Revolution, immediately turned to Russian Civil War that dragged until approximately late 1920.

Much of the music in these years was ballroom-themed. Many of the fashionable restaurants were equipped with dance floors. Prohibition in the United States began January 16, 1919, with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S.Constitution.