1910s

The 1910s (pronounced "nineteen-tens", also abbreviated as the "teens") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1910, and ended on December 31, 1919. 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 33 days, World War I broke out in Europe on August 1, 1914. The conflict dragged on until a truce was declared on November 11, 1918, leading to the controversial, one-sided Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on June 28, 1919.

World War IWestern Front (World War I)Eastern Front (World War I)October RevolutionBattle of the Somme
From left, clockwise: The Model T Ford is introduced and becomes widespread; The sinking of the RMS Titanic causes the deaths of nearly 1,500 people and attracts global and historical attention; Title bar: All the events below are part of World War I (1914–1918); French Army lookout at his observation post in 1917; Russian troops awaiting a German attack; A ration party of the Royal Irish Rifles in a communication trench during the Battle of the Somme; Vladimir Lenin addresses a crowd in the midst of the October Revolution of 1917; A flu pandemic in 1918 kills tens of millions worldwide.
Millennium: 2nd millennium
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The war's end triggered the abdication of various monarchies and the collapse of five of the last modern empires of Russia, Germany, China, Ottoman Turkey 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, creating some unexpected problems that would be brought to light in the next two decades. (See Dissolution of Austro-Hungarian 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 Portuguese 5 October 1910 revolution, which ended the eight-century long monarchy, spearheaded the trend, followed by the Mexican Revolution in November 1910, which led to the ousting of dictator Porfirio Diaz, developing into a violent civil war that dragged on until mid-1920, not long after a new Mexican Constitution was signed and ratified. The Russian Empire also had a similar fate, since its participation on World War I led it to a social, political and economical collapse which made the tsarist autocracy unsustainable and, as a following of the events of 1905, culminated in the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, under the direction of the Bolshevik Party later renamed as Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Russian Revolution of 1917, known as the October Revolution, was followed by the Russian Civil War, which dragged on until approximately late 1922.

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.

Politics and wars

Wars

Internal conflicts
  • October Revolution in Russia results in the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of the world's first self-proclaimed socialist state; political upheaval in Russia culminating in the establishment of the Russian SFSR and the assassination of Emperor Nicholas II and the royal family.
  • The Russian Revolution (1917) is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union.
  • April 13, 1919 – The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, at Amritsar in the Punjab Province of British India, sows the seeds of discontent and leads to the birth of the Indian Independence Movement.
  • Xinhai Revolution causes the overthrow of China's ruling Qing Dynasty, and the establishment of the Republic of China (1912-1949).
  • Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) Francisco I. Madero proclaims the elections of 1910 null and void, and calls for an armed revolution at 6 p.m. against the illegitimate presidency/dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The revolution lead to the ousting of Porfirio Díaz (who ruled from 1876 to 1880 and since 1884) six months later. The Revolution progressively becomes a civil war with multiple factions and phases, culminating with the Mexican Constitution of 1917, but combat would persist for three more years.

Major political changes

Decolonization and independence

Prominent political events

Assassinations and attempts

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:

Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Nicholas II of Russia

Disasters
Sinking of the Titanic.
  • The RMS Titanic, a British ocean liner which was the largest and most luxurious ship at that time, struck an iceberg and sank 2 hours and forty minutes later in the North Atlantic during its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912. 1,517 people perished in the disaster.
  • On November 21, 1916 HMHS Britannic was holed in an explosion while passing through a channel which had been seeded with enemy mines and sank in 55 minutes.
  • On May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by U-20, a German U-boat, off the Old Head of Kinsale in Ireland and sunk in 18 minutes. 1,198 lives were lost, including 128 Americans. The sinking proved to be a factor in the American decision to enter World War I two years later.
  • From 1918 through 1920, the Spanish flu killed from 50 to 100 million people worldwide.
  • In 1916, the Netherlands was hit by a North Sea storm that flooded the lowlands and killed 19 people.
  • From July 1 to July 12, 1916, a series of shark attacks, known as the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 occurred along the Jersey Shore killing four and injuring one.
  • On January 11, 1914, Sakurajima erupted which resulted in the death of 35 people. In addition to that, the surrounding islands were consumed. Also an isthmus was created between Sakurajima and the main land.
  • In 1917, the Halifax explosion killed 2,000 people.

Other significant international events

Science and technology

Technology
British World War I Mark V tank

Science

Economics
  • In the years 1910 and 1911, there was a minor economic depression known as the Panic of 1910–11, which was followed by the enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

Sports

Literature and arts
See also: List of years in literature § 1910s

Visual Arts
See also: Armory Show and History of painting

The 1913 Armory Show in New York City was a seminal event in the history of Modern Art. Innovative contemporaneous artists from Europe and the United States exhibited together in a massive group exhibition in New York City, and Chicago.

Art movements
Other movements and techniques

Influential artists

People

World leaders

Politics
  • John Barrett, Director-general Organization of American States
  • Georges Louis Beer, Chairman Permanent Mandates Commission
  • Henry P. Davison, Chairman International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • Sir James Eric Drummond, Secretary-general League of Nations
  • Emil Frey, Director International Telecommunication Union
  • Christian Louis Lange, Secretary-general Inter-Parliamentary Union
  • Baron Louis Paul Marie Hubert Michiels van Verduynen, Secretary-general Permanent Court of Arbitration
  • William E. Rappard, Secretary-general International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • Manfred von Richthofen, alias the "Red Baron", fighter pilot
  • Eugène Ruffy, Director Universal Postal Union
  • William Napier Shaw, President World Meteorological Organization
  • Albert Thomas, Director International Labour Organization
  • Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, Chairman of the Executive Committee Communist International

Business

Inventors

Authors

Entertainers

Sports figures

Baseball
Babe Ruth, 1915
See also: History of baseball in the United States

Olympics
See also: Art competitions at the Summer Olympics

Boxing

See also

Timeline

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:

1910 • 1911 • 1912 • 1913 • 1914 • 1915 • 1916 • 1917 • 1918 • 1919

References
  1. Dictionary of Genocide, by Samuel Totten, Paul Robert Bartrop, Steven L. Jacobs, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008, ISBN 0-313-34642-9, p. 19
  2. Intolerance: a general survey, by Lise Noël, Arnold Bennett, 1994, ISBN 0773511873, p. 101
  3. Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, by Richard T. Schaefer, 2008, p. 90
  4. Friedel, Robert D (1996). Zipper : an Exploration in Novelty. New York: Norton. p. 94. ISBN 0393313654. OCLC 757885297.
  5. "A Non-Rusting Steel: Sheffield Invention Especially Good for Table Cutlery" (PDF). The New York Times. 1914-01-31. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  6. "Bread-toaster" (Patent #1,387,670 application filed May 29, 1919, granted August 16, 1921). Google Patents. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  7. "Patent for Bread-Toaster Issued October 18, 1921" (Patent #1,394,450 application filed June 22, 1920, granted October 18, 1921). United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  8. Brinkley, Douglas (2004). Wheels for the world : Henry Ford, his company, and a century of progress, 1903-2003. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780142004395. OCLC 796971541.
  9. Watson, Greig (2014-02-24). "World War One: The tank's secret Lincoln origins". BBC News. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  10. O'Conner, J.J.; Robertson, E.F. (May 1996). "General relativity". www.st-andrews.ac.uk. University of St. Andrews. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  11. "Gerade auf LeMO gesehen: LeMO Bestand: Biografie". www.dhm.de (in German). Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum. 2014-09-14. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  12. Demhardt, Imre (2012) [1912]. "Alfred Wegeners Hypothesis on Continental Drift and its Discussion in Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen" (PDF). Polarforschung. 75: 29–35. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-04.

Further reading
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