Is WW2 the most important event in modern history?

[Im Still Ballin]

legendary impact

most influential, gamechanging historical event of the modern era

[Lakers Legend#32]

The First World War changed the direction of the century more than WWII. The Great War set the stage for the next one.

[72-10]

I think WWII was more important than WWI, that's for sure.

[Im Still Ballin]

imagine being on the frontlines of ww2 and living to tell the tale, not a scratch

the stories you'd have

[Prometheus]

It depends how far into the past you consider to be "modern", and how wide or narrow of a window you are allowing for the word "event". World War II could be thought of as hundreds of thousands, or even millions of events.

[Im Still Ballin]

balkans started ww1

typical balkan behavior

[Prometheus]

balkans started ww1

typical balkan behavior

I blame Austria-Hungary, but what do I know.

[fiddy]

balkans started ww1

typical balkan behavior
If i get my hands on you, you'd see what the ww3 would look like. :rant

[kennethgriffen]

Norman Borlaug saving half of the world from starvation was the most important event/invention in history

[Ben Simmons 25]

legendary impact

most influential, gamechanging historical event of the modern era

Nope.

The advent of personal electronic computers. Not even remotely close.

You could argue the internet and I wouldn't disagree.

And soon(less than 20 years) it'll be none of the above as AI starts to truly grow.

[Prometheus]

Nope.

The advent of personal electronic computers. Not even remotely close.

You could argue the internet and I wouldn't disagree.

And soon(less than 20 years) it'll be none of the above as AI starts to truly grow.

Part of me agrees with you. The PC and the internet are such profound shifts.

But there is much more to examine beyond tech shifts... political and philosophical developments can be just as important.

I honestly think the Copernican revolution is the greatest single shift in any field

[bladefd]

Most important event in modern history was the creation of the first nuclear bomb codenamed Trinity, which was the result of the Manhattan project. It began the nuclear age from then and a whole new field of science.

Yeah, the world would have sucked & be dangerous for half of the world's population if Nazis won ww2, but life would continue. Nuclear age has changed the world and potentially put the entire human population (and all life) on the line. Not only for bombs but energy, nuclear waste and future of space exploration/travel.

Either that or the formation of the scientific process. Problem is the formation of scientific process is not a single event so I can't really count that..

[scuzzy]

obsessed with WW2


1935-45 world history was too fascinating


the speed at which human civilization evolved, wow


on the grand scheme of things (science, technology, medicinal, political, religion), yes by a long shot the most pinnacle time period in human history.

[scuzzy]

Most important event in modern history was the creation of the first nuclear bomb codenamed Trinity, which was the result of the Manhattan project. It began the nuclear age from then and a whole new field of science.

Yeah, the world would have sucked & be dangerous for half of the world's population if Nazis won ww2, but life would continue. Nuclear age has changed the world and potentially put the entire human population (and all life) on the line. Not only for bombs but energy, nuclear waste and future of space exploration/travel.

Either that or the formation of the scientific process. Problem is the formation of scientific process is not a single event so I can't really count that..
nuclear physics were just more biproduct of WW2

[tpols]

Nope.

The advent of personal electronic computers. Not even remotely close.

You could argue the internet and I wouldn't disagree.

And soon(less than 20 years) it'll be none of the above as AI starts to truly grow.


true... but ww2 birthed the technology that ended world wars.

Nukes were the paradigm shift.

[Prometheus]

nuclear physics were just more biproduct of WW2

Nope.

Nuclear weapons, yes.

The physics developed on its own.

[bladefd]

nuclear physics were just more biproduct of WW2

I guess to some degree WW2 accelerated the process, but we were heading towards nuclear physics already throughout the 1920s.. Atoms were being split many years before ww2 began. So it's incorrect to say nuclear physics was a byproduct of ww2...

...Unless if you are saying it sped up the process, then you would be correct.

[iamgine]

Well how do you categorize importance? When is "modern"? And what is an "event"?

How about the 'invention' of planes by Wright Bros? Is that an event? It affected much more people than WW2 and heavily contribute in WW2. So, wouldn't that be more important?

[Im Still Ballin]

Well how do you categorize importance? When is "modern"? And what is an "event"?

How about the 'invention' of planes by Wright Bros? Is that an event? It affected much more people than WW2 and heavily contribute in WW2. So, wouldn't that be more important?
I'd probably consider the modern era 20th century onwards but I have no particular reason for that

[Prometheus]

Everything since the late fifteenth century is usually called "modern". In the span of a single generation, we had all the major art works of the High Renaissance, the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation, the circumnavigation of the globe, the voyage to the Americas, Copernicus' original heliocentric epiphany, and the proliferation of the printing press. That was the clear beginning of the modern Self emerging from the womb of the Medieval world.

[Lakers Legend#32]

To understand the origins of the Middle East conflict, you have to go back to post WWI when the allies redesigned the maps of the ME after the fall of Ottoman Empire.
The legacy of WWI still is with us today.