University Assignment: The Age of Total War - Hobsbawm's Analysis

This essay provides an analysis of Eric Hobsbawm's article, 'The Age of Total War,' focusing on his perspective of the 20th century as a period defined by widespread conflict. The essay explores Hobsbawm's argument that the First World War marked the beginning of a century marked by war, including the Cold War, and analyzes the economic and political drivers behind these conflicts. It examines the roles of colonialism, hypernationalism, and the pursuit of national interests in escalating tensions and causing wars. The essay also discusses the impact of these conflicts beyond Europe, the formation of the UNO, and its role in preventing major wars. The essay references Hobsbawm's arguments on economic factors, political reasons, and the concept of national interest to provide a comprehensive overview of his views on the causes and consequences of 20th-century conflicts. The essay also touches upon the formation of the UNO and its impact on preventing major wars.

Running head: THE AGE OF TOTAL WAR
THE AGE OF TOTAL WAR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1THE AGE OF TOTAL WAR
As Eric Hobsbawm writes in his article ‘The Age of Total War’ that it was in the year
1914 when the world had erupted in to a state of war with each other. In his views, it was with
the outbreak of the First World War in the year 1914 that the “short twentieth century” began,
which implied that the entire period of the 20th century was cut short because of war and
aggression which could otherwise have been utilized by fruitful indulgences shaping the life of
humankind for constructive purposes. He is justified in fact to call the 20th century as a period
marked by war. Even though during that century actual war was fought for specific spans of
time, the first world war from 1914 to 1918 and the second world war from 1939 to 1945, the
state of being in a war like situation had actually ended in the year 1991 with the end of the cold
war. In the period of cold war which emerged soon after the second world war is also a period of
war in the views of Eric Hobsbawm as that period was marked by serious tension between the
two super power blocs, the US and the Soviet and preparations to get into a war had been taken
by both the power blocs in the post second world war period. The war however did not break out
but the possibility of the US Bloc and the USSR Bloc was there and had the war broken out, it
would have been disastrous for the world at large (Hobsbawm, 1994).
Eric Hobsbawm had made a point that the 20th century was the age of total war and that is
also the title of his article (Hobsbawm, 1994). He might be considered as having committed a
mistake by calling the 20th century as the age of war as only the nations Europe were wrought
with war and apart from that only USA from a different continent was involved. However the
effect of the war was felt in other parts of the world as well who were not a part of Europe,
especially the colonies of the European super power imperialists. Eric Hobsbawm provides a
Marxist understanding to explain the issue. He had said that to judge the outbreak of the first
world war and the beginning of the state of war and belligerence to last throughout the century

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by the immediate cause, that is the assassination of the archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife
Sophie by a fanatic Bosnian Serb by the name Gavrilo Princep, would be wrong. The causes of
the war and its persistence throughout went beyond the assassination of the archduke Franz
Ferdinand, the sinking of luxury cruise ship Lusitania by the German submarines, the attack of
Russia by Hitler’s Nazi forces, the Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbour in USA or the
ideological difference over the communism and capitalism in the post war period. The real cause
of the war was embedded in the unrelented drive for the world market, the claim to the various
regions of the world by means of colonialism to serve the interests of the mother nation,
procurement of cheap labour to feed the industries of the colonial superpowers, to get hold over
the rich stock of raw materials and mineral resources that lied in the underdeveloped non western
part of the world, and to find a solution for marketizing the produced goods beyond the capacity
of making it saleable. These were the economic causes that had driven the state of war to
continue throughout the century. Apart from that there were political reasons as well which had
the propelled the war, and that can be explained from the realist premise of balancing. The
sentiment of hypernationalism exuded by the newly formed states of Germany and Italy had
made the colonial superpowers of Great Britain and France cautious who sought to contain the
advances of Germany and Italy in order to safeguard their national interest from any potential
encroachment on their sovereignty. Thus in precise terms, the aim to acquire more power and
influence over the other nations had led the nations of Europe to go into war with the other
nations and also driving others into it who had nothing to gain out of it. Through this
explanation, Eric Hobsbawm had tried to provide a different explanation of war which was way
beyond just unleashing armed conflict and the act of safeguarding ones nation from it. War is but

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a means to safeguard ones national interest even if that implied the deprivation of other nations
of their national interest, as the realists explain (Hobsbawm, 1994).
From the above discussion dealing with the summarization of the ideas of Eric
Hobsbawm about war in the 20th century it becomes clear that the war was not just about armed
conflict though it was an integral and inevitable part of it. War was all about politics and the
desire for gaining the maximum amount of influence. The war which happened in the European
mainland had its effect in other parts of the world as well. The concept of political boundaries
and nation states was a western concept and was something of which the non western part of the
world was unaware of. Portugal was the first nation to begin the race for colonialism and soon
other nations of Europe, Spain, Holland, France and Britain had joined. Britain and France had
the maximum amount of colonies and Germany had desired to enter the race which was not
received well by France and Britain. In the Berlin Conference differences had arisen over the
drawing of the borders to facilitate the sharing of the colonial territories and that had led to the
Boer War and the Spanish American War in the pre 1914 scenario (Hobsbawm, 1995). This is
reflective of the premise of Eric Hobsbawm that war is fought to safeguard the selfish interests of
the nation states. In the post 1918 scenario, the rise of fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany
collectively defined as hypernationalism as pointed out Eric Hobsbawm had intensified the sense
of security among France and Britain who had sought to contain Italy and Germany. The Munich
Agreement was organized under the auspices of Britain and France but when Hitler refused to
abide by the request to tone down his aggression that the preparedness for the second world war
was signaled. The league of the nations was formed post after the first world war but that had
failed to prevent the outbreak of the second world war. After the second world war the UNO was
formed and that had been successful in preventing the human right abuse, encroachment on the

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sovereignty of nations and the grave injustices hurled upon humanity in the post war period as a
collective effort of the nations who emerged as victorious (Hobsbawm, 1995). Apart from the
political and the social context of the formation of the UNO there was an economic connotation
to it. The great depression in USA, the failure of capitalism to safeguard the interest of the
common people and the formation of a socialist league had also propelled the formation of the
UNO. As of now the UNO has prevented the outbreak of any major war disrupting the world
peace at large, however, skirmishes in certain parts of the world have not been prevented.
Nevertheless, the UNO has prevented a third world war as of now, and that deserves mention.

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References
Hobsbawm, E. J. (1995). Age of extremes (pp. 237-248). Little Brown and Company.
Hobsbawm, E. J. (1994). The age of extremes: a history of the world, 1914-1991. Pantheon.