1910s

From left, clockwise: The Model T Ford is introduced and becomes widespread; The sinking of the R.M.S. 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
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s – 1910s – 1920s 1930s 1940s
Years:	1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

The 1910s was the decade that started on January 1, 1910 and ended on December 31, 1919. It was the second decade of the 20th century.

Worldwide trends

The 1910s represented the culmination of European militarism which had its beginnings during the second half of the nineteenth 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 spear-headed 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.

Politics and wars

Wars

World War I.

• World War I (1914–1918)
• Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo leads to World War I
• The First World War (1914–1918).
• Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles after losing the first world war.
• Armenian Genocide during and just after World War I. It was characterised by the use of massacres and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of Armenian deaths generally held to have been between one and one-and-a-half million.
• Wadai War (1909–1911)
• First Balkan Wars (1912–1913) – two wars that took place in South-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.

Internal conflicts

• October Revolution in Russia leads to the first Communist government; political upheaval in Russia culminating in Communist takeover of the country 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.
• The Jallianwala Bagh massacre in British Raj 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.
• Mexican Revolution (1910–1911) 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 ouster 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

Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin and Kamenev at the Second Party Congress of the Communist Party of Russia in 1919.

• Germany abolishes its monarchy and becomes under the rule of a new elected government called the Weimar Republic.
• George V becomes king in Britain.
• Dissolution of the German colonial empire, Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire, reorganization of European states' territorial boundaries, and the creation of several new European states and territorial entities: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland, Free City of Danzig, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Saar, briefly the Ukraine, and Yugoslavia.
• Fourteen Points as designed by United States President Woodrow Wilson advocates the right of all nations to self-determination.
• Rise to power of the Bolsheviks in Russia under Vladimir Lenin, creating the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the first state committed to the establishment of communism.

Decolonization and independence

• Easter Rising against the British in Ireland; eventually leads to Irish independence.
• Several nations in Eastern Europe get their own nation state, thereby replacing major multiethnic empires.
• The Republic of China is established on 1 January 1912.

Assassinations

Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

The 1910s were marked by several notable assassinations:

• 28 June 1914 – Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo leads to World War I
• 16/17 July 1918 – Assassination of Nicholas II of Russia and his family.

Disasters

Sinking of the Titanic.

• The RMS Titanic, a British ocean liner which was the largest and most elegant ship at that time, strikes an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic during its maiden voyage on 15th April 1912. 1,517 people perished in the disaster.
• On 7 May 1915, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania is torpedoed by U-20, a German U-boat, off the Old Head of Kinsale in Ireland and sinks in 18 minutes. 1,198 lives are lost, including 128 Americans. The sinking proves to be a factor in the American decision to enter World War I two years later.
• From 1918 through 1920, the Spanish flu killed 20 to 100 million people worldwide.
• In 1916, the Netherlands is hit by a North Sea storm that floods the lowlands and kills 10,000 people.

Other significant international events

• The Panama Canal is completed in 1914.
• World War I from 1914 until 1918 dominates the Western world.
• Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu on July 24, 1911.

Science and technology

Technology

British World War I Mark V tank

• Gideon Sundback patented the first modern zipper.
• Harry Brearley invented stainless steel.
• Charles Strite invented the first pop-up bread toaster.
• The Ford Model T dominated the automobile market, selling more than all other makers combined in 1914.
• The army tank was invented. Tanks in World War I were used by the British Army, the French Army and the German Army.

Science

• Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.
• Max von Laue discovers the diffraction of x-rays by crystals.
• Alfred Wegener puts forward his theory of continental drift.

Economics

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

Popular culture

• Radio programming becomes popular.
• Flying Squadron of America promotes temperance movement in the U.S.
• Edith Smith Davis edits the Temperance Educational Quarterly.
• The first U.S. feature film, Oliver Twist, was released in 1912.
• The first mob film, D. W. Griffith's The Musketeers of Pig Alley was released in 1912.
• Hollywood replaces the East Coast as the center of the movie industry.
• Charlie Chaplin débuts his trademark mustached, baggy-pants 'Little Tramp' character in Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914.
• The first African American owned studio, the Lincoln Motion Picture Company, was founded in 1917.
• The four Warner brothers, (from older to younger) Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack opened their first West Coast studio in 1918.
• First Crossword Puzzle.
• The first Jazz music is recorded.
• The Salvation Army has a new international leader, General Bramwell Booth who served from 1912 to 1929. He replaces his father and co-founder of the Christian Mission (the forerunner of the Salvation Army), William Booth.

Sports

• 1912 Summer Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden.
• 1916 Summer Olympics were canceled because of World War I.

Literature and arts

See also: List of years in literature#1910s

D. H. Lawrence publishes Sons and Lovers Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham is published Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs is published Zane Grey's Wild Fire (book) is published Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce are published

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is published Thomas Mann publishes Death in Venice Willa Cather publishes Alexander's Bridge, O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark and My Ántonia End of Art Nouveau and beginning of Art Deco

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

Cubism and related movements Analytic Cubism Synthetic Cubism Orphism Section d'Or Synchromism Futurism Expressionism and related movements Symbolism Blaue Reiter Die Brücke

Geometric abstraction and related movements Suprematism De Stijl Constructivism Other movements and techniques Surrealism Dada Collage

People

World leaders

Prime Minister Andrew Fisher (Australia) Prime Minister Joseph Cook (Australia) Prime Minister Billy Hughes (Australia) Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary) Emperor Karl (Austria-Hungary) Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden (Canada) Emperor Henry Pu Yi of the Qing Dynasty (China) Sun Yat-sen, President of the Republic of China Yuan Shikai, President of the Republic of China and briefly Emperor Xu Shichang, President of the Republic of China Sultan Hussein Kamel of Egypt Sultan Fuad I of Egypt Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany) Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (Germany) King Victor Emmanuel III (Italy) Pope Pius X Pope Benedict XV

Sultan Vahidettin (Ottoman Empire) Ahmad Shah Qajar (Persia) Tsar Nicholas II (Russia) Minister-Chairman Georgy Lvov (Russia) Minister-Chairman Alexander Kerensky (Russia) Chairman Lev Kamenev (Russia) King Peter I of Serbia King Alfonso XIII (Spain) Prime Minister José Canalejas (Spain) Prime Minister Eduardo Dato Iradier (Spain) King George V (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) Prime Minister H. H. Asquith (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) Prime Minister David Lloyd George (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) President William Howard Taft (United States) President Woodrow Wilson (United States)

Entertainers

Fatty Arbuckle Theda Bara Richard Barthelmess Béla Bartók Irving Berlin Ben Black Eubie Blake Shelton Brooks Lew Brown Tom Brown Anne Caldwell Eddie Cantor Enrico Caruso Charlie Chaplin Lon Chaney George M. Cohan Henry Creamer Bebe Daniels Cecil B. DeMille Buddy De Sylva Walter Donaldson Marie Dressler Eddie Edwards Gus Edwards

Douglas Fairbanks Fred Fisher John Ford George Gershwin Beniamino Gigli Dorothy Gish Lillian Gish Samuel Goldwyn D. W. Griffith W. C. Handy Otto Harbach Lorenz Hart Victor Herbert Harry Houdini Charles Ives Tony Jackson Emil Jannings William Jerome Al Jolson Gus Kahn Gustave Kahn Buster Keaton Jerome David Kern

Ring Lardner Nick LaRocca Harry Lauder Florence Lawrence Ted Lewis Harold Lloyd Charles McCarron Joseph McCarthy Winsor McCay Oscar Micheaux Mae Murray Alla Nazimova Pola Negri Anna Q. Nilsson Ivor Novello Alcide Nunez Geoffrey O'Hara Sidney Olcott Jack Pickford Mary Pickford Armand J. Piron Cole Porter Richard Rodgers

Sigmund Romberg Jean Schwartz Mack Sennett Larry Shields Chris Smith Erich von Stroheim Arthur Sullivan Gloria Swanson Wilber Sweatman Blanche Sweet Albert Von Tilzer Harry Von Tilzer Sophie Tucker Pete Wendling Pearl White Bert Williams Clarence Williams Harry Williams Spencer Williams P. G. Wodehouse Mabel Normand

Influential artists

Pablo Picasso Georges Braque Henri Matisse Marcel Duchamp

Wassily Kandinsky Kasimir Malevich Giorgio De Chirico

Sports figures

Baseball

See also: History of baseball in the United States

Honus Wagner, (American baseball player) Christy Mathewson, (American baseball player) Walter Johnson, (American baseball player) Ty Cobb, (American baseball player)

Tris Speaker, (American baseball player) Nap Lajoie, (American baseball player) Eddie Collins, (American baseball player)

Olympics

See also: Art competitions at the Olympic Games

• Jim Thorpe

Boxing

• Jack Dempsey
• Jess Willard

See also

• 1910s in literature

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