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EVENTS THAT UNDERMINED THE UNIVERSAL NOTION OF PROGRESS

Jamie Kutey
HIST 1002 101 Growth West Civil Since 1715
Dr. McMahon
4 December 2015
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Jamie Kutey
History 1002
Dr. McMahon
Marquette University
4 December 2015

Events That Undermined The Universal Notion Of Progress

Progress: the idea that advances in technology, science and social organization can

produce an improvement in the human condition. Europeans in the late 1800s and early 1900s

experienced a wide variety of events that changed their overall perspectives on their own

countries and whole world around them. As a result of these eventsuch as World War I and the

HolocaustEuropeans views on the enlightenment in the eighteenth-century meant reason was

the key to humanitys advancement as the basis of truth, liberty and justice.1 However, after

these events, European ideals were highly disputed. World War I and the Holocaust combined to

create a completely undermined vision on the morals furthering the worlds progress, triggering a

doubtful optimism for any success in technology to help human conditions to come in the future.

World War I came in a period that many Europeans believed to have been an age of progress.

However, on July 1st, 1916, British and French forces attacked German lines along the Somme

River in France, taking the lives of almost 10 million soldiers. Europeans also believed that the

progress of science and technology would make mankind richer, and that this hope for increase

in wealth would gradually spread, expecting it to happen peacefully.2 Devastating any hope for

advancements in technology or science, Europeans realized that their dreams of creating a utopia

would now be an impossible featby the end of the Great WarEuropeans undermined positive

illusions about the progress of creating a scientifically rich country. Although the Treaty of

1 Marie-Therese Geoffrin, The Salon of Madame de Geoffrin, Vol. 2. (Boston and New York,
2001), pp. 38-40.
2 Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization: Since 1500. Place of Publication Not Identified:
Cengage Learning, 2015.
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Versailles ended the war, it caused Germany to become upset with the conditions not mentioned

during the signing ceremony, therefore creating havoc, and ultimately triggering another World

War.

Determining that the Great War was a precursor to World War 2, the advancements Germany

decided to makesuch as mass murder machines of totalitarian regimes, and creating the Nazi

party to discriminate against any race but Aryancreated a spewed outlook on hopeful

enlightenment ideals originally stated in the early 1800s. From Two Treatises on Government,

John Lockes treaties inspired the political theories of the enlightenmentthat consists of the

foundations for human freedom and political structurethat Europeans believed to be the source

of progress before the Great War. The enormous suffering and deaths that occurred during

World War I shook traditional society to its foundations and undermined the whole idea of

progress For example, the use of propaganda techniques manipulated entire populations into

maintaining involvement in senseless slaughter.3 During the Weimar era, the Versailles treaty

undermined faith in systems of government, opening the door to the regime of the Nazi party to

flourish.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad challenges the basic ethical question of good and evil in

mankind. Conrad described the Congo as a place that fostered widespread abuse, and

exploitation festered everywhere. The Company owners forced inhabitants in the Congo to

participate in the Company, being overworked and ultimately treated the same as animals.

Black figures strolled about listlessly, pouring water on the glow, whence proceeded a sound of

hissing; steam ascended in the moonlight, the beaten nigger groaned somewhereTransgression

punishmentbang! Thats the only way4 Marlows trip to the Congo confirmed that brutality

3 Spielvogel, Western Civilization, pg. 761.

4 Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2009. Pg. 22.
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and degradation reigned, not progress and enlightenment, proving mistreatment happened not

only in Europe, but in Africa as well. The Black Mans Burden, by Edward Morel illustrates the

enlightenments notion of progress undermining African rights and morals. For from the evils of

the latter, scientifically applied and enforced, there is no escape for the AfricanThus, the

African is really helpless against the material gods of the white man, as embodied in the trinity of

imperialism, capitalistic exploitation, and militarism.5 One of the justifications for European

imperialism was the notion that if peoples of a higher power could manipulate less inferior

people into doing things, it would raise that area to a level of higher civilization. These

precautions were perfectly normal during the beginning of the 1930s, which created the

foundation for constructing the stages of the Holocaust.

1933 was the beginning of phase one of the Holocaust, which defined Jews in Germany

as racial tuberculosis of the nations.6 The Nazi vision was to restructure Europe to benefit the

Racial Hierarchy in Germany, ultimately the irrevocable removal of Jews in general. Primo

Levis Survival in Auschwitz was the ultimate insight to how millions of Jews were treated during

the Holocaust. Haftling: I have learnt that I am Haftling; we have been baptized, we will carry

the tattoo on our left arm until we diethey then shut us in a vacant hut where bunks are made,

but [we] are not allowed to touch or sit on them.7 Primo Levi experienced the horrible and

severely damaging effects of German systematically manipulated technology and science to

dehumanize large amounts of individuals. Although he was lucky enough to survive and tell his

story, millions of other Jews were annihilated at twenty large death camps, plus at six major

killing camps, all concentrated throughout Europe. The idea of the enlightenment at this point in

5 Spielvogel, Western Civilization, Pg. 746-747.

6 McMahon, Timothy Hitler, letter to Herr Gemlich Lecture, 18 November 2015.
7 Levi, Primo, and S. J. Woolf. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Pg.
28.
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Europeans eyes is utterly demolished because of the horrors displayed at these major death

camps. Levi was able to portray the undermining and appalling use of equipment and ideals

within technology in the 1900s.

Heart of Darkness is similar to Survival in Auschwitz in many wayspainting a picture for

readerssuch as the mistreatment of large amounts of individuals at once, exile, and ultimately

death that was the result of an advantage of having complete dominance. Hitler simply killed to

kill, for interest of a greater good and creating a dominant racial ideology in Europe. He applied

human reason to his techniques in technology in his scramble for Africa and during his greatest

feat; the Holocaust. Social Darwinism was written in 1857, and the concept of progress was

somewhat shifting and indefinite, proving an unknown for progress to ever become attainable.

Herbert Spencer, English philosopher and prominent classical liberal political theorist of

the 1800s, explains how his theory of Social Darwinism allows Europeans to think they can

dominate or compete with other races. The beginning of the First World War within Europe

exhibited human evolution and the belief that the enlightenment era could benefit the Nazis to

use the concept of survival of the fittest. Thus, the Nazis were able to manipulate Jews like the

Company did in the Congo. Ultimately, this created an astonishing affect on Europeans

thoughts questioning the notion of progress tied to enlightenment ideals because of the

exploitation of technology to kill mass amounts of people to achieve an anti-communist

community in Europe.