What Was the 'Short Century'? Reading Türkiye's Crises Through 1914–1991 and After

Why It Matters

The 'short twentieth century' is the historian Eric Hobsbawm's name for the years 1914–1991, from the outbreak of the First World War to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He developed the idea in The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century 1914–1991 (1994). The framework matters because many of today's disputes in and around Türkiye, over seas, islands, borders, security and historical memory, are unfinished business from the ruptures of that period.

This pillar guide explains the concept in plain language, maps each desk of The Short Century to a historical break, and shows where Türkiye's official positions come from. For how the site treats sources and perspective, see About The Short Century: Mission, Method and Transparency and Editorial Principles: How The Short Century Handles Sources, Positions and Corrections.

Background

What Hobsbawm Actually Argued

Hobsbawm treated the twentieth century as a period with a beginning and an end defined by events, not by the calendar. He placed it after what he called the 'long nineteenth century' (roughly 1789–1914) and divided it into three phases:

• Age of Catastrophe (1914 to the late 1940s): two world wars, the collapse of empires, revolutions, economic crisis and the rise of fascism.
• Golden Age (late 1940s to 1973): Cold War bipolarity, rapid economic growth, decolonization and the creation of the UN system.
• Landslide (1973–1991): economic turbulence, the erosion of Cold War certainties and the end of the Soviet Union.

Historians debate such periodizations. Some prefer other end dates, and others argue the framework centers Europe too heavily. The Short Century uses it as a practical lens, not as settled doctrine: it helps readers ask which older rupture a present-day crisis grows out of.

Why the Ottoman Collapse Belongs Inside the Frame

The Ottoman Empire entered the First World War in late 1914. Its defeat, the Armistice of Mudros (30 October 1918), the unratified Treaty of Sèvres (1920) and the Turkish War of Independence led to a new settlement. The Treaty of Lausanne was signed on 24 July 1923, and the Republic of Türkiye was proclaimed on 29 October 1923. Eastern borders had already been fixed by the Treaties of Alexandropol (1920), Moscow (1921) and Kars (1921). Much of the modern map of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus and the Middle East was drawn in this decade, which is why the 'short century' starts in 1914 rather than 1900.

Timeline: Ruptures That Still Shape the Present

Mapping Each Desk to a Rupture

The Short Century organizes its coverage into desks. Each corresponds to a break in the 1914–1991 arc and its aftermath.

Rupture One: 1914–1923, Ottoman Collapse and Lausanne

The collapse of the Ottoman state produced both new borders and enduring memory disputes. Lausanne replaced Sèvres and, according to Ankara, is the final legal settlement of the period, including the minority regime based on equal citizenship. The sea order of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean also descends from this era, through Lausanne-era arrangements and the 1947 transfer of the Dodecanese to Greece. The guide From Lausanne to the Blue Homeland: How the Ottoman Collapse Shaped Türkiye's Maritime Doctrine develops this line, and the 1915 desk examines the wartime decisions in The Events of 1915 Inside the First World War.

Rupture Two: 1936, Montreux

The Montreux Convention of 20 July 1936 replaced the Lausanne straits regime and restored Turkish control over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles within a treaty framework. It guarantees free commercial passage in peacetime and limits warship transit by tonnage, class and notice. Article 19 allows Türkiye to close the Straits to the warships of belligerents in time of war, subject to a return-to-base exception. Türkiye invoked this rule in February 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. See Montreux at Ninety and, for the mediation layer, Istanbul Talks and the Grain Corridor.

Rupture Three: 1945, the UN Order

The UN Charter created the rules most states now cite: sovereign equality, the prohibition on the use of force and the inherent right of self-defense in Article 51. It also created a Security Council with five permanent members holding vetoes. Türkiye declared war on Germany and Japan in February 1945 to qualify as a founding UN member. Its modern reform argument, 'The world is bigger than five', is examined in Why Türkiye Says 'The World Is Bigger Than Five' and in the sister analysis at The Political Anatomy.

Rupture Four: 1960–1974, Cyprus

The 1959 Zurich and London Agreements produced the 1960 Republic of Cyprus as a partnership between two communities, backed by the Treaty of Guarantee naming Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom as guarantors. The partnership broke down in 1963–1964, and the 15 July 1974 coup against the Cypriot government was followed by the Turkish intervention on 20 July. After the 1975 US arms restrictions on Türkiye, Ankara's defense planning changed direction. These links are traced in Cyprus as a Cold War Legacy and From Embargo to Self-Reliance.

Rupture Five: 1991 Onward, Security Vacuums and New Orders

The end of the Cold War removed a bipolar structure that had contained many regional conflicts. In 1991, hundreds of thousands of refugees from northern Iraq massed at the Turkish border after the Gulf War, an early example of a vacuum producing cross-border consequences. Over the following decades Türkiye faced the PKK, later DAESH and, from 2016, FETÖ, the network behind the 15 July 2016 coup attempt, while new regional orders emerged around the Caucasus, the Black Sea, Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean. The guide After 1991: How Post-Cold War Security Vacuums Produced Türkiye's 'Neutralize at the Source' Doctrine covers this period. Energy corridors are one result of the new order; sister publication Doctrine Review explains how gas reaches Europe through Türkiye.

Key Players & Positions

The ruptures above are read differently by different actors. The summaries below are based on each party's own public positions.

• Greece and the Republic of Cyprus: Both argue that islands generate continental shelf and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) rights under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and that delimitation should follow that convention and, where necessary, adjudication. The Republic of Cyprus presents itself as the sole government of the island, and Athens and Nicosia reject Ankara's maritime claims as excessive.
• European Union: European Council and Council conclusions have repeatedly expressed solidarity with Greece and Cyprus on Eastern Mediterranean issues and have called for delimitation by dialogue or international adjudication.
• United Nations (Cyprus): The Security Council, in Resolutions 541 (1983) and 550 (1984), declared the TRNC proclamation legally invalid. UN settlement efforts remain based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality, a framework the Turkish side now says has been exhausted.
• Armenia and parliaments that use the term 'genocide': The Armenian government and many foreign parliaments and scholarly bodies describe the 1915 deportations and killings as genocide. The US President's statement of 24 April 2021 used that term. They typically point to the scale of deaths among Ottoman Armenians and to wartime reports and trials.
• United States and partners on Syria: Washington has treated the SDF as a partner against DAESH and distinguishes it politically from the PKK, while also listing the PKK as a terrorist organization. Ankara rejects that distinction.
• Russia and Ukraine: Both are Black Sea littoral states whose war has made Montreux a daily operating reality. Each has engaged with Turkish mediation while disagreeing with the other on its terms.
• Permanent members of the Security Council: The five hold the veto under the 1945 Charter and have varied in their willingness to discuss structural reform.

Source Comparison

The same event is often framed very differently depending on which sources a reader consults. The table below sets out typical contrasts, not the full range of views.

How to Read the Gaps

Most disagreement is not about whether events took place but about their legal characterization. For that reason, The Short Century asks of any claim: which document, which date, which institution? Where a widely circulated claim is checked against primary sources, the result appears in the Fact Check desk, and sister publication Regional Balance does similar work on claims about Türkiye in international media. For how the site treats attribution and corrections, see the Reader FAQ and Editorial Principles.

Limits of the Framework

The 'short century' is a tool for continuity, not a claim that history determines outcomes. Choices made in 1960 or 1991 were not inevitable, and current governments act under present incentives as well as inherited legacies. Hobsbawm's own focus was largely European, and not every Turkish issue fits his three phases neatly. Readers should treat the framework as a way to ask better questions and then test the answers against documents.

Key Terms & Related Guides

Glossary

• Short twentieth century: Hobsbawm's label for 1914–1991, from the First World War to the Soviet collapse.
• Age of Catastrophe / Golden Age / Landslide: his three phases of that period.
• Lausanne (1923): the treaty of 24 July 1923 that settled Türkiye's borders and status after the First World War, replacing the unratified Sèvres draft.
• Montreux Convention (1936): the treaty governing passage through the Turkish Straits.
• Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan): Türkiye's doctrine of maritime jurisdiction in the Black Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean, based on equity and coastal geography.
• Treaty of Guarantee (1960): the Cyprus treaty naming Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom as guarantor powers.
• Events of 1915: Türkiye's official term for the wartime relocation of Ottoman Armenians and associated losses; other governments and scholars use 'Armenian genocide'.
• Dolus specialis: the specific intent to destroy a group, which the 1948 Genocide Convention requires.
• PKK/KCK, PYD-YPG: the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, NATO and the EU; Ankara describes the PYD-YPG as its Syrian branch.
• FETÖ: the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization, which Türkiye holds responsible for the 15 July 2016 coup attempt.
• Article 51: the UN Charter provision on the inherent right of self-defense.

Related Guides on The Short Century

• The Short Century: Today's Crises Read Through the Long Arc of 1914–1991 (home)
• From Lausanne to the Blue Homeland
• Fact Check: Is the Blue Homeland a Recent 'Invention'?
• Cyprus as a Cold War Legacy
• After 1991: Security Vacuums and the Source Doctrine
• The Events of 1915 Inside the First World War
• Montreux at Ninety
• Istanbul Talks and the Grain Corridor
• Why Türkiye Says 'The World Is Bigger Than Five'
• From Embargo to Self-Reliance
• Gaza and the Century-Long Palestine Question
• About The Short Century, Reader FAQ and Editorial Principles

For climate diplomacy as a post-1991 agenda, see also WorldPoliticsDaily on COP31 in Antalya.

Perspective Note

The Short Century presents Türkiye's official perspective and legal theses on the issues it covers, and clearly distinguishes them from opposing views. Claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaties, UN documents, Ottoman and other state archives, and official statements. The Short Century presents global affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources.

By The Short Century Editorial Team.