- Photo:
- NASA / Neil A. Armstrong
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
12 Times In History When Things Escalated Quickly
Sometimes, a chain of events unfolds so dramatically that you have to stop and marvel, "Wow, that escalated quickly!" Historical events are no different - some of them moved from zero to 60 in a relatively short time period. Whether it was a war that started due to a relatively minor issue, a religious transformation that happened thanks to a single text, or a scientific advancement that emerged in a surprisingly short amount of time, many past events began in one place and ended up somewhere completely different.
These history facts demonstrate that nothing is inevitable, and that the past can have twists and turns like an engaging thriller. So read on and discover some events from the past that escalated very, very quickly.
- Photo:
- Achille Beltrame
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
Archduke Franz Ferdinand became the heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after his uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, lost his son and brother. The archduke was set to inherit a multinational empire at a time of anxious peace in Europe. The continent had become entangled in a web of alliances of mutual defense that turned Europe into a powder keg ready to explode. All it needed was a spark.
That spark came tragically on June 28, 1914, when Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated the archduke and his wife Sophie. Austria-Hungary announced it would go to war with Serbia, a move that ultimately dragged other nations and empires into conflict. Despite last-ditch overtures by the leaders of Germany and Russia to find a settled solution to the crisis, war broke out a month after the assassination.
World War I, as it would come to be known, became one of the most cataclysmic struggles in human history.
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2The Fire Of London Started In A Small Bakery And Went On To Destroy 13,000 Homes
Baker Thomas Farriner - whose bakery was on Pudding Lane in 17th-century London - had a steady source of income producing hard tack for the Royal Navy. But Farriner would be remembered for a far more tragic connection: It was in his bakery that the Great Fire of London began in 1666.
The shop erupted in flames after Farriner did not appropriately douse the fire in his oven, and it quickly spread. The flames leaped hungrily from one street to the next, as London was crowded with timber-clad buildings.
Over the course of three days, more than 13,000 houses were destroyed, as well as St. Paul's Cathedral. Some 100,000 Londoners were left homeless. There was a silver lining, however. Since so much of the city burned away in the flames, London could rebuild itself with wider streets and fire-resistant materials.
Escalated quickly?- 3
A Heavy Rainstorm Led To An Uprising In China
From devastating droughts to fatal freezes, weather has played a significant role in human history, for better and for worse.
Parts of ancient China knew this all too well. In 209 BCE during the Qin dynasty, the government enlisted peasants to travel to Yuyang and defend the area. But there was a catch: They had to arrive in Yuyang on time, otherwise they risked execution for failing to fulfill their task.
Unfortunately, the group got bogged down by torrential rain and couldn't make it to Yuyang on time. Rather than accept their fate, the leaders of the group, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, led an uprising against the Qin dynasty.
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4A Peaceful Workers' Protest In Russia Devolved Into The 1917 Revolution
In January 1905, a priest led a group of 150,000 Russian workers - including men, women, and children - to St. Petersburg's Winter Palace, home of Czar Nicholas II. They came to the palace to show the czar a petition calling for change in Russia. The peaceful protestors believed Nicholas wasn't aware of their suffering; if only he understood it, they felt, he would take care of them.
Ironically, Nicholas wasn't even in St. Petersburg to hear their grievances. Instead, the protestors faced palace guards, who soon fired into the crowd, killing and injuring hundreds, if not thousands.
"Bloody Sunday," as the massacre came to be known, sparked a short-lived revolution, which ultimately paved the way for the transformational Russian Revolution in 1917. In the end, these events reshaped political and social interactions for decades to come.
Escalated quickly?- Photo:
- Anonymous 16th century painter
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
In the 1520s, King Henry VIII of England was a man on a mission: He wanted to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Divorcing in the 16th century was no easy task, since only popes had the right to grant divorces - and the current pope wouldn't give Henry what he wanted.
Instead, Henry's advisers found a path forward: break from the Catholic Church, establish a Protestant Church of England with Henry at its head, and get a divorce that way.
Henry's quest for a divorce thus ushered in the English Reformation, a period of religious, political, and social upheaval in England.
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- Photo:
- Julius Hübner
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
6In October 1517, German monk Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, a series of charges denouncing the Roman Catholic Church and its perceived corruption. The Protestant Reformation had begun.
Although Luther wasn't the first to critique the Catholic Church, his attacks would resonate with millions of people across Europe. His work got a huge boost from the printing press - a relatively new invention - because his writing could be disseminated quickly.
The Church wasn't happy with Luther, but censoring him did little to stifle his influence. In 1524, for example, German peasants cited Luther's beliefs in their rebellion. The Reformation only intensified, dividing the Christian world into "Catholic" and "Protestant," and leading to protracted wars of religion.
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After Only 11 Years Of Existence, NASA Put Humans On The Moon
The Space Race - the US-Soviet rivalry that fueled space exploration in the mid-20th century - brought humankind to the stars in a relatively short period of time.
The Soviets put the first satellite in space in 1957. Not to be outdone, the US created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration the next year. In 1969, only 11 years later, NASA put a man on the moon.
All things considered, the Space Race accelerated very quickly and represented huge leaps forward in scientific development.
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8Tree Maintenance Almost Led To War Between The US And North Korea
Following the Korean War, the Korean Demilitarized Zone served as a buffer between North and South Korea. In 1976, two American officers who operated in the DMZ trimmed a tree in the zone's Joint Security Area. North Korean soldiers used axes to attack and slay the Americans.
The incident quickly escalated and threatened to become an all-out war. The US sent in tree-cutters with over-the-top military back-up - including machine guns and helicopters - to cut the whole tree down. America's military flexing was enough to intimidate North Korea, and the incident didn't escalate any further.
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9A Slaughtered Pig Nearly Ignited A War Between The US And Great Britain
Divided between the US and the UK, the San Juan Islands were home to both Americans and Britons. In 1859, an American farmer on San Juan Island shot a pig that had wandered onto his property and helped itself to his produce. Unfortunately, the pig belonged to the British, and they wanted to hold the American accountable.
Tensions escalated to the point that both American and British troops mobilized around the islands. But the conflict didn't result in all-out war, thanks to the intervention of government leaders.
Escalated quickly?- Photo:
- Nathaniel Parr
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
10An Ear-Cutting Incident Between A British Captain And The Spanish Navy Spiraled Into An All-Out War
In 1731, one of history's strangest war provocations occurred. A Spanish naval captain boarded a British merchant ship captained by Robert Jenkins. The Spanish claimed they were looking for contraband goods. In the process of searching the vessel, they assaulted Jenkins and cut off his ear.
Several years later, Jenkins testified to Parliament about the encounter - and showed the members his severed ear, which he had pickled in a jar. His tale paved the path for a declaration of war; the so-called War of Jenkins's Ear broke out in 1739.
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- Photo:
- Charles Willson Peale
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
11George Washington Attacked French Soldiers And Sparked The History-Shaping French And Indian War
George Washington may have led the Continental Army to victory against Great Britain in the 1770s and early 1780s, but a few decades earlier, he actually fought for the British Empire.
In 1754, 22-year-old Washington was a lieutenant colonel for the British when his actions started a war. He had led his regiment into a skirmish with French troops, and it escalated into the French and Indian War.
Indeed, one eyewitness put the blame for the conflict squarely on Washington's shoulders: "Col. Washington begun himself and fired and then his people." It was "a shot heard 'round the world," sparking an epic, imperial struggle between Great Britain and France.
To be fair to Washington, tensions between France and Great Britain had been brewing in North America for more than a century as the two imperial powers bumped up against one another, hungry for more colonial holdings.
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12Two Kidnappings Triggered Canada's War Measures Act In 1970
In the 1960s and early '70s, a militant Quebec secessionist organization called Front de Liberation du Québec rocked Canada. Although the group was no stranger to violence - it set bombs that injured and killed everyday Canadians - it moved into new territory in 1970 when it abducted a British diplomat and a government official. The FLQ took the life of the government official.
The Canadian government responded with force. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau put the War Measures Act into action, giving the government the authority to go above and beyond peacetime law to contain the FLQ. It was, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, "the only time [the act] has been applied during peacetime in Canadian history."
Some claim that the invocation of the act was too extreme for the situation. As journalist Geoff Turner explained to The Guardian:
[The War Measures Act] was incredibly sweeping legislation. But it was applied to a problem that was really fairly local. The FLQ was really only active in Montreal and to a small extent in Quebec City. And there was one bombing in Quebec. In retrospect, it looks pretty ham-fisted that they enacted this legislation nationwide.
Escalated quickly?
