Too often I hear on the media that before the 20th century there has never been a 7-decade long period of Europe-wide peace. Is this actually true?

by druento

If not true, how long ago was the last one?

Gama_Rex

At the risk of brushing up against the 20 year rule (though it just barely makes it), I'd strongly challenge the contention that we're in a period of 70 year long Europe-wide peace. The Yugoslav wars of the 1990s were massively violent conflicts, containing such atrocities as the massacre of over 8,000 civilians at Srebrenica in 1995 (see? Not a 20 year violation...by one year).

The Yugoslav wars aren't even the only ones to consider...the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 could both qualify as wars.