Improvements in sanitation and medicine drove down death rates and spurred population growth. There was a World War I veteran who died at the age of 109 in Scotland in November 2005 who's name was Alfred Anderson. Of the Christmas truce of 1914 he was the last survivor, when British and German soldiers mingled, exchanged gifts, and played football. His own unit, the Black Watch regiment, was ordered into Iraq in 2003 with other British forces. World War I, which effectively launched the twentieth century, provoked the Russian Revolution and the beginnings of world communism. This event was followed by the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and World War II. During those three decades Western Europe largely self-destructed. Western civilization had damaged itself beyond repair by 1945. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers. After 1945, Europe lost "its overseas colonial possessions and its position as the political, economic, and military core of Western civilization" (Strayer, 982). This means that what once was a strong country or continent became weaker due to the aftermath of World War II. The role Europe once had was passed to the United States.