Key events of the 20th century

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The

atomic bombs, the Cold War led to the Space Race and the creation of space-based rockets, and the World Wide Web was created. These advancements have played a significant role in citizens' lives and shaped the 21st century
into what it is today.

Events in the 20th century

The world at the beginning of the century

Main article: Edwardian era

The new beginning of the 20th century marked significant changes. The 1900s saw the decade herald a series of inventions, including the

automobile, airplane and radio broadcasting
.

From 1914 to 1918, the First World War, and its aftermath, caused major changes in the power balance of the world, destroying or transforming some of the most powerful empires.

"The war to end all wars": World War I (1914–1918)

Main article: World War I
Arrest of a suspect in Sarajevo following the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The First World War (or simply WWI), termed "The Great War" by contemporaries, started in 1914 and ended in 1918. The war and by extension the century as a whole was

Austro-Hungarian Empire's heir to the throne, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, by Gavrilo Princip of the organization "Young Bosnia," Bosnian Serbs' liberation movement. This was similar to how the 9/11 was the inciting incident of the 21st century.[1] Bound by Slavic nationalism to help the small Serbian state, the Russians came to the aid of the Serbs when they were attacked. Interwoven alliances, an increasing arms race, and old hatreds dragged Europe into the war.[2] The Allies, known initially as "The Triple Entente", comprised the British Empire, France, Italy, and Russia. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and later the Ottoman Empire, were known as "The Central Powers".[3][4]

In 1917, Russia ended hostile actions against the Central Powers after the fall of the Tsar. The Bolsheviks negotiated the

Kars Oblast in the South Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire. It also recognized the independence of Ukraine.[5] Although Germany shifted huge forces from the eastern to the western front after signing the treaty, it was unable to stop the Allied advance, especially with the entrance of American troops in 1918.[6]

The war itself was also a chance for the combatant nations to show off their military strength and technological ingenuity. The Germans introduced the machine gun,

U-boats[8] and deadly gases.[9] The British first used the tank.[10] Both sides had a chance to test out their new aircraft to see if they could be used in warfare. It was widely believed that the war would be short. Unfortunately, since trench warfare was the best form of defense, advances on both sides were very slow and came at a terrible cost to lives.[11]

Division of Austria-Hungary after World War I

When the war was finally over in 1918, the results would set the stage for the next twenty years. First and foremost, the Germans were forced to sign the

Kaiser Wilhelm.[13]

Much of the map of Europe was redrawn by the victors based upon the theory that future wars could be prevented if all ethnic groups had their own "homeland". New states like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were created out of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire to accommodate the nationalist aspirations of these groups.[14] An international body called the League of Nations was formed to mediate disputes and prevent future wars, although its effectiveness was severely limited by, among other things, its reluctance and inability to act.[15]

The Russian Revolution and Communism

Main article: Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution of 1917 (ending in the overthrow of the Tsarist regime and the execution of His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II and his family) sparked a wave of communist revolutions across Europe, prompting many to believe that a socialist world revolution could be realized in the near future.[16] However, the European revolutions were defeated, Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, and within a few years, Joseph Stalin displaced Leon Trotsky as the de facto leader of the Soviet Union. The idea of worldwide revolution was no longer in the forefront, as Stalin concentrated on "socialism in one country"[17] and embarked on a bold plan of collectivization and industrialization.[18] The majority of socialists and even many communists became disillusioned with Stalin's autocratic rule, his purges and the assassination of his "enemies", as well as the news of famines he imposed on his own people.[19]

Communism was strengthened as a force in Western democracies when the global economy crashed in 1929 in what became known as the Great Depression. Many people saw this as the first stage of the end of the capitalist system and were attracted to Communism as a solution to the economic crisis, especially as the Soviet Union's economic development in the 1930s was strong, unaffected by the capitalist world's crisis.[20]

Between the wars

Dorothea Lange's 1936 photo Migrant Mother is one of the most iconic photos associated with the Great Depression
Main article: Interwar period

Economic depression

Main articles: Roaring Twenties and Great Depression

After World War I, the global economy remained strong through most of the 1920s. The war had provided a stimulus for industry and economic activity in general. There were many warning signs foretelling the Crash of 29 of the global economic system at the end of the decade, that were generally not understood by the political leadership of the time.[21] The responses to the crisis often made the situation worse, as millions of people watched their savings become next to worthless, and the idea of a steady job with a reasonable income fading away.[22]

Many sought answers from alternative ideologies such as communism and fascism.[23] They believed that the capitalist economic system was collapsing and that new ideas were required to meet the crisis. The early responses to the crisis were based on the assumption that the free market would correct itself. This, however, did very little to correct the crisis or to alleviate the suffering of many ordinary people. Thus, the idea that the existing system could be reformed by government intervention in the economy, rather than by continuing the laissez-faire approach, became prominent as a solution to the crisis. Democratic governments assumed the responsibility to provide needed services in society, and to alleviate poverty. Thus was born the welfare state.[24] These two politico-economic principles, the belief in government intervention and the welfare state, as opposed to the belief in the free market and private institutions, would define many political battles for the rest of the century.

The rise of dictatorship

Main articles: Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Dictatorship
Nazi soldiers hang a poster on the window of Jewish-owned business, that says: "Germans, defend yourselves. Do not buy from Jews". Germany, 1933

Fascism first appeared in Italy with the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in 1922.[25] The ideology was supported by a large proportion of the upper classes as a strong challenge to the threat of communism.[26]

When

Slavic population to act as slave labor to serve German economic interests.[27] There was also a strong appeal to a mythical racial purity (the idea that Germans were the Herrenvolk or the "master race"), and a vicious antisemitism which promoted the idea of Jews as subhuman (Untermensch) and worthy only of extermination.[28]

Many people in Western Europe and the United States greeted the rise of Hitler with relief or indifference.[29] They could see nothing wrong with a strong Germany ready to take on the communist menace to the east. Antisemitism during the Great Depression was widespread as many were content to blame the Jews for causing the economic downturn.[30]

Hitler began to put his plan in motion, annexing Austria in the

Munich Conference.[32] The British were eager to avoid war and believed Hitler's assurance to protect the security of the Czech state. Hitler annexed the rest of the Czech state shortly afterwards, indicating that he had ulterior motives.[33]

Fascism was not the only form of dictatorship to rise in the post-war period. Almost all of the new democracies in the nations of Eastern Europe collapsed and were replaced by

European Jews, or the Great Purge Stalin perpetrated in the Soviet Union
in the 1930s.

Global war: World War II (1939–1945)

Main article: World War II

The war in Europe

Main article:
European Theater of World War II

This section provides a conversational overview of World War II in Europe. See main article for a fuller discussion.

The signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in Moscow, August 23, 1939

Soon after the events in Czechoslovakia, Britain and France issued assurances of protection to Poland, which seemed to be next on Hitler's list. World War II officially began on September 1, 1939, when Hitler unleashed his

Polish government in Exile
).

In starting World War II, the Germans had unleashed a new type of warfare, characterized by highly mobile forces and the use of massed aircraft. The German strategy concentrated upon the devotion of the

panzer divisions, and groups of mobile infantry, in concert with relentless attacks from the air. Encirclement was also a major part of the strategy. This change smashed any expectations that the Second World War would be fought in the trenches like the first.[38]

As Hitler's forces conquered Poland, the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This treaty gave Stalin free rein to take the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as Eastern Poland, all of which would remain in Soviet possession after the war.[39] Stalin also launched an attack on Finland, which he hoped to reduce to little more than a Soviet puppet state, but the Red Army met staunch Finnish resistance in what became known as the Winter War and succeeded in gaining only limited territory from the Finns.[40] This action would later cause the Finns to ally with Germany when its attack on the Soviet Union came in 1941.[41]

Blitzkrieg

After the defeat of Poland, a period known as the

Eben Emael, a Belgian fort considered impregnable and guarded by 600 Belgians, to a force of only 88 German paratroopers. The worst of this was that King Leopold III of Belgium surrendered to the Germans on May 28 without warning his allies, exposing the entire flank of the Allied forces to German panzer groups.[44] Following the conquest of the Low Countries, Hitler occupied Denmark and Norway, beginning on April 9, 1940. Norway was strategically important because of its sea routes which supplied crucial Swedish ore to the Nazi war machine. Norway held on for a few crucial weeks, but Denmark surrendered after only four days.[45][46] Sweden was the only Scandinavian country to successfully maintain its neutrality throughout the war, with occasional breaches of neutrality in favor of both Germany and the Western Allies.[47]

With the disaster in the Low Countries, France, considered at the time to have had the finest army in the world, lasted only four weeks, with Paris being occupied on June 14. Three days later, Marshal

Free French forces, which would continue to battle Hitler in the stead of an independent France.[51] At this moment, Italy, under Benito Mussolini, declared war on the Allies on June 10, thinking that the war was almost over, but he managed only to occupy a few hundred yards of French territory.[52] Throughout the war, the Italians would be more of a burden to the Nazis than a boon, and would later cost them precious time in Greece.[53][54]

German Heinkel He 111 bombers during the Battle of Britain

Hitler now turned his eyes on Great Britain, which stood alone against him. He ordered his generals to draw up plans for an invasion, code named

Stuka.[56] The switch came after a small British bombing force had attacked Berlin.[57] Hitler was infuriated. However, his decision to switch the attacks' focus allowed the British to rebuild the RAF and eventually force the Germans to indefinitely postpone Sea Lion.[58]

The importance of the Battle of Britain is that it marked the first of Hitler's defeats, however its overall impact was overshadowed by his later blunders in the east. Secondly, it marked the advent of radar as a major weapon in modern air war. With radar, squadrons of fighters could be quickly assembled to respond to incoming bombers attempting to bomb civilian targets. It also allowed the identification of the type and a guess at the number of incoming enemy aircraft, as well as tracking of friendly airplanes.[59]

Operation Barbarossa

Hitler, taken aback by his defeat over the skies of Britain, now turned his gaze eastward to the Soviet Union. Despite having signed the non-aggression pact with Stalin, Hitler despised communism and wished to destroy it in the land of its birth. He originally planned to launch the attack in early spring of 1941 to avoid the disastrous Russian winter. However, a pro-allied coup in Yugoslavia and Mussolini's almost utter defeat in his invasion of Greece from occupied Albania prompted Hitler to launch a personal campaign of revenge in Yugoslavia and to occupy Greece at the same time.[60] The Greeks would have a bitter revenge of sorts; the attack caused a delay of several crucial weeks of the invasion of the USSR, potentially hampering it.[61]

Europe at the height of German control in 1942

On June 22, 1941, Hitler attacked Stalin with the largest army the world had ever seen. Over three million men and their weapons were put into service against the Soviet Union.[62] Stalin had been warned about the attack, both by other countries and by his own intelligence network, but he had refused to believe it. Therefore, the Soviet army was largely unprepared and suffered massive setbacks in the early part of the war, despite Stalin's orders to counterattack the Germans.[63] Throughout 1941, German forces, divided into 3 army groups (Army Group A, Army Group B, and Army Group C), occupied the territories of the present day Ukraine and Belarus, laid siege to Leningrad (present day Saint Petersburg), and advanced to within 15 miles of Moscow. At this critical moment, the Soviet people stalled the German Wehrmacht to a halt at the gates of Moscow. Stalin had planned to evacuate the city, and had already moved important government functions, but decided to stay and rally the city. Recently arrived troops from the east under the command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov counterattacked the Germans and drove them from Moscow.[64]

Mussolini had launched an offensive in North Africa from Italian-controlled Libya into British-controlled Egypt. However, the British smashed the Italians and were on the verge of taking Libya. Hitler decided to help by sending in a few thousand troops, a Luftwaffe division, and the first-rate general Erwin Rommel.[65] Rommel managed to use his small force to repeatedly smash massively superior British forces and to recapture the port city of Tobruk and advance into Egypt. However, Hitler, embroiled in his invasion of the Soviet Union, refused to send Rommel any more troops, causing Rommel to retreat and preventing him from seizing the Middle East, where Axis-friendly regimes had taken root in Iraq and Persia (present-day Iran).[66][67]

After the winter, Hitler launched a fresh offensive in the spring of 1942, with the aim of capturing the oil-rich Caucacus and the city of

rations. Eventually, the starved 6th Army surrendered, dealing a severe blow to the Germans. In the end, the defeat at Stalingrad was the turning point for the war in the east.[68]

Meanwhile, the Japanese had attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. This disastrous attack forced the Americans into the war. Parts of the German brass advised against declaring war on the US, arguing that since Japan was the aggressor, the Tripartite Pact didn't bind Germany to do so. However, Hitler hoped that Japan would be able to quickly defeat the US and then turn its attention on helping the effort against Russia. Both Germany and Italy declared war on the United States a few days after the attack.[69]

Turning tides

A British soldier gives a V gesture to German prisoners captured at El Alamein, 26 October 1942

Throughout the rest of 1942 and 1943, the Soviets began to gain ground against the Germans after some victories like the tank battle of Kursk.[70] By this time, Rommel had been forced to abandon North Africa after a defeat by Montgomery at El Alamein in what was the first decisive victory of the Allies over the Germany army, leading Churchill to declare it "the end of the beginning".[71] On several fronts, the Wehrmacht had encountered serious casualties that it could not replace. Hitler also insisted on a "hold at all costs" policy which forbade relinquishing any ground. He followed a "fight to the last man" policy that was completely ineffective. By the beginning of 1944, Hitler had lost all initiative in the Soviet Union, and was struggling even to hold back the tide turning against him.[72]

From 1942 to 1944, the United States and Britain acted in only a limited manner in the European theater, much to the chagrin of Stalin. They drove out the Germans in Africa, invading Morocco and Algeria on November 8, 1942.[73] Then, on July 10, 1943, the Allies invaded Sicily, in preparation for an advance through Italy, the "soft underbelly" of the Axis, as Winston Churchill called it. On September 9, the invasion of Italy began.[74] By the winter of 1943, the southern half of Italy was in Allied hands. The Italians, most of whom did not really support the war, had already turned against Mussolini. In July, he had been stripped of power and taken prisoner, though the Italians feigned continued support of the Axis. On September 8, the Italians formally surrendered,[75] but most of Italy not in Allied hands was controlled by German troops and those loyal to Mussolini's (Mussolini had been freed by German paratroopers) new Italian Social Republic, which in reality consisted of the shrinking zone of German control. The Germans offered staunch resistance, but by June 4, 1944, Rome had fallen.[76]

The

U-boats, German submarines. However, the development of the destroyer and aircraft with a longer patrol range were effective at countering the U-boat threat and by December 1943, the Germans had lost the battle.[78]

Operation Overlord

On June 6, 1944, the Western Allies finally launched the long-awaited assault on "Fortress Europe" so wanted by Stalin. The offensive, codenamed

artificial harbours, and false leads planted by the Allies suggested Calais as the landing site.[80]

U.S. assault troops approaching Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944.

By this time, the war was looking ever darker for Germany. On July 20, 1944, a group of conspiring German officers attempted to assassinate Hitler. The bomb they used did injure him, but the second was not used, and a table shielded Hitler in a stroke of luck.

SS and Gestapo forces in the city. The German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, rallied the Nazis and hunted down the conspirators, arresting up to 7000 people in the wake of the plot, according to some estimates.[82]

In France, the Allies took Normandy and finally Paris on August 25.

V-2, the first rockets used in modern warfare. The V-1 was often intercepted by air pilots, but the V-2 was extremely fast and carried a large payload. However, this advance came too late in the war to have any real effect.[84] The Germans were also on the verge of introducing a number of terrifying new weapons, including advanced jet aircraft, which were too fast for ordinary propeller aircraft, and submarine improvements which would allow the Germans to again fight effectively in the Atlantic. All this came too late to save Hitler. Although a September invasion of The Netherlands failed, the Allies made steady advances. In the winter of 1944, Hitler put everything into one last desperate gamble in the West, known as the Battle of the Bulge, which, despite an initial advance, was a failure, because the introduction of new Allied tanks and low troop numbers among the Germans prevented any real action being taken. Nevertheless, it was one of the bloodiest battles of the war and the second costliest battle in the history of the American Army.[85]

Final days

In early February 1945, the three Allied leaders,

Crimea in the Soviet Union in the Yalta Conference.[86] Here, they agreed upon a plan to divide post-war Europe. Most of the east went to Stalin, who agreed to allow free elections in Eastern Europe, which he never did. The west went to Britain, France, and the U.S. Post-war Germany would be split between the four, as would Berlin. This division of spheres of influence would set up international diplomacy for the Cold War that would dominate the second half of the century.[87]

At the beginning of 1945, Hitler was on his last strings. The Soviets launched a devastating attack from Poland into Germany and Eastern Europe, intending to take Berlin. The Germans collapsed in the West, allowing the Allies to fan out across Germany. However, the Supreme Allied Commander, American general

V-E Day).[90]

Rivalries that had begun during the war, combined with the sense of strength in the victorious powers, laid the foundations of the Iron Curtain and of the Cold War.

The war in the Pacific

Main article:
Asiatic-Pacific Theater
Background

The first event that is usually linked to the later Pacific conflict was the

Mukden Incident of 18 September 1931, during which the Japanese military staged the bombing of the South Manchuria Railway and pinned the blame on Chinese dissidents.[91] Japan then used this as pretext to invade northeastern China the next day and turn the region of Manchuria into the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.[92] After the League of Nations commissioned the 1932 Lytton Report, which exposed the Mukden Incident as a Japanese ruse, Japan was left internationally isolated, withdrawing from the League of Nations in March 1933. In 1934 Manchukuo became a constitutional monarchy and the former Chinese Emperor Pu Yi was placed on the throne, despite the real power being held by Japan.[93]

Despite relations between Japan and China suffering because the occupation of Manchuria, the situation did not turn into all-out war until 7 July 1937, when a dispute between Chinese and Japanese soldiers turned into a battle during the

Nanjing in 1937 and forcing the Chinese central government 's relocation to Chongqing. Following Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi in 1939, the war reached somewhat of a stalemate, with Japan controlling the large cities, but being unable to rule the vast countryside.[96] On 27 September 1940, Japan became cosignatories of the Tripartite Pact, joining a military alliance with Germany and Italy.[97]

Japanese Expansion

USS West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the American base at

Infamy Speech, the United States declared war on Japan, marking the official entry of both nations in World War 2.[99][100] At the same time, Japan also launched attacks on Thailand, the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and American military bases in Guam, Wake Island and the Philippines.[101]

The next six months were dominated by Japanese victories against the Allied forces, already war-weary and stretched thin after two years of war in Europe and North Africa. Japan managed to capture

British Burma, New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies, the Solomon Islands, Bali and Timor.[102] In March 1942, days before the surrender of the Philippines, general Douglas MacArthur, who came out of retirement to become commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East at the onset of the war, was forced to flee and narrowly escape to Australia.[103] On 19 February 1942, Japan also launched a devastating aerial attack on the Australian city of Darwin, in what was the first attack by a foreign power on Australian soil.[104]

The turning of the tide came in early May, during the

Guadalcanal, Milne Bay and Buna-Gona.[108]

Allied offensive

A map of the Japanese advance from 1937 to 1942

Over the next two years the Allies slowly captured one island base after another, trying to get closer to Japan itself, where it planned to launch massive strategic air attacks and, only if absolutely necessary, execute a ground invasion. By July 1944, the US

Japanese offensive in India and in the Pacific, with the Battle of the Philippine Sea, where Japan suffered major losses and definitively lost the ability to rely on aircraft carriers.[110] In later October, a combined attack of American and Australian forces took on the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in what was to be the largest naval battle of World War II and possibly the largest naval battle of all time.[111] The Allied victory achieved its stated goal of further severing oil supplied to the Japanese army, which was already struggling to fuel the remainder of its naval power.[112] The battle of Leyte Gulf is also notable as the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks.[113]

By early 1945, the Americans set their eyes on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, which was of great strategic importance, being situated halfway between

China
.

Continuing to come nearer the main Japanese islands, on 1 April 1945 the US Marines mounted the largest

Japanese home islands which were only 340 miles away.[118] The battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with approximately 160,000 casualties on both sides: at least 75,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese. Around half of the island's population of 300,000 were killed, committed suicide or went missing.[119]

Enola Gay's ground crew with mission commander Paul Tibbets in the center.

Final days

The assaults on both Iwo Jima and Okinawa proved incredibly costly in terms of American lives and president Truman was horrified at the prospect of Operation Downfall, a planned boots-on-the-ground invasion of mainland Japan that was estimated to lead to over a million casualties among American soldiers.[120] Despite a devastating campaign of fire-bombing in Tokyo and dozens of other cities, the Japanese showed no sign of planning to surrender. Following the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, where the Allies threatened "prompt and utter destruction" should Japan not surrender,[121] the decision was made to resort to the first use of atomic bombs. On 6 August, the 393d Bombardment Squadron B-29 Enola Gay, took off from Tinian and dropped the bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The two bombings killed 129,000–226,000 people, most of them civilians.[122] On 9 August, the Soviet Union also invaded Manchukuo in what was to be the last campaign of the war.[123]

On 10 August the "sacred decision" was made by Japanese Cabinet to accept the

Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers.[125]

The Holocaust

Main article: The Holocaust

The Holocaust (which roughly means "great fire") was the deliberate, systematic murder of millions of Jews and other minorities during World War II by

The Nazis used propaganda to great effect to stir up antisemitic feelings within ordinary Germans. Many people, including politicians and historians, consider the Holocaust to be the worst event in history, and have described Hitler, his followers, and his regime as evil
.

Slave laborers at the Buchenwald concentration camp.

After the conquest of Poland, the

SS men known as Einsatzgruppen systematically rounded up Jews and murdered an estimated one million Jews within the country.[131]
As barbaric and inhuman as this seems, it was too slow and inefficient by Nazi standards.

In 1942, the top leadership met in

Human experimentation in Nazi Germany).[135] Out of the widespread condemnation of the Nazis' medical experiments, the Nuremberg Code of medical ethics was devised.[136]

The Nazis took a sadistic pleasure in the death camps; the entrance to the most notorious camp,

Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma and political prisoners were killed by various means, mainly in the death camps.[138][139][140] An additional several million Soviet and other Allied prisoners of war died in camps and holding areas.[141][142]

There is some controversy over whether ordinary Germans knew about the Holocaust.[143] It appears that many Germans knew about the concentration camps; such things were prominently displayed in magazines and newspapers.[144] In many places, Jews had to walk past towns and villages on their way to work as slaves in German industry. In any case, Allied soldiers reported that the smell of the camps carried for miles.[145] A very small number of people deny the Holocaust occurred entirely, though these claims have been routinely discredited by mainstream historians.[146]

The Nuclear Age begins

Main article: History of nuclear weapons

During the 1930s, innovations in

German atomic bomb program had not been very close to success.[149]

Trinity", was detonated on July 16, 1945.

The Allied team produced two nuclear weapons for use in the war, one powered by uranium-235 and the other by plutonium as fissionable material, named "Little Boy" and "Fat Man".[150] These were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 each. This, in combination with the Soviet invasion of Japanese-controlled territory, convinced the Japanese government to surrender unconditionally. These two weapons remain the only two nuclear weapons ever used against other countries in war.[151]

Nuclear weapons brought an entirely new and

thermonuclear weapon in 1952. This new weapon was alone over 400 times as powerful as the weapons used against Japan. The Soviet Union detonated a primitive thermonuclear weapon in 1953 and a full-fledged one in 1955.[154]

Nuclear missiles and computerized launch systems increased the range and scope of possible nuclear war.

The conflict continued to escalate, with the major superpowers developing long-range missiles (such as the

Mutually Assured Destruction). The creation of early warning systems put the control of these weapons into the hands of newly created computers, and they served as a tense backdrop throughout the Cold War.[155]

Since the 1940s there were concerns about the rising

Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in 1968 was an attempt to curtail such proliferation,[159] but a number of countries developed nuclear weapons since it was signed (and many did not sign it), and several other countries, including Libya and Iran were suspected of having clandestine nuclear weapons programs.[160][161]

The post-war world

Main article: Post–World War II economic expansion

Following World War II, the majority of the industrialized world lay in ruins as a result of aerial bombings, naval bombardment, and protracted land campaigns. The United States was a notable exception to this; barring Pearl Harbor and some minor incidents, the U.S. had suffered no attacks upon its territory.[162] The United States and the Soviet Union, which, despite the devastation of its most populated areas, rebuilt quickly, found themselves the world's two dominant superpowers.[163]

Much of Western Europe was rebuilt after the war with assistance from the

Axis powers, despite military occupation, soon rose to become the second (Japan) and third (West Germany) most powerful economies in the world.[166]

Following the end of the war, the

Tokyo War Crime Trial.[167]

The failure of the League of Nations to prevent World War II essentially discredited the organization, and it was dissolved.[168] A new attempt at world peace was begun with the founding of the United Nations on October 24, 1945, in San Francisco.[169] Today, nearly all countries are members, but despite its many successes, the organization's success at achieving its goal of world peace is disputed. The organization was never given enough power to overcome the conflicting interests and priorities of its member nations.

The end of empires: decolonization

Michael Somare, the first leader of an independent Papua New Guinea.
Main articles: Decolonization and New Imperialism

Almost all of the major nations that were involved in World War II began shedding their overseas colonies soon after the conflict. The tactics employed by the revolutionaries ranged from non-violent forms of protest to armed rebellions, depending on the nation involved.[170][171] Immediately after the war, European powers began a decades-long process of withdrawing from their possessions in Africa and Asia.

In India,

People's Republic of Bangladesh in 1971.[172][173] Elsewhere in Asia, The United States granted independence to the Philippines, its major Pacific possession in 1946.[174] In French Indochina, armed insurrections forced the French out in the early 1950s, leading to the formation of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.[175]

In Africa, nationalists such as Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana led their respective nations to independence from foreign rule.[176] Mere decades before, the British Empire controlled almost half of the continent, but by 1968, the only British possession in Africa was Seychelles (which would also become independent in 1976). Between 1956 and 1962, almost 20 African countries achieved their independence from France.[177] Through the efforts of Amílcar Cabral and others, the Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe followed suit and achieved independence during the mid-1970s, in what was to be the last important wave of African decolonization.[178]

In 1946, there were 35 member states in the United Nations, but as the newly independent nations joined the organization, by 1970 membership increased to 127.[179]

The emergence of newly independent countries in Africa and Asia that used the borders of the imperial partitions later led to further conflict.[180] In many cases this meant that historically antagonistic ethnic or religious groups now needed to share the same country or that several nations held territorial claims over regions which were more or less arbitrarily divided by European powers.[181][182] Some conflicts which aroused from these tensions, especially the Nigerian Civil War, the Second Congo War, the Second Sudanese Civil War and the Bangladesh Liberation War have been among the bloodiest wars of the 20th century.[183]

The Cold War (1947–1991)

Post-war territorial changes in Europe and the formation of the Eastern Bloc
Main articles:
China, North Korea, Cuba and Vietnam.[191]

The spread of the communist ideology in general and the Soviet influence in particular made Western leaders nervous and it even lead to Churchill considering a preemptive attack on the USSR even before World War II was formally ended.[192]

The two rival blocks also coalesced into formal mutual defense organizations, with the formation of the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949[193] and the Warsaw Pact in 1955,[194] each determine to expand its own influence among unaligned countries
and limit the influence of their rivals.

War by proxy

Main articles: Korean War, Vietnam War, and Cuban Missile Crisis

Two wars and a near-war in the 1950s became the focus for capitalist versus communist struggle. The first war was the Korean War, fought between People's Republic of China-backed North Korea and mainly United States-backed South Korea. The Korean Peninsula was a Japanese colony between 1910 and 1945, when Soviet and American troops invaded and divided it along the 38th parallel.[195] A communist government controlled the territory north of the border and a capitalist one controlled the South, with both authorities considering the other one illegitimate and claiming sovereignty over the entire peninsula.[196] North Korea's invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950 led to United Nations intervention.[197] General Douglas MacArthur led troops from the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and other countries in repulsing the Northern invasion. However, the war reached a stalemate after Chinese intervention pushed U.N. forces back, and an Armistice ended hostilities in July 1953, leaving the two Koreas divided and tense for the rest of the century.[198]

The second war, the

Saigon was captured on April 30, 1975, and Vietnam was unified under Communist rule a year later, effectively bringing an end to one of the most unpopular wars of all time.[207][208]

The Cuban Missile Crisis illustrates just how close to the brink of nuclear war the world came during the Cold War. Cuba, under Fidel Castro's socialist government, had formed close ties with the Soviet Union.[209] This was obviously disquieting to the United States, given Cuba's proximity. When Lockheed U-2 spy plane flights over the island revealed that Soviet missile launchers were being installed, U.S. President John F. Kennedy instituted a naval blockade and publicly confronted the Soviet Union. After a tense week, the Soviet Union backed down and ordered the launchers removed, not wanting to risk igniting a new world war.[210][211]

The space race

In 1969, humans first set foot on the Moon.
Main article: Space Race

With

rover-based space exploration and image and video transfer from the surface of another planet, until the early 21st century.[218][219]

In addition, both countries launched numerous

probes into space, such as the Venera 7 and Voyager 2.[220]

In later decades, space became a somewhat friendlier place. Regular space flights with astronauts were made possible with the American Space Shuttle, which was the first reusable spacecraft to be successfully used.[221] Mir and Skylab enabled prolonged human habitation in space.[222][223] In the 1990s, work on the International Space Station began, and by the end of the century, while still incomplete, it was in continual use by astronauts from the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan, and Canada.[224]

The end of the Cold War

In 1989, the Berlin Wall separating West and East Berlin fell.
Main article:
Cold War (1985-1991)

By the 1980s, the Soviet Union was weakening. The Sino-Soviet split had removed the USSR's most powerful ally, the People's Republic of China.[225] Its arms race with the U.S. was draining the country of funds, and further weakened by internal pressures, ethnic and political. Mikhail Gorbachev, its last leader, attempted to reform the country with glasnost and perestroika,[226] but the formation of Solidarity,[227] the fall of the Berlin Wall,[228] and the breaking-off of several Soviet republics, such as Lithuania,[229] started a slippery slope of events that culminated in a coup to overthrow Gorbachev, organized by Communist Party hard-liners. Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia, organized mass opposition, and the coup failed.[230] On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union was officially disbanded into its constituent republics, thus putting a final line under the already exhausted Cold War.[231]

Information and communications technology

Main articles: Computer, History of computing hardware, and Internet

The creation of the

random access memory.[236]

Colossus Mark 2 computer operated by Wrens

The invention of the

ZX80 and the Commodore PET.[239][240]
PC compatible computers that soon became the dominant architecture.[242][243] Microsoft, which produced an operating system for the PC, rode this wave of popularity to become the world's leading software company.[244]

The 1980s heralded the Information Age. The rise of computer applications and data processing made ethereal "information" as valuable as physical commodities. This brought about new concerns surrounding intellectual property issues. The U.S. Government made algorithms patentable, forming the basis of software patents.[245] The controversy over these and proprietary software led Richard Stallman to create the Free Software Foundation and begin the GNU Project, paving the way for a free software movement.[246]

Computers also became a usable platform for entertainment. Computer games were first developed by software programmers exercising their creativity on large systems at universities, but these efforts became commercially successful in

sprites and parallax scrolling) in preference to general purpose computing tasks.[249]

Compuserve and America Online. This changed when Tim Berners-Lee devised a simpler form of Vannevar Bush's hypertext, which he dubbed the World Wide Web.[254] "The Web" suddenly changed the Internet into a printing press beyond the geographic boundaries of physical countries; it was termed "cyberspace". Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection could write pages in the simple HTML format and publish their thoughts to the world.[255]

The Web's immense success also fueled the commercial use of the Internet. Convenient home shopping had been an element of "visions of the future" since the development of the telephone, but now the race was on to provide convenient, interactive consumerism.

dot coms", due to the ".com" suffix of commercial Internet addresses.[257] The change of the century also lead to the fear and paranoia of Y2K
, where it was hypothesized that the World's computers would glitch and cause havoc on banks, prisons, transit systems and more.

The world at the end of the century

Main article: 1990s

By the end of the century, more technological advances and scientific discoveries had been made than in all of preceding history. Communications and information technology, transportation technology, and medical advances have radically altered daily lives. Europe appeared to be at a sustainable peace for the first time in recorded history. The people of the Indian subcontinent, a sixth of the world population at the end of the century, had attained indigenous independence for the first time in centuries. China, an ancient nation comprising a fifth of the world's population, was finally open to the world in a new and powerful synthesis of West and East, creating a new state after the near-complete destruction of the old cultural order. With the end of colonialism and the Cold War, nearly a billion people in Africa were left with truly independent new nation-states, some cut from whole cloth, standing up after centuries of foreign domination.[258]

The geographic distribution of surface warming during the 21st century calculated by the HadCM3 climate model if a business as usual scenario is assumed for economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. In this figure, the globally averaged warming corresponds to 3.0 °C (5.4 °F).

The world was undergoing its second major period of globalization; the first, which started in the 19th century, having been terminated by World War I.[259] Since the US was in a position of almost unchallenged domination, a major part of the process was Americanization.[260] This led to anti-Western and anti-American feelings in parts of the world, especially the Middle East.[261] The influence of China and India was also rising, as the world's largest populations, long marginalized by the West and by their rulers, were rapidly integrating with the world economy.[262]

However, several problems face the world. The gap between rich and poor nations continued to widen. Some said that this problem could not be fixed, that there was a set amount of wealth and it could only be shared by so many. Others said that the powerful nations with large economies were not doing enough to help improve the rapidly evolving economies of the Third World. However, developing countries faced many challenges, including the scale of the task to be surmounted, rapidly growing populations, and the need to protect the environment and the cost that goes along with it.

Terrorism, dictatorship, and the spread of

Kim Jong-il of North Korea continued to lead their nations toward the development of nuclear weapons.[263]

Disease threatened to destabilize many regions of the world. New viruses such as

epidemic in southern Africa.[266]

Perhaps most importantly, it was speculated that in the long term, environmental problems threatened the planet's livability. The most serious problem was

global warming, which was predicted to frequently flood coastal areas, due to human-caused emission of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Like the threat of a nuclear world war, the shift of climate change has since added to the fear of the possibility of human extinction, although not overnight but over several decades.[267] This prompted many nations to negotiate and sign the Kyoto treaty, which set mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions.[268]

The celebration of the 20th century’s ending expressed the popular opinion that New Year's Eve 1999 and New Year's Day 2000 marked the turn of the millennium, while strictly speaking the 20th century ended on New Year's Eve 2000 and the 21st century began on New Year's Day 2001.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo | Century Ireland". www.rte.ie. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  2. ^ "How The World Went To War In 1914". Imperial War Museums. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  3. ^ Wilde, Robert (7 September 2018). "The Major Alliances of World War I Began as Hope for Mutual Protection". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  4. ^ "Who was involved in the First World War? Who was on each side?". History Extra. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  5. ^ "WWI Centennial: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk". mentalfloss.com. 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  6. ^ Anthony, Maria (6 August 2018). "From Amiens to Armistice: The Hundred Days Offensive". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  7. ^ "First World War.com - Weapons of War: Machine Guns". www.firstworldwar.com. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  8. ^ Mason, Amanda (9 January 2018). "The U-Boat Campaign That Almost Broke Britain". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  9. ^ "Remembering the day the first poison gas attack changed the face of warfare forever". The Independent. 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  10. ^ Brosnan, Matt (8 January 2018). "How Britain Invented The Tank In The First World War". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  11. ^ Dunleavy, Brian. "Life in the Trenches of World War I". HISTORY. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  12. ^ "The National Archives Learning Curve | The Great War | Why was it hard to make peace?". www.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  13. ^ "First World War.com - Primary Documents - Friedrich Ebert on the First Post-Imperial German Government, 10-17 November 1918". www.firstworldwar.com. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  14. ^ "Crumbling of Empires and Emerging States: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia as (Multi)national Countries | International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1)". encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  15. ^ "BBC - History - World Wars: The League of Nations and the United Nations". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  16. ISBN 9780813911533
    .
  17. ^ "On the Final Victory of Socialism in the U.S.S.R." www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  18. ^ "Collectivization and Industrialization". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  19. ^ Darling, Kylie (2012). "The Foreign Communist Experience in Stalin's USSR: A Course in Disillusionment". Honors Project. 147: 3.
  20. ^ "Politics in The Great Depression". www.shmoop.com. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  21. ^ Marks, Julie. "What Caused the Stock Market Crash of 1929?". HISTORY. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  22. ^ Webb, Allen P. "Weighing the US government's response to the crisis: A dialogue | McKinsey". www.mckinsey.com. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  23. ^ "Why did the Great Depression cause a crisis for capitalism?". South African History Online. 2011-03-22. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  24. JSTOR 2095814
    .
  25. ISSN 1091-2339
    . Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  26. ^ Douglasandslavery Says (2011-05-06). "Benito Mussolini & the Italian Fascism State". Italian Fascism. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  27. JSTOR 4546842
    .
  28. ISBN 9780803242999
    .
  29. ^ Gritz, Jennie Rothenberg (2012-03-13). "Early Warnings: How American Journalists Reported the Rise of Hitler". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  30. ^ "Pre-war British government responses". The Holocaust Explained. Archived from the original on 2019-04-20. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  31. ^ "Hitler announces an Anschluss with Austria". HISTORY. 5 November 2009. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  32. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  33. ^ Wiegrefe, Klaus (2009-09-02). "The Road to World War II: How Appeasement Failed to Stop Hitler". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  34. ^ "Between the wars – failure of the young democracies". deutschland.de. 2014-06-11. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  35. ^ Peck, Michael (2016-07-24). "The Spanish Civil War: A Trial Run for World War II". The National Interest. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  36. ^ "BBC - History - World Wars: Invasion of Poland". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  37. ^ "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: A 'honeymoon' for two dictators | DW | 23.08.2014". DW.COM. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  38. ^ "The End of Trench Warfare". Trench Warfare. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  39. ^ "German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact". HISTORY. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  40. ^ "Winter War: Russia Invades Finland". warfarehistorynetwork.com. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  41. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  42. ^ "Britain's 'Phoney' Start To The Second World War". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  43. ^ "1940: Churchill takes helm as Germans advance". BBC. 1940-05-10. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  44. ISBN 9781844152551
    .
  45. ^ "BBC - History - World Wars: The Norway Campaign in World War Two". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  46. JSTOR 25642756
    .
  47. ISBN 9780521643580
    .
  48. ^ "France to surrender". HISTORY. 21 July 2010. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  49. ^ "The Evacuation of Dunkirk - May 1940". Historic UK. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  50. ^ "On This Day: France Surrenders to Nazi Germany". www.findingdulcinea.com. 22 June 2011. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  51. ^ Zimmerman, Dwight. "Charles de Gaulle and the Free French". Defense Media Network. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  52. S2CID 266611484
    .
  53. ^ "Italy a burden on Hitler in World War II - World - Dunya News". dunyanews.tv. 14 February 2008. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  54. ^ "Italy Tried to Invade Greece in World War II. It Was a Disaster". The National Interest. 2017-07-28. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  55. ^ "1940: Victory for RAF in Battle of Britain". 1940-09-15. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  56. ^ Grant, Rebecca (October 2008). "The Stuka Terror: Germany's shrieking Ju 87 dive bomber lingered in the mind as a truly dreaded air weapon". Air Force Magazine. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  57. ^ "BBC - History - Britain bombs Berlin (pictures, video, facts & news)". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  58. ^ "BBC - History - Hitler postpones the invasion of Britain (pictures, video, facts & news)". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  59. ^ "The Radar and the Battle of Britain". History Learning Site. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  60. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  61. ISBN 9780671728687
    .
  62. ^ "Operation Barbarossa". HISTORY. 29 October 2009. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  63. ^ "What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa — Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  64. ^ Hickman, Kennedy (19 September 2018). "Death in the Snow: Battle of Moscow". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  65. ^ "Rommel in Africa". HISTORY. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  66. ^ "World War II: North Africa Campaign". HistoryNet. 2006-06-12. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  67. ^ "World War II in the Middle East". warfarehistorynetwork.com. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  68. ^ "Germany's Sixth Army in Stalingrad in World War II". HistoryNet. 2006-06-12. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  69. ^ "Germany declares war on the United States". HISTORY. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  70. ^ Peck, Michael (2017-10-27). "Why the Battle of Kursk Might Just Be the Most Misunderstood World War II Battle". The National Interest. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  71. ISBN 9781585676552
    .
  72. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  73. ISBN 9781472820563
    .
  74. ^ "75 Years Ago: The US Invasion of Italy". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  75. ^ "1943: Italy's surrender announced". BBC. 1943-09-08. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  76. ^ "Liberating Rome and Central Italy, a World War II Online Interactive, Released". American Battle Monuments Commission. 5 June 2015. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  77. ISBN 9780872499843
    .
  78. ^ "What You Need To Know About The Battle Of The Atlantic". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  79. ISBN 9780762786633
    .
  80. ISBN 9780760316078
    .
  81. ^ Palek, Stephanie (2015-04-27). "Operation Valkyrie 1944". www.lib.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  82. ISBN 9781136088605
    .
  83. ^ "Aug. 25, 1944 | Paris Is Liberated After 4-Year Nazi Occupation". The Learning Network. 2011-08-25. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  84. ^ Hollingham, Richard (8 September 2014). "V2: The Nazi rocket that launched the space age". BBC. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  85. ^ "10 Bloodiest Battles of World War II". www.militaryeducation.org. Archived from the original on 2018-12-15. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  86. ^ "How Churchill, Roosevelt And Stalin Planned To End The Second World War". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  87. ^ "The Cold War origins 1941-56: The Yalta Conference". BBC. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  88. ISBN 9780802008626
    .
  89. ISBN 9781602398047
    .
  90. ^ "May 7, 1945 | Nazi Germany Surrenders in World War II". The Learning Network. 2012-05-07. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  91. ISBN 9781438110295
    .
  92. S2CID 143561025
    .
  93. ^ "BBC - History - World Wars: Japan's Quest for Empire". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  94. ^ Cavendish, Richard (7 July 2012). "The Marco Polo Bridge Incident". History Today. 62 (7).
  95. ^ Kaiser, Davi (July 7, 2017). "The War That Started 80 Years Ago Wouldn't Happen Today. We Can Still Learn From It". Time. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  96. ^ "Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) / Anti-Japanese War / Eight Year War of Resistance". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  97. ^ "The Avalon Project: Summary of the Three-Power Pact Between Germany, Italy, and Japan, Signed at Berlin, September 27, 1940". avalon.law.yale.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  98. ^ "The Forgotten Reason Why Japan Attacked Pearl Harbor". The National Interest. 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  99. ^ "The United States declares war on Japan". HISTORY. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  100. ^ "The Declaration of War Against Japan | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. 8 December 1941. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  101. ISBN 9780688016203
    .
  102. ^ "The History Place - Timeline of Pacific War". www.historyplace.com. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  103. ^ "From the Jaws of Death: MacArthur's Escape from the Philippines". warfarehistorynetwork.com. 15 November 2016. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  104. ^ "Bombing of Darwin | Australian Maritime Museum". stories.anmm.gov.au. Archived from the original on 2018-12-16. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  105. ^ "Battle of the Coral Sea". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 2018-12-13.[permanent dead link]
  106. ISBN 978-0-14-303573-2
    .
  107. ISBN 9781480489455
    .
  108. ISBN 9780393248203
    .
  109. ^ "The Second Battle of Guam | Marine Corps Association". www.mca-marines.org. Archived from the original on 2018-12-16. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  110. ^ "The Last Aircraft Carrier Showdown: Welcome to the Battle of the Philippine Sea". The National Interest. 2018-06-29. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  111. ^ "The Largest Naval Sea Battles in Military History: A Closer Look at the Largest and Most Influential Naval Battles in World History". Norwich University Online. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  112. ^ Murphy, Daniel T. (2018-02-13). "The Geometry of War at Sea: The Leyte Gulf Example". Center for International Maritime Security. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  113. ^ Nichols, Robert (Spring 2004). "The first Kamikaze attack?". Wartime. 28.
  114. ^ Brimelow, Ben (2018-02-23). "73 years ago a war photographer snapped the most iconic image of World War II — here's the story of the battle behind the photo". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  115. ^ Alexander, Joseph (2018-02-17). "The Battle of Iwo Jima: A 36-day bloody slog on a sulfuric island". Military Times. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  116. S2CID 159781449
    .
  117. ^ Lacey, Laura (13 April 2003). "Battle of Okinawa". www.militaryhistoryonline.com. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  118. ISBN 9781782660354
    .
  119. ^ "Number of names Inscribed／沖縄県". www.pref.okinawa.jp. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  120. ^ Peck, Michael (2018-08-07). "Operation Downfall: How America Would Have Invaded Japan (It Would Have Been Hell)". The National Interest. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  121. ^ "Potsdam Declaration | The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | Historical Documents | atomicarchive.com". www.atomicarchive.com. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  122. ^ Maguire, Amy (3 September 2018). "World politics explainer: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki". The Conversation. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  123. ^ Ojo, Marvellous (2018-08-26). "Soviet Invasion of Manchuria: Finishing the Japanese Army". WAR HISTORY ONLINE. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  124. ^ Andrew Glass (14 August 2018). "Hirohito accepts Japan's surrender terms, Aug. 14, 1945". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  125. ^ "Japanese Instrument of Surrender, 1945". National Archives Foundation. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  126. ISBN 9780748616558
    .
  127. ^ "How Was the Holocaust Planned?". Boston.com. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  128. ^ "The Kristallnacht Pogrom, 9-10 November 1938 - It Came From Within | Yad Vashem". www.yadvashem.org. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  129. ^ "The development of ghettos – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for schools". 22 June 1933. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  130. ^ "Pictures from inside a Nazi-controlled ghetto". www.cbsnews.com. 16 July 2017. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  131. ISBN 9780307426802
    .
  132. ^ Hasic, Albinko (19 January 2017). "What People Get Wrong About the Nazi Conference to Plan the 'Final Solution'". Time. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  133. ^ "Mass deportations to the concentration and extermination camps | Holocaust". www.holocaust.cz. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  134. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  135. ^ Kirsch, Adam (6 April 2015). "The System: Two new histories show how the Nazi concentration camps worked". The New Yorker. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
  136. PMID 21731859
    .
  137. ISBN 9780028960906
    .
  138. ^ Haaretz (2013-08-11). "Holocaust Facts: Where Does the Figure of 6 Million Victims Come From?". Haaretz. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  139. ^ Blumberg, Antonia (2015-01-27). "The Holocaust's Forgotten Victims: The 5 Million Non-Jewish People Killed By The Nazis". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  140. ^ "Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  141. ^ "Nazi Persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  142. ^ Mason, Amanda (18 June 2018). "What Life Was Like For POWs In Europe During The Second World War". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  143. ^ Schmitter, Elke (2011-10-05). "Nazi Crimes: Diaries Reveal How Much Wartime Germans Knew". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  144. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  145. ^ ""Oh, No, It Can't Be" – Holocaust Teacher Resource Center". Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  146. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2018-12-15. Many people, including politicians and historians, consider the Holocaust to be worst event in history, and have described Hitler, his followers, and his regime as evil
    .
  147. ^ "The man who dreamed of the atom bomb". BBC News. 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  148. ^ "The Manhattan Project". Atomic Heritage Foundation. 12 May 2017. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  149. ^ "German Atomic Bomb Project". Atomic Heritage Foundation. 18 October 2016. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  150. ^ Stockbauer, Marc (18 August 1999). "The Designs of 'Fat Man' and 'Little Boy'". Stanford: Ethics of Development in a Global Environment. Archived from the original on 2019-11-08. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  151. ^ "Little Boy and Fat Man". Atomic Heritage Foundation. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  152. ^ "Manhattan Project: Espionage and the Manhattan Project, 1940-1945". U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  153. ^ "29 August 1949 - First Soviet nuclear test: CTBTO Preparatory Commission". The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  154. ^ "Types of Nuclear Weapons: CTBTO Preparatory Commission". The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  155. ^ de Castella, Tom (15 February 2012). "How did we forget about mutually assured destruction?". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  156. ^ "Nuclear forces reduced while modernizations continue, says SIPRI". Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 16 June 2014. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  157. ^ Friedman, Uri (2017-09-09). "Why One President Gave Up His Country's Nukes". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  158. ^ DePetris, Daniel R. (2018-07-31). "Israel's Nuclear Weapons: 5 Things You Need to Know". The National Interest. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  159. ^ "Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)". International Atomic Energy Agency. 2014-07-25. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  160. ^ "Libya Nuclear Weapons Program | Libya Nuclear Disarmament | NTI". www.nti.org. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  161. ^ "Major milestones of Iran's nuclear programme | Iran | Al Jazeera". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  162. ^ Andrews, Evan (23 October 2012). "5 Attacks on U.S. Soil During World War II". HISTORY. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  163. doi:10.1093/pastj/gtq042
    .
  164. ^ "The division of Germany - The Cold War (1945–1989) - CVCE Website". Virtual Centre for Knowledge on Europe. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  165. ^ "Milestones: 1945–1952 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  166. ISBN 9780833041814
    .
  167. ^ "The Nuremberg Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Trials (1945–1948)". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  168. ^ "Why Did the League of Nations Fail?". www.historyonthenet.com. 2014-12-09. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  169. ^ "History of the United Nations". www.un.org. 2015-08-21. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  170. ^ Parker, Clifton B. (2014-10-29). "Gandhi's nonviolent approach offers lessons for peace movements, Stanford scholar says". Stanford University. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  171. ^ McQuade, Joseph (9 November 2016). "The forgotten violence that helped India break free from colonial rule". The Conversation. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  172. ISSN 0307-1235
    . Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  173. ^ Dummett, Mark (2011-12-16). "How one newspaper report changed world history". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  174. ^ "The Philippines, 1898–1946 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  175. ^ "Dien Bien Phu & the Fall of French Indochina, 1954". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  176. ISBN 9780894649110
    .
  177. ^ "Timeline: African independence". RFI. 2010-02-16. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  178. ISBN 9780190277734
    .
  179. ^ "Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945–1960". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  180. ^ Fisher, Max (2012-09-10). "The Dividing of a Continent: Africa's Separatist Problem". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  181. SSRN 1596835
    .
  182. ^ Hyde, Tim (13 July 2016). "Are colonial-era borders drawn by Europeans holding Africa back?". American Economic Association. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  183. ^ "7 Civil Wars in Africa We Must Never Forget". This Is Africa. 2017-03-14. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  184. ^ "The Yalta Conference - The Cold War (1945–1989) - CVCE Website". www.cvce.eu. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  185. ^ Churchill, Winston (5 March 1946). "The Sinews of Peace ('Iron Curtain Speech')". The International Churchill Society. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  186. ISBN 9780300112047
    .
  187. ISSN 0024-5089
    .
  188. ^ "The End of WWII and the Division of Europe". Center for European Studies. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  189. ISBN 9780817997922
    .
  190. ISBN 9780415307321
    .
  191. ^ Englund, Will (26 October 2016). "Red Century: From the 'October Revolution' in 1917, communism swept the globe. Now, North Korea may be the one true survivor". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  192. ^ Fenton, Ben (1 October 1998). "The secret strategy to launch attack on Red Army". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 20 April 2016. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  193. ^ "North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 1949". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  194. ^ Rosenberg, Matt (30 September 2018). "The Warsaw Pact History and Members". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  195. ^ McDonough, Richard (13 June 2018). "A Short History Of The Korean War". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  196. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  197. ISBN 9780671668341
    .
  198. ISBN 9780679603788
    .
  199. ISBN 9781429953528
    .
  200. ^ Johnson, David (15 May 2009). "Selling "Operation Passage to Freedom": Dr. Thomas Dooley and the Religious Overtones of Early American Involvement in Vietnam". University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations.
  201. ^ Gravel, Mike (1971). "Military Pressures Against North Vietnam, February 1964-January 1965". The Pentagon Papers. Vol. 3. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 106–268.
  202. ^ Zelizer, Julian E. (2018-01-15). "How the Tet Offensive Undermined American Faith in Government". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  203. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  204. ^ Schultz, Colin (13 March 2018). "Nixon Prolonged Vietnam War for Political Gain—And Johnson Knew About It, Newly Unclassified Tapes Suggest". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  205. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  206. ^ Michaels, Jeffrey (2017-05-19). "Stuck in Endless Preliminaries: Vietnam and the Battle of the Paris Peace Table, November 1968-January 1969". Defence-In-Depth. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  207. ^ Kaiser, David (30 April 2015). "Lessons of the Fall of Saigon". Time. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  208. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  209. ISSN 0015-7120
    . Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  210. ^ "Cuban Missile Crisis: For thirteen days in October 1962 the world waited—seemingly on the brink of nuclear war—and hoped for a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  211. ^ "Nuclear Close Calls: The Cuban Missile Crisis". Atomic Heritage Foundation. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  212. ^ "USSR Launches Sputnik". National Geographic Society. 2013-12-17. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  213. ^ "Aftermath of Sputnik launch". www.russianspaceweb.com. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  214. ^ "In Depth | Luna 02". Solar System Exploration: NASA Science. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  215. ^ Lewis, Cathleen (12 April 2010). "Why Yuri Gagarin Remains the First Man in Space, Even Though He Did Not Land Inside His Spacecraft". National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  216. ^ Pearlman, Robert Z. (20 July 2018). "Makings of Moon Landing: 50 Years Ago, Apollo 11 Was One Year From 'Giant Leap'". Space.com. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  217. ^ "The Apollo Program (1963 - 1972)". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  218. ^ Ingham, Lucy (2018-01-16). "Soviet report detailing lunar rover Lunokhod-2 released for first time". Factor. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  219. ISSN 0019-1035
    .
  220. ^ Howell, Elizabeth (10 December 2018). "Voyager 2: Sailing Among Giant Planets". Space.com. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  221. ^ Sharp, Tim (11 December 2017). "Space Shuttle: The First Reusable Spacecraft". Space.com. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  222. ^ Ferreira, Becky (2016-02-19). "The Mir Space Station Was a Marvel, a Clusterfuck, and an Underdog Hero". Motherboard. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  223. ^ Torchinsky, Jason (14 May 2013). "Why Skylab Was America's First And Best Home In Space". Jalopnik. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  224. ^ "International Space Station, ISS Information, Space Station Facts, News, Photos -- National Geographic". Science & Innovation. 2009-10-15. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  225. ^ Farley, Robert (6 March 2017). "Was the Sino-Soviet Split Borne of Ideology or Geostrategic Consideration?". The Diplomat. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  226. ^ Siegelbaum, Lewis (22 June 2015). "Perestroika and Glasnost". Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  227. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  228. ^ Bonnell, Andrew (3 October 2018). "World politics explainer: The fall of the Berlin Wall". The Conversation. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  229. ^ Egorov, Boris (2018-08-23). "The forgotten story of how the Baltic states brought down the Soviet Union". www.rbth.com. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  230. ^ Sandford, Daniel (20 August 2011). "With Boris Yeltsin on the tank in 1991". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  231. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  232. S2CID 39816473
    .
  233. S2CID 24300252
    .
  234. ^ Szczepaniak, John (May 2014). "A basic history of BASIC on its 50th birthday". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  235. ^ "The History of the Computer Mouse - Computing History". www.computinghistory.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  236. ^ "Memory & Storage | Timeline of Computer History | Computer History Museum". www.computerhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  237. ^ Kellaway, Lucy (1 August 2013). "How the computer changed the office forever". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  238. ^ Alfredo, David (26 September 2017). "The History of Computers in Business". Bizfluent. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  239. ISBN 9781472918352
    .
  240. ^ Ngo, Denise (May 2011). "Archive Gallery: The Rise of Personal Computers". Popular Science.
  241. ^ Maher, Jimmy (30 June 2017). "The complete history of the IBM PC, part one: The deal of the century". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  242. ^ McCullough, Brian (29 May 2014). "Behind 'Halt and Catch Fire': Compaq's Rise to PC Domination". Mashable. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  243. ^ McCullough, Brian (26 May 2014). "The Incredible True Story Behind AMC's Halt And Catch Fire – How Compaq Cloned IBM And Created An Empire". Internet History Podcast. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  244. ISBN 9781583416075
    .
  245. ^ "History of Software Patents, from Benson, Flook, and Diehr to Bilski and Prometheus (BitLaw)". www.bitlaw.com. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  246. ISBN 9780983159216
    .
  247. ISBN 9780761536437
    .
  248. ISBN 9780762456154
    .
  249. ^ "Evolution of Home Video Game Consoles: 1967 - 2011". Hongkiat. 2011-04-13. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  250. ^ Edwards, Benj (2016-11-04). "The Lost Civilization of Dial-Up Bulletin Board Systems". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  251. ^ Cerf, Vint. "A Brief History of the Internet & Related Networks". Internet Society. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  252. ^ Lee, Timothy B. (2014-06-16). "The internet, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  253. ^ Flanagan, Graham. "Al Gore told us why he really should get credit for the internet". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  254. ^ Wright, Alex (2014-05-22). "The Secret History of Hypertext". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  255. ^ Motley Fool Staff (2018-07-03). "25 Years of Tech: The Rise of the Internet -". The Motley Fool. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  256. doi:10.1108/eb047265
    .
  257. ^ "Where Are They Now: 17 Dot-Com Bubble Companies And Their Founders". CB Insights Research. 2016-09-14. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  258. ISBN 9780395584729
    .
  259. ^ Johnson, Anders (2008). "The Three Waves of Globalisation - Nordregio". archive.nordregio.se. Retrieved 2018-12-29.
  260. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2018-12-29.
  261. S2CID 146972591
    – via Journalist's Resource.
  262. ISBN 9789814280334
    .
  263. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2018-12-29.
  264. PMID 12933765
    .
  265. PMID 21765761
    .
  266. S2CID 8292731
    .
  267. ISSN 0028-7822. Archived
    from the original on 15 January 2022.
  268. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2018-12-29.

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Events in the 20th century.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Key_events_of_the_20th_century&oldid=1220311712"