Twentieth century

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The Second World War (1938-1945) was the greatest conflict in the history of humanity and involved almost all existing countries at that time.

Colonial empires in 1900.

Map of countries in 1999.

The 20th century d. C. (twentieth century AD) or XX century and. c. (twentieth century of the Common Era) is the century before the current one; It was the last century of the second millennium in the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000. It is called the "century of avant-garde".

The 20th century was characterized by advances in technology, medicine, and science, the end of slavery in the so-called underdeveloped countries, the liberation of women in most Western countries; but above all because of the growing development of the industry, turning several countries, including the United States, into world powers. The century was also notable for crises and human despotism in the form of totalitarian regimes, which caused effects such as world wars, genocide and ethnocide, policies of social exclusion and widespread unemployment and poverty. As a consequence, the inequalities in terms of social, economic and technological development and in terms of the distribution of wealth between countries deepened, as well as the great differences in the quality of life of the inhabitants of the different regions of the world.

In taking stock of this century, Walter Isaacson, managing editor of Time magazine declared: "It has been one of the most amazing centuries: inspiring, sometimes terrifying, always fascinating."^{[citation required]}

According to Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway's former prime minister, this is "a century of great progress, and in some places unprecedented economic growth," even though slums faced a grim outlook of "overcrowding and widespread diseases linked to poverty and an unhealthy environment.”^{[citation needed]}

At the turn of the 20th century, America was facing major changes. The countries had been definitively inserted into the world system and were dedicated to the production and export of raw materials such as food and metals and also to import manufactures from industrialized countries.

The British Empire (which controlled a quarter of the planet and its people), various European empires, the Chinese Empire of the Qing Dynasty, and the Ottoman Empire controlled much of the world at the turn of the century XX. Long before the end of the century, such empires had been relegated to the history books. At the end of the century, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the first and largest socialist state, the United States of America was left as the world's only superpower.

Events

1900s

The xx century begins in the midst of great advances, among which the automobile occupies a prominent place. In America, Henry Ford brought about a true revolution in the industrial chain production system that he put to the test with the manufacture of his Model T. On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers became the first to fly in a controlled airplane. However, some affirm that this honor corresponds to Alberto Santos Dumont, who made his flight on September 13, 1906. The airplane would become one of the most important inventions not only of this century but of history in general. In 1905, the Russo-Japanese War pitted the Empire of Japan against the empire of the Russian czars. The end of the war gave Japan the victor to the surprise of the Western world. The Asian nation became a de facto new world power. In Russia, the Russian revolution of 1905 arose, which would become the precursor of the one that happened in 1917 and ended up causing the fall of the Russian empire. The German Empire or Second Reich began to be forged around Prussia in a clear way from the reign of Frederick II the Great and was definitively consolidated in the last decades of the century xix, thanks to the impulse given by Otto von Bismarck. In the early years of the xx century, Germany's position within Europe had reached a position too crucial for the interests of the other powers. Especially, the United Kingdom and France saw many of their interests threatened, which led them to sign the so-called Entente cordiale, since the industrial and military development of Germany seemed difficult to match due to the set of European nations. Furthermore, this impetus from Prussia led the House of Austria (Austro-Hungarian Empire) to progressively lose its status as a continental power. The Algeciras Conference manages to prevent a great war from breaking out between the European powers. In 1902 the second Boer War ended with the English victory and with the massive use of concentration camps by them. Also that year the Philippine-American War ended with the American victory, causing the death of 10% of the Filipino population of the time (there is talk of Philippine genocide) and becoming the first national liberation war of the century xx. Some countries gain independence such as Australia (from the British Empire, 1901), Cuba (from the US, 1902), Panama (from Colombia, 1903), Norway (from Sweden, 1905) and Bulgaria (from the Ottoman Empire, 1908).. In 1905 the German scientist Albert Einstein formulated the Theory of Relativity, one of the most famous in history.

1902-1931: Alfonso XIII, king of Spain.
1903: Separation of Panama from Colombia.
1903: The Wright brothers make the first flight of a motor plane.
1904-1905: Russian-Japanese war.
1905: Albert Einstein makes his famous Theory of Relativity.
1906: Algeciras Conference on Morocco.
1907: Formation of the Entente Triple, which encompassed Great Britain, France and Russia.
1908: Revolution of Turkish youth.

1910s

World War I Cartel

The politics of the 1910s were strongly affected by the outbreak of World War I, called the Great War. The transition from the 19th century to the XX begins to be palpable, with the death of Victoria of the United Kingdom and the total end of the Victorian Era, as well as the beginning of American capitalism after having emerged unscathed from the First World War. The Russian Revolution would also give way to another future world superpower, the Soviet Union. As for society, it is seen in an abrupt change, with the appearance of private vehicles within the reach of more and more of the population. In terms of culture, classical music began to move to give way to other, much more popular styles of music, which would become increasingly important over the decades. In New York in 1913 the tallest building in the world would be built, a complex architectural project for the time, the Woolworth Building, which would remain the tallest building until the 1930s.

1910: Francisco I. Madero begins the Mexican Revolution against Porfirio Díaz.
1912: Titanic RMS sinking.
1913: Madero is overthrown and killed by Victoriano Huerta.
1913: Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States.
1913: Tibet proclaims its independence from China.
1914: The First World War begins.
1914: Cae el dictator Victoriano Huerta después de la Occupationamericana de Veracruz y la Batalla de Zacatecas; se firman los Tratados de Teoloyucan, Convención de Aguascalientes y entrada triumphal de Emiliano Zapata y Francisco Villa a la Ciudad de México.
1915: The Armenian Genocide begins.
1916: The Easter Uprising in Ireland.
1917: Russian Revolution: taking over the power of the Bolsheviks.
1918: World War I ended.
1918: The Spanish Gripe pandemic begins.
1919: Foundation in Moscow of the III International.
1919: Murder of the revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.
1919: The Versailles Treaty is signed.

1920s

Los Angeles (1920)

The 1920s marked the end of the hegemony of the historical states that had existed in Europe for centuries. After the First World War, the United Kingdom and France suffered a great loss of prestige, which it would be difficult for them to recover. In the United States the crash of 1929 takes place, the biggest fall in the stock market ever seen, this would succumb to the world in a few years of extreme poverty. In 1922 after the end of the Russian Civil War, the Soviet Union would be officially formed, a year later the Ottoman Empire would fall. The fascist states that would emerge especially during the 1930s began to emerge, such as the fascist Italy of Benito Mussolini, the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in Spain or Alexander I in Yugoslavia. The Empire of Japan would begin its rule throughout Asia. Music underwent a popular resurgence with the emergence of genres such as jazz, tango, Charleston and other rhythms, on the other hand, in classical music, twelve-tone and atonalism became relevant; especially in the United States between the brief but intense period that was from 1923 to 1929, in fashion (among which the French dressmaker Coco Chanel stood out) upper-class or presumably upper-class women came to wear the first miniskirts in the West as well as many times the haircut called a la garçon (in French: to the boy), wide necklines and arms exposed to the open air and a certain sexual liberalism promoted by the writings of the anthropologist Margaret Mead among others (Mead found herself greatly influenced by her interpretations of psychoanalytic theory inaugurated decades earlier by Sigmund Freud), also middle- and upper-income women began to smoke tobacco in the form of cigarettes publicly in "western" and westernized countries. In painting and sculpture, avant-garde movements often stood out within a bohemian environment, such as (visually almost always non-figurative or highly distorted figurative art) rayonism, orphism, constructivism, cubism, suprematism, surrealism, the neoplasticism (with Mondrian as the main representative); and in general abstract painting as well as the post-expressionist movement (which, however, despite its manifestos maintained a lot of expressionism) caricatural and sarcastic called new objectivity; among the many notorious artists who emerged or had their heyday in those years are the Spaniards Picasso, Dalí, the Alsatian Arp, the German Max Ernst, the Swiss-German Paul Klee, the Russians El Lisitsky, Larionov, Tatlin; the Italians Modigliani and Giorgio de Chirico, the Japanese Fujita among many others.

1920: Beginning of Gandhi's nonviolent movement in defense of human rights in India.
1920: Mexico's President Venustiano Carranza is assassinated by the rebellious prietist water Rodolfo Herrero.
1920: The pandemic of the Spanish Gripe ends.
1921: Adolf Hitler leader of the National Socialist Party.
1921: Creation of the Chinese Communist Party.
1922: Creation of the Soviet Union, the first socialist state.
1922: Ascense of Benito Mussolini to power in Italy after the March on Rome
1922: Howard Carter discovers the tomb of Tutankhamon.
1923: Foundation of the seminar Time in the United States.
1923: Murder of Pancho Villa in Parral, Mexico.
1924: Lenin died. Iosif Stalin happens.
1926: Hirohitus is crowned emperor of Japan.
1926: Birth of television (John Logie Baird).
1927: Birth of the Generation of 27.
1928: Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
1928: In Ciénaga, Colombia, the massacre of bananas occurs.
1928: Assassinto de Álvaro Obregón.
1929: New York Museum of Modern Art Foundation.
1929: Valentine's Matanza against a rival band, initiated by Al Capone.
1929: Inauguration of Mount Rushmore (Dakota del Sur).
1929: Fall of the New York Stock Exchange on Black Thursday (Crac of 29); Great Depression in the United States.
HIV/AIDS (1920-1981)

1930s

The Great Depression, initiated after the 1929 crash

The 1930s were clearly influenced by the economic crisis (called the “Great Depression”) caused by the Crash of 1929, which had a global reach and caused strong social and political tensions that allowed the appearance of dictatorships such as Hitler's in Germany, Franco in Spain or Metaxas in Greece. This emergence of totalitarianism ended up leading to a new world war. Germany is developing again, the economy is relaunching with the boost given by industry and state investment in infrastructure. The new Nazi regime obtains numerous territories without firing a single shot, against which it opposes an appeasement policy led by Western liberal democracies that ultimately failed. The Japanese Empire was consolidating in Asia affecting the interests of Europe and the United States, especially in the Pacific. Japan creates a "puppet state" in China under the name of Manchukuo. For its part, Italy began a policy of military and territorially expansive rearmament that led to the invasion of Ethiopia. In the United States, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the economic recovery of the country after the crisis caused by the Great Depression of 1929. Great Britain kept its political system practically unchanged, unlike France, which failed to consolidate a strong political-social organization and bordered on civil war. After its transformation into the Soviet Union, Russia was the scene of endemic famines (such as the Ukrainian famine), political repression, and the Great Purge.

1931-1939: Second Spanish Republic.
1931: Opening of Empire State Building (New York).
1932-1933: Collombo-Peruvian War
1932-1935: Chaco War.
1933: Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany.
1933-1945: Roosevelt was in the United States.
1936-1939: Spanish Civil War.
1935-1936: Second Italo-Ethiopic War and Invasion of Ethiopia.
1936: The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca was shot.
1937: Picasso paints the Guernica.
1937-1945: Second but-Japanese war
1937: Walt Disney Estrena Snow White and the seven dwarfs, first colored cartoon feature.
1938: Battle of the Ebro in Spain.
1938: German annexation (anschluss) to Austria.
1939-1975: Dictatorship of Francisco Franco in Spain.
1938: Massacre of coup members of the Chilean Nazi Party by the Chilean police forces.
1939: Covenant of non-German-Soviet aggression.
1939: Finnish-Soviet war.
1939: The film is released What the wind took.
1939: Germany invades Poland, the UK and France declare war on Germany: the Second World War begins.

1940s

Yalta Conference (1945). From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin.

Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Second World War marked the 1940s and the century in general like no other event. As in 1914, the war spread to several continents, although this conflict was much bloodier and changed the world in a more radical way. In 1945, at the end of the war, Germany had suffered enormous human and material losses, as had Japan. While Germany suffered the highest number of military casualties, it was the Soviet Union that suffered the highest number of civilian casualties. America was not the scene of significant confrontations and the Latin American states were outside the confrontation, even when they officially supported the cause of the allies. The United States and the Soviet Union became the new and only powers in the world. All the other former powers went to a second level. The League of Nations was replaced by the UN, which, unlike the previous one, had its headquarters in New York and not in Europe. In 1948, the state of Israel was formally established thanks to the backing of Great Britain and the United States. This new nation was made up of a purely Jewish population, most of which came from Europe, where they had suffered persecution by the Nazis. The Arab-Israeli conflict begins. The two main forces of China that fought against Japan, which was their common enemy during the war, found themselves engaged in a civil war for control of the territory soon after. The communist side was strongly supported by the Soviet Union and the nationalist side, apparently backed by the United States, was defeated and forced to retreat to the island of Formosa (present-day Taiwan). India gained its independence through Majatma Gandhi's pacifist revolution.

1940: Germany invades Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
1940-1945: Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1942: Final Solution: Nazi decision to deport and exterminate the Jews of Europe (Holocaust).
1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union. Battle of Moscow.
1942-1943: Battle of Stalingrad.
1943: Warsaw ghetto uprising.
1944: Overlord and Anvil Operations: Allied landings in Normandy and Provence.
Revolution of 1944 in Guatemala.
1945: Yalta Conference. Execution of Mussolini and Hitler's suicide. Unconditional surrender of Germany; end of the war in Europe. The Nuremberg Process is initiated against the main Nazi hierarchies.
1945: Detonation of bombs Little Boy on Hiroshima and Fat Man about Nagasaki, Japan surrenders to the Allies. End of World War II.
1945: Birth of the International Monetary Fund and the Arab League.
1945: Signature of the Charter of the United Nations, UN.
1946: Creation of UNESCO.
1946: Juan Domingo Perón, president of Argentina.
1947: Paris peace treaties.
1947: Marshall Plan for the Reconstruction of Europe.
1948: The pacifist Mahatma Gandhi died, at the hands of Nathuram Godse.
1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Birth of the State of Israel.
1949: Proclamations of the German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic.
1949: Creation of COMECON and signing of the North Atlantic Compact (NATO).
1949: Foundation of the People's Republic of China after the triumph of the Revolution.
1949: Possession of the Soviet Union of the atomic bomb.

1950s

James Dean, pop icon of the '50s.

During this decade, the two victorious superpowers of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union, broke their alliance during the war and fell out, becoming leaders of two blocs: the Western bloc (Western-capitalist) led by United States, and the Eastern bloc (eastern-communist) led by the Soviet Union and the world saw what became known as the Cold War take shape. Shortly after the end of the world conflict, the civil war in China led to the triumph of Mao Zedong, who established a communist-based totalitarian regime in the continental part of his nation that revolutionized the country, recognized as the People's Republic of China. In the 1950s, the dispute between the two new world axes intensified notably with the Korean War and the subsequent division of the country into two different states. An unprecedented arms race began that would extend into the following decades, so the USSR and the US began the race for a nuclear arsenal capable of destroying the entire planet. The decolonization process started after the Second World War intensifies and will mark this decade and the next two. Empires like the French or the British divest themselves of numerous possessions in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The United States saw a cultural revolution driven by rapid industrial development and the consequent phenomenon of consumerism. Germany and Japan experienced stunning economic recovery in less than two decades after the end of the war, which had transformed both countries into economic, if not political or military, powers. Therefore, although France and Great Britain had greater political weight, Japan and Germany surpassed the two countries that were victorious in the second war and even their presence in international trade exceeded that of the USSR. A process of capital importance for the future of Europe and the world began when Robert Schuman delivered the famous declaration of the same name and which constitutes the embryo of the current European Union.

1950-1953: Korean War.
1950: The death penalty is restored in the Soviet Union.
1950: Gustavo VI Adolfo de Sweden ascends to the throne.
1950: Libya is independent of Italy.
1950: In the Vatican City, Pope Pius XII declared the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.
1952: King George VI died after 15 years of reign. It's your daughter Isabel II.
1953-1961: Dwight David Eisenhower, President of the United States.
1953: Iosif Stalin dies.
1953: Hillary and Tenzing reach the top of Everest.
1954: State coup to Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala by the CIA.
1955: Beginning of the Vietnam War.
1955: The Warsaw Pact is signed, where the USSR and seven more communist bloc states are politically and militarily united against NATO.
1957: Treaties of Rome: birth of the European Economic Community (ECE).
1957: Racial Incidents in Little Rock—Arkansas—United States.
1958: NASA creation.
1959: The day the music died.
1959: Triomph of the Cuban Revolution.

1960s

Space Mission Apollo 11

The Murder of John F. Kennedy, one of the most important events in the United States.

.In the 1960s we witnessed the moments of greatest political conflict between the blocks formed by the United States and the Soviet Union, in the so-called Cold War, which arose at the end of World War II. Moments of enormous tension occurred after the shooting down of the American spy plane "U2" over Soviet territory, and during the so-called "Missile Crisis of 1962", which analysts consider put the world on the brink of collapse. start of a third world war. Said conflict demonstrated that the attempts of the United States to stop the advance of communism were not being fruitful, and also later led to the "peaceful coexistence treaty" between the two world powers. This beginning of the decade is representative of a period that would be characterized by international confrontations and the protests of citizens who were increasingly critical of the actions of their rulers and the situation that was emerging in the world after the Postwar Economic Recovery: Anti-Vietnam War Protest Movements; against the invasion of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia, in the Prague Spring; in May 1968 against the established order, during the student and union revolts that began in France and spread rapidly to other countries. The socio-cultural effects of these protest movements are still being felt today. It is also a decade in which a large number of political assassinations take place, examples being the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. The "space race" temporarily kept the Soviet Union in the lead, with notable successes such as having managed to put the first human being into orbit: the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The United States achieves the greatest victory of that race by landing the first human being on the lunar surface in 1969. This was achieved largely thanks to the impetus given by President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated in 1963 in the dark. circumstances that plunged the American people into the deepest identity crisis they have ever known. In Europe, the Franco-German reconciliation was consolidated, on which to a large extent the construction of the European Union (EU) that had begun in the previous decade would be based. Germany establishes itself as the third world economic power behind the United States and Japan. Great Britain, like France, loses practically all of its colonies, in a process that began after the end of the Second World War and was precipitated to a large extent after the independence of Libya. It can be considered the decade of ideologies. In Europe, youth rose up in what later became known as the "French May", in 1968. Social movements became increasingly important in Latin America, particularly in Chile, where in 1970 a socialist government would arrive to power through democracy. The Middle East had undergone a transcendental transformation, due to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, which was located in the nerve center of this region. In addition, the huge oil reserves discovered mainly in the so-called Gulf countries, gave this region an unprecedented weight in the planet's economy. Mao's China lived in this decade the so-called "Cultural Revolution", which brought about a transformation of the ancient society of this country. Meanwhile, Japan continued to develop its reputation as a technological powerhouse, and products from this country began to achieve prestige around the world, boosting the country's economy, while society was radically restructured while preserving its cultural roots.

1960: The Earthquake of Valdivia occurs the strongest earthquake recorded.
1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall.
1961-1963: John F. Kennedy, President of the United States.
1961: The Soviet Union reaches outer space with the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
1961: Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo is killed by putting an end to his government for more than 30 years.
1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union put the world on the brink of a nuclear war.
1962: Nelson Mandela is imprisoned.
1962: Marilyn Monroe died.
1963: John XXIII died and was succeeded by Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini).
1963: March for the civic rights of Martin Luther King in the United States.
1963: Murder of the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy in Dallas.
1964: All over the world the beatlemany (the British rock band The Beatles, made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) is unleashed
1965: Mao launches the Cultural Revolution in China.
1965: Malcolm X is killed.
1966: Walt Disney Falls.
1967: In Bolivia, Bolivian soldiers murder Argentine guerrilla Che Guevara.
1968: Spring of Prague.
1968: The May of 68, the student revolt in France.
1968: Murder of Martin Luther King.
1968: Movement of 1968 in Mexico.
1969-1974: Richard Nixon, President of the United States.
1969: Stonewall riots
1969: Dimission of De Gaulle, President of the French Republic.
1969: The human being reaches the Moon.

1970s

Nixon leaves the White House.

The Arab-Israeli conflict and the final stage of the Vietnam War dominate most of the political life of the 1970s. The oil market is rocked by the dispositions of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that drags industrialized countries to a crisis in the energy sector and therefore to the entire industry and society. There is a blockage in the supply of oil and now it is the producing nations that set the prices of fuel. It is also the decade of the rise of terrorism, with extreme left groups such as the IRA, RAF, Red Brigades, ETA, FLNC, Japanese Red Army, NEP, Islamic Jihad, Black September or PFLP. Terrorists like Carlos the Jackal became very famous. Some governments responded to terrorism by applying state terrorism. The White House is the scene of the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon becoming the only US president to resign this century. At the same time, the interventionism of the government of this country helps to establish military dictatorships in favor of Washington in several Latin American countries. In Asia the Vietnam War ended with the withdrawal of the United States and in Cambodia the Khmer Rouge began one of the worst genocides of the century. The communist block that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics managed to form for several decades begins to show signs of disintegration and the Soviet power distances itself from communist China, which brings with it the weakening of communist influence in the world. In Europe, despite the energy crisis, the western countries of this continent manage to match the standard of living of the United States of America and the Scandinavian countries achieve the highest social economic balance in the world. The dictatorships of southern Europe (Greece, Portugal and Spain) disappear and give rise to democratic regimes. Several wars in this decade were brief: the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, the Yom Kippur War, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Ogaden War, and the Sino-Vietnamese War. In 1979, Muslim fundamentalists seized control of Iran under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, withdrawing this country from Western influence and locking itself into the most radical of Sharia-based (Islamic law) states. In the social field, household appliances such as the microwave and other devices such as the Walkman, the microprocessor, the computer, the calculator or the color television are enormously popular. The drug boom causes serious social damage, especially that of heroin, an epidemic that would worsen in the following decade.

1970: Salvador Allende is the president of Chile.
1970: Failure of the musicians; Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Agustín Lara; and the politicians Lazarus Cárdenas del Río and Charles de Gaulle.
1970: Final Separation of the band The Beatles.
1971: Thursday Matanza de Corpus.
1971: The singer Jim Morrison, founder of the band The Doors, died.
1971: The NASDAQ stock exchange is created.
1971: General Idi Amin leads a coup d'etat in Uganda against President Milton Obote.
1973: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decides to increase prices. Oil crisis.
1973: Opening of the World Trade Center in New York.
1973: The Armed Forces strike a civic-military coup in Chile, imposing a military regime—1973-1990—all over the country characterized by violent repression against left-wing people.
1974: Richard Nixon becomes the first president of the United States to resign from office.
1974: Revolution of the Claveles. Portugal joins the world democratic club.
1975: Fall of Saigon and end of the Vietnam War.
1975: Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos I, king of Spain (1975-2014). In 1977, the first democratic elections since 1936 were held in that nation.
1976: Jorge Rafael Videla gives the civic-military coup that marked the beginning of the civic-military dictatorship in Argentina.
1977-1981: Democratic Jimmy Carter, President of the United States.
1977: Famous Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby and Charles Chaplin fail.
1978: Camp David agreements.
1978: John Paul I happens to Paul VI as Pope.
1978: After a pontificate of only 33 days, John Paul I died. It will be succeeded as Pope by John Paul II in October of that same year.
1979-1990: Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to be the first minister of the United Kingdom.
1979: Proclamation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

1980s

Fall from the Berlin Wall.

The start of this decade is marked by rising Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The nuclear threat became more evident than ever, which is why in the middle of the decade a rapprochement between the two blocs took place, which was favored mainly by the policies known in the West as Glásnost and Perestroika, of the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. On the economic level, the president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, presents a series of free market economic measures, popularly known as Reaganomics, which lay the foundations of neoliberal economics for years to come. On the other hand, the differences in development between the different peoples of the world are evident with the famine that devastates several countries in Africa. In Ethiopia the situation becomes particularly dramatic due to the drought. Asian countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore as well as the Hong Kong region experienced rapid industrial development that would not stop for the rest of the century. The existence of AIDS is made public for the first time in June 1981 and will end up being presented to the world as an epidemic of enormous proportions. Chernobyl, a Ukrainian town north of kyiv, becomes the symbol of man's inability to control the monster he has created: the continuous and unappealable risk of nuclear technology. The nuclear catastrophe contaminates an entire region and causes radioactive fallout in large parts of Europe. Mexico experienced the worst earthquake in its history, the 1985 Mexico Earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter Scale that left some 10,000 victims. In 1985 in Colombia the Takeover of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá was unleashed by the M-19 guerrilla commando. Colombia also experienced the worst catastrophe in its history caused by the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, causing the Armero Tragedy, killing more than 28,000 people. Another important aspect of this decade were the forced disappearances in Latin America that had already begun in the previous decade. Peru, which left the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces for 11 years and which returned to democracy in a dictatorial manner, confronts the Maoist terrorist organization Sendero Luminoso, which began its armed struggle in Ayacucho and little by little made incursions into the capital. In 1983 Argentina returns to democracy in an insecure way, after the Falklands War was the previous year and they were defeated, and Raúl Alfonsín assumes the presidency. In 1985, the military repressors of the dictatorship were condemned in a Trial against the Juntas, Argentina being the first and only country in Latin America to do so. After 15 years of military dictatorship, Chileans returned to the polls in 1988 to decide whether General Augusto Pinochet would continue in government. The plebiscite was adverse and democracy returned insecurely in 1990. The international terrorism that had been taking place since the previous decade intensified and the United States bombed the Libya of Muammar Gadhafi, in retaliation for terrorist attacks allegedly sponsored by that country. In 1989 the USSR and the Soviet bloc in general are more weakened than ever. In November the Berlin Wall, which embodied the division of that city since the end of World War II, was demolished by the Berliners themselves, thus giving the coup de grace to the Soviet era and becoming the symbol of the 1989 revolutions. in Eastern European countries. In the cultural field, this decade has many followers of its lifestyle, such as fashion, music, television exhibitions and the seventh art, exclusive, in the opinion of many admirers, of this decade. Video games become more and more popular and start to spread as a new culture.

1980: The Beatles founder John Lennon was killed by a fan.
1981-1989: Ronald Reagan, President of the United States.
1981: The attempted coup d'etat (23-F) in Spain by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero failed.
1981: the Guernica Go back to Spain.
1981: Pope John Paul II suffers an attempted murder.
1982-1998: Helmut Kohl, Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany.
1982: The Disc Thriller Michael Jackson becomes the best seller in history.
1983-1989: The radical Raúl Alfonsín, president of the Argentine Republic.
1983: Creation of the Internet as a network of the United States Department of Defense (ARPANET).
1985: The Wham! musical group, consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, becomes the first Western musical group to give a concert in China, anticipating the Rolling Stones and Queen.
1985-1991: Mikhail Gorbachev, secretary general of the CPUS.
1985: Live Aid concert took place at Wembley Stadium and at the J. F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. He brought together several exponents from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and is considered the greatest musical event in history. With the participation of Queen, Madonna, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin, U2, David Bowie and Wham!
1985: Mexico Earthquake.
1985: NES (NQuartermaster Entertnaiment System), first console of the company Nintendo sold in America.
1986: Spain and Portugal become CEE members.
1986: Chernobyl accident.
1989-1993: George Bush, President of the United States.
1989: General Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti led a coup d'etat in Paraguay, overthrowing the Stronista regime.
1989: Repression and massacre at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, China.
1989: Political changes in Eastern Europe: formation of national or coalition governments in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Abolition of the leading role of the Communist Party in Hungary, Poland, the Democratic Republic of Germany (DRA) and Czechoslovakia.
1989: The Berlin Wall Falls: End of the Cold War.
1989: Brutal terrorist offensive of the Medellín cartel in Colombia: Magnicidio of the presidential candidate, Luis Carlos Galán, killed 107 people in an attack in a Boeing 727 of Avianca and killed 60 people in a terrorist attack on the DAS building in Bogotá.

1990s

Lady Di's death in 1997 became a symbol of the decade.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union ushered in an era known as the Post-Cold War. The Soviet collapse liquidated the old bloc policy, born after the end of World War II and gave way to a new international framework with the United States as the only superpower. Some spoke of the end of history, in which the liberal democracies have won over communism and the ideological struggle that began in the 19th century ends xix. In Europe, the decade begins a few months after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Cold War. A large number of Eastern European countries were in a double transition process: from dictatorship to democracy, and from a planned economy to a market economy. Some countries like Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the USSR itself disintegrated. In the Yugoslav case there were violent confrontations due to the nationalisms that caused the so-called "Yugoslav wars" throughout the decade. Other countries that were economically linked to the USSR suffered a strong economic decline such as Cuba, North Korea or Finland. On the other hand, the integration of the European Union is accelerating, with agreements such as the Maastricht Treaty or the Amsterdam Treaty. In Asia, China recovered the British colony of Hong Kong in 1997 and the Portuguese colony of Macao in 1999. The Asian financial crisis that began in 1997 led to an increase in widespread poverty in the countries of Southeast Asia. In Africa, the Second Congo War involves several African countries and causes millions of deaths. In 1994, the bloodiest genocide in history in proportion to its duration occurred in Rwanda. Culturally, the 1990s were characterized by the rise of multiculturalism and alternative media, which continued into the next century. There was the rise of new technologies, such as cable television and the Internet. The first television reality shows appeared on TV. The end of the decade coincides with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, which inflated between 1997-2000 and burst in 2000, bankrupting numerous technology companies in the most developed countries.

1990: The government of the Republic of Chile is named by President Patricio Aylwin, marking the return to democracy in the country after 17 years of military dictatorship.
1990: Reunification of Germany.
1991: Boris Yeltsin is proclaimed president of Russia. A coup attempt against Gorbachev fails; COMECON and the Warsaw pact are dissolved; Gorbachev's resignation; the end of the Soviet Union; the birth of the CIS (Community of Independent States), which makes up 15 new States.
1991: The twelve member States of the European Economic Community (ECE) sign the Maastricht treaty and create the European Union.
1991: The singer Freddie Mercury died, due to AIDS.
1992: The president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori executes a self coup d'etat that began the Fujimorist dictatorship in Peru.
1992: Terrorist attack on the Embassy of Israel in Argentina, leaving 22 dead.
1993: Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement in Washington.
1993-2001: Bill Clinton, President of the United States.
1993: The leader of the Medellin Cartel, Pablo Escobar, is released by the Search Block.
1994: Assassinto de Luis Donaldo Colosio nominated for the presidency of Mexico.
1994: First multi-racial elections in South Africa; they are elected President Nelson Mandela.
1994: The musician Kurt Cobain, singer and lead guitarist of the Rock Nirvana group, died.
1994: Terrorist attack on the Mutual Association Israel Argentina leaving 85 dead, the biggest attack on Jewish targets since World War II and one of the biggest terrorist attacks in Argentina.
1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden enter the European Union.
1995: Entry into force of Mercosur (Common Market of South America).
1995: Assassination of singer Selena at the hands of her representative.
1995: In Israel, Prime Minister Isaac Rabin is murdered.
1997-2007: Labourman Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1997: The UK returns Hong Kong to China.
1997: Birth in Spain of the "Espíritu de Ermua" movement following the assassination of the PP councillor in the town of Ermua, Miguel Angel Blanco by the terrorist group ETA.
1997: World shock at the death of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, after a transit accident in Paris.
1997: Dolly, first mammal to be cloned.
1997: Mother Teresa of Calcutta died.
1998: Northern Ireland Peace Agreement.
1999-2013: Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela; ending 40 years of social-democratic and social-Christian governments.

Year 2000

2000: Celebration of the largest global feast in history by the entry of the III Millennium
2000: Panama assumes the sovereignty of the Canal.
2000-2008: Vladimir Putin, President of Russia.
2000: Vicente Fox becomes president of Mexico after 72 years of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
2000-2005: Second Palestinian Intifada against Israel.
2000: Fall of the Slobodan Milošević regime in Yugoslavia.
2000: Approved Plan Colombia.

Technological advances

Buzz Aldrin astronaut's footprint on the moon. During the centuryXX. started space exploration. In 1969 a human stepped on the first celestial body apart from the Earth, the Moon.

Applied science continued the technological advance that had begun the previous century, accelerating it and opening up new fields.

Appliances, such as washing machines, refrigerators, heating or vacuum cleaners, were introduced in the homes, facilitating many tasks and increasing comfort. The radio first, and then television, became popularized as forms of entertainment.
In 1903 it was managed to keep an aircraft on flight for the first time, the Wright Flyer. Much later, jet-engineers made it possible to create commercial airlines.
The assembly line made automobile chain production viable. The combination of the car, motor boats and plane trips allowed unprecedented personal mobility.
The triode tube was invented.
New materials, especially stainless steel, silicone, teflon and plastics such as polystyrene, PVC, polyethylene and nylon, were generalized in many applications. These materials usually have huge yield gains in resistance, temperature, chemical resistance or mechanical properties on those known before the centuryXX..
Aluminum became an economical metal and became the second most used material after iron.
Thousands of chemicals were developed for industrial processing and domestic use.
Arrival from electricity to cities.
Electronic creation and development: telephone, radio, television, fax, transistor, integrated circuits, laser, computers and the Internet.
Establishment of nuclear weapons.
Space Conquest: Space Flight and First Human Alunizaje in 1969.
Current water in a high percentage of houses in the first world.
Extension of the sewer of the cities.
Enunciation of the theory of relativity and the cosmological model of the Big Bang.
Development of quantum mechanics and particle physics.
Discovery of antibiotics, contraceptives, organ transplantation and progress in cloning.
Description of the chemical structure of DNA and development of molecular biology.
Creation and development of video consoles (since 1972).