In 2022, 45% of the world's population lived in "some form of democracy", although only 8% lived in "full democracies". TheUnited Nations estimates that by 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will beurbanized. (Full article...)
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A 1899 German world map showingcolonial political divisions as well as major shipping routes andundersea cables. The late modern period saw global integration enabled by colonial expansion and technological change.
From 1911 until the establishment of a unified colony in 1934, the territory of the two colonies was sometimes referred to as "Italian Libya" orItalian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI). Both names were also used after the unification, with Italian Libya becoming the official name of the newly combined colony. Through its history, various infrastructure projects, most notably roads,railways and villages were set up, as well as archeology. It had a population of around 150,000Italians.
The Italian colonies of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were taken by Italy from theOttoman Empire during theItalo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, and run by Italian governors. In 1923, indigenous rebels associated with theSenussi Order organized theLibyan resistance movement against Italian settlement in Libya, mainly in Cyrenaica. The rebellion was put down by Italian forces in 1932, after thepacification campaign, which resulted in the deaths of a quarter of Cyrenaica's population. In 1934, the colonies were unified by governorItalo Balbo, withTripoli as the capital. In 1937, the colony was divided into four provinces, and two years later the coastal provinces became a part of metropolitan Italy as theFourth Shore. (Full article...)
After nearly a century of political instability and several civil wars, the Restoration attempted to establish anew political system that ensured stability through the practice ofturno, an intentional rotation of liberal and conservative parties in leadership, often achieved throughelectoral fraud. Critics of theturnismo system includedrepublicans,socialists,communists,anarchists,Basque andCatalan nationalists, andCarlists. However, the relative stability to theturnismo system outlived its creator, the Conservative politicianAntonio Cánovas del Castillo, and characterised the era with comparative peace, despite great social inequalities in the agricultural areas of Spain, and sporadic unrest relating to military defeats abroad.
In thehistory of the 20th century, theinterwar period, also known as theinterbellum (from Latin inter bellum'between the war[s]'), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end ofWorld War I (WWI) to the beginning ofWorld War II (WWII). It was relatively short, yet featured many social, political, military, and economic changes throughout the world. Petroleum-based energy production and associated mechanisation led to the prosperousRoaring Twenties, a time ofsocial andeconomic mobility for themiddle class.Automobiles,electric lighting,radio, and more became common among populations in thefirst world. The era's indulgences were followed by theGreat Depression, an unprecedented worldwide economic downturn that severely damaged many of the world's largest economies.
TheYears of Lead (Italian:Anni di piombo) were a period of social and political turmoil inItaly that lasted from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, marked by a wave of bothfar-left andfar-right politicalterrorism.
The conflict involved violent struggles between militantneo-fascist and far-left organizations, as well as the Italian state. Neo-fascist groups pursued a campaign of indiscriminate bombings and massacres known as the "strategy of tension", which sought to sow panic, blame the left, and provoke an authoritarian coup. Far-left groups, most prominently theRed Brigades, carried out targeted assassinations, kidnappings, and bombings intended to destabilize the state and inspire aproletarian revolution. This political violence emerged from a backdrop of widespread social unrest following thepost-war economic boom, and disillusionment with the mainstream political parties, primarily the rulingChristian Democracy and theItalian Communist Party. (Full article...)
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The history of Ireland between 1536 and 1691 saw the conquest and colonisation of the island by the English state and the settlement of tens of thousands ofProtestant settlers from England,Wales and Scotland. Ireland had beenpartially conquered by England in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, yet had never been fully brought under English rule. The Tudor conquest of the sixteenth century largely reduced the Gaelic lords ofLeinster,Munster,Connacht andUlster to English rule, while colonial projects like theMunster Plantation andUlster Plantation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries transformed landholding in the country. In the process the Irish were subordinated to the rule of London-based governments and a British Protestant minority became the dominant political and economic class ruling over an IrishRoman Catholic majority. The period is bounded by the dates 1536, when KingHenry VIII deposed theFitzGerald dynasty as Lords Deputies of Ireland (the newKingdom of Ireland was declared by Henry VIII in 1542), and 1691, when the CatholicJacobites surrendered at Limerick, thus confirming Protestant dominance in Ireland. This is sometimes called theearly modern period.
TheEnglish Reformation, by which Henry VIII broke withPapal authority in 1536, was to change Ireland totally. While Henry VIII broke English Catholicism from Rome, his sonEdward VI moved further, breaking with Papal doctrine completely. While the English, the Welsh and, later, the Scots acceptedProtestantism, the Irish remained Catholic.Queen Mary I then reverted the state to Catholicism in 1553–58, and QueenElizabeth I broke again with Rome in 1559. These confusing changes determined their relationship with the British state for the next four hundred years, as the Reformation coincided with a determined effort on behalf of the English state to re-conquer and colonise Ireland thereafter. The religious schism meant that the native Irish and the (Roman Catholic)Old English were to be excluded from power in the new settlement unless they converted to Protestantism. (Full article...)
Contemporary history ispolitically dominated by theCold War (1947–1991) between theWestern Bloc, led by the United States, and theEastern Bloc, led by theSoviet Union. The confrontation spurred fears of anuclear war. An all-out "hot" war was avoided, but both sides intervened in the internal politics of smaller nations in their bid for global influence and viaproxy wars. The Cold War ultimately ended with theRevolutions of 1989 and thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The latter stages and aftermath of the Cold War enabled thedemocratization of much of Europe, Africa, and Latin America.Decolonization was another important trend in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa as new states gained independence from Europeancolonial empires during the period from 1945–1975. The Middle East also saw aconflict involving the new state of Israel, the rise ofpetroleum politics, the continuing prominence but later decline ofArab nationalism, and the growth ofIslamism. The first supranational organizations of government, such as the United Nations and European Union, emerged during the period after 1945.
East Asia, the region dominated by Chinese, Japanese and Korean culture, was greatly transformed following its contact with the West in the 19th century. This defining period can be considered as the start of the modern period of East Asian history, and also happens to be the time of origin of most schools ofmartial arts of East Asian origin practiced today. New approaches and ideas about martial arts were created that are distinctly different from the previoushistory of martial arts, especially under the influence of nascentnationalism in the region, which took the respective traditions of martial arts as being part of the nation's heritage to be polished and standardized into a pure form and showcased to the rest of the world.
As a result, the modern martial arts of China and Japan are for the most part a product of the nationalist governments in power during the 1920s and 1930s, in the case of Korea developed underJapanese occupation and cast in terms of a Korean national art during the 1950s. The modern history ofIndochinese martial arts is closely related, and especially modernMuay Thai was developed in the years leading up to and following theSiamese revolution of 1932.
Ukrainian People's Republic (pink) 1918-20. Ukraine emerged as the concept of a nation, andUkrainians as a nationality, with theUkrainian National Revival which began in the late 18th and early 19th century. The first wave of national revival is traditionally connected with the publication of the first part of "Eneyida" byIvan Kotlyarevsky (1798). In 1846, in Moscow the "Istoriya Rusov ili Maloi Rossii" (History of Ruthenians or Little Russia) was published. During theSpring of Nations, in 1848 in Lemberg (Lviv) theSupreme Ruthenian Council was created which declared that Galician Ruthenians were part of the bigger Ukrainian nation. The council adopted the yellow and blue flag, the currentUkrainian flag.
Earthrise, taken on 24 December 1968 by the American astronautWilliam Anders during theApollo 8 space mission. It is the first photograph taken ofEarth fromlunar orbit. The20th century began on 1 January1901 (MCMI), and ended on 31 December2000 (MM). It was the 10th and last century in the2nd millennium and was marked by new models of scientific understanding, unprecedented scopes of warfare, new modes of communication that would operate at nearly instant speeds, and new forms of art and entertainment.Population growth was also unprecedented, as the century started with around 1.6 billion people, and ended with around 6.2 billion.
TheSecond Industrial Revolution, also known as theTechnological Revolution, was a phase of rapidscientific discovery,standardization,mass production andindustrialization from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. TheFirst Industrial Revolution, which ended in the middle of the 19th century, was punctuated by a slowdown in important inventions before the Second Industrial Revolution in 1870. Though a number of its events can be traced to earlier innovations in manufacturing, such as the establishment of amachine tool industry, the development of methods for manufacturinginterchangeable parts, as well as the invention of theBessemer process andopen hearth furnace to produce steel, later developments heralded the Second Industrial Revolution, which is generally dated between 1870 and 1914 whenWorld War I commenced.
Advancements in manufacturing and production technology enabled the widespread adoption of technological systems such astelegraph and railroad networks,gas andwater supply, andsewage systems, which had earlier been limited to a few select cities. The enormous expansion of rail and telegraph lines after 1870 allowed unprecedented movement of people and ideas, which culminated in a new wave ofcolonialism andglobalization. In the same time period, new technological systems were introduced, most significantlyelectrical power and telephones. The Second Industrial Revolution continued into the 20th century with early factoryelectrification and theproduction line; it ended at the beginning ofWorld War I.
Image 5The international community grew in the second half of the century significantly due to a new wave ofdecolonization, particularly inAfrica. Most of the newly independent states, were grouped together with many other so calleddeveloping countries. Developing countries gained attention, particularly due to rapid population growth, leading to a recordworld population of nearly 7 billion people by the end of the century. (from20th century)
Image 9A stamp commemoratingAlexander Fleming. His discovery ofpenicillin changed the world of medicine by introducing the age of antibiotics. (from20th century)
Image 10Countries by real GDP growth rate in 2014. (Countries in brown were in recession.) (fromContemporary history)
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World powers and empires in 1914, just before the First World War.
Image 15The 20th century saw an explosive increase inhuman population, rising from about 1.6 billion in 1900 to over 6 billion by 2000, with theGreen Revolution (mid-20th century) being a key factor (from20th century)
Image 24Oil field in California, US, in 1938. The first modern oil well is drilled in 1848 by the Russian engineer F.N. Semyonov, on theApsheron Peninsula north-east ofBaku. (from20th century)
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