20th Century Timeline

The Meiji Restoration was a political revolution that brought about the demise of the military government of Tokugawa shogunate. It ended the Edo period. It put the emperor Meiji back in control of Japan. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan enacted a constitution and a parliamentary government system. The abolitionment of the feudal system and all feudal class privileges also led to the Meiji Restoration. They also developed a national army.

Meiji Restoration

Italian unification-

The Napoleonic Wars lead to the reorganization of Italian states. A short term cause of Italian unification is when Prussian forces defeated Napoleon in Waterloo in 1815 bringing an end to Napoleon's rule.

Germany unification-

The Franco-Prussian War united the German states against the French. The Germans were successful against France, which brought about the Germany unification. The unification permanently changed the dynamic of continental Europe.

Unification

The European powers met to divide up the resources of Africa without a war. 14 countries were represented with ambassadors and envoys at the conference. Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway, Turkey and the US. No representatives from Africa were present. Europe basically took over Africa and their resources. They created states without regard for the people that lived there. This created many internal conflicts. This was also the start of Africa’s dependence on Western countries.

Berlin Conference

April 21- August 13, 1898

The war ended Spanish rule over the Americas. As a result, the US acquired the western Pacific and Latin America. The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895. In the early morning hours of May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey led a U.S. naval squadron into Manila Bay in the Philippines. The Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American War was signed on December 10, 1898. In it, Spain renounced all claims to Cuba, Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States for $20 million.

Spanish American War

In October of 1911, a group of revolutionaries in southern China led a successful revolt against the Qing Dynasty, establishing in its place the Republic of China and ending the imperial system. Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao emerged as leaders of a constitutional monarchy. In 1911, they transformed into a constitutional monarchy with Yuan Shikai as the new premier. But, provinces rebelled. Later, they elected Dr. Sun the provisional president of the newly declared Republic of China. As a result, China lost most of their territory like, Taiwan, parts of Manchuria, Korea etc.

End of China Imperial Rule

There were four main causes of WW1, militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. World War 1 started in 1914 because of the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Then, Austria declared war on Serbia. Then, France and Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The US entered the war when the Germans sank a British boat and killed 128 Americans. Because of this America declares war on Germany. The war was fought between the Central and Allied powers. The Ottoman empire ended as a result of WW1. The Central powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. The Allied powers consisted of France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States. The war ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed.

WW1

Lenin was a revolutionary and a politician who served as the head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917-1924. From 1922-1924 he was the head of the Soviet Union. He was the head of the Communist Party. The Revolution led to the end of Russian Imperial Rule. World War 1 took its toll on Russia. They were no match for an industrialized Germany. They had the most casualties out of all the countries who participated in the war. In late 1917, a civil war broke out in Russia. The Red Army who represented Lenin Bolshevik’s government, and the White Army represented a large group of loosely allied forces. The war ended in 1918 and Lenin’s army was successful. After Lenin established the Soviet Union.

Russian Revolution

The Lusitania was a British passenger ship that was launched in 1906. It was known for its luxurious qualities and its speed. The Lusitania was hit by a German torpedo, which caused the ship to sink. This caused 1,200 to be killed. The ship was sailing from New York to Liverpool. The captain was warned about the area being dangerous, but chose to ignore the warnings, which led to a tragic event. It only took 20 minutes for the boat to sink! The sinking of the Lusitania directly resulted in America’s entry into WW1.

Lusitania

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in June of 1919 in Paris, it ended WW1. The Treaty blamed Germany for starting the war, and as a result, Germany faced major penalties including losing a lot of its territory. Woodrow Wilson of the US, David George of Britain, and Georges Clemenceau of France were the main people who negotiated the treaty in Paris. None of the countries that had been defeated were represented. The US, Britain, and France all wanted different things to happen to Germany. They all ultimately agreed on very harsh consequences. Germany had to give up 10% of its territory. They also put restrictions on the German military and made them pay reparations to the Allied powers.

Treaty of

Versailles

Joseph Stalin governed the USSR from 1922-1953. Stalin converted the Soviet Union from a peasant country to an industrialized and militarized country. The USSR was one of the most powerful countries under Stalin. He was feared by most of his citizens and many died under his rule. The USSR consisted of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The USSR covered more than 6,800 miles of land..

USSR

The Great Gatsby came to define the Roaring Twenties in all its excess, euphoria and underbelly. The Harlem Renaissance changed and redefined art, music, and culture. The Roaring 20’s changed the country socially, and politically. We experienced tremendous economic growth, our wealth doubled from 1920 to 1929. Women were also granted the right to vote in 1920. Women were beginning to take a more active role in society. The Great Migration was the movement of Black Americans from the South to the North. The automobile was also a staple during this time.

Roaring 20s

On December 6, 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed which ended British rule over Ireland. The Irish nationalism movement lasted from 1870 to the end of WW1. As a result of the end of British rule, a war broke out in Ireland. The Republic of Ireland became independent in 1948.

Irish Home Rule

Great

Depression

The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939. It was the worst economic downturn in history. The stock market crashed on a day called, Black Thursday. During the 1920s, many people put large sums of money into the stock market. In 1929, production had decreased and unemployment had risen. This caused stock prices to increase. The economy was slowly failing, wages were lower, agriculture was struggling, etc. On October 24, many investors started to sell their stocks, which caused the market to crash. After that, people were no longer spending money or investing. This caused factories and other companies to fire their workers. Many people were in debt. A year later, millions of people couldn’t find work. The Dust Bowl caused a migration from people who lived on farms to move to the city. By 1933, many banks closed. President Herbert Hoover didn’t believe the government should intervene in the economy. Franklin Roosevelt was elected president and passed the New Deal. The New Deal would help to recover the economy and create jobs.

When the U.S. won the Battle of Midway, the war hit a turning point. In 1945, American dropped an atomic bomb on 2 major Japanese cities. After, the Allied powers invaded Germany, and they surrendered on May 8. Hitler also believed in a pure race, which lead to the murder of millions of Jews. The Jewish citizens of Germany and other areas were sent to concentration camps where they were treated inhumanely. Adolf Hitler brought about these camps. The Holocaust was a tragic event.

WW2 Continued

The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor was a naval base in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Japanese wanted to destroy the Pacific fleet and destroy the confidence of the U.S. Navy. 2,403 Americans died from the bombings. After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. entered World War 2.

Pearl Harbor

On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atmoic bomb on Hiroshima. The explosion instantly killed 80,000 and thousands more later due to radiation exposure. Only 3 days later, a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The second bomb killed 40,000 people. After the bombings, The Emperor of Japan officially surrendered.

Hiroshima&

Nagasaki

Japanese imperialism was about increasing Japanese territory and racial superiority. They wanted to liberate asian territories from Western influence and imperialism. They wanted to unite asian countries. During WW2, Japan took control of Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma.

Japanese

Imperialism

Yalta and Potsdam were conferences for the Allied powers to decide what would happen to Germany when WW2 ended. At Yalta, the Soviet Union wanted heavy post war reparations from Germany. At the Yalta conference FDR, Winston Churchill, and Stalin discussed how to end WW2, and what would happen to Europe when it ended. Stalin wanted money from Germany to rebuild his country. Churchill wanted to extend the power of the USSR. FDR wanted help from the Soviet Union to end the war, and they wanted the Soviet Union to join the UN. By the time of the Potsdam conference, Roosevelt had died, and Harry Truman went instead; Churchill had lost the 1945 election. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the best way to go about punishing Nazi Germany.

Yalta & Potsdam

The Cold War was a war of ideas between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War lasted for 45 years, from 1941 to 1991. The US wanted to contain the Soviet Union and their communikst mindset. The U.S. and USSR poured millions of dollars in weapons development. They were in an arms race, both countries were trying to be more powerful than the other. They were also racing each other to see who could get to space first. The Soviet Union was first in this aspect, but America put a man on the moon. They even had missiles pointed at each other. The Cold War ended when the USSR fell apart in 1991.

Cold War

Communists take over China

Communists took control of China and established the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The Chinese Communism leader was Mao Zedong. On October 1st, 1949, Mao declared the development of the PRC.The Nationalists were led by Chiang Kai-Shek. This ended the war between the Communist Party and Nationalist Party. These two had been fighting since the 1920s. Mao focused his attention on the lower class of China, and that’s how he won the war. Mao claimed that communism would end the reputation as a lesser-developed country. He was right, China is a country that is thought of very highly.

UN

&

NATO

The United Nations(UN) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) are committed to maintaining international peace and security. After WW2, there was a feeling that there had to be something done to keep the peace between nations. After 4 years, 50 countries gathered for the San Francisco conference. Over 80% of the world’s population was represented. It took over two months for a charter to be written. On June 25th, 1945, the charter was signed. And on October 24th, the UN officially came into existence. NATO was created in 1949 by the US, Canada, and other Western European countries to provide safety against the Soviet Union. In 1949, 12 countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty, which agreed that an attack on one is an attack on all.

The Warsaw Pact was a political and military alliance between the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. It was established on May 14, 1955. The Soviet Union made this in response to the formation of NATO. The original countries that signed the pact were the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and the German Democratic Republic. By the late 1980s, changes in most of the members’ countries made the Pact useless. Many countries started to withdraw from the pact. In 1991, the Warsaw Pact officially disbanded with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Warsaw Pact

Comecon was established in January of 1949. It was made to facilitate and coordinate the economic development of the eastern European countries belonging to the Soviet bloc. Comecon only had limited success. It established the organization of Eastern Europe’s railroad and electric power grid. It also created the International Bank for Economic Cooperation to finance investment projects jointly undertaken by two or more members. In 1991, Comecon was renamed the Organization for International Economic Cooperation.

COMECON

The United Nations was founded and nearly 750 million people, nearly a third of the world's population, lived in Territories that were dependent on colonial Powers. Today, fewer than 2 million people live under colonial rule in the 17 remaining non-self-governing territories. The wave of decolonization, which changed the face of the planet, was born with the UN and represents the world body’s first great success. As a result of decolonization many countries became independent and joined the UN. The international trusteeship system was established by the UN Charter. Affirming the principle of self-determination, the Charter describes the responsibility of States for territories under their administration as “a sacred trust.”

Decolonization Globally

India's independence day is celebrated on the 15th of August every year. India gained its independence from British rule in 1947, because it was the second anniversary of Japan's surrender (in World War II). Shortly after they gained their independence, they adopted their national anthem in 1950.

Indian

Independence

War in the

Middle

East

One of the main reasons for conflict was the termination of the British mandate over Palestine and the Israeli Declaration of Independence. It sparked a full-scale war (1948 Arab–Israeli War) which erupted after May 14, 1948. This caused the independence of Palestine which was granted on the 15th of December, 1998. The State of Palestine's declaration of independence of November 1988 was acknowledged in the General Assembly with Resolution 43/177. As of 31 July 2019, 138 (71.5%) of the 193 member states of the United Nations have recognised the State of Palestine.

The Korean War was a war fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. The war began on the 25th of June in 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea. The war was a conflict between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in which at least 2.5 million persons lost their lives. There are a variety of reasons which historians believe caused the war, including the spread of communism during the Cold War, American containment, Japanese occupation of Korea during World War II.

Korean War

In 1948 the Berlin Blockade occurred. This was one of the first incidents of the Cold War. The Soviet Union blocked all passage to the Western side of Berlin. More than 2.5 million people had no access to food or basic supplies. The western powers decided to airlift supplies into Berlin for over a year.The Berlin Wall was a barrier between East and West Berlin that stayed up from 1961-1989. The wall also had other defenses like nails, tranches, and military. The Eastern Bloc wanted to keep the wall up to protect East Germany from socialism. The wall separated many families for decades. Some tried to migrate to other sides but others stayed separated until the wall fell in 1989. A series of revolutions on the east side forced governments to pull the wall down. After this , the Eastern Bloc fell apart.

Berlin Wall

The decolonization of Africa took place from the 1950s to 1975 around the time of the Cold War. For hundreds of years Africa had been colonized by multiple European states like France and Great Britain. Colonial governments made the transition and switched to independent nations. It was a very uneasy process, there were many protests, political turmoil, and even small wars. During the Berlin Conference, the European countries split up Africa without any regard to the already existing borders throughout the country. After the Europeans left, the locals and the separated nations faced a lot of problems. A big issue was a sudden outbreak in civil wars. Ex: Algerian War, Angolan War of Independence, Nigerian Civil War, and the Congo Crisis.

Decolonization

of

Africa

A communist dictatorship has been the government of Cuba since 1959. Before communism, Cuba was one of the most developed countries in Latin America. A commmunist system was put in place after the unpopular dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by a group of guerilla turned communists. This group included Fidel Castro who became the next dictator of Cuba. he was the leader of Cuba from 1959-2008. To prevent a wav of anti-communism, the government launched a wave of terror. Death squads shot at least 14,000 Cubans and more than 100,000 died due to the revolution. In 1960, Cuba made its first concentration camps. More than 300,000 people were detained in the camps. To this day, Cuba still has a communist system.

- Fidel Castro was a former prime minister of Cuba

Cuba

In early 1961 President John F. Kennedy concluded that Fidel Castro was a Soviet client working to subvert Latin America. After much debate in his administration Kennedy authorized a clandestine invasion of Cuba by a brigade of Cuban exiles. The brigade hit the beach at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, but the operation collapsed in spectacular failure within 2 days. Kennedy took public responsibility for the mistakes made, but remained determined to rid Cuba of Castro. In November 1961 Kennedy approved Operation Mongoose, a secret plan aimed at stimulating a rebellion in Cuba that the United States could support. While the Kennedy administration planned Operation Mongoose, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev secretly introduced medium-range nuclear missiles into Cuba. It's called the Bay of Pigs because of the location of the invasion, the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), also known to Cubans as the Playa Girón (Girón Beach), on Cuba's southwestern coast.

Cuban Missile Crisis

On March 25 1957, two treaties were signed creating the EEC and Euratom. The European Economic Community was a regional organization that aimed to bring about economic integration among its member states. It was created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957. Upon the formation of the European Union in 1993, the EEC was incorporated into the EU and renamed the European Commission.

EEC

EU

The European Union was founded on November 1st, 1993. The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of 4,233,255.3 km² and an estimated total population of about 447 million. As well as this, democracy in the EU comes from the member states rather than the Union itself (Rumford 2002, p215). Hence, the EU is a unique political system because it “governs without government” but also has a democratic tradition through its member states.

The EC was founded on the 16 of January in 1958. The European Commission is the executive branch of the European Union. It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission headed by a President. It includes an administrative body of about 32,000 European civil servants.

EC

The Space Race was a 20th century competition between the USSR and the U.S. to see who could make the most technological advances in the area of space exploration. The USSR put the first satellite, Sputnik, in space. They also put the first man, Yuri Gargarin, in space. The U.S., however, put the first man on the moon (Neil Amrstrong.) There was a lot of tension between the U.S. and the USSR especially after the nuclear arms race. This pushed both superpowers to “race” each other to space.

The Space

Race

Vietnam

War

The Vietnam War took place from 1955 to the fall of Saigon in 1975. It was fought in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. However, it was officially fought between North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by China and the USSR, and South Vietnam was supported by the U.S. and other anti-communsit allies. The war could be considered as a part of the Cold-War. Vietnam was originally colonized by the French. After they left the country, the Viet Cong (a South Vietnamese common front under the direction of North Vietnam) started a guerilla war in the south. This pushed for other countries to be involved. North Vietnam wanted the country to adopt communism, so they had the support of other communist countries. The war ended with the fall of Saigon when the south surrendered to the North.

Cultural Revolution in

China

The Great Leap Forward was the second 5 year plan started by the Chinese Communist Party. The plan was made to solve China’s industrial and agricultural issues. They wanted to develop labor-intensive methods of industrialization. They believed that using manpower was more effective than machines and capital expenditure. They learned from the Soviet model and the mistakes that they made. However, the plan didn’t work like it was supposed to and instead of boosting the economy it destroyed it. It resulted in mass starvation and forced labor. An estimated 30 to 45 million Chinese citizens died during this time period. The Cultural Revolution in China started in 1966 and ended in 1976. The communist leader of China at that time was Mao Zedong and he launched the plan in order to prove himself better than the government. The plan continued until Mao Zedong’s death in 1976.

Iranian

Hostage Crisis

The Iranian hostage crisis took place from 1979 to 1981. Militants in Iran held 66 Americans hostage from the American embassy in Tehran. They held 52 hostages for more than a year. It occurred after Iran’s Islamic Revolution which happened a couple years prior. In May 1980, the U.S. tried to place embargoes on Iran to maybe weaken the country and force them to give up the hostages but that didn’t work. After the fall of the old government in Iran, a new government was put in place and negotiations started. The hostages were released in 1981. The crisis however, ruined the two countries’ relationship for many years.

1980s

Reagan &

Gorbachev

During the 1980’s Ronald Reagan was the president of the U.S, and Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader of the USSR. Perestroika was a social reform plan started by Gorbachev. The economy of the USSR had remained stagnant throughout the 80’s and the plan was supposed to kikc-start the economy however, the plan didn't work and led to the fall of the USSR in the 90’s. Ronald Reagan saw that Gorbachev’s efforts were much different than other Soviet leaders. He wanted to lead the USSR in a different direction. For the first time the USSR and the U.S. saw eye to eye. The negotiations and friendship led to the end of the Cold War.

Democracy movements in Latin America

During the 80s’, multiple Latin American countries had democratic movements. The democratic gains gave unprecedented freedoms to many people but many countries didn’t switch to a democratic government until later. No other part of the world saw such a dramatic expansion of democracy. Paraguay had a military coup in which the new leader promised free elections. Cuba and Panama were overthrown and free of authoritarian rule by the end of the decade.

Collapse of the

USSR

The Collapse of the USSR happened on December 26, 1991.The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the process of internal political, economic and ethnic disintegration within the USSR which resulted in the end of its existence as a sovereign state. The unsuccessful August 1991 coup against Gorbachev sealed the fate of the Soviet Union. Planned by hard-line Communists, the coup diminished Gorbachev's power and propelled Yeltsin and the democratic forces to the forefront of Soviet and Russian politics.

Fall of the

Berlin Wall

The Fall of the Berlin Wall happened on November, 1989. As the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders.It was on 9 November 1989, five days after half a million people gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest, that the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany crumbled. The political changes in Eastern Europe and civil unrest in Germany put pressure on the East German government to loosen some of its regulations on travel to West Germany.They split the defeated nation into four “allied occupation zones”: The eastern part of the country went to the Soviet Union, while the western part went to the United States, Great Britain and (eventually) France. The Reunification of Germany happened during 1990.

Jun 25, 1991 – Apr 28, 1992

After World War II, Yugoslavia was subdivided along ethnic lines into six republics and forcibly held together by Tito under communist rule. But when Tito died and communism fell, those republics pulled apart. In 1991, Slovenia and Croatia each declared complete independence from Yugoslavia. By 1981, Yugoslavia had incurred $19.9 billion in foreign debt. Another concern was the unemployment rate, at 1 million by 1980. This problem was compounded by the general "unproductiveness of the South", which not only added to Yugoslavia's economic woes, but also irritated Slovenia and Croatia further. The varied reasons for the country's breakup ranged from the cultural and religious divisions between the ethnic groups making up the nation, to the memories of WWII atrocities committed by all sides, to centrifugal nationalist forces. Specifically, the six republics that made up the federation - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia (including the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina) and Slovenia. On 25 June 1991, the declarations of independence of Slovenia and Croatia effectively ended SFRY's existence.

Breakup of

Yugoslvia,

Milosevic

Persian Gulf War

Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi politician who served as the president of Iraq from 1979-2003. He was a brutal dictator who waged war against neighboring countries. He started the Iran-Iraq war, trying to win over Iran’s oil fields. The war lasted for 8 years, ending in 1988. In 1990, he invaded Kuwait. He wanted to boost Iraq’s economy with Kuwait's oil reserves, however, this triggered a trade embargo against Iraq. This also started the Persian Gulf War which lasted for 6 weeks. An allied military coalition drove Iraqi soldiers out of Kuwait. After the war, multiple sanctions were placed against Iraq. For example, they weren’t allowed to have chemical or biological weapons.

Al Qaeda &

Bin Laden

Bin Laden was the 17th of 52 children of construction magnate Muhammad Awad bin Laden, an immigrant from neighboring Yemen, who ran the company Saudi Binladin Group. Muhammad Awad bin Laden became a billionaire by building his company into the largest construction firm in the Saudi kingdom. Bin Laden married for the first time at age 17, to a Syrian cousin, Najwa. Reportedly walked with a cane and suffered from kidney disease. Al-Qaeda, officially known as Qaedat al-Jihad, is a multinational militant Sunni Islamic extremist network composed of Salafist jihadists. It was founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers during the Soviet–Afghan War.

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, was a decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

2000

Election

In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's stated aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban government from power.

9/11

Great

Recession

The Great Recession that started in 2008 brought a housing crisis in which over six million American households lost their homes to foreclosure. The collapse of the housing market during the Great Recession displaced close to 10 million Americans as rising unemployment led to mass foreclosures. 1 In 2008 alone, 3.1 million Americans filed for foreclosure, which at the time was one in every 54 homes, according to CNN Money.

Arab

Spring

The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in response to corruption and economic stagnation and was influenced by the Tunisian Revolution.

Rise

of

ISIS

From veteran producer and journalist Martin Smith, this documentary is a major, in-depth investigation of the terrorist group's ascent. Smith draws on interviews with Iraqi politicians and American policymakers and military leaders to explain how ISIS developed into what one interviewee calls `the al-Qaeda that Osama bin Laden only dreamed of building'.