Events that shaped history

1904-5– After Japan exploited its growing industrial power to expand its empire, victory in the war against Russia assured Japan's domination of Korea and Manchuria, now part of China. This is believed to have broken the psychological barrier in Asia where the white man was seen as a superior being and unbeatable in battle. It probably inspired the freedom struggle in India and other parts of Asia.

1914– Germany challenged Britain and threatened France. Austria wanted to curb an expanded Serbia. Russia feared Austrian and German agendas. The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian on June 28, 1914 was the pretext for wars which went on for four years leaving a death toll of ten million soldiers. More than one million US troops tipped the balance after mid-1917, forcing Germany to sue for peace the next year. The formal armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.

1917– Amidst the war, the Russian revolution. Military defeats and casualties caused a lack of confidence in Czar Nicholas who was forced to abdicate in March 1917. After two provisional governments failed to end the war or stabilise domestic unrest, the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin launched a revolution. Civil war, anarchy and pogroms devastated the country until the 1920 Red Army victory.

1939– Years of agitation by extremists in Germany had brought about a depression in Germany and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler took dictatorial powers in 1933. Six years later, the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact freed Germany to attack Poland. Britain and France who had guaranteed Polish independence declared war on Germany. Russia took the Baltic states. With blitzkrieg attacks Germany conquered Denmark, Norway and France. German-Italian campaigns won the Balkans by April 1941. Three million Axis troops invaded Russia in June 1941. As the war spread to Asia, Japan occupied or attacked Indochina and many Asian countries. The war brought 20th century cruelty to its peak. The Nazis systematically killed some 5-6 million Jews, including some 3 million in death camps. Some 45 million people lost their lives in the war.

The atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 killed more than 300,000 people.

1945– The United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco by 50 nations on June 26. Today the UN has 190 members, but its effectiveness is widely questioned amidst allegations of being controlled by the United States.

1947– India and Pakistan became independent dominions on August 15. Millions of Hindu and Muslim refugees were created by partition. Riots took hundreds of thousands of lives. Gandhi was assassinated in June 1948.

1948– The UN approved partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. Israel was proclaimed on May 14. Arabs rejected the partition plan. Three major wars were fought since then in this region which is widely seen as the possible flashpoint for the final conflict or Armageddon.

1949– The People's Republic of China was proclaimed after a four year war in which the communist forces of Mao Zedong defeated the nationalists. After the Great Leap Forward and the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Den Xiaoping took control in the aftermath of the deaths of Chairman Mao and Premier Chou En Lai.

1969– It was one small step for a man but giant one for all mankind. On July 29, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module, of the Apollo 11 followed by Edwin Aldrin. Third astronaut Michael Collins circled the moon in the mother craft. This was the American response to the Soviets Union's Space initiative when it sent Yuri Gagarin into space in 1962.

1975– Ho Chi Minh's barefoot communist forces completed the humiliation of the mightiest army in the world by taking over the US backed South Vietnamese capital of Saigon on April 29 with the evacuation of the last Americans. This marked the end of a war that began more than ten years before with the notorious Tonkin Gulf incident and led to the worst humiliation and defeat for the United States.

1979– Islamic revolution in Iran led by Ayatollah Khomeini. This led to the resurgence of Islamic forces, including fundamentalism.

1989– The Cold War which began which saw the rise of Stalin, the setting up of NATO, the Warsaw Pact, the Truman doctrine and the Berlin Wall among other major events came to an end when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched shattering domestic reforms through the now famous Perestroika and Glasnost (openness and restructuring). This led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the creation of independent states while Eastern European countries also became independent.

1990– On August 2, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent his army to invade Kuwait setting off the hi-tech Gulf War, the effects of which are still seen in various dimensions, including US-led international sanctions allegedly leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children.

1993– Israel and the Palestinians worked out the historic Oslo peace accord, the culmination of a process that began with the Camp David summit some 15 years before that. After ups and downs, the peace process is now again in full gear and involving Syria and Lebanon, besides the PLO, Egypt and Jordan.

More Plus

Return to Plus Contents