The period of transition from one century to another is always rich in historical events, and the junction of the 19-20 centuries - especially.
The world at the turn of the 20th century is, of course, an era of industrialization and progress. She gave humanity such necessary things as radio, telephone and communications.
If we imagine for a moment that we were able to get into the world of the beginning of the 20th century, we will see an amazing landscape: industrial Europe with steaming factories, important capitalists, hurrying to work in the morning, and just beginning to emerge socialist parties. Well, let's see how the game of imagination corresponds to the official story ...
Colonial world
The world at the beginning of the 20th century was largely determined by colonial relations. It was the contradictions arising from them that provoked serious economic and political changes that set a well-known vector of development.
The major colonizing countries were England, France and Italy. They began to be called metropolises, and dependent states - colonies.
The world at the beginning of the 20th century was characterized by a noticeable difference in people's living standards: while Western European countries experienced an economic and cultural boom (often due to the taking of manufactured goods from the inhabitants of dependent countries), the majority of the population of the colonies went hungry.
But the USA at that time was an inconspicuous and quiet country: it did not intervene anywhere, except for Latin America.
The result of colonial policy was the division of the world into zones of influence between the leading powers (mainly England and France). Of course, a weaker Germany remained dissatisfied with this course of events. This country began to look for allies, which led to the formation of two well-known associations.
The balance of power at the beginning of the 20th century: the Entente and the Triple Alliance
Germany began to unite European states around itself. As a result, the Entente arose, which included the following countries:
- Germany;
- Austria-Hungary;
- Italy.
Strong powers, in turn, also decided to create their own union. They united in the Triple Alliance, which included:
The world at the beginning of the 20th century largely determined the well-known historical events. The confrontation between the Entente and the Triple Alliance led to the First World War (1914-1918).
World at the beginning of the 20th century: the world's population and migration
The time interval considered by us is notable for two processes:
- an increase in the world's population;
- waves of migration.
In 1900, the world's population was 1.6 billion people. Most lived in Asia, Europe and Russia. But the population of the New World (USA and Canada) was not numerous - only 82 million people.
Most people lived in villages. About 10% of the world's population lived in cities. There were few large cities, only 360 of them had a population of over 100 thousand.
The world in the 19-20 centuries is a period of large-scale migrations of people from one country to another, and often to another part of the world. For example, an impressive portion of European residents decided to emigrate to America (about 50 million people). This is due to the fact that people were looking for economically more profitable places, and wanted to see a new mainland.
The Asian continent also did not bypass migration processes. The Chinese sought to Southeast Asia, the Indians - to South Africa. It was due to population migration that such a diverse, multifaceted and interesting world was formed.
World at the end of the 20th century
The past century has been incredibly rich in various historical events, some of which have witnessed it.
Of great importance was the Cold War and its outcome — the disappearance of the bipolar world and the collapse of the USSR. Consider the changes that have befallen the world and our civilization at the end of the last century. Here are the main ones:
- globalization of the world;
- high development of communications;
- collapse of the USSR;
- US leadership;
- aggravation of relations between developed countries and third world countries;
- fully capitalist economy;
- world market;
- integration of the countries of the former socialist camp into the world economy;
- creation of a global Internet;
- demographic record (in 2000, the world's population reached 6 billion);
- the appearance of HIV infection;
- progress in medicine and science (for example, the advent of cloning technology).
The end of the 20th century is related to the Recent History, and past historical events are already written (or written) in textbooks. We have a unique opportunity to form a personal opinion about a particular phenomenon that happened, since we live in this contradictory time.