Between the New and the Newest Times: the world in the early 20th century

The period of transition from one century to another is always rich in historical events, and the junction of 19-20 centuries - especially.

The world at the turn of the 20th century is certainly an era of industrialization and progress. She gave humanity such things as radio, telephone and communication.

If we imagine for a moment what we managedto get to the world of the beginning of the 20th century, we will see an amazing landscape: industrial Europe with smoking factories, important capitalists hurrying to work in the morning, and only the beginning of the emerging socialist parties. Well, let's see how much the imagination's game corresponds to the official history ...

Colonial world

The world in the early 20th century was largely determinedcolonial relations. Precisely the contradictions resulting from them provoked serious economic and political changes that set a certain vector of development.

The big countries-colonizers were England, France and Italy. They began to be called metropolises, and dependent states - colonies.

The world in the early 20th century was characterized by a notabledifference in living standards of people: while Western European countries experienced an economic and cultural boom (often due to the removal of products from residents of dependent countries), the majority of the population of the colonies was starving.

But the US at that time was an inconspicuous and quiet country: it did not interfere anywhere except Latin America.

The outcome of the colonial policy was the division of the world intozones of influence between the leading powers (mainly England and France). Of course, this weaker Germany remained unhappy with this course of events. This country began to seek allies, which led to the formation of two well-known associations.

Balance of forces in the early 20th century: the Entente and the Triple Alliance

Germany began to unite around itself the European states. As a result, the Entente arose, which included the following countries:

• Germany;
• Austria-Hungary;
• Italy.

Strong powers in turn also decided to create their alliance. They merged into the Triple Alliance, which included:

• England;
• France;
• Russia.

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).

The world in the early 20th century: the world's population and migration

The period of time considered by us is notable for two processes:

• an increase in the world population;
• waves of migration.

In 1900, the world population was 1.6 billion people. Most lived in Asia, Europe and Russia. But the population of the New World (USA and Canada) was a small number - only 82 million people.

Most people lived in villages. In cities, about 10% of the world's population lived. Large cities were few, only 360 of them had a population of over 100 thousand.

The world in the 19-20 centuries is a period of large-scalemigration of people from one country to another, and often to another part of the world. For example, an impressive part of the European inhabitants 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 continent.

The Asian continent also did not bypass the migrationprocesses. The Chinese sought to Southeast Asia, the Indians - to South Africa. It is due to the migration of the population that such a diverse, multifaceted and interesting world has emerged.

The world in the late 20th century

The past century was incredibly rich in various historical events, witnessed by some of us.

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 befell the world and our civilization at the end of the last century. Here are the main:

• globalization of the world;
• high development of communications;
• the collapse of the USSR;
• leadership of the USA;
• the aggravation of relations between the developed countries and the countries of the third world;
• fully capitalist economy;
• world market;
• integration of the countries of the former socialist camp into the world economy;
• creation of a global Internet network;
• a demographic record (for 2000 the population of the Earth has reached 6 billion);
• the emergence of HIV infection;
• progress in medicine and science (for example, the emergence of cloning technology).

The end of the 20th century belongs to the Newest History, andpast historical events have already been written (or written) in textbooks. We have a unique opportunity to form a personal opinion about this or that phenomenon, as we live in this contradictory time.