World Wars and Cold War
See also: Twentieth centuryThe "short twentieth century", from 1914 to 1991, sees the First World War, the Second World War and the Cold War, including the rise and fall of Nazi Germany and of the Soviet Union. These disastrous events spell the end of the European Colonial empires and initiated widespread decolonisation. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 to 1991 leaves the United States as the world's single superpower and triggers the fall of the Iron Curtain, the reunification of Germany and an accelerated process of a European integration that is ongoing.
Read more about this topic: History Of Europe
Famous quotes containing the words world, wars, cold and/or war:
“The way a child discovers the world constantly replicates the way science began. You start to notice whats around you, and you get very curious about how things work. How things interrelate. Its as simple as seeing a bug that intrigues you. You want to know where it goes at night; who its friends are; what it eats.”
—David Cronenberg (b. 1943)
“I had the idea that there were two worlds. There was a real world as I called it, a world of wars and boxing clubs and childrens homes on back streets, and this real world was a world where orphans burned orphans.... I liked the other world in which almost everyone lived. The imaginary world.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Id take off all my clothes
& cross the damp cold lawn & down the bluff
into the terrible water & walk forever
under it out toward the island.”
—John Berryman (19141972)
“Testimony of all ages forces us to admit that war is among the most dangerous enemies to liberty, and that the executive is the branch most favored by it of all the branches of Power.”
—James Madison (17511836)