History of Europe - World Wars and Cold War

World Wars and Cold War

See also: Twentieth century

The "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:

    “Were civilization itself to be measured by some of its results, it would seem perhaps better for what we call the barbarous part of the world to remain unchanged.”
    —Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    “Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery. Nothing else holds fashion.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “Continuous eloquence wearies.... Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated. Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm.”
    —Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

    “To be deeply committed to negotiations, to be opposed to a particular war or military action, is not only considered unpatriotic, it also casts serious doubt on one’s manhood.”
    —Myriam Miedzian, U.S. author. Boys Will Be Boys, ch. 2 (1991)