Chapter 25
Ten Political Events That Shaped the Modern World
In This Chapter
Beating down the Berlin Wall
Coming together for peace and prosperity: The European Union
Bringing a new age of terror: 9/11
Emerging into freedom: Nelson Mandela and South Africa
Gazing over the brink: The financial crisis
When asked by a journalist what was likely to blow his government off course, former British prime minister Harold Macmillan quipped, ‘Events, dear boy, events.’ And it’s true that events, however minor they seem at the time, change the political landscape forever.
In this chapter I choose ten events that fundamentally altered the political world we live in during the second decade of the 21st century.
Hell on Earth: The Second World War
What to say about a conflict that saw the deaths of over 50 million people, the mass extermination of minorities such as the Jews and other atrocious war crimes – apart from acknowledging that between 1939 (the outbreak of war) and the final defeat of ...
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