• –End of  Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire
• –Treaty of Versailles

• Emergence of a Bipolar System
• War of ideologies: Democracy v. Communism
• Decolonization, difficulties of excolonies

Cold War Era (Post-WWII through 1991)

• Formation of the United Nations
• Formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• Cuban Missile Crisis (AKA- Caribbean Crisis) (1962)
• US Containment Doctrine
    -Korean War
    -McCarthyism
    -Vietnam War
   
• Nixon goes to China (1972)
• Brief era of détente (thawing of relations)
• Detente ends with Reagan Administration
   
• Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet Premier
       -institutes policies of perestroika (economic restructuring) and glasnost (openness)
• Berlin Wall is torn down
• Fall of the Soviet Union (December 25, 1991)
• End of bipolar system
   

Post-Cold War Era (1991-present)

• Modified Multipolar System
• Global North v. Global South
• 9/11---►'War on Terror'
• North Korea
• China joins World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Adoption of euro
• Expansion of EU