Modern world history

Hartford Web Publishing is not the author of the documents in World History Archives and does not presume to validate their accuracy or authenticity nor to release their copyright.

• The retrospective history in general of the world as a whole

[The term modern here refers to the capitalist era. For World War I, see European retrospective history. Political events subsequent to the earlier 1990's are placed within contemporary history.]

• The history of slavery in the modern world as a whole
• The rise of the U.S. empire and the Cold War
• The history of World War II as a whole
• The history of the Korean War [markup upon request]
• The history of the Vietnam War [markup upon request]
• The history of the Gulf War [markup upon request]

Review of Brian M. Linn, Guardians of Empire: The U. S. Army and the Pacific, 1902–1949

By Roger Dingman, 28 November 1997. Why did the United States suffer defeat at Japanese hands in December 1941 at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines? Defeat grew out of decades of U.S. Army strategic and institutional ambivalence towards the Pacific.

Ghosts from South Africa

By Meron Benvenisti, Haaretz, 15 March 2004. In 1901, Kitchener, commander of Britain's imperial forces in South Africa, launched a wide-reaching policy of closures and crackdowns, with the aim of liquidating Boer (Afrikaner) terrorists, and people was aghast at his barbaric acts. They formulated the Hague convention of 1907 that denounced his policy of slaughter.

USSR's impact on national liberation

By Pat Chin, Workers World, 15 January 2004. When the Soviet Union was born in 1917, most of the world was colonized. But the existence of a huge socialist state changed the world relationship of forces. The USSR represented the social and economic rival to Western imperialism and provided space in which countries were able to win independence.

Dien Bien Phu, symbol for all time

By Alain Ruscio, Le Monde diplomatique, July 2004. The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu was a signal to other colonies yearning for independence: the next to rise up was Algeria three months later. It marked the end of the French empire.

Port Elgin Declaration (summary)

By Tony Clarke, 7 November 1977. The first International Symposium on Corporate Rule took place November 2-7, 1977 at Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada. The delegates included 85 people from Asia Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America. This is a summary statement prepared by the chair of the Symposium, Tony Clarke.