Conflicts, Civil Rights and Integration

Political Schism

  • Early 60s ties between the USSR and - China, and communism was divided in Moscow and Peking.
  • Development of social studies in developed countries and in the Third World.

Energy Crisis

  • In the 1970s, there was an energy crisis, when the hydrocarbon-producing countries raised their oil prices.
  • OPEC became a major player in the world economy.
  • With the crisis: some countries increased their power, technological changes affected humanity and countries that did not have oil sacrificed themselves to obtain it.

European Integration

In the 1950s, a process of economic integration began, which was called the European Common Market, made up of 27 countries.

Fall of Communism

  • 1980: In the USSR the weight of Stalinism, the abandonment of socialist ideals and bureaucratization affecting the country.
  • Communist Party lost power, with Russia becoming the leader.
  • In Eastern Europe: communism became capitalism.
  • Yugoslavia dissolved in the midst of a bloody civil war.
  • The Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and East Germany was annexed to the Federal Republic of Germany.

Asia Growth

  • Japan affected by the war let the United States occupy its territory.
  • The Japanese were a great power thanks to the production of automobiles and advanced technology.
  • Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea were called the Asian tigers because of their industrialization.
  • China became communist, but after Mao's death, it opened up to capitalism, which made its economy grow.

Civil Rights and Breaks

  • The resistance of the population to the unpopular Vietnam War and left despair, confronting and winning over the world's greatest power.
  • There were violent attitudes, and Martin Luther King imposed pacifism.
  • President Richard Nixon accepted the political espionage called Watergate, was true where it revealed the corruption and lack of control of the government.
  • In the 1950s, there were protests against discrimination and demanded effective equality in voting, work and services.
  • Young people refused to go to war, and this provoked a crisis of capitalism in the United States.