The modern era or the modern period, also known as modern history or modern times, is the period of
human history that succeeds the
post-classical era (also known, particularly with reference to Europe, as the
Middle Ages), which ended around
1500 AD, up to the present. This terminology is a historical
periodization that is applied primarily to
European and
Western history.
Contemporary history refers to the period following the end of World War II in 1945 and continuing to the
present. It is alternatively considered either a sub-period of the late modern period or a separate period beginning after the late modern period. It includes the currently-ongoing
21st century.
The senior line of the House of Bourbon became extinct in the male line in 1527 with the death of Duke
Charles III of Bourbon. This made the junior
Bourbon-Vendôme branch the genealogically senior branch of the House of Bourbon. In 1589, at the death of
Henry III of France, the House of Valois became extinct in the male line. Under the
Salic law, the head of the House of Bourbon, as the senior representative of the senior-surviving branch of the Capetian dynasty, became King of France as
Henry IV. Bourbon monarchs then united to France the part of the
Kingdom of Navarre north of the
Pyrenees, which Henry's father had acquired by marriage in 1555, ruling both until the 1792 overthrow of the monarchy during the
French Revolution. Restored briefly in 1814 and definitively in 1815 after the fall of the
First French Empire, the senior line of the Bourbons was finally overthrown in the
July Revolution of 1830. A cadet Bourbon branch, the
House of Orléans, then ruled for 18 years (1830–1848), until it too was overthrown.
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) was a
global conflict between two coalitions: the
Allies and the
Central Powers. Fighting took place throughout
Europe, the
Middle East,
Africa, the
Pacific, and parts of
Asia. One of the
deadliest wars in history, it resulted in an estimated 9 million soldiers dead and 23 million wounded, plus up to 8 million civilian deaths from numerous causes including
genocide. The movement of large numbers of troops and civilians during the war was a major factor in spreading the 1918
Spanish flu pandemic.
In early 1917, the
United States entered the war on the Allies' side, and later the same year, the
Bolsheviks seized power in the Russian
October Revolution, making
peace with the Central Powers in early 1918. Germany launched an
offensive in the west in March 1918, and despite initial successes, it left the
German Army exhausted and demoralised. A successful Allied
counter-offensive later that year caused a collapse of the German frontline. By the end of 1918, Bulgaria, the
Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary agreed to armistices with the Allies, leaving Germany isolated. Facing
revolution at home and with his army on the verge of mutiny,
Kaiser WilhelmII abdicated on 9 November. (Full article...)
The nature of the regime evolved and changed during its existence. Months after the start of the
Spanish Civil War in July 1936, Franco emerged as the dominant rebel military leader and was proclaimed head of state on 1 October 1936, ruling a
dictatorship over the territory controlled by the
Nationalist faction. The
1937 Unification Decree, which merged all parties supporting the rebel side, led to Nationalist Spain becoming a single-party regime under the
FET y de las JONS. The end of the war in 1939 brought the extension of the Franco rule to the whole country and the
exile of Republican institutions. The Francoist dictatorship originally took a form described as "fascistized dictatorship", or "semi-fascist regime", showing clear influence of
fascism in fields such as
labor relations, the
autarkiceconomic policy,
aesthetics, and the
single-party system. As time went on, the regime opened up and became closer to developmental dictatorships, although it always preserved residual fascist trappings.
During the
Second World War, Spain did not join the
Axis powers (its supporters from the
civil war,
Italy and
Germany). Nevertheless, Spain supported them in various ways throughout most of the war while maintaining its neutrality as an official policy of "non-belligerence". Because of this, Spain was
isolated by many other countries for nearly a decade after World War II, while its
autarkic economy, still trying to recover from the
civil war, suffered from chronic depression. The
1947 Law of Succession made Spain a de jure kingdom again, but defined Franco as the head of state for life with the power to choose the person to become
King of Spain and his successor. (Full article...)
Image 5
Ottoman Tripolitania, also known as the Regency of Tripoli, was officially ruled by the
Ottoman Empire from 1551 to 1912. It corresponded roughly to the northern parts of modern-day
Libya in historic
Tripolitania and
Cyrenaica. It was initially established as an
Ottoman province ruled by a
pasha (governor) in
Tripoli who was appointed from
Constantinople, though in practice it was semi-autonomous due to the power of the local
Janissaries. From 1711 to 1835, the
Karamanli dynasty ruled the province as a de facto hereditary monarchy while remaining under nominal Ottoman suzerainty. In 1835, the Ottomans reestablished direct control over the region until its
annexation by Italy in 1912.
The "war on terror" uses
war as a metaphor to describe a variety of actions which fall outside the traditional definition of
war. 43rd
President of the United StatesGeorge W. Bush first used the
term "war on terrorism" on 16 September 2001, and then "war on terror" a few days later in a formal speech to
Congress. Bush indicated the enemy of the war on terror as "a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them." The initial conflict was aimed at al-Qaeda, with the main theater in
Afghanistan and
Pakistan, a region that would later be referred to as "
AfPak". The term "war on terror" was immediately criticized by individuals including
Richard Myers, then
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and eventually more nuanced terms came to be used by the
Bush administration to define the campaign. While "war on terror" was never used as a formal designation of U.S. operations, a
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal was and is issued by the
U.S. Armed Forces.
With the major wars over and only low-level combat operations in some places, the end of the
war in Afghanistan in August 2021 symbolizes the visible ending of the war, or at least its main phase, for many in the West. The American military ceased issuing its
National Defense Service Medal on 31 December 2022. As of 2023, various global operations in the campaign are ongoing, including a
U.S. military intervention in
Somalia. According to the
Costs of War Project, the
post-9/11 wars of the campaign have displaced 38 million people, the second largest number of
forced displacements of any conflict since 1900, and caused more than 4.5 million deaths (direct and indirect) in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Philippines, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. They also estimate that it has cost the
US Treasury over $8 trillion. (Full article...)
The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two
superpowers, but they each supported opposing sides in major regional conflicts known as
proxy wars.
Modern warfare is
warfare that diverges notably from previous military concepts, methods, and
technology, emphasizing how
combatants must modernize to preserve their battle worthiness. As such, it is an evolving subject, seen differently in different times and places. In its narrowest sense, it is merely a synonym for contemporary warfare.
The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the
Fourth Republic, replacing the former
parliamentary republic with a
semi-presidential (or dual-executive) system that split powers between a
president as
head of state and a
prime minister as
head of government.
Charles de Gaulle, who was the
first French president elected under the Fifth Republic in December 1958, believed in a strong head of state, which he described as embodying l'esprit de la nation ("the spirit of the nation"). Under the fifth republic, the president has the right to dissolve the national assembly and hold new parliamentary elections. If the president has a majority in the national assembly, the president is the one who sets domestic policy and the prime minister puts it into practice. During a presidential mandate, the president can also change prime ministers, reshuffle the government. If it's another majority in the national assembly, the president is forced to nominate a prime minister from another party than his, this is called a cohabitation. In the beginning of the fifth republic, presidential elections were held every seventh year and parliamentary elections every fifth year, which means the president could find himself in a situation where the majority elected in the national assembly was of another party. But since the year 2000, the presidential and parliamentary elections were synchronized and are held every fifth year, which means the president always has a majority. Cohabitation has become unlikely.
The Fifth Republic is France's third-longest-lasting political regime, after the
hereditary,
feudal monarchy of the
Ancien Régime and the parliamentary
Third Republic (
4 September 1870–
10 July 1940). If it continues, the Fifth Republic will overtake the Third Republic as the second-longest French regime and the longest-lasting French republic on 8 August 2028. (Full article...)
Image 11
The history of Ireland from 1691–1800 was marked by the dominance of the
Protestant Ascendancy. These were
Anglo-Irish families of the Anglican
Church of Ireland, whose English ancestors had settled
Ireland in the wake of its conquest by England and colonisation in the
Plantations of Ireland, and had taken control of most of the land. Many were absentee landlords based in England, but others lived full-time in Ireland and increasingly identified as Irish. (See
Early Modern Ireland 1536-1691). During this time, Ireland was nominally an autonomous Kingdom with its own Parliament; in actuality it was a
client state controlled by the King of Great Britain and supervised by his cabinet in London. The great majority of its population,
Roman Catholics, were excluded from power and land ownership under the
penal laws. The second-largest group, the
Presbyterians in
Ulster, owned land and businesses but could not vote and had no political power. The period begins with the defeat of the Catholic
Jacobites in the
Williamite War in Ireland in 1691 and ends with the
Acts of Union 1800, which formally annexed Ireland in a United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 and dissolved the Irish Parliament. (Full article...)
The
Victorian era is included, although not as well covered in terms of events as the major battles before and after it, with the notable exception of the
American Civil War, which has a large and active community of reenactors. (Full article...)
The administrative and social structures of the ancien régime in France evolved across years of state-building, legislative acts (like the
Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts), and internal conflicts. The attempts of the
Valois Dynasty to reform and re-establish control over the scattered political centres of the country were hindered by the
Wars of Religion from 1562 to 1598. During the
Bourbon Dynasty, much of the reigns of
Henry IV (
r. 1589–1610) and
Louis XIII (
r. 1610–1643) and the early years of
Louis XIV (
r. 1643–1715) focused on administrative centralization. Despite the notion of "
absolute monarchy" (typified by the king's right to issue orders through lettres de cachet) and efforts to create a centralized state, ancien régime France remained a country of systemic irregularities: administrative, legal, judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently overlapped, while the French nobility struggled to maintain their rights in the matters of local government and justice, and powerful internal conflicts (such as
The Fronde) protested against this centralization.
The drive for centralization related directly to questions of royal finances and the ability to wage war. The internal conflicts and dynastic crises of the 16th and the 17th centuries between Catholics and Protestants, the
Habsburgs' internal family conflict, and the territorial expansion of France in the 17th century all demanded great sums, which needed to be raised by taxes, such as the land tax (taille) and the tax on salt (gabelle), and by contributions of men and service from the nobility. (Full article...)
Notable historical events in the late 18th century, that marked the transition from the early modern period to the late modern period, include: the
American Revolution (1765–91),
French Revolution (1789–99), and beginning of the
Industrial Revolution around 1760. The Industrial Revolution was a period of major industrialization during the late 18th century and the early 19th century. It began in Great Britain and quickly spread throughout the world. This era saw a massive shift in social, economic, and cultural conditions, driven by technological innovations in
manufacturing, mining, transport, and agriculture. Key developments included the use of
steam power, the growth of factories, and mass production of goods.
The early 20th century was marked by two World Wars and numerous political revolutions.
World War I (1914–18) and
World War II (1939–45) were global conflicts that reshaped the political, social, and economic landscape of the world. These wars led to the fall of empires and redrawing of national boundaries. The period saw significant political revolutions, such as the
Russian Revolution in 1917, which led to the rise of the
Soviet Union, and the
Chinese Communist Revolution, which culminated in the establishment of the
People's Republic of China in 1949. (Full article...)
In 2022, 45% of the world's population lived in "some form of democracy", although only 8% lived in "full democracies." The
United Nations estimates that by 2050, two thirds of the world's population will be
urbanized. (Full article...)
Image 3Map of territorial changes in Europe after
World War I (as of 1923). (from 20th century)
Image 4Oil field in California, 1938. The first modern oil well was drilled in 1848 by Russian engineer F.N. Semyonov, on the
Apsheron Peninsula north-east of
Baku. (from 20th century)
Image 6The international community grew in the second half of the century significantly due to a new wave of decolonization, particularly in Africa. Most of the newly independent states, were grouped together with many other so called
developing countries. Developing countries gained attention, particularly due to rapid population growth, leading to a record
world population of nearly 7 billion people by the end of the century. (from 20th century)
Image 13A stamp commemorating
Alexander Fleming. His discovery of
penicillin changed the world of medicine by introducing the age of antibiotics. (from 20th century)
Image 15The rise of
MP3 players,
downloadable music, and cellular
ringtones in the mid-2000s ended the decade-long dominance that the
CD held up to that point. (from Modern era)
Image 16
World powers and empires in 1914, just before the First World War.