The Opening of a New Era:

The World after 1945

I. The Legacy of World War II

• Destruction, Genocide, and the New Atomic Reality

o Auschwitz and Hiroshima

• The End of the (West) European Hegemony

• The Emergence of the Bipolar World (USA vs. USSR)

• The American World System: A “Pax Americana”?

• The Emergence of the “Third World” and the North/South Divide

o The World in 1945 (51 UN Members)

o The World in 2006 (192 UN Members)

II. Some Driving Forces of Global History since 1945

• Liberal Democracy/Capitalism
  vs.
  Communism/Authoritarianism/Totalitarianism

• Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Religion

• Decolonization, Anti-Imperialism, and Neo-Imperialism

• Internationalism and Post-Nationalism

o The United Nations and The European Union

• Civil Rights Movements and Modern Feminism

• Economic Modernization, Transportation Revolution, Electronic Revolution, and Globalization

• The Population Explosion (2) and the Natural Environment

o 0 AD: .17 billion

o 1800: .98 billion

o 1900: 1.6 billion

o 1950: 2.5 billion

o 2009: 6.8 billion (220,000+ more each day)