Causes
Why did your event happen?
What specific combination of long- and short-term political, economic, social, or other factors brought about your event?
To what degree did each factor contribute?
1947 Partition of India and creation of Pakistan
1948 Creation of apartheid system in South Africa
1948 Founding of the United Nations
1948 Creation of the state of Israel
1949 Communist takeover in China
1950 China’s occupation of Tibet
1950-1953 Korean War
1953 “Mau Mau” rebellion in Kenya
1954 French defeat in Indo-China (Vietnam)
1954 U.S.-backed Coup d’etat in Guatemala
1955 Bandung Conference
1956 Suez Crisis
1950s-60s Algeria’s war for independence
1959 Cuban Revolution
1961 Assasination of democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of Congo
1961 Assassination of dictator Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
1963 Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem overthrown by Vietnamese military with CIA support
1963 Founding of Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
1968 Tet Offensive during Vietnam War
1969-1970 U.S. bombing and invasion of Cambodia
1971 Bangladesh Genocide
1972-75 Rise of the Khmer Rouge/Cambodian Genocide
1973 Coup d’etat in Chile: the end of Salvador Allende’s Marxist government and the beginning of Augusto Pinochet’s right-wing dictatorship
1975-1977 State of Emergency in India
1979 Sandinistas overthrow government in Nicaragua
1979 Iranian Revolution
1979 “Boat People” begin to flee Vietnam
1979-1989 Soviet-Afghan War
1984 Assassination of Indira Gandhi
1986 Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes in Soviet Union
1989 Tiananmen Square Protests and Repression in China
1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall
1992 Creation of European Union
1994 End of Apartheid in South Africa
1994 Rwandan genocide: Hutus and Tutsis
1998 The “Good Friday” Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland
1998 Hugo Chavez elected president in Venezuela
