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The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840 This transition included going from hand production methods to machines new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes improved efficiency of water power the increasing use of steam power and the development of machine tools It also included the change from wood and other bio fuels to coal Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment value of output and capital invested The textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods 1 The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way In particular average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth Some economists such asRobert E Lucas Jr argue that the real impact of the Industrial Revolution was that for the first time in history the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth Nothing remotely like this economic behavior is mentioned by the classical economists even as a theoretical possibility 2 Others however argue that while growth of the economy s overall productive powers was unprecedented during the Industrial Revolution living standards for the majority of the population did not grow meaningfully until the late 19th and 20th centuries and that in many ways workers living standards declined under early capitalism for instance studies have shown that real wages in Britain only increased 15 between the 1780s and 1850s and that life expectancy in Britain did not begin to dramatically increase until the 1870s 3 4 The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and spread to Western Europe and the United States within a few decades 6 The precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is debated among historians Eric Hobsbawmheld that it broke out in Britain in the 1780s and was not fully felt until the 1830s or 1840s 7 while T S Ashton held that it occurred roughly between 1760 and 1830 8 Some 20th century historians such as John Clapham and Nicholas Crafts have argued that the economic and social changes occurred gradually and the termrevolution is a misnomer This is still a subject of debate among historians 9 10 GDP per capita was broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the modern capitalist economy 11 The Industrial Revolution began an era of per capita economic growth in capitalist economies 12 Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals plants 13 and fire The First Industrial Revolution evolved into the Second Industrial Revolution in the transition years between 1840 and 1870 when technological and economic progress continued with the increasing adoption of transport steam steam powered railways boats and ships the large scale manufacture of machine tools and the increasing use of machinery in steam powered factories The American Civil War widely known in the United States as simply the Civil War as well as other sectional names was acivil war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy Among the 34 states as of January 1861 seven Southern slave statesindividually declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America known as the Confederacy or the South They grew to include eleven states and although they claimed thirteen states and additional western territories the Confederacy was never diplomatically recognized by a foreign country The states that remained loyal and did not declare secession were known as the Union or the North The war had its origin in the fractious issue ofslavery especially the extension of slavery into the western territories N 1 After four years of bloody combat that left over 600 000 Union and Confederate soldiers dead and destroyed much of the South s infrastructure the Confederacy collapsed slavery was abolished and the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing civil rights to the freed slaves began In the 1860 presidential election Republicans led by Abraham Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery into US territories Lincoln won but before his inauguration on March 4 1861 seven slave states with cotton based economies formed the Confederacy The first six to secede had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations a total of 48 8 for the six 5 OutgoingDemocratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal Lincoln s inaugural addressdeclared his administration would not initiate civil war Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy A peace conference failed to find a compromise and both sides prepared for war The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene none did and none recognized the new Confederate States of America Hostilities began on April 12 1861 when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter a key fort held by Union troops in South Carolina Lincoln called for every state to provide troops to retake the fort consequently four more slave states joined the Confederacy bringing their total to eleven Lincoln soon controlled the border states after arresting state legislators and suspending habeas corpus 6 ignoring the ruling of theSupreme Court s Chief Justice that such suspension was unconstitutional and established a naval blockade that crippled the southern economy The Eastern Theater was inconclusive in 1861 62 The autumn 1862 Confederate campaign into Maryland a Union state ended with Confederate retreat at the Battle of Antietam dissuading British intervention 7 To the west by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy then much of their western armies and the Union siege of Vicksburgsplit the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River In 1863 Robert E Lee s Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which made ending slavery a war goal 8 Western successes led toUlysses S Grant s command of all Union armies in 1864 In theWestern Theater William T Sherman drove east to captureAtlanta and marched to the sea destroying Confederate infrastructure along the way The Union marshaled the resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions leading to the protracted Siege of Petersburg The besieged Confederate army eventually abandoned Richmond seeking to regroup at Appomattox Court House though there they found themselves surrounded by union forces This led to Lee s surrender to Grant on April 9 1865 All Confederate generals surrendered by that summer The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars Railroads the telegraph steamships and mass produced weapons were employed extensively The mobilization of civilian factories mines shipyards banks transportation and food supplies all foreshadowed World War I It remains the deadliest war in American history resulting in the deaths of an estimated 750 000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian casualties N 2 One estimate of the death toll is that ten percent of all Northern males 20 45 years old and 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18 40 perished 10 From 1861 to 1865 about 620 000 soldiers lost their lives It was perhaps one of the bloodiest wars in U S history World War I 1 The war from 1914 to 1918 between the Entente Powers of the British Empire Russian Empire France Italy the United States and other allied nations against the Central Powers represented by the German Empire Austria Hungary the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations but in most countries it started in 1930 and lasted until the late 1930s or middle 1940s 1 It was the longest deepest and most widespread depression of the 20th century 2 In the 21st century the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the world s economy can decline 2 The depression originated in the United States after the fall in stock prices that began around September 4 1929 and became worldwide news with thestock market crash of October 29 1929 known as Black Tuesday The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries rich andpoor Personal income tax revenue profits and prices dropped while international trade plunged by more than 50 Unemployment in the U S rose to 25 and in some countries rose as high as 33 3 Cities all around the world were hit hard especially those dependent on heavy industry Construction was virtually halted in many countries Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60 4 5 6 Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs areas dependent on primary sector industries such ascash cropping mining and logging suffered the most 7 Some economies started to recover by the mid 1930s In many countries the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until after the end of World War II World War II From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia The Second World War and WWII redirect here For other uses see The Second World War disambiguation and WWII disambiguation DateDate1 September 1939 2 September 1945 6 years 1 day a LocationLocationEurope Pacific Atlantic South East Asia China Middle East Mediterranean North Africa and Horn of Africa briefly North and South America ResultResultAllied victory Collapse of the Third Reich Fall of Japanese and Italian Empires Creation of the United Nations Emergence of the United States and the Soviet Unionas superpowers Beginning of the Cold War more AlliedAllied leadersleaders Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Winston Churchill Chiang Kai shek AxisAxis leadersleaders Adolf Hitler Hirohito Benito Mussolini CasualtiesCasualties andand losseslosses MilitaryMilitary dead dead Over 16 000 000 CivilianCivilian dead dead MilitaryMilitary dead dead Over 8 000 000 CivilianCivilian dead dead Over 45 000 000 TotalTotal dead dead Over 61 000 000 1937 45 further details Over 4 000 000 TotalTotal dead dead Over 12 000 000 1937 45 further details World War II WWII or WW2 also known as the Second World War was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 though related conflicts began earlier It involved the vast majority of the world s nations including all of the great powers eventually forming two opposing military alliances the Alliesand the Axis It was the most widespread war in history and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries In a state of total war the major participants threw their entire economic industrial and scientific capabilities behind the war effort erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources Marked by mass deaths of civilians including the Holocaust during which approximately 11 million people were killed 1 2 and thestrategic bombing of industrial and population centres during which approximately one million people were killed including the use of two nuclear weapons in combat 3 it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history 4 The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937 5 but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939 6 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom From late 1939 to early 1941 in a series of campaigns andtreaties Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan Following the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours including Poland Finland and the Baltic states The United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth were the only Allied forces continuing the fight against the Axis with campaigns inNorth Africa and the Horn of Africa as well as the long runningBattle of the Atlantic In June 1941 the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union opening the largest land theatre of war in history which trapped the major part of the Axis military forces into a War of Attrition In December 1941 Japan attacked the United States and European territoriesin the Pacific Ocean and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the criticalBattle of Midway near Hawaii and Germany was defeated in North Africa and then decisively at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union In 1943 with a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front the Allied invasion of Italy which brought about Italian surrender and Allied victories in the Pacific the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts In 1944 the Western Allies invaded France while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands The war in Europe ended with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 the United Statesdropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima andNagasaki on 6 August and 9 August respectively With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent the possibility of additional atomic bombings and the Soviet Union s declaration of war on Japan and invasion of Manchuria Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945 Thus ended the war in Asia and the final destruction of the Axis bloc World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world The United Nations UN was established to foster international co operation and prevent future conflicts The victorious great powers the United States the Soviet Union China the United Kingdom and France became thepermanent members of the United Nations Security Council 7 The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers setting the stage for the Cold War which lasted for the next 46 years Meanwhile the influence of European great powers waned while the decolonisation of Asia and Africabegan Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery Political integration especially in Europe emerged as an effort to end pre war enmities and to create a common identity The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc theUnited States its NATO allies and others and powers in theEastern Bloc the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact Historians have not fully agreed on the dates but 1947 1991 is common It was termed as cold because there was no large scale fighting directly between the two sides although there were major regional wars in Korea Vietnam andAfghanistan that the two sides supported The Cold War split the temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany leaving the USSR and the US as two superpowers with profound economic and political differences the former being a single partyMarxist Leninist state and the latter being a capitalist state with generally free elections A self proclaimed neutral bloc arose with the Non Aligned Movement founded byEgypt India Indonesia and Yugoslavia this faction rejected association with either the US led West or the Soviet led East The two superpowers never engaged directly in full scale armed combat but they each armed heavily in preparation of a possible all out nuclear world war Each side had a nuclear deterrent that deterred an attack by the other side on the basis that such an attack would lead to total destruction of the attacker the doctrine of mutually assured destruction or MAD Aside from the development of the two sides nuclear arsenals and deployment of conventional military forces the struggle for dominance was expressed via proxy wars around the globe psychological warfare propaganda and espionage and technological competitions such as the Space Race The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945 The USSR consolidated its control over the states of theEastern Bloc while the United States began a strategy of global containment to challenge Soviet power extending military and financial aid to the countries of Western Europe for example supporting the anti Communist side in the Greek Civil War and creating the NATO alliance The Berlin Blockade 1948 49 was the first major crisis of the Cold War With victory of the Communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War 1950 53 the conflict expanded The USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America and decolonizing states of Africa the Middle East and Southeast Asia Meanwhile the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets The expansion and escalation sparked more crises such as the Suez Crisis 1956 the Berlin Crisis of 1961 the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 Following this last crisis a new phase began that saw the Sino Soviet split complicate relations within the Communist sphere while US allies particularly France demonstrated greater independence of action The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia and the Vietnam War 1955 1975 ended with a