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| | On the other hand, some inventions, like the [[telegraph]] and the [[steamship]], became obsolete and all but disappeared. | | On the other hand, some inventions, like the [[telegraph]] and the [[steamship]], became obsolete and all but disappeared. |
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| | + | ==in the USA== |
| | Presidents in the 20th century included [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[John F. Kennedy]], [[Ronald Reagan]], and [[George H. W. Bush]] among many others. | | Presidents in the 20th century included [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[John F. Kennedy]], [[Ronald Reagan]], and [[George H. W. Bush]] among many others. |
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| | Fox, the company in charge of [[Fox News]], used to be called [[20th Century Fox]], but they changed their name shortly before the century was about to change.[http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/stories/studiologos/page3.html] | | Fox, the company in charge of [[Fox News]], used to be called [[20th Century Fox]], but they changed their name shortly before the century was about to change.[http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/stories/studiologos/page3.html] |
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| | + | ==Independence== |
| | + | A major theme of the twentieth century was the decline of the worldwide empires of the previous century. [[Australia]] became independent on January 1 1901. The end of the First World War led to independence for several European countries such as [[Poland]] and [[Hungary]]. The following two decades saw independence for [[Egypt]], [[Saudi Arabia]] and [[Iraq]], among others, but the Second World war weakened the colonial powers so much that they granted independence to most of their colonies. [[India]], [[Indonesia]] and [[Israel]] were among ten countries gaining independence in the 1940s, became independent first, followed by a dozen [[Africa]]n states in 1960, and nearly every remaining African and Caribbean state in the two following decades. By 1980 [[Hong Kong]] (British) was the only overseas posession with more than one million inhabitants. Finally the 1990s saw the breakup of the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Yugoslavia]] - eighteen new countries were founded in a few years after forty years of European stability. |
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| | + | In contrast to this wave of new nations, a few countries lost their freedom. [[Tibet]], [[Hyderabad]] and [[Montenegro]] fell to larger nations by war or politics; [[East Germany]] and [[South Yemen]] joined their larger neighbours voluntarily and peacefully. |
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| | + | In all, over a hundred countries had became independent by 2000. |
| | ==References== | | ==References== |
| | <references/> | | <references/> |