20th century
Recent historical period
The 20th century spans the years 1901 through 2000, though in casual usage people often mean the 1900s.
It saw two world wars, the atomic bomb, the moon landing, and the rise of computers.
As a modifier, it describes things from or characteristic of that era: 20th-century architecture, a 20th-century mindset.
Sometimes used dismissively for outdated thinking: That's so 20th century.
- DecolonizationEnding foreign imperial rule
- Vietnam WarCold-era Indochina military engagement
- PostmodernismMovement questioning objective truth
- World War IISecond global military conflict
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
iron curtain · atomic bomb · Great Depression · Harlem Renaissance · Surrealism · psychoanalysis · Abstract Expressionism · pop art · women's suffrage · assembly line · Russian Revolution · Fascism · Beat Generation · Art Nouveau · Democracy · space age · moon landing · vinyl
- time periodsday, year, month, week, hour
- Spanish LiteratureDon Quixote, Don Quijote, Cervantes, Miguel de Cervantes, El Cid
- German LiteratureGoethe, Mann, Kafka, Franz Kafka, Rilke
20th centuryprehistory
Era before writing
ancient times · antiquity · prehistoric era · Stone Age · medieval period