18651936

1865–1936 denotes the historical span from the end of the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery to the mid-1930s. It encompasses rapid modernization, imperial expansion, and political upheaval across many regions, including the rise of mass politics, shifts in social order, and changes in global power.

In the United States and Europe, reconstruction and industrialization reshaped economies and society. The Meiji Restoration in Japan (1868) and the unifications of Germany (1871) and Italy (1861) altered Asia and Europe’s geopolitical map. European powers expanded empires in Africa and Asia, while nationalist movements gained momentum in many colonies and within metropolitan states.

The period was marked by conflict and upheaval: World War I (1914–1918) and its consequences, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Versailles settlement; the 1920s brought modernization alongside social tensions; and the Great Depression began with the 1929 stock market crash. In the mid-1930s, authoritarian regimes rose in parts of Europe, Germany rearmed in 1936, and the Rome–Berlin Axis formed; the Spanish Civil War began in 1936.

In science, technology, and culture, the era produced breakthroughs in physics and chemistry, innovations in transportation and communication, and significant shifts in arts and media. The period’s end in 1936 left a world economically strained and politically unsettled, setting the stage for further global conflict.