18761950s

1876–1950s is a broad, sometimes informal designation used to describe the period from 1876 through the 1950s, spanning the late 19th century to the mid-20th century in many parts of the world. The term encompasses rapid industrialization, major political upheaval, and transformative cultural changes that reshaped societies.

Technological and economic changes included the Second Industrial Revolution, widespread electrification, railway and automobile expansion, advances in communications such as the telephone and radio, and the growth of mass production. The global economy experienced growth and upheaval, including the expansion of international trade, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and postwar reconstruction beginning in the mid-1940s.

Politics and conflicts defined much of the period: imperial rivalries and the spread of nation-states; World War I (1914–1918); revolutionary movements such as the Russian Revolution of 1917; the interwar order and its collapse; World War II (1939–1945); and the postwar realignments that led to the creation of the United Nations in 1945.

Society and culture saw rapid urbanization, labor movements, and reforms that expanded suffrage in various regions. Scientific and cultural currents included advances in medicine and science, modernist arts and cinema, and the rise of radio as a mass medium. New political ideas and national movements reshaped identities across continents.

Geopolitically, the period witnessed the decline of some empires and the reconfiguration of others, along with the emergence of new states in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The term itself is not widely used as a formal epoch; historians typically describe subperiods such as the late Victorian era, the interwar years, or the postwar era.