18791949

The period from 1879 to 1949 covers the final decades of the Industrial Era and the first half of the 20th century. It encompasses rapid technological change, imperial expansion, the World Wars, and the emergence of new political and international structures that shaped the modern world.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries industrialization, urbanization, and innovations in electricity, transportation, and communication transformed economies and societies. Nationalism and imperial competition reshaped borders and colonial life, while social reforms began to address labor rights, public health, and education.

World War I (1914–1918) toppled empires, redrew maps, and produced lasting political upheaval. The interwar years saw economic instability, the spread of totalitarian movements in some regions, and the establishment of international institutions that sought to prevent future conflicts, culminating in the founding of the League of Nations.

World War II (1939–1945) caused unprecedented devastation but also accelerated technological and logistical innovations. The postwar period established new institutions, notably the United Nations in 1945, and set in motion decolonization and the reconfiguration of Europe and Asia, including the emergence of China as a communist state in 1949 and the division of Germany.

The era ends with a changed global order, the beginnings of decolonization, and shifts in economic power. The 1879–1949 span thus forms a bridge between century-old empires and the mid-20th-century patterns of nation-states, international law, and global governance.