MEPX
Chapter 10 of 10All chapters
  1. 1Before writing
  2. 2Cities and states
  3. 3Classical empires
  4. 4The middle centuries
  5. 5The world connects
  6. 6Political revolutions
  7. 7Industrialisation
  8. 8The world wars
  9. 9The Cold War and decolonisation
  10. 10The recent past

Chapter 10 of 10

The recent past

Since 1991.

Globalisation

Trade, migration and communication networks deepened, lifting hundreds of millions out of extreme poverty while widening inequality within many countries.

  • China's growth is the largest single shift in economic weight in modern history.
  • The internet changed information, work and politics within one generation.

Open questions

Climate change, artificial intelligence, demographic ageing and renewed great power rivalry are shaping the present. Historians will judge which mattered most; contemporaries rarely guess correctly.