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Editor's note
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Sometimes a world political event is so cataclysmic that it reverberates not just years, but decades later. We wanted to take a closer look at ten such events from the past century.
It wasn’t easy to keep the list to just 11, and of course these things are always open to debate. But the end of the first world war was an obvious choice, as was the Holocaust, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the twin tower bombings of September 11. After discussing it with our academic experts we also added in the Iranian Revolution, the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the legacy of Pinochet’s rule in Chile, the end of Apartheid, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power and the Russian Revolution.
In each, we asked our authors to explain what these events were about, how they unfolded, and what happened in the immediate aftermath, as well as examining the ways in which they are still being played out today.
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Amanda Dunn
Section Editor: Politics + Society
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1914-1918
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Understanding the first world war is an exercise in comprehending the depth of human commitment to destruction, violence and resilience at a scale never experienced before 1914.
BNF France
Romain Fathi, Flinders University
More than 16 million people lost their lives in world war one. Over a century later, we are still asking – for what?
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1917
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To try and understand the Russian revolution outside of the broader social context of the time is to neglect the development of nationhood in the region.
Wikicommons
Mark Edele, University of Melbourne
The Russian Revolution – an event that affected more than Russia and was more than a revolution.
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1941-1945
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The horrific incarceration of European Jews during WWII should never be forgotten, particularly when we need to solve contemporary genocide and forced migration issues.
Daniella Doron, Monash University
6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. What happened then, and how we can keep to the promise – “never again”?
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1945
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It’s been more than 70 years since an atomic weapon was used in warfare, but the global nuclear weapons stockpile still stands at more than 14,000 warheads.
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Amy Maguire, University of Newcastle
When the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, it unleashed one of the most devastating events in history, which still has implications today.
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1963
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John F. Kennedy’s assassination shocked the world in the 1960s and arguably played a part in the rise of Donald Trump today.
Abbie Rowe/AAP
Lloyd Cox, Macquarie University
The reverberations of JFK's assassination can still be felt to this day in the paranoid and racialised politics of the American right
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1973-1990
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Pinochet in the car, 1982 celebrating the 8th anniversary of the coup. His dictatorship in Chile was both a step forwards for neoliberalism and a step back for democracy and human rights.
Wikimedia Commons
Peter Read, Australian National University
Forefather of contemporary neoliberalism or violent dictator – Pinochet's complicated legacy in Chile and the world.
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1978
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Chinese stamps commemorating Deng Xiaoping, a leader widely regarded to have modernised the country and made it a formidable economic power, 1998.
Shutterstock
James Laurenceson, University of Technology Sydney
China is one of the world's largest economies, and Deng Xiaoping was arguably the man who made that happen through his visions of economic reform.
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1978-1979
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Protests during the Iranian Revolution, 1978 represent broader struggles across the region between secular and Islamic models of governance playing out.
Wikicommons
Mehmet Ozalp, Charles Sturt University
The Iranian Revolution was a hard-fought battle for those in favour of the Islamist model of governance, inspiring similar movements that have had varying degrees of success across the region.
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1989
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Berlin Wall, 1988. The fall of the Berlin Wall signifies the end of the Cold War and the victory of liberal democratic values.
Shutterstock
Andrew Bonnell, The University of Queensland
Though the fall of the Berlin Wall did not bring along the utopia many had hoped for, it is a symbolic moment for the victors of the Cold War.
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1990-1993
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Anti-Apartheid protest in the 1980s are mere snapshots of time in the long journey towards equality, paved by the sweat and blood of those in the African National Congress and beyond.
Paul Weinberg/Wikicommons
David Robinson, Edith Cowan University
Understanding the impact of Apartheid requires looking beyond Nelson Mandela's achievements to the bloody struggles of the African National Congress and international forces prolonging the violence.
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2011
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South Tower being hit during the 9/11 attacks. The events of September 11 2001 has significantly shaped American attitudes and actions towards fighting terrorism, surveilling citizens and othering outsiders.
NIST SIPA/Wikicommons
Barbara Keys, University of Melbourne
Though more consequences are likely to develop in the post-9/11 era, the war on terror, heightened government surveillance and Islamophobia are notable legacies of this early 21st century tragedy.
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Featured jobs
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Deakin University — Burwood, Victoria
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Featured events
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Deakin Downtown, Level 12, Tower 2 Collins Square, 727 Collins Street, Docklands, Victoria, 3008, Australia — Deakin University
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University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — University of Sydney
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