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The World from 1945 to 2000

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in a long Cold War and a race to space; people walked on the Moon in 1969. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and computers and the World Wide Web changed daily life.

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On July 20, 1969, about 600 million people watched on black-and-white television as astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped from his spacecraft onto the Moon. "That's one small step for man," he said, "one giant leap for mankind." Buzz Aldrin joined him a few minutes later.

Key idea

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became rivals in a long Cold War (about 1947 to 1991). They never fought each other directly; they competed with weapons, spies, allies and a space race. The Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957 and the first person into space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961; Americans landed on the Moon in 1969.
Space travel and computers changed the world in the late 1900s.

Germany's capital, Berlin, was split in two, and in 1961 a wall was built across the city. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, and people climbed on it and chipped it apart. Germany was reunited in 1990, and in 1991 the Soviet Union broke up into 15 countries. The Cold War was over.

Meanwhile, the civil rights movement in the United States, led by people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., worked to end unfair laws that kept Black Americans apart and unequal. New nations in Africa and Asia won their independence. Computers grew from room-sized machines to desktops, and in 1989 to 1991 Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web.

The world from 1945 to 2000.
Big changes of the late 1900s.

Worked example: How long?

Sputnik went up in 1957. Astronauts walked on the Moon in 1969. How many years after the first satellite was the first Moon landing?
  1. 1,969 − 1,957 = 12.

Answer: Only 12 years.

Common mistake

Thinking the Cold War was full of battles between the United States and the Soviet Union. The two never fought each other directly, though wars were fought elsewhere, such as in Korea and Vietnam.

Try it at home

  • Interview a parent or grandparent: What was the first computer or phone you used? What did you do before the internet?
  • Make a family technology time line: when did your family first get a TV, a computer, a cell phone?
Going further. The Moon Landing and Rosa Parks and Dr. King (Young Learners); The End of the Cold War (U.S. History II). The planets in The Solar System (Science Explorers). For parents and older students: The Gulag (World History), on the Soviet Union's prison camps, written for teens and adults.

Practice

Pass with 3 right answers, the last 2 in a row. Each right answer earns 2 XP.

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This is one of the top rungs of Stories from History (ages 9–10).

Sources and further reading