While politics in the 1990s focused on a world after the Cold War, a quieter revolution changed daily life. Computers moved from government labs and big companies into homes, schools and pockets.
Key idea
Personal computers spread in the 1980s; the World Wide Web (1991) opened the internet to the public; trade and investment linked economies worldwide, and the country debated the gains and costs of globalization.
| Year | Step |
|---|---|
| 1969 | ARPANET, a research network funded by the Defense Department, links its first computers |
| 1977 | The Apple II, one of the first popular personal computers |
| 1981 | The IBM Personal Computer |
| 1983 | ARPANET switches to TCP/IP, the protocols the internet still uses (January 1) |
| 1989 | Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web at CERN, in Switzerland |
| 1991 | The first website goes online; the Web becomes available beyond CERN |
| 1993 to 1995 | Graphical web browsers; companies begin selling online |
| 1990s | The "dot-com" boom in technology stocks |
Why it works
Why did the new technology matter so much? Chips kept getting cheaper and more powerful, so machines that once filled rooms fit on desks. The internet let any computer exchange data with any other; the Web added pages linked to each other that anyone could read with a browser. Businesses could coordinate factories, offices and suppliers around the world, which helped drive globalization: the growing flow of goods, money, people and ideas across borders. Supporters of globalization pointed to cheaper goods, new markets and growth; critics pointed to factory jobs moved overseas and to towns that lost their main employer. Both effects were real, and they fell on different people.
Work it through
Worked example: Which came first?
Order these: the first website; ARPANET's first link; the IBM PC; the switch to TCP/IP.
- ARPANET's first link: 1969.
- The IBM PC: 1981.
- TCP/IP: 1983.
- The first website: 1991.
Answer: ARPANET, IBM PC, TCP/IP, first website.
Common mistake
Many students think the internet and the Web are the same thing, or that both began in the 1990s. The internet grew from 1960s and 1970s research networks; the Web is a system of linked pages that runs on it, created in 1989 to 1991. Email, for example, used the internet long before the Web.