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1942 CE

This year falls in the Twentieth century (1901–2000). Two world wars, the Russian and Chinese revolutions, the Cold War and the end of most colonial empires fall in this century. It also brings mass air travel, nuclear weapons, antibiotics and computers.

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Within fifteen years

Country · LebanonLebanon1943–Lebanon is a small country on the eastern Mediterranean, home of the ancient Phoenicians. It became independent from France in 1943. A civil war from 1975 to 1990 shattered it, and power is shared by law among its religious communities.
Country · IcelandIceland1944–Iceland is an island country in the North Atlantic, settled by Vikings in the ninth century. It was ruled from Denmark for centuries before becoming a republic in 1944. It is a parliamentary republic known for its fisheries and geothermal energy.
Country · IndonesiaIndonesia1945–Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago nation, stretching across more than seventeen thousand islands. It declared independence from the Netherlands in 1945. It is a presidential republic and the largest Muslim majority country in the world.
Country · JordanJordan1946–Jordan is a mostly desert kingdom in the Levant. It was created as the Emirate of Transjordan under British mandate and became fully independent in 1946. The Hashemite family, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, still rules.
Country · PhilippinesPhilippines1946–The Philippines is an archipelago of more than seven thousand islands in Southeast Asia. Spain ruled it for three centuries, then the United States for half a century. It became fully independent in 1946 and is a presidential republic.
Country · SyriaSyria1946–Syria is a Levantine country, home to Damascus, one of the oldest cities on earth. It became independent from France in 1946. Since 2011 it has suffered one of the century's worst civil wars under the Assad family's rule.
Country · IndiaIndia1947–India is the world's largest democracy and its most populous country. It won independence from Britain in 1947 after a long nationalist struggle. It is a federal parliamentary republic of more than a billion people.
Country · New ZealandNew Zealand1947–New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific. The Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 brought British rule; full independence came in 1947. It is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy.
Country · PakistanPakistan1947–Pakistan is a South Asian country created in 1947 as a homeland for the Muslims of British India. Partition from India cost about a million lives. It is a federal parliamentary republic with a powerful military and nuclear weapons.
Event · Twentieth century · ChinaSecond Sino-Japanese War1937–1945Full-scale war between the Republic of China and Japan, dated from the Marco Polo Bridge clash on 7 July 1937 to Japan's surrender in 1945. Japan had taken Manchuria in 1931. Some historians start the war there.
Event · Twentieth century · RussiaStalin's Terror1937–1938Mass NKVD operations of 1937–1938 under quotas from Politburo resolution P51/94 and Order No. 00447, plus national operations. About 681,692 recorded executions in those two years.
Country · IsraelIsrael1948–Israel is a country in the Levant, founded in 1948 as a Jewish state. Its creation followed the Holocaust and a United Nations partition plan. It is a parliamentary republic; its conflict with the Palestinians remains unresolved.
Country · MyanmarMyanmar1948–Myanmar, also called Burma, is a Southeast Asian country between India and Thailand. It won independence from Britain in 1948. The military has ruled for most of the time since 1962, seizing power again in 2021.
Country · North KoreaNorth Korea1948–North Korea occupies the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. It was founded in 1948 as a communist state under Kim Il Sung. His family has ruled ever since in one of the most closed and repressive states on earth.
Country · South KoreaSouth Korea1948–South Korea occupies the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It was founded in 1948 as the Republic of Korea. From the ruins of war it grew into a wealthy democracy and a technological power.
Country · Sri LankaSri Lanka1948–Sri Lanka is an island country off the southern tip of India. Its Buddhist civilization is more than two thousand years old. It won independence from Britain in 1948 and endured a brutal civil war from 1983 to 2009.
Country · BhutanBhutan1949–Bhutan is a small Himalayan kingdom between India and China. It was unified by the Shabdrung in the seventeenth century and kept its independence while its neighbors fell to empires. It is a constitutional monarchy famous for measuring Gross National Happiness.
Country · ChinaChina1949–China is the most populous country on earth and one of the oldest continuous civilizations. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949 after the communists won the civil war. It is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party as a single party state.
Civilization · Twentieth century · ChinaPeople's Republic of China1949–The state proclaimed in Beijing on 1 October 1949 after the communist victory in the civil war. A container for that state, not a history of it.
Country · TaiwanTaiwan1949–Taiwan is an island off the coast of China, governed by the Republic of China. The Nationalist government retreated there in 1949 after losing the civil war. Its political status is disputed; Beijing claims it as a province.
Event · Twentieth century · ChinaLong March1934–1935The retreat of the Chinese Communist armies from Jiangxi to Shaanxi, October 1934 to October 1935, after encirclement by Nationalist forces.
Event · Twentieth century · GermanyThe Stasi1950–1990Ministry for State Security of East Germany, 1950–1990. Roughly 91,000 full-time staff and on the order of 170,000–190,000 unofficial informants by 1988–89.
Country · LibyaLibya1951–Libya is a vast, mostly desert country in North Africa. It became independent in 1951 under King Idris. Muammar Gaddafi ruled from 1969 until his overthrow in 2011, and the country has been divided by civil war since.
Event · Twentieth century · UkraineHolodomor1932–1933Famine in Soviet Ukraine and other regions, 1932–1933, driven by requisition, blacklists, passport controls and border seals. Death tolls are demographic estimates; genocide classification is debated.