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1950 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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Dated to 1950 CE

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.

Within fifteen years

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.
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.
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.
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 · CambodiaCambodia1953–Cambodia is a Southeast Asian country, heir to the great Khmer Empire that built Angkor Wat. It won independence from France in 1953. The Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s killed about two million people; the country is now a constitutional monarchy.
Country · EgyptEgypt1953–Egypt is a North African country centered on the Nile, home to one of the oldest civilizations on earth. The modern republic was proclaimed in 1953 after the overthrow of the monarchy. It is a semi presidential republic and the largest Arab country.
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 · LaosLaos1953–Laos is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, the most heavily bombed country in history per person. It won independence from France in 1953. Communists took power in 1975 and still rule as a single party state.
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.
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 · 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 · 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 · MoroccoMorocco1956–Morocco is a North African kingdom on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Its dynasties ruled for a thousand years before French and Spanish protectorates. It regained independence in 1956 and is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy.
Country · SudanSudan1956–Sudan is a large country in northeastern Africa on the Nile. It became independent from Britain and Egypt in 1956. Coups, civil wars, and the Darfur crisis have marked it; war broke out again in 2023.
Country · TunisiaTunisia1956–Tunisia is a North African country on the Mediterranean, home of ancient Carthage. It became independent from France in 1956. The 2011 revolution that toppled its dictator started the Arab Spring.