IV. B. From economic crises to wars 1973-1996

→ The end of growth

Oil shocks:
– 1st oil shock of 1973 (peak production in the United States and abandonment of the Bretton-Woods agreements, declaration of embargo)
– 2nd oil shock of 1979 (Iranian revolution, war between Iran and Iraq, and growth in oil demand)

Development of the industry :
– biotechnologies
– robotization, computers and electronics
– emergence of NICs, newly industrialized countries

Worrying economic situation :
– unemployment in Western countries (500,000 unemployed in France in 1974)
– recession in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
– inflation (between 1973 and 1979, 8.5% in the USA, 4.8% in Germany, 10.5% in France)

→ From the return of wars in the Middle East to the end of the Soviet bloc

Arab-Israeli wars:
– suez crisis in October 1956
– six-Day War from June 5 to 11, 1967
– united Nations Security Council resolution 242 (requires withdrawal of Israeli forces)

– yom Kippur war in October 1973
– PLO (admitted to observer status at the UN)
– war in Lebanon from 1973 to 1989
– Intifada on December 7, 1987 (revolt by stone)

Other conflicts in the world :
– end of the Vietnam war in 1975
– invasion of Afghanistan in 1979

Disintegration of the Soviet bloc:
– Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika in 1985 (constitutional reform in December 1988 in favor of the state against the party)
– fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, reunification of Germany in 1990
– Boris Yeltsin’s Russia puts an end to the Soviet Union in 1991

→ 20 contemporary history worksheets (1945 – 2017)