AD 1800-2000 Modern

By 1871, Germany was transformed from a confederation of states into an Empire ruled by Prussia. Aggressive foreign policies of Germany and the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire (formed 1867), contributed to the outbreak of the First World War (1914-18).

German defeat in 1918 was followed by the democratic Weimar Republic (1919-29). Following its collapse, the Fascist Third Reich emerged under Adolf Hitler (1933-45), leading to the genocide of the Holocaust, and the Second World War (1939-45), which ended in defeat and partition for Germany.

Tsarist Russia was absolutist and economically backward. In 1917, a Bolshevik (Communist) revolution ended Russian involvement in the First World War, and it became the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). Under Stalin (ruled 1928-53), from 1941, the Russians fought a bitter campaign on the eastern front against Germany. In 1945, the victorious Allies divided Europe into a democratic West and a Soviet-controlled East. The ‘Cold War’ between East and West lasted until the reforms of Gorbachev in the USSR (1985-91); Germany was reunited (1990) and Eastern Europe was liberated. The USSR became the Russian Republic (1991).

Germany invaded Scandinavia in 1940. Norway, under the collaborator Quisling, put up strong resistance. In the ‘Winter War’ (1939-40), Finland (independent since 1917) fought off a Soviet invasion.