| 1904–1905 | Russo-Japanese War ends in Russia’s defeat |
| 1916 | Sykes-Picot Agreement divides Ottoman Empire; Lucknow Pact forms alliance between Hindus and Muslims in India; New Culture Movement in China begins |
| 1917 | Balfour Declaration establishes Jewish homeland in Palestine |
| 1919 | Amritsar Massacre in India; May Fourth Movement in China; Treaty of Versailles; Afghanistan achieves independence |
| 1920 | King of Syria deposed by French; Gandhi launches campaign of nonviolent resistance against British rule in India |
| 1920s–1930s | Large numbers of European Jews immigrate to Palestine; Hebrew becomes common language |
| 1923 | Sun Yatsen allies Nationalist Party with Chinese Communists; Treaty of Lausanne ends war in Turkey; Mustafa Kemal begins to modernize and secularize Turkey |
| 1925 | Reza Shah Pahlavi proclaims himself shah of Persia and begins modernization campaign |
| 1927 | Jiang Jieshi, leader of Chinese Nationalist Party, purges his Communist allies |
| 1930 | Gandhi leads Indians on march to the sea to protest the British salt tax |
| 1931 | Japan occupies Manchuria |
| 1932 | Iraq gains independence in return for military alliance with Great Britain |
| 1934 | Mao Zedong leads Chinese Communists on Long March; Philippines gains self-governing commonwealth status from United States |
| 1937 | Japanese militarists launch attack on China; Rape of Nanjing |