| 1973 |
Yom Kippur War; OPEC oil embargo |
| 1979 |
Islamic revolution in Iran; second oil shock |
| 1980 |
Rhodesian white-minority rulers surrender power and the nation is renamed Zimbabwe |
| 1980–1988 |
Iran-Iraq War |
| 1982 |
Falklands (or Malvinas) War leads to the collapse of the Argentine junta |
| 1985 |
Glasnost leads to greater freedom of speech and expression in the Soviet Union |
| 1987 |
Palestinian intifada |
| 1989 |
Collapse of Berlin Wall; “NO” campaign in Chile; Tiananmen Square protests suppressed in China |
| 1989–1991 |
Fall of communism in Soviet Union and eastern Europe |
| 1990–1991 |
Persian Gulf War |
| 1991 |
Congress Party in India embraces Western capitalist reforms |
| 1991–2001 |
Civil war in Yugoslavia |
| 1993 |
Formation of the European Union |
| 1994 |
North American Free Trade Agreement goes into effect between Canada, Mexico, and the United States |
| 1994 |
Nelson Mandela elected president of South Africa |
| 2003–2011 |
Second Persian Gulf War |
| 2007 |
Hamas seizes control of Gaza Strip from Palestinian Authority |
| 2009–2014 |
Popular uprisings and protests across the Middle East |