World Events
Posted in 1949
- Indonesia's independence is recognised.
- Apartheid is introduced in South Africa.
- Communists take over China: Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong) and his followers defeat the Nationalists in the war of liberation (1937–49) and establish a People's Republic and communist rule in China.
- Anti-communist North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is formed bringing together the USA, Canada and ten nations of western Europe in a defensive alliance.
- First atomic bomb test by the Soviet Union results in escalation of the arms race with the USA.
- Germany is divided into the Federal Republic (West) and the German Democratic Republic (East).