Chapter 31Revolution,

Rebuilding, and New Challenges:

1985 to the Present

Italians protesting government economic policies gather in front of the Roman Coliseum during a nationwide strike in October 2003.

Italians protesting government economic policies gather in front of the Roman Coliseum during a nationwide strike in October 2003.

Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images

Hundreds of thousands of Czechoslovakian citizens flooded the streets of Prague in peaceful, daily protests after the police savagely beat student demonstrators in mid-November 1989. On the night of November 24, three hundred thousand people roared “Dubc¡ek-Havel” when Alexander Dubc¡ek, the aging reformer ousted in 1968 by the Soviets, stood on a balcony with Václav Havel, the leading opponent of communism. That night the communists agreed to share power, and a few days later they resigned from the government.

Demonstrators During the Velvet Revolution

Corbis

The sudden opening of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 dramatized the spectacular collapse of communism throughout eastern Europe. Built by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1961, the hated barrier had stopped the flow of refugees from East Germany to West Germany.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Patrick Piel/Gamma Presse/EYEDEA

One of the most celebrated of the “postmodern” architects, who go beyond the modernism that dominated from the 1920s to the 1970s, Calatrava is known for swooping shapes and unusual spaces that convey a sense of motion to his buildings. The enormous, free-standing “roof ” of this concert hall rises on a waterfront property like a cresting, crashing wave, linking the ocean with the city and beckoning tourists to Tenerife and Portugal’s Canary Islands. Postmodern architects rely heavily on three-dimensional computer modeling to fashion complex forms and translate them into construction blueprints.

Santiago Calatrava: Tenerife Concert Hall, 2003

Barbara Burg and Oliver Schuh/Palladium Photodesign, Cologne, Germany

Mikhail Khodorkovsky emerged from the privatization of Russian industry as the progressive chief and largest shareholder of Yukos, Russia’s most successful oil company. But after he supported liberal opposition parties in 2002, an increasingly authoritarian President Putin jailed the billionaire, charged him with tax fraud, and confiscated his wealth before the trial even began. Putin’s behavior was widely criticized in the West, but most ordinary Russians applauded because they believed the super rich had plundered the Russian state.

Russia’s Leading Capitalist on Trial, 2004

Alexander Natruskin/Reuters/Corbis)

No longer divided by ideological competition and the cold war, today’s Europe features a large number of independent states. Several of these states were previously part of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, both of which broke into many different countries. Czechoslovakia also divided on ethnic lines, while a reunited Germany emerged, once again, as the dominant nation in central Europe.(1) Which countries shown here were previously part of the Soviet Union? (2) Which countries were part of Yugoslavia? (3) Where did the old “iron curtain” run?

Contemporary Europe

Turkish elites and the general population want to “join Europe,” but the road to EU membership is proving long and difficult. The EU has required Turkey to make many constitutional reforms and give greater autonomy to Turkish Kurds. Yet the Turks face ever more demands, and many now believe that the real roadblock is Europe’s anti-Muslim feeling.

Turkey’s Struggle for EU Membership

CartoonStock Limited

Italian police have just rescued these young immigrants from an overloaded boat off the coast of Italy. Fleeing civil war and desperate for work, the immigrants are weary because of the long and dangerous voyage from Libya. Every year thousands of illegal immigrants try to reach Italy and Spain from North Africa. Many are found dead on the shoreline.

Illegal Immigrants from Eritrea

Mimi Mollica/Corbis

These women, financed in part by the European Union, are treating an AIDS patient at his home in Mozambique. In 2004 the United Nations estimated that about 42 million persons were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. AIDS is the fourth-leading cause of death in the world.

Fighting the AIDS Epidemic

Black Star/stockphoto.com

Pedestrians race for safety as the World Trade Center towers collapse after being hit by jet airliners. Al-Qaeda terrorists with box cutters hijacked four aircraft and used three of them as suicide missiles to perpetrate their unthinkable crime. Heroic passengers on the fourth plane realized what was happening and forced their hijackers to crash in a field.

New York, September 11, 2001

AP Images/Suzanne Plunkett

Built to commemorate two of Shi’ite Islam’s most revered saints, the Golden Mosque drew countless Shi’ite pilgrims. Then, on June 13, 2006, insurgents dressed as Iraqi policemen entered the mosque, overwhelmed the guards, and detonated two bombs that collapsed the golden dome and destroyed the mosque. Sectarian conflict exploded. (A second terrorist bombing in June 2007 levelled the two minarets seen on the right.)

The Golden Mosque of Samarra: Before and After

AP Images/Khalid Mohammed, Hameed Rasheed

Tariq Ramadan.

Tariq Ramadan.

AP Images/Keystone/Salvatore Di Nolfi

Millions long for peace, but history and current events suggest that bloody conflicts will continue. Yet there is cause for some cautious optimism: since 1945 wars have been localized and cataclysmic catastrophes like World Wars I and II have been averted. Holding torches, some 3,500 people form the sign of peace in an antiwar, antiviolence rally in Heroes Square in central Budapest. The rally marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Demonstrating for Peace

Peter Kollanyi/epa/Corbis

French police face off with young rioters, silhouetted against the flames of burning automobiles.

French police face off with young rioters, silhouetted against the flames of burning automobiles.

Reuters/Corbis