Korean War begins after postwar division hardens

The Syrian-Israeli agreement completed the series of 1949 armistices that stopped major fighting around former Mandatory Palestine. The line created a military ceasefire, not a peace treaty or final...

Mao Zedong announced the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing after Communist forces defeated the Nationalist government on the mainland. The new state emerged from a long...

The General Assembly established the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to provide assistance to Palestine refugees after the 1948 war. Its creation institutionalized an international relief...

After four years of revolution, military conflict, and diplomacy, the Netherlands transferred sovereignty to the Republic of the United States of Indonesia. The transfer ended Dutch colonial authority...

India’s constitution came into force and the country became a republic, ending the British monarch’s role as head of state. Constitutional independence followed mass anticolonial struggles and the...

Libya became independent after being an Italian colony and then administered by Britain and France following the Second World War. A 1949 UN resolution directed that the country become independent and...

The Free Officers Movement seized key positions in Cairo and announced the revolution, forcing King Farouk to abdicate days later. The officers opposed corruption, social inequality, and Egypt’s...

Governor Evelyn Baring declared a state of emergency and launched Operation Jock Scott, arresting Jomo Kenyatta and other nationalist leaders. The crackdown followed land dispossession, racial...

Military representatives of the Korean People’s Army, Chinese People’s Volunteers, and UN Command signed an armistice after three years of war. It created a demilitarized zone and stopped...

After 56 days of siege, French forces at Dien Bien Phu surrendered to the Viet Minh. The victory followed years of Vietnamese resistance to France’s attempt to restore colonial rule after Japan’s...