Europe 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
10 November 1989
10 Nov 1989
The Cold War
-27–68 The Julio-Claudian Dynasty
68–96 The Flavian Dynasty
96–192 The Nerva–Antonine Dynasty
192–235 The Severan Dynasty
235–285 The Crisis of the Third Century
285–1815 NO MAPS FOR THIS PERIOD YET
1815–1848 Congress Europe
1848–1850 The Springtime of Peoples
1850–1859 The Crimean War
1859–1862 Italian Unification
1862–1871 German Unification
1871–1914 Imperial Europe
1914–1918 The Great War
1918–1922 Armistice Europe
1922–1939 The Rise of Fascism
1939–1942 World War II: Blitzkrieg
1942–1945 World War II: Fall of the Third Reich
1945–1990 The Cold War
1990–2010 Post-Cold War Europe
2010–pres The Crisis of Europe
Fall of the Berlin Wall
19 Apr 1946 The Iron Curtain Descends
10 Feb 1947 Paris Peace Treaties
1 Aug 1948 Berlin Airlift
7 Oct 1949 NATO and the Two Germanys
21 Sep 1955 Warsaw Pact
7 Nov 1956 Suez Crisis
22 Feb 1958 Arab Nationalism
26 Jun 1963 Berlin Wall
26 May 1972 Detente
15 Jun 1977 Cold War Rivalry in the Middle East
25 Apr 1982 Islamic Resurgence
10 Nov 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall
By the 1980s, the Eastern Bloc had begun to fall dangerously behind the West both economically and technologically. To address these issues, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced economic reforms and opened up Soviet politics. He also sought better relations with the West by declaring an end to Soviet meddling in Eastern Europe. The result was the peaceful dismantling of Communism in Poland and Hungary. East Germany followed suit a few months later, with demonstrators tearing down the hated Berlin Wall.
