Source: Narrated by Zach Lamb
[MUSIC PLAYING] The '90s was an era of grunge music and new technologies such as the worldwide web. But what was America like during the 1990s? The decade provided a brief interlude between two prolonged international conflicts, the Cold War and the war on terror.
In November 1989, a series of protests in Eastern Europe overthrew communist governments in the region. Two years later, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Cold War, which had lasted for over 40 years, finally came to an end. In the absence of the Cold War, Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton struggled to formulate a new American foreign policy.
US foreign policy brought significant successes, none more important than Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The conflict was a major display of American force and renewed American patriotism. If you grew up in the early 1990s and collected baseball cards, you likely purchased Desert Storm collector cards featuring prominent military leaders and the types of equipment used during the conflict.
Two important transitions in the history of the American economy marked the decade. The first was globalization, which the United States supported through initiatives such as NAFTA. Globalization demands that market should operate under as little government restraint as possible. They should be open and global.
Globalization brought a new wave of immigration to the United States, particularly from Latin America and Asia, further diversifying the nation. Globalization also encouraged the second significant transition in the economy, digitization. The 1990s witnessed growing popularity in the use of personal computers and the internet for everything from business to consumption of goods and services. Devices may have shrunk, but the nature of work and commerce during the 1990s looks similar to today.
Partisan conflict seems commonplace today, and it was in the 1990s too. President Clinton's administration in particular revealed the persistence of the culture wars, as issues surrounding race, gender, and sexual identity became increasingly divided along partisan lines between socially conservative Republicans and socially liberal Democrats. In 2001, just one decade after the end of the Cold War, the 9/11 attacks occurred, and a new war, the war on terror began.
Keep up the good work, because there's only one more challenge to go. We've reached the new millennium. And by now, we're investigating events that you might have experienced or can recall. For instance, remember Y2K and the fear that society as we know it would end in the year 2000? Such fears are just a historical footnote today. But take a moment to think about the journey you've been on while completing this course. US history is a vibrant, complex subject. And the story continues.
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