1990s

, globalization and global capitalism following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Key forces shaping the decade were the Gulf War; popularization of Personal Computers and the Internet, leading to the .com boom.

Overview

Many countries, institutions, companies, and organizations experienced the 1990s as a prosperous time. Despite the recession that affected much the world in late 1980s, high income economies such as the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and South Korea experienced steady economic growth for much of the decade. The United Kingdom, after a recession in 1991-92 and devaluation of its currency on Black Wednesday, experienced sustained economic growth that stretched into the new millennium. Less affluent nations such as Malaysia also saw tremendous improvements in economic prosperity and quality of life during the 1990s. While optimism and hopes were high following the collapse of Communism, restructuring following the end of the Cold War was beginning. There was also the continuation of terrorism in Third World regions that were once the frontlines for American and Soviet foreign politics, particularly in Asia.

In many countries, political stability and decreased militarization due to the winding down of the Cold War led to economic development and higher standards of living for many citizens. These trends were also fuelled by inexpensive fossil energy, with low petroleum prices caused by a glut of oil. Oil and gas were discovered in many countries in the former Soviet bloc, leading to economic growth and wider adoption of trade between nations.

The widespread adoption of personal computers and the Internet increased economic productivity, while high levels of private investment in equity markets increased personal wealth among many Americans and Europeans. The economic gains of the 1990s were unevenly distributed throughout society, widening the gap between the wealthiest and poorest citizens in some countries; critics of capitalism contend that this should not have been allowed to happen to the extent that it did.

Politically, the 1990s was an era of spreading democracy. The former countries of the Warsaw Pact moved from totalitarian regimes to democratically-elected governments. The same happened in other non-communist countries, such as Taiwan, Chile, South Africa, and Indonesia.

The improvement in relations between the countries of NATO and the former members of the Warsaw Pact ended the Cold War both in Europe and other parts of the world. The Oslo Accords resulted in an agreement by Israel to allow Palestinian self-government.

Despite the economic prosperity and democracy, there were problems in the 1990s that became more visible after the decade ended. In Africa a rapid increase in incidence of AIDS contributed to falling life expectancy and zero or negative growth rates. In the states of the former Soviet Union GDP decreased as their economies restructured to produce goods they needed and some capital flight occurred. Financial crises in the developing world after 1994 began to undermine some support for globalization. Conflicts like the Balkan Wars, the Rwandan genocide, the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia and the first Gulf War, as well as the continuation of terrorism, led some to hypothesize a Clash of Civilizations.

Youth culture in the 1990s was characterized by environmentalism, anti-globalization in some parts and entrepreneurship. Fashions were often individualistic, tattoos and body piercing gained popularity and "retro" styles inspired by fashions of the 1960s and 1970s were also prevalent. Some young people became increasingly involved in outdoor activities that combined embracing athletics with the appreciation of nature (such as kayaking, rock climbing and snowboarding).

Technology

The 1990s were a time of great change - mainstreaming and improving technologies invented and used first during the 1980s.

Graphic representation of the WWW

* The World Wide Web and HTML are created by Tim Berners-Lee.
* The Pentium processor is developed by Intel.
* Microsoft introduces Windows 95 and later Windows 98 to the market, which gained immediate popularity.
* Explosive growth of the Internet, decrease in the cost of computers and other technology.
* Advancements with computer modems, ISDN, cable modems and DSL lead to faster connection to the Internet.
* The development of web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer makes surfing the World Wide Web easier and more user friendly.
* The Java programming language is developed by Sun Microsystems.
* Businesses begin E-commerce websites; companies such as Amazon.com, eBay, AOL, and Yahoo! grew rapidly on the Internet.
* Cell phones become cheaper and decreased in size, and become very common.
* E-mail becomes popular; as a result Microsoft acquires the popular Hotmail.com.
* Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K).
* Microsoft Windows operating system becomes virtually ubiquitous on IBM PCs.
* Development of free operating system Linux is started.
* The DVD media format is developed and popularized.
* Rise of social networking websites and chat rooms such as the old MySpace and Xanga occurs.

Science

Hubble Space Telescope

* Junior physicists Utilized exploration in Space and Time fundamentals, initiating the creation of the New string theory and M-theory.
* Detection of extrasolar planets orbiting stars other than the sun.
* The cloning of Dolly the sheep is achieved.
* Human Genome Project began.
* DNA identification of individuals finds wide application in criminal law.
* Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990; revolutionizes astronomy.
* Protease inhibitors introduced allowing HAART therapy against HIV; drastically reduces AIDS mortality.
* NASA's spacecraft Pathfinder lands on Mars and deploys a small roving vehicle, Sojourner, which analyzes the planet's geology and atmosphere.
* The Hale-Bopp comet swings past the sun for the first time in 4,200 years.
* Development of biodegradable products, replacing products made from Styrofoam; advanced methods for recycling of waste products (such as paper, glass, aluminum) are developed.
* Genetically engineered crops are developed for commercial use.
* Discovery of dark matter, dark energy, and brown dwarves, and first confirmation of black holes.
* The Galileo probe orbits Jupiter, studying the planet and its moons extensively.
* The Global Positioning System becomes fully operational.

War, peace, and politics

Gulf War

Rwandan genocide

* Reunification of Germany on October 3 1990.
* End of apartheid in South Africa (1990) and election of ANC government of Nelson Mandela.
* Gulf War (resulting from Iraq's invasion of Kuwait) and United Nations embargo on Iraq in 1991.
* North Yemen and South Yemen merge to form Yemen (1991).
* Break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 - the end of the Cold War, United States as sole world superpower. The Cold War was officially declared over on December 31, 1992.
* The bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 by an explosive-filled van leads to awareness of international terrorism as a rising threat.
* Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia (1993).
* European Union is declared in 1992 and again in 1999.
* Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin and Palestinian Prime Minister Yasser Arafat agree to the Peace Process at the culmination of the Oslo Accords, negotiated by the United States President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1993.
*Military actions in Somalia in 1993 lead to questions of the United States' role as a policing officer of the world. (See also, Black Hawk Down).
* Rwandan genocide kills one million people, in 1994.
* The birth of the "Second Republic" in Italy, with the Mani Pulite investigations of 1994.
* In 1994 a peace treaty is signed between Israel and Jordan.
* Peace process begins in Northern Ireland in 1995
* Balkan war in former Yugoslavia in 1995.
* A decade of women presidents in the Republic of Ireland.
* The United Kingdom hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China on July 1, 1997.
* U.S. Congressman Newt Gingrich crafts his manifesto "Contract with America", leading his Republican Party to become the controlling majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
* U.S. president Bill Clinton's sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky and his impeachment trial in 1998, which lasts the entire year.
* Anti-globalization protests.
* The Tibetan Freedom Concert brings 120,000 people together in the interest of increased human rights and autonomy for Tibet from China.
* The Second Congo War started in 1998 in central Africa and includes 5 different cultures and 7 different nations. It goes on until 2002.
* In May 1999, Pakistan sends troops covertly to occupy strategic peaks in Kashmir. A month later the Kargil War with India results in a political fiasco for Nawaz Sharif, followed by a military withdrawal to the Line of Control. The incident leads to a military coup in October in which the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is ousted by Army Chief Pervez Musharraf.
*Kosovo war begins in late 1998. Roughly 12,000 people are killed during open hostelities between Serbian military forces and ethnic Albanian forces. The UN sends in peace keeping forces after NATO military actions result in a Serbian military withdrawal by early 1999. The US deploys American police officers to serve with the United Nations to help build a Kosovo police force.
*Portugal hands sovereignty of Macau to the People's Republic of China on December 20, 1999.
*East Timor breaks away from Indonesian control in 1999, ending a twenty four year guerilla war with better than 200,000 casualties. The UN deploys a peace keeping force, spearheaded by the Australian and New Zealand armed forces. America deploys US police officers to serve with the International Police element, to help train and equip an East Timorese police .
* Civil Unions for gay partners started in some european countries (Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden).

Economics

* GATT update and creation of the World Trade Organization and other global economic institutions.
* The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which phases out trade barriers between the United States, Mexico and Canada is signed into law by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
* Since 1990 till 1998 inclusive, the economy of Russia and some former USSR states was in a severe depression.
* After 1992 the booming of the US stock market, in reference to which Alan Greenspan coined the memorable phrase "irrational exuberance", which eventually stretched into the dot-com boom / dot-com bubble.
*Financial crisis hits East and Southeast Asia in 1997 and 1998 after a long period of phenomenal economic development. See East Asian Tigers.

Culture

*Hip-hop culture booms; by the end of the decade hip hop was as popular as rock and roll.
*Grunge culture sparks as hair metal dies off in late 1991 and 1992, allowing hard metal to return to prominence when the popular thrash metal group Pantera hits number 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart with their third album Far Beyond Driven.
*Tupac Shakur of Death Row Records and The Notorious BIG of Bad Boy Records, wage a cultural war in the hip hop music scene, leading to the murder of both Shakur in 1996 and BIG in 1997.
*Club/Dance Music is hugely popular on Top 40 radio from 1990 up to 1996 or 1997.
*Alternative rock replaces Grunge around 1995. Nu-Metal, a genre popularized by the 1994 self-titled album by Korn, becomes a major genre of rock around the year 1998 along with post-grunge and alternative rock.
*Indie/hipster culture appears during the mid 1990s. Emo culture flourishes in the late 1990s.
*Teen pop makes a comeback in the late 1990s, starting in the year 1997 with artists such as the Spice Girls, Aqua, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and many more.
*Christian music peaks in the mid to late 1990s.
*R&B Music such as Quiet Storm and hip-hop influenced R&B are big in the 1990s.

Trends/Various

=United States/Canada

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* Following the 1980s media counter-culture lead by tabloid talk shows popularized by Oprah Winfrey in 1986, which provided high-impact media visibility for gays, bisexuals, transsexuals, and transgender people[1] the '90s saw a further increase in gay visibility in the mainstream media and the introduction of "outing" - the regrettable journalistic practice of revealing the sexuality of media celebrities and politicians against their will and using it to persecute them. Bisexuality becomes trendy and inviting by the late part of the decade. US TV shows like Will and Grace, Friends, Thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, Roseanne and Ellen featured gay characters in gay situations. Movies like The Birdcage, In and Out and Kiss Me Guido saw mainstream success, and celebrities like k.d. Lang, Rob Halford, Elton John, Melissa Etheridge and George Michael all openly admitted their sexuality. US President Bill Clinton generally held a pro-gay rights viewpoint.
* Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation born in the late 1960s and early 1970s (then college-age).
*The Grunge trend explodes due to the success of grunge bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots. It is characterized by wearing flannel shirts, torn jeans, Doc Martens, Converse high top sneakers and long, straight hair. The fashion hits an ironic point in 1993, when the flannel clothing these bands wore (because it was cheap and warm and most of these musicians were very poor) became high fashion accessories.
*Reality television explodes on MTV with the popularity of The Real World (1992-); along with Road Rules (1995-), Real World/Road Rules Challenge (1998), and Real World reunions, these shows remained popular throughout the 1990s. Reality would become a staple of main networks in the early part of the 2000s decade.
*Blood and gore in television and video games rises dramatically, along with language and sexual content, especially during the latter half of the decade; a Parental Ratings system for television is introduced in 1997 because of related complaints.
* Video games become more advanced and popular, although are still vastly inferior technologically to those of the 2000s. Rivals Nintendo and Sega dominate the early '90s while the Sony PlayStation debuts in 1995 and remains popular until the fall of 2000 when the PS2 debuted. Simulation and God games rise in popularity in the late 1990s, with games such as The Sims, SimCity 2000, ''SimCity 3000, and many more.
*Body art, in the form of body piercing and tattoos becomes commonplace for young people. This trend continues into the 2000s.
*Thong underwear and thong bikinis become popular in America, following a decade-long trend from Europe, and continuing on into the 2000s.
* Extreme sports reached a new height in popularity, and by 1995, were given their own annual tournament on US cable network ESPN, the X-Games.
* Recreational outdoor sports such as rock climbing, mountain biking, sky diving, snowboarding, mountain climbing, bungee jumping, in-line skating, kayaking and rowing become hugely popular.
* Extended alcohol sales are implemented in the US to reduce alcohol abuse.
* The exploitation of the collectability of comic books results in a trend of "gimmick" packaging and storylines (most notably The Death of Superman). The comic book industry collapses as interest in print comics decreases among younger generations and casual readers. Comic books disappear as a familiar sight at the newstands. As comics, including Japanese manga and other graphic novels become more available in bookstore chains, the role of the comic book store as a source for comics and social gathering wanes. The domination by industry giants Marvel Comics and DC Comics ends as various independents, such as Image Comics produce popular titles. The era of comic book collecting for speculative investment ends. Webcomics by amateur cartoonists become popular.
* Conversion to Block scheduling became a trendy initiative for United States schools.
* Major 1990s slang words/phrases, mostly related to hip hop culture, include: "homie", "phat", "da bomb", "tight", "word to your mother", "Talk to the hand [because the face ain't listening]", "You go girl!", "yo", "whatever!", "Wasssuppp!"
*The shaggy hair on guys come back into fashion by 1999, as retaliation to influential boy bands such as *Nsync and the Backstreet Boys which started more uraban modern look. Both of these trends are still popular into the 2000s.

=Europe

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* Dogma 95 becomes an important European artistic film movement by the end of the decade.
* Eurodance music dominates discotheques and has numerous major mainstream hits in European (and to a lesser extent, North American) music charts.

Music

*Rock and roll becomes an alternative taste, although it still outsells hip hop at the beginning of the decade. Popular styles include grunge (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden), heavy metal (Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Pantera, Tool), Britpop and British rock (Oasis, Blur, Suede, Pulp, Radiohead, The Verve, Travis), pop-punk (Green Day, Offspring, Blink-182), third wave ska (No Doubt, Sublime, Mighty Mighty Bosstones), indie rock (Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Pavement, The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse), jam bands (Dave Matthews Band, Phish), and nu metal (Korn, Limp Bizkit) toward the end of the decade. Singer-songwriters include Alanis Morissette, Beck, and Jeff Buckley.
*Rap and Hip hop music gains widespread mainstream acceptance throughout the decade, starting with influential albums by NWA and Public Enemy around 1989-91, leading to the commercial success of MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, the alternative hip-hop pioneers De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, and the mid-90s explosion of gangsta rap from Dr. Dre, and the iconic figures of Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG, whose success paves the way for Puff Daddy and crossover star Eminem in the late 1990s, finally putting rap on top of the pop world.
*Smoothly produced Teen pop held over from the late 1980s popular into 1991, returns with the Spice Girls and Take That in Britain and the Backstreet Boys in America beginning in 1997, ultimately leading to stars like Britney Spears, N Sync and Christina Aguilera, while Madonna continues to have success with her influential Dance Pop.
*R&B Music such as Quiet Storm is popular with artists such as such Babyface, Brian McKnight, Monica, Brandy, and Faith Evans. R&B girl groups such as TLC, SWV, and En Vogue are hugely popular as well. Also, artists like Aaliyah, Lauryn Hill, and Mary J. Blige combine hip hop with R&B in the 1990s. Artists like Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey appeal to the Top 40 crowd with their ballad driven songs in the early to mid 90s. R&B Boy Bands are big throughout the 90s such as Jodeci, Dru Hill, Blackstreet, 112 and especially Boyz II Men who appealed to the Top 40 crowd are popular as well.
*Latin music becomes popular outside a Spanish-speaking audience with crossover hits by Ricky Martin and others.
*Music festivals such as Lollapalooza or Woodstock became popular; a fusing of genres from alternative rock, rap, punk rock and garage bands.
*Popular hard rock bands maintain a strong presence into the 1990s. Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Ozzy Osbourne, and Van Halen were all still quite popular through the mid 1990s. Aerosmith and Bon Jovi's popularity and success spanned the entire decade and both were extremely popular at the turn of the new millennium.
*Music resumes its political content after the hiatus of the 1980s. Starting in 1996, the Tibetan Freedom Concert draws up to 120,000 people per year to a rock festival for the benefit of the cause of the International Tibet Independence Movement. Also, socially aware metal bands such as Rage Against The Machine and System Of A Down form.
*Club/Dance music is very popular from 1990 to 1996 or 1997 with acts like C&C Music Factory, Technotronic, Real McCoy, Corona, Crystal Waters, La Bouche, & RuPaul.
*Trance, techno and electronica music becomes widely popular at rave parties in Europe/USA and in pop culture, particularly later in the decade. The drug Ecstasy, (aka MDMA or 'X') is popularized by rave culture.
*1980s backlash, beginning in about 1992 and lasting into the 2000s. During most of the 1990s anything "Eighties" was considered to be ultimately uncool. As a result, people start wearing straighter hair, darker clothes and acoustic music becomes popular in opposition to the bright synthpop of the '80s.
*Music becomes more profane, by end of decade a Parental Advisory sticker becomes acceptable rather than controversial.
*In America, country music becomes more mainstream with popular chart topping artist such as Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Billy Ray Cyrus, Faith Hill, and Tim McGraw. The genre will also build up a more extensive audience world-wide, which sees the first English 24 hour terrestrial country station open in 1994.

Television

*North America
*Seinfeld, which spawned a new form of sitcoms, becomes enormously popular in the United States and lasts from 1989 to 1998.
**Professional wrestling became popular throughout the '90s. In the late '90s, the Monday Night Wars was the biggest impact for professional wrestling with the World Wrestling Federation (present day World Wrestling Entertainment), World Championship Wrestling, and ECW. By the early '00s, the WWF remained victorious over both WCW and ECW.
**NASCAR Racing starts to become popular on US TV in the mid to late 1990s. Popular NASCAR drivers during this era are Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, and Bobby Labonte.
**Pro Basketball sees high US TV ratings in the 1990s with stars like Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Shawn Kemp, Reggie Miller, David Robinson, and Patrick Ewing.
** US Saturday morning children's television programming reaches its peak popularity in the early to mid '90s considered by some to be a "renaissance" in American animation. Everything from Animaniacs, Garfield and Friends and Tiny Toons, to television adaptations of popular video game characters Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.
**The Disney Renaissance of animation with the popularity of The Disney Afternoon shows in the early and mid 1990s, such as DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin and Goof Troop.
**Nickelodeon gains popularity with the Nicktoons block of shows, such as Doug, Rugrats, The Ren and Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, AAAHH