The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait took place over two days in August of 1990. The Iraqi army quickly overran their counterparts in Kuwait and the government of Saddam Hussein announced that Kuwait had been annexed by Iraq. The aggressive action was universally condemned by the world powers, including Russia, France, China, and India, and shortly thereafter, the United States issued an ultimatum that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait or face war. The Gulf War between the United States-led coalition and Iraq followed.

The Iran-Iraq War was fought between the Shia government of Iran, led by Ayotollah Khomeni and the Sunni government of Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein. The war was essentially fought over Iraqi government fears that the Shia popular rebellion of Iran would spread to Iraq. 

Yitzhak Rabin was assasinated in Tel Aviv, Israel, on November 4, 1995, after a rally to celebrate the signing of the Oslo Accords, which were the first agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The attempt by the Rabin government to establish a peace with the PLO and help establish a Palestinian state was immensely unpopular among the far-right elements of Israeli society. Rabin's assassin Yigal Amir was associated with various groups and has to this day expressed no regret for the assasination.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was a letter written by a member of the British government to a wealthy leader of the British-Jewish community. It promised to create, or help create, a Jewish homeland in Palestinian territory. It was the first official step on the path to the creation of Israel. 

India gained its independence from Britain in 1947. The first Prime Minister was Jawaharlal Nehru, who ruled for fifteen years. Nehru led India in the direction of a planned economy and leaned more towards communism than capitalism, although his commitment was never absolute.

The Lahore Conference of 1940 advocated for the creation of a separate Muslim state within the Indian subcontinent, what would later come to be Pakistan and Bangladesh. The partition of India into India and Pakistan resulted in the deaths of countless Indian people and the forced migration of millions.

Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He is notable for his defense of Ethiopia against Mussolini's Italian invasion and for modernizing Ethiopia into the twentieth century.

The Union of South Africa was a direct result of the conclusion of the Second Boer War, in which the British Empire defeated the Afrikaner settlers of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. The Union of South Africa would later become the Republic of South Africa and would be dominated by apartheid policies and racial disorder until the early 1990s.

The Second Boer War was fought between the British Empire and Afrikaner settlers of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. It ended in victory for the British Empire, but did little to change the social, political, or economic situation in South Africa. 

Leader Dr Kwame Nkrumah eventually named himself President for Life in Ghana a few years after independence. Ghana was a former-British colony, and European powers had mixed feelings about their imperial holdings and were not often eager to let them go (see, for instance: Algeria and Kenya). America played less of a role in Ghanan independence, but they did send congratulations to Ghana once they achieved it. 

Ghana was the first of the European African colonies to gain independence in the era of decolonization that began after World War II.