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Below is a chronology of events since 1776 that includes many things you will be familiar with, at least to some extent, from study of the module.
For several items in the chronology, I indicate in which unit of the module they have come up.
Of course the list is very selective and you may well have thought of other things that may reasonably be judged to be as significant as what is below.
N.B. In terms of CST, the chronology includes only the main documents which we’ve looked at in this module, not those you can study in Module B (such as Populorum Progressio of 1967).
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1776 Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations which inspires laissez faire or economic liberalism
1776 American Declaration of Independence
1779 Death of British explorer James Cook in Hawaii, symbolizing an end to European ‘discoveries’ of other parts of the world and the extension of European empires
1789 French Revolution in the name of the ‘rights of man’
c.1770s-1900 Industrial Revolution in Britain and then across Europe
1790s & C18 Catholic Church reacts against the French Revolution and the ‘declaration of independence from God’ it appears to stand for
1800-1900 Emergence of industrial capitalism and of ‘socialist’ movements opposed to it
1848 Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto
1864 Pope Pius IX issues the Syllabus of Errors, rejecting ‘liberalism’, ‘the rights of man’ and religious freedom
1891 Pope Leo XIII publishes Rerum Novarum: constructive engagement with issues raised by industrial capitalism (U4: work and rest)
Late C19-C20 Rise of women’s movement (now called the ‘first wave’ of feminism), seeking equal political rights, especially suffrage, for women
1914-18 First World War
1917 Bolshevik Revolution and start of the Communist regime in Russia
1920s-30s Rise of fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany
1929-1930s Great Crash and Great Depression in world economy
1931 Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (U6: principle of subsidiarity)
1939-1945 Second World War, including genocide of the Jews
1930s-’50s Jacques Maritain writes on how Catholic Christianity requires support for human rights, democracy, etc. (U1, U7)
1945 The USA uses the atomic bomb against Japan
1945-49 Establishment of Communist governments in many eastern European countries, most coming under Soviet Russian control
1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is agreed (U7)
1949 Establishment of Communist regime in China
1945-1960s Establishment of ‘the welfare state’ in many European and some other countries
1945-1989 ‘Cold War’ between Western powers and Soviet Russia
1952 In UK, the ‘Great London Smog’ kills c.8000 people (U3: ecology)
1945-1970 End of European imperial control of most of Africa and South Asia
1962 Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring (U3: ecology)
1963 John XXIII, Pacem in Terris – affirms human rights
1962-65 Second Vatican Council issues (among other documents) Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae (U7)
1960s Rise of ‘second wave’ of feminism, seeking, as well as political rights, economic and cultural equality for women
1960s-1970s In many Western countries, the ‘sexual revolution’ makes sexual relationships outside marriage widely acceptable; abortion is legalised in some countries; large increase in civil divorces in several countries
Late 1960s-’70s Emergence of Liberation Theology in Latin America, arguing for a ‘preferential option for the poor’ (U1)
1975 Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi (U1)
From mid-’70s In US and UK, revival of ‘economic liberalism’, now called ‘neo-liberalism’, inspired especially by the writings of Friedrich Hayek and backed politically by Reagan in USA and Thatcher in UK (U5: business)
1978 Karol Wojtyła from Communist Poland becomes Pope John Paul II, the first Pope not born in Italy for 450 years
1980 In Poland, a new trade union movement, ‘Solidarity’, is formed, making an unprecedented challenge to Communist rule
1981 John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio (U6: family)
1981 John Paul II, Laborem Exercens (U4: work and rest)
1980s-2010s Large increase in proportion of single-parent families in most Western countries (U6: family)
1980s Emergence of widespread concern about ecological destruction (U3)
1980s Beginning of ‘fair trade’ movement (U5: business)
1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the USSR and begins unexpected reform of the Communist regime
1987 In Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, John Paul II addresses ‘structures of sin’
1989-91 Revolutions in central/eastern Europe bring an end to Communist rule, and to the Cold War
1990 John Paul II, ‘Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation’ (U3: ecology)
1991 John Paul II, Centesimus Annus: advocates a solidary market economy (U5: business)
1990s In UK and USA, Blair and Clinton advocate a ‘third way’ – embracing capitalism but holding that the wealth it generates must be used for social purposes (U5: business)
1990-2010 Growing international consensus that global climate change is happening and is human-caused (U3: ecology)
2001 Islamist extremists succeed in the largest peace-time terrorist attack in history, on the World Trade Centre on New York and Pentagon in Washington DC.
2005 Joseph Ratzinger from Germany becomes Pope Benedict XVI
2005 Benedict XVI’s first encyclical: Deus Caritas Est (U1)
2008-2013 Financial crisis followed by recession in Western countries
2009 Benedict XVI issues major contribution to CST: Caritas in Veritate (U5: business)
2010 Benedict XVI, ‘If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation’ (U3: ecology)
2013 Jorge Bergoglio from Argentina becomes Pope Francis
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You might well have included things not in this chronology. You might wish to use what is here as the basis for building up your own, fuller outline for future reference.
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END OF RESPONSE
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