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{{Short description|Period shortly after a war, usually World War II}}
{{about||the 2006 M. Ward album|Post-War|the 2005 book|Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945}}
{{Globalize|1=article|2=the United States and United Kingdom|date=July 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
[[Image:Frenchciviliansburon.jpg|thumb|right|275px|A French family returns to their village, [[Buron]], northwest of [[Caen]], which was completely destroyed [[Battle for Caen|during fighting]], 18 July 1944.]]
A '''post-war''' or '''postwar''' period is the interval immediately following the end of a [[war]]. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after [[World War II]], which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an [[interwar period]] or interbellum, when a war between the same parties resumes at a later date (such as the period between [[World War I]] and World War II). By contrast, a post-war period marks the cessation of [[armed conflict]] entirely.
==Post-World War II in the United States==
{{See also|Aftermath of World War II|Contemporary history}}
===Chronology of the post–World War II era===
[[File:NATO vs. Warsaw Pact (1949-1990).svg|thumb|The ''aligned countries'' in the northern hemisphere: [[NATO]] in blue and the [[Warsaw Pact]] in red]]
The term "post-war" can have different meanings in different countries and refer to a period determined by local considerations based on the effect of the war there. Some examples of post-war events are in chronological order:
; Cold War (1947–1991)
{{Main|Cold War}}
The Cold War was a geopolitical conflict between the [[Capitalism|capitalist]] and [[Liberal democracy|liberal "democratic"]] [[United States]], the authoritarian and [[Communist state|Communist]] [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] [[Soviet Union]], and their respective allies: [[NATO]] and the [[Western Bloc]] for the United States, and the [[Warsaw Pact]] and the [[Eastern Bloc]] for the Soviet Union. Although both sides did not fight each other directly, both engaged through various proxy wars. At the height of the cold war, both superpowers manufactured and deployed thousands of [[nuclear weapon]]s to target each other's key economic, military, and political centers. Each superpower's buildup and demonstration of nuclear strike capabilities lead to an unofficial military doctrine known as [[mutual assured destruction]] (MAD). The doctrine of MAD prompted leaders on both sides to believe that victory following a full-scale nuclear exchange was simply impossible as the destruction on both sides would be insurmountable. Towards the end of the Cold War, a period of [[détente]] culminated in the easing of tensions, bans on nuclear testing, and the destruction of various quantities of nuclear stockpiles. The Cold War began to come to an end in 1989 with the overthrow of Communist governments across Eastern Europe in the [[Revolutions of 1989]] which was followed shortly after by the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991, leaving the United States the world's sole superpower.
; Korean War (1950–1953)
{{Main|Korean War}}
On 25 June 1950, after years of tension between communist [[North Korea]] and democratic [[South Korea]], North Korea coordinated a series of surprise attacks against strategic points between the 38th parallel. Soon US-led [[United Nations Command|United Nations forces]] joined the war on behalf of South Korea, expelled the North Korean invasion, and then invaded and nearly captured North Korea. In response, [[People's Volunteer Army|Chinese forces]] entered the war on behalf of North Korea and pushed the US, South Korean, and UN forces back to the 38th parallel. After 3 years of advances and retreats nearly five million people died. To this very day there are still border disputes between the two Koreas.
; Civil rights movement (1954–1968)
{{Main|Civil rights movement}}
In the 1950s, African Americans faced [[Racial discrimination|discrimination]] and [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] throughout the United States, especially in the south where many could not even vote. In 1954, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruled unanimously in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. By the end of the 1950s, fewer than 10 percent of Black children in the South were attending integrated schools.
; Vietnam war (1955–1975)
{{Main|Vietnam War}}
The Vietnam War was fought between the communist [[North Vietnam]] supported by the Soviet Union, [[China]], and the Eastern Bloc and China and [[South Vietnam]] supported by the United States and [[Southeast Asia Treaty Organization|SEATO]]. This war is especially brutal due to [[Vietnam People's Armed Forces|North Vietnamese regular forces]] and [[Viet Cong]] insurgents in South Vietnam adapting to guerrilla fighting and ambush tactics against the [[Republic of Vietnam Military Forces|South Vietnamese military]] and the [[United States Armed Forces]]. Vietnam was one of the first wars to be broadcast to [[television]]. Many American civilians and soldiers were [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|opposed to the war]] due to the condition and many thought the war was pointless. Finally after many protests the United States slowly withdrew from Vietnam due to public backlash.
====Cold War era====
Considering the post-war era as equivalent to the Cold War era, post-war sometimes includes the 1980s, putting the end at 26 December 1991, with the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.letsgo.com/12350-europe-travel-guides-the_netherlands-history-c |title=The Netherlands History – the Netherlands Travel Guide – Budget Travel – Let's Go |access-date=16 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822122321/http://www.letsgo.com/12350-europe-travel-guides-the_netherlands-history-c |archive-date=22 August 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://soapbox.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=2019573|title=Unknown Forum|website=soapbox.websitetoolbox.com}}</ref> The 1990s and the 21st century are sometimes described as part of the post-war era, but the more specific phrase "[[Post–Cold War era]]" is often appended to distinguish the period running from the fall of Communism up to the present.
==Post World-War II in the United Kingdom==
{{Main|Postwar Britain (1945–1979)}}
In Britain, "post-war":
*culturally, is a term commonly used in the arts and architecture, as it is worldwide. It is primarily and especially before the ascendancy of [[Pop Art]] and overlapping "[[Postmodernism|post-modernist]]" "1960s" movements. Its end is complex due to its archetypes of the 1950s contrasting with leading developments in [[avant-garde music]] genres and in popular art, becoming to some audiences mainstream, before 1960. Its movements such as continued [[functionalism (architecture)|functionalism]] and [[brutalism]] were overtaken by the, definitively raucous, [[counterculture of the 1960s]], dominating as the decade wore on. Later resurgences to its stress on quite basic forms were common such as [[postmodernism]] and [[minimalism]].
*politically and economically
**at its broadest, is the period from the election of [[Clement Attlee]] in 1945 general election to that of [[Margaret Thatcher]] in the 1979 general election, the so-called [[post-war consensus]].
**at its narrowest, usually with precise or contextual qualifiers, it is the war's direct aftermath; this prompted social solidarity, unprecedented high capital, particularly [[inheritance tax|inheritance]] taxation, internationalism, the [[decolonization]] of the [[British Empire]], the founding and endowing of the [[National Health Service]] all amid relative austerity particularly [[rationing in the United Kingdom|rationing]]. Hardships in [[capital tax]]ation, and of [[Rationing in the United Kingdom|rationing]], faded due to [[Post–World War II economic expansion|global recovery]], technological advances and [[consumerism]] enabled and encouraged from the late 1950s such as under the four-successive leader [[Conservative government, 1957–1964]]. These set a social norm for a majority of out-of-town journeys in private rather than public transport and private housing preferred over [[Public housing in the United Kingdom|public housing]], continued (with minor abatement) through alternating governments of the next two decades.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/aec-lorries-post-war-years-1945-1979-248690820|title=AEC Lorries in the post war years 1945–1979 book &#124; #248690820|website=Worthpoint}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~weterb/The%20Post.htm|title=The Post-War Years 1945 – 1960|access-date=16 June 2011|archive-date=5 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200405060719/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~weterb/The%20Post.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[http://economics.about.com/od/useconomichistory/a/post_war.htm The Post War Economy: 1945–1960]</ref>
==See also==
{{wiktionary}}
* [[Interwar period]]
** [[Pre-war (disambiguation)|Pre-war]] (not a synonym for interwar when referring to World War I)
* [[Aftermath of the September 11 attacks]]
* [[Postbellum (disambiguation)|Postbellum]]
* [[Reconstruction era]] of the U.S.
* [[Post–Cold War era]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Post-war period| ]]
[[Category:Aftermath of war]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]