1900s

Atrocities in the Congo Free State were committed by private companies and the Force Publique, with a resultant population decline[note 1] of 1 to 15 million.

From 1904 to 1908, German colonial forces in South West Africa led a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment, genociding 24,000 to 100,000 Hereros and 10,000 Nama.

The First Moroccan and Bosnian crises led to worsened tensions in Europe that would ultimately lead to the World War I in the next decade.

Russia suffered a humiliating defeat in this conflict, contributing to a growing domestic unrest which culminated in the Russian Revolution of 1905.

This famine was directly caused by the 1906 China floods (April–October 1906), which hit the Huai River particularly hard and destroyed both the summer and autumn harvest.

First-wave feminism made advances, with universities being opened for women in Japan, Bulgaria, Cuba, Russia, and Peru.

[3] The foundation of the Women's Social and Political Union by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903 led to the rise of the Suffragettes in Great Britain and Ireland.

The decade saw the widespread application of the internal combustion engine including mass production of the automobile, as well as the introduction of the typewriter.

The Wright Flyer performed the first recorded controlled, powered, sustained heavier than air flight on December 17, 1903.

Wright Flyer Atrocities in the Congo Free State 1908 Messina earthquake Philippine–American War Panama Canal Russo-Japanese War 1905 Russian Revolution
From left, clockwise: The Wright brothers achieve the first manned flight with a motorized airplane , in Kitty Hawk in 1903; A missionary points to the severed hand of a Congolese villager, symbolic of Belgian atrocities in the Congo Free State ; The 1908 Messina earthquake kills 75,000–82,000 people and becomes the most destructive earthquake ever to strike Europe; America gains control over the Philippines in 1902, after the Philippine–American War ; Rock being moved to construct the Panama Canal ; Admiral Togo before the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, part of the Russo-Japanese War , leading to Japanese victory and their establishment as a great power , while Russia's defeat eventually led to the 1905 Revolution .
A shocked mandarin in Manchu robe in the back, with Queen Victoria ( British Empire ), Wilhelm II ( German Empire ), Nicholas II ( Imperial Russia ), Marianne ( French Third Republic ), and a samurai ( Empire of Japan ) stabbing into a king cake with Chine ("China" in French) written on it. A portrayal of New Imperialism and its effects on China .
June 30, 1908: The Tunguska event
Ruins from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in United States history
During 1905 the physicist Albert Einstein published four articles – each revolutionary and groundbreaking in its field.
The first ascent of LZ1 over Lake Constance (the Bodensee) in 1900.
A diesel engine built by MAN AG in 1906
Gilmore's second, larger plane
Ford Model A was the first car produced by Ford Motor Company beginning production in 1903.
A replica of Pearse's monoplane
The first flight by Orville Wright made on December 17, 1903.
Construction work on the Gaillard Cut is shown in this photograph from 1907
Alberto Santos-Dumont realizes the first official flight, October 23, 1906, Bagatelle field.
The Autochrome Lumière becomes the first commercial color photography process.
Ford Model T set 1908 as the historic year that the automobile came into popular usage as it is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile.
4 out of 10 best-selling American books in the 1900s were written by Winston Churchill (1871 – 1947)
Pablo Picasso in 1908, who, along with Henri Matisse , was considered a leader in modern art
El Choclo by Ángel Villoldo
The first recorded photo of Boca Juniors taken in 1906, after winning the Liga Central championship.