2nd millennium

It began on January 1, 1001 (MI) and ended on December 31, 2000 (MM), (11th to 20th centuries; in astronomy: JD 2086667.5 – 2451909.5[1]).

Its final two centuries coincide with modern history, characterized by industrialization, the rise of nation states, the rapid development of science, widespread education, and universal health care and vaccinations in the developed world.

The 20th century saw increasing globalization, most notably the two World Wars and the subsequent formation of the United Nations.

This allowed the colonization by European countries of much of the world during this millennium, including the Americas, Africa, Oceania, and South and Southeast Asia.

Stephen Jay Gould at the time argued there is no objective way of deciding this question.

European colonization of the Americas American Revolution Islamic conquest of Constantinople Black Death Napoleon Bonaparte Telephone Airplane Apollo 11 World War II Light Bulb Gutenberg Bible
From top left, clockwise: in 1492, Christopher Columbus reaches the New World , opening the European colonization of the Americas ; the American Revolution , one of the late 1700s Enlightenment -inspired Atlantic Revolutions ; the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople ; the Atomic Bomb from World War II ; an alternate source of light, the light bulb ; for the first time, a human being sets foot on the Moon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 Moon mission; airplanes enable widespread air travel; Napoleon Bonaparte , in the early 19th century, affects France and Europe with expansionism , modernization , and nationalism ; Alexander Graham Bell 's telephone ; in 1348, the Black Death kills in just two years over 100 million people worldwide, and over half of Europe . (Background: An excerpt from the Gutenberg Bible , the first major book printed in the West using movable type, in the 1450s)