Modern Age

The first half of the twentieth century, which sits well within the Late Modern Period, was a time of great political, social and change, spearheaded by the significant technological advances and the birth of new movements, especially in the UK, such as the Suffragettes and trade unions. The development of new weapons and the political unrest in Europe led to the outbreak of the two deadliest and vastest worldwide armed conflicts—the First and Second World Wars—which completely reshaped the world and its culture as we know it. Other events worthy of mention are the economic crisis of the Great Depression, starting in America in 1929, and the development of new scientific theories and branches, such as Einstein's General Relativity and Freud's psychoanalysis, dissolving many previously affirmed models and concepts and leaving a great void where, with respect to science, many of the prior certainties of the common man once stood.

Edward VII became king in 1901, after Victoria's death, marking the end of the Victorian Age.