Editing 1990s (section)

===Prominent political events===
====Africa====
[[File:Mandela voting in 1994.jpg|thumb|120px|right|[[Nelson Mandela]] voting in 1994, after thirty years of imprisonment.]]
*[[African National Congress]] leader [[Nelson Mandela]] was released from prison on 11 February 1990, after thirty years of imprisonment for opposing [[South Africa under apartheid|apartheid]] and white-minority rule in South Africa. [[Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa|Apartheid ended]] in South Africa in 1994.<ref name="mandela">{{Cite thesis
 |last1        = Evans
 |first1       = Martha
 |date         = February 2012
 |title        = Transmitting the Transition: Media Events and Post-Apartheid South African National Identity
 |url          = https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/10475
 |publisher    = University of Cape Town
 |pages        = ix
 |access-date  = 11 April 2020
 |hdl          = 11427/10475
 |type         = Doctoral Thesis
 |hdl-access   = free
 |archive-date = 11 April 2020
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20200411112626/https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/10475
 |url-status   = dead
}}</ref>
*Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa in 1994, becoming the first democratically elected president in South African history, and ending a long legacy of apartheid white rule in the country.<ref name="mandela" />

====Americas====
[[File:Response to the Lewinsky Allegations (January 26, 1998) Bill Clinton.ogv|right|220px|thumb|During the late 1990s, a move was made to remove American president [[Bill Clinton]] from power following the [[Clinton–Lewinsky scandal]]. This [[Impeachment of Bill Clinton|impeachment]] attempt did not succeed, and Clinton continued to serve as president until the end of his term in January 2001.]]
* The [[Argentine peso]] was pegged to the [[United States dollar|American dollar]] by the [[Convertibility plan]] by the government of [[Carlos Menem]] in an attempt to eliminate [[hyperinflation]] and stimulate [[economic growth]]. While it was initially met with considerable success, the board's actions ultimately failed. The Convertibility Plan went from 1991 to 2002.
* The establishment of the [[North American Free Trade Agreement]] (NAFTA) on 1 January 1994, created a North American [[free-trade zone]] consisting of Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
* The [[Constitution of Argentina]] went through an important [[1994 amendment of the Constitution of Argentina|reform in 1994]], which introduced [[Three generations of human rights|third generation rights]], gave more relevance to [[Treaty|international treaties]], and also introduced new concepts such as [[Necessity and Urgency Decree|Necessity and Urgency Decrees]] and the [[two-round system]].
*Canadian politics was radically altered in the [[1993 Canadian federal election|1993 federal election]] with the collapse of the [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada]]. A major political party in Canada since 1867, the party went from controlling the government to being left with only two seats. The [[New Democratic Party (Canada)|New Democratic Party]] collapsed as well, with their sets declining from 44 to 9. The [[Liberal Party of Canada]] was the only genuinely 'national' political party left standing. Regionally-based parties, such as the Quebec-based [[Bloc Québécois]] and the almost entirely Western Canada-based [[Reform Party of Canada]], rose from political insignificance to being major political parties.
*After the collapse of the [[Meech Lake Accord|Meech Lake constitutional accord]] in 1990, the province of [[Quebec]] in Canada experienced a rekindled wave of separatism by [[Francophone]] [[Québécois people|Québécois]] nationalists, who sought for Quebec to become an independent country and forced a referendum on the question of independence in 1995.
**The [[1995 Quebec independence referendum|1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty]] was held in the predominantly francophone province of Quebec in Canada, a majority [[Anglophone]] country. If accepted, Quebec would have become an independent country with an economic association with Canada. Quebec's voters narrowly rejected the proposal.
*[[Jean-Bertrand Aristide]], a former Haitian priest, became the first democratically elected President of [[Haiti]] in 1990. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a Roman Catholic parish in [[Port-au-Prince]] in 1982 after completing his studies to become a priest of the Salesian order. Aristide was later forced into exile in the Central African Republic and South Africa and returned to Haiti after several years.
*[[Ernesto Zedillo]] was elected [[President of Mexico]] in the [[1994 Mexican general election|1994 presidential election]], making him the last of an uninterrupted 72-year-long succession of Mexican presidents from the dominant [[Institutional Revolutionary Party]] (PRI). The original PRI candidate, [[Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta]], was assassinated several months prior.
*Due to [[Internal conflict in Peru|internal conflict]] and an economic crisis, [[Alberto Fujimori]] rose to power in [[Peru]] and remained in office for eleven years. His administration was marked by economic development but also by numerous human rights violations ([[La Cantuta massacre]], [[Barrios Altos massacre]]) and a rampant corruption network set up by [[Vladimiro Montesinos]].
*The sluggish [[Latin America]]n economies of [[Argentina]], [[Brazil]], [[Chile]], and [[Mexico]], by a new emphasis on [[free market]]s for all their citizens after the [[Latin American debt crisis|debt crisis]] of the 1980s. Following democratic reforms and neoliberal policies were implemented by President [[Carlos Saúl Menem]] (Argentina), President [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (Chile), President [[Ernesto Zedillo]] (Mexico), and President [[Fernando Henrique Cardoso]] (Brazil), in their best shape by the late 1990s.
*[[President of the United States|United States President]] Bill Clinton was a dominant political figure in international affairs during the 1990s, known primarily for his attempts to negotiate peace in the Middle East and end the ongoing wars occurring in the former Yugoslavia, his promotion of international action to decrease human-created [[climate change]], and his endorsement of advancing [[free trade]] in the Americas.
*[[February 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt|After a failed coup attempt in 1992]], [[Hugo Chávez]], politician and former member of the Venezuelan military, is [[1998 Venezuelan presidential election|elected]] President of [[Venezuela]] in 1998.
*[[Lewinsky scandal]] – US president Bill Clinton was caught in a media-frenzied scandal involving inappropriate relations with White House intern [[Monica Lewinsky]], which was first announced on 21 January 1998. After the United States House of Representatives [[Impeachment of Bill Clinton|impeached Bill Clinton]] on 19 December 1998, for perjury under oath, and following an investigation by federal prosecutor [[Kenneth Starr]], the Senate acquitted Clinton of all charges on 12 February 1999. He served out the remainder of his second term.
*California voters passed [[California Proposition 215 (1996)|Proposition 215]] in 1996, which legalized [[Cannabis (drug)|cannabis]] for medicinal purposes.

====Asia====
[[File:Bill Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat at the White House 1993-09-13.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Prime Minister of Israel|Israeli Prime Minister]] [[Yitzhak Rabin]], [[President of the United States|United States President]] [[Bill Clinton]], and [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO) Chairman [[Yasser Arafat]] during the signing of the [[Oslo Accords]] on 13 September 1993.]]
*In 1990, the [[Lebanese Civil War]] came to a close and a return to political normalcy in [[Lebanon]] began. With peace among all factions in Lebanon, the rebuilding of the country and its capital, [[Beirut]], began.
*[[1990 Nepalese revolution]], a multiparty movement against the one-party Panchayat rule in Nepal. It led to the end of absolute monarchy in Nepal and the restoration of democracy. 
*[[Israel]]i Prime Minister [[Yitzhak Rabin]] and [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] Prime Minister [[Yasser Arafat]] agree to the [[Israeli–Palestinian peace process]] at the culmination of the [[Oslo Accords]], negotiated by the United States President, Bill Clinton, on 13 September 1993.
**By signing the Oslo accords, the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] recognized Israel's right to exist. At the same time, Israel permitted the creation of an autonomous [[Palestinian National Authority]] consisting of the [[Gaza Strip]] and [[West Bank]], which was implemented in 1994.
**Israeli military forces withdrew from these Palestinian territories in compliance with the accord, which marked the end of the [[First Intifada]] (a period of violence between Palestinian Arab militants and Israeli armed forces from 1987 to 1993).
**The Palestinian National Authority was created in 1994 following the Oslo Accords, giving Palestinian Arab people official autonomy over the Gaza Strip and West Bank, though not official independence from Israel.
*On 4 November 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin [[Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin|was assassinated]] by a right-wing extremist who opposed the signing of the [[Oslo Accords]].
*[[Yemen Arab Republic|North Yemen]] and [[South Yemen]] merged to form [[Yemen]] in 1991.
*[[Lee Kuan Yew]] resigned as the Prime Minister of [[Singapore]] on 28 November 1990, a position he had held since 1959, to [[Goh Chok Tong]]. Lee remained in the cabinet as Senior Minister.
*In July 1994, [[North Korea]]n leader [[Kim Il Sung]] died, having ruled the country since its founding in 1948. His son [[Kim Jong Il]], who succeeded him, took over a nation on the brink of complete economic collapse. [[North Korean famine|Famine]] had caused a significant number of deaths in the late 1990s, and North Korea gained a reputation for being an important hub of money laundering, counterfeiting, and weapons proliferation. The country's ability to produce and sell nuclear weapons became a prominent concern in the international community.
*In 1990, [[Aung San Suu Kyi]]'s [[National League for Democracy]] in Burma won a majority of seats in the first free election conducted in 30 years. But the [[State Peace and Development Council|SPDC]] refused to relinquish power, beginning a peaceful{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} struggle that began in the 1990s and continued for several decades, primarily fueled by Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters to demand the end of military rule.
*Indonesian President [[Suharto]] resigned after ruling the country for 32 years (1966–1998), following the [[May 1998 riots of Indonesia|riots]] on several cities in Indonesia. [[Fall of Suharto|His resignation]] marked the beginning of the [[Post-Suharto era in Indonesia|Reform era]].
*In India, the former prime minister [[Rajiv Gandhi]] was [[Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi|assassinated]] on 21 May 1991 by the [[Tamil Tigers]], beginning a period of [[Economic liberalisation in India|economic liberalization]] led by new Prime Minister [[P. V. Narasimha Rao]].
*After democratic reforms and steady economic growth in the four [[Asia-Pacific]] [[major non-NATO ally|MNNAs]] by the United States and Canada, after the [[Revolutions of 1989]].
**In the [[Philippines]], following the [[People Power Revolution]] of 1986 under the [[Corazon Aquino]] presidency until 1992, democratic reforms and economic policies implemented by two Presidents were elected by [[Fidel V. Ramos]] in 1992, and [[Joseph Estrada]] in 1998.
**South Korea and Taiwan became [[developed country|developed countries]], and two of the [[Four Asian Tigers]] in the 1990s. Following democratic reforms in 1988, neoliberal policies were implemented by President [[Kim Young-sam]] (South Korea) and President [[Lee Teng-hui]] (Taiwan), both who led their countries during the [[1997 Asian financial crisis]].
**Japan saw eight different [[List of prime ministers of Japan|prime ministers]] serve during the 1990s in what was at first called the "Lost Decade" but later became referred to as the "[[Lost Decades]] of the [[Heisei era|Heisei Era]]". These included [[Morihiro Hosokawa]], who won the [[1993 Japanese general election]] and formed an opposition coalition until 1996.

====Europe====
*The improvement in relations between [[NATO]] countries and the former members of the [[Warsaw Pact]] led to the end of the [[Cold War]], both in Europe and other parts of the world.
*[[German reunification]] – on 3 October 1990, East and West Germany reunified as a result of the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]] and the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]]. After reintegrating their economic structure and provincial governments, Germany focused on the modernization of the formerly communist East. People brought up in socialist East Germany became integrated with those living in capitalist West Germany.
*[[Margaret Thatcher]], who had been the United Kingdom's Prime Minister since 1979, resigned as Prime Minister on 22 November 1990 after being challenged for leadership of the Conservative Party by [[Michael Heseltine]]. This was because of widespread opposition to the introduction of the controversial [[Poll tax (Great Britain)|Community Charge]], and the fact that her key allies such as [[Nigel Lawson]] and [[Geoffrey Howe]] resigned over the deeply sensitive issues of the [[Maastricht Treaty]] and Margaret Thatcher's resistance to Britain joining the [[European Exchange Rate Mechanism]]. Less than two years later, on the infamous [[Black Wednesday]] of September 1992, the [[pound sterling]] crashed out of the system after the pound fell below the agreed exchange rate with the [[Deutsche Mark]].
**[[John Major]] replaced Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister in 1990.
*The [[Perestroika]] (restructuring) of the Soviet Union destabilized, leading to nationalist and separatist demagogues gaining popularity. [[Boris Yeltsin]], then [[Chairmen of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets|chairman]] of the [[Supreme Soviet of Russia|Supreme Soviet]] of [[Russian SFSR|Russia]], resigned from the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] and became the opposition leader against [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]. The Communist Party lost its status as the governing force of the country and was banned after a [[August Putsch|coup attempt]] by communist hardliners attempted to revert the effects of Gorbachev's policies. Yeltsin's counter-revolution was victorious, and on 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned from the presidency, which led to the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]]. Yeltsin [[Presidency of Boris Yeltsin|became president]] of the Soviet Union's successor, the Russian Federation, and presided over a period of political unrest, economic crisis, and social anarchy. On 31 December 1999, Yeltsin resigned, leaving [[Vladimir Putin]] as acting president.
*The [[European Union]] was formed in 1992 under the [[Maastricht Treaty]].
*The [[Downing Street Declaration]], signed on 15 December 1993 by the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]], John Major, and the [[Taoiseach]] of Ireland, [[Albert Reynolds]] at the British Prime Minister's office in [[10 Downing Street]], affirmed that (1) the right of the people of Ireland to [[self-determination]], and (2) that [[Northern Ireland]] would be transferred to the [[Republic of Ireland]] from the United Kingdom only if a majority of its population was in favour of such a move. It included, as part of the perspective of the so-called "Irish dimension," the [[principle of consent]] that the people of the island of Ireland had the exclusive right to solve the issues between North and South by mutual consent.<ref>
Peatling, Gary (2004). ''The failure of the Northern Ireland peace process''. Irish Academic Press, p. 58. {{ISBN|0-7165-3336-7}}</ref><ref>Cox, Michael, Guelke, Adrian and Stephen, Fiona (2006). ''A farewell to arms?: beyond the Good Friday Agreement''. Manchester University Press, p. 486. {{ISBN|0-7190-7115-1}}</ref> The latter statement, which later would become one of the points of the [[Belfast Agreement|Good Friday Agreement]],<ref>Clark, Desmond, and Jones, Charles (1999). ''The rights of nations: nations and nationalism in a changing world''. Palgrave Macmillan, p. 168. {{ISBN|0-312-22595-4}}</ref> was key to producing a positive change of attitude by the Republicans towards a negotiated settlement. The joint declaration also pledged the governments to seek a peaceful constitutional settlement and promised that parties linked with paramilitaries (such as [[Sinn Féin]]) could take part in the talks so long as they abandoned violence.<ref>Cox & Guelke, pp. 487–488</ref>
*The [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|IRA]] agreed to a truce in 1994. This marked the beginning of the end of 25 years of violence between the IRA and the United Kingdom and the start of political negotiations.
*[[Tony Blair]] became Prime Minister in 1997 following a [[1997 United Kingdom general election|general election]].
*The [[Belfast Agreement]] (a.k.a. the Good Friday Agreement) was signed by the U.K. and Irish politicians on 10 April 1998, declaring a joint commitment to a peaceful resolution of the territorial dispute between [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] and the United Kingdom over [[Northern Ireland]]. The [[1998 Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum]] was held on 22 May 1998, with majority approval.<ref name=ARK01>ARK: Northern Ireland Elections, [http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/fref98.htm The 1998 Referendums] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209230657/http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/fref98.htm |date=9 February 2012 }}</ref>
*The [[National Assembly for Wales]] was established following the [[1997 Welsh devolution referendum]], in which a majority of voters approved the creation of the National Assembly for Wales.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/politics97/analysis/rozenberg2.shtml Politics 97] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110125091119/http://www.bbc.co.uk/politics97/analysis/rozenberg2.shtml |date=25 January 2011 }} by Joshua Rozenberg: BBC website. Retrieved 9 July 2006.</ref>
*In September 1997, the [[1997 Scottish devolution referendum]] was put to the Scottish electorate and secured a majority in favor of the establishment of a new [[Scottish Parliament]].<ref name="ScotlandReferendum">{{cite web|url=http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/referendums/Scotland1997.cfm|title=Past Referendums – Scotland 1997|publisher=The Electoral Commission|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061207062754/http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/referendums/Scotland1997.cfm|archive-date=7 December 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="ScotlandElections">{{cite web|url=http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-050.pdf|first=Bryn|last=Morgan|title=House of Commons Research Paper – Scottish Parliament Elections: 6 May 1999|date=8 October 1999|publisher=House of Commons Library|access-date=17 November 2006}}</ref>