1914 – 1918 – World War I: Christian nations went to war with each other; Germany attacked France. The U.S. mediated, creating the League of Nations. Post-war treaties were unjust, and the U.S. did not join. League mediation failures eventually led to World War II twenty years later.

1917 – The Russian Communist Party seized power during the chaos of World War I, establishing a communist state.

1917 – 1922 – President Wilson sent 15,000 troops to intervene in Russia.

1923 – President Coolidge did not send troops to intervene; the Soviet Union invaded China. Sun Yat-sen cooperated with the Soviets to capture Guangzhou and sent the Northern Expedition to overthrow the Beijing government. The Chinese Communist Party took advantage of the situation, eventually seizing power in 1949.

1929 – The U.S. economic crisis (Great Depression) broke out, affecting the global economy.

1943 – 1945 – Roosevelt allied with Stalin to defeat the anti-communist Hitler.

1949 – President Truman advocated cooperation with the Chinese Communists, effectively losing all of China to Mao Zedong.

1960s – Anti-cultural (anti-Christian, secular) youth movements emerged in the U.S., U.K., and France. These social movements lasted for years and had significant influence.

1972 – President Nixon flew to Beijing to rescue the declining Mao Zedong regime, expelling Chiang Kai-shek and securing Mao’s entry into the UN Security Council.

1979 – President Carter ignored Deng Xiaoping’s “Four Principles” and did not oppose Deng’s support for the genocidal Pol Pot during the Sino-Vietnamese War.

1989 – President George H. W. Bush ignored the one-million-strong democratic movement in Beijing for a month (“June 4th”), sending 200,000 troops to suppress it silently, while dispatching envoys to seek reconciliation with Deng Xiaoping.

1991 – Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European communist empires.

1992 – Francis Fukuyama published The End of History and the Last Man, claiming the Soviet bloc’s collapse and communism’s failure marked the “end of history.” He ignored that the Chinese Communist Party still existed strongly and did not recognize this “end.”

1996 – Samuel Huntington published The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, arguing for conflict between Christian and Islamic civilizations.

2001 – 9/11: Islamist extremist Osama bin Laden launched terrorist attacks, destroying New York’s Twin Towers, killing 3,000 people.

2003 – 2011 – Iraq War: U.S.-led invasion based on the false claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

2001 – 2021 – Afghanistan War: Following 9/11, the U.S. invaded and overthrew the Taliban. In 2021, U.S. troops withdrew, the Taliban regained power, and the U.S. ultimately failed.

2021 – President Joe Biden did not hold Xi Jinping accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed millions worldwide over three years.

2022.2 – present – Russia-Ukraine War continues: Russia invaded Ukraine; the West provides assistance to Ukraine; the conflict is ongoing.

2023.10 – present – Israel-Palestine conflict continues: Palestinian militant groups launched attacks on Israel; Israel responded militarily.

Global Distribution of Christians
Year Europe Americas Southern Africa Asia
1910 2/3 – – –
2023 25% 37% 24% 13%

Note: Europe’s Christian population has declined steadily over the century; the U.S. follows a similar downward trend.