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The most notable terrorist attacks of the decade include: El Mozote massacre in El Salvador on December 11, 1981, against civilians, committed by government forces supported by the United States during their anti-guerrilla campaign against Marxist-Leninist rebels. The Rome and Vienna airport attacks take place on December 27, 1985, against the Israeli El Al airline. The attack was done by militants loyal to Abu Nidal, backed by the government of Libya. The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing – during the Lebanese Civil War two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces killing 299 American and French servicemen. The organization Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. The 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India, committed by Hindu militants against Sikhs in response to the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by a Sikh militant. Thousands of people are killed and tens of thousands of Sikhs became displaced persons. Air India Flight 182 was destroyed on June 23, 1985, by Sikh-Canadian militants. It was the biggest mass murder involving Canadians in Canada's history. On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over the village of Lockerbie, Scotland, while en route from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's JFK. The bombing killed all 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground, totaling 270 fatalities who were citizens of 21 nationalities. The bombing was and remains the worst terrorist attack on UK soil. Wars Main article: List of wars 1945–1989 § 1980–1989 The most prominent armed conflicts of the decade include: International wars Invasion of Grenada, 1983. Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, 1988. The most notable wars of the decade include: The Cold War (1945–1991) Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989) – a war fought between the Soviet Union and the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance in Afghanistan. The mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States (see Operation Cyclone), as well as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other Muslim nations through the context of the Cold War and the regional India–Pakistan conflict. Invasion of Grenada (1983) – a 1983 U.S.-led invasion of Grenada, triggered by a military coup which ousted a brief revolutionary government. The successful invasion led to a change of government but was controversial due to charges of American imperialism, Cold War politics, the involvement of Cuba, the unstable state of the Grenadian government, and Grenada's status as a Commonwealth realm. Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992) – part of the cold war conflicts, reached its peak in the 1980s, 70,000 Salvadorans died. Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands (or Islas Malvinas, as they are known in Spanish-speaking countries), sparking the Falklands War. It occurred from 2 April to 14 July 1982 between the United Kingdom and Argentina as British forces fought to recover the islands. Britain emerged victorious and its stance in international affairs and its long decaying reputation as a colonial power received an unexpected boost. The military junta of Argentina, on the other hand, was left humiliated by the defeat; and its leader Leopoldo Galtieri was deposed three days after the end of the war. A military investigation known as the Rattenbach report even recommended his execution. Arab–Israeli conflict (early 20th century – present) 1982 Lebanon War – the Government of Israel ordered the invasion as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by the Abu Nidal Organization and due to the constant terror attacks on northern Israel made by the terrorist organizations which resided in Lebanon. After attacking the PLO, as well as Syrian, leftist and Muslim Lebanese forces, Israel occupied southern Lebanon and eventually surrounded the PLO in west Beirut and subjected to heavy bombardment, they negotiated passage from Lebanon. In October 1985 eight Israeli F-15 Eagles carried out Operation Wooden Leg intending to bomb PLO's new headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, more than 2,000 km from Israel. The attack cost 270 lives, most of them tunisian civilians. The attack was later condemned by the United Nations Security Council. USA is thought to have assisted or known of the attack. The Iran–Iraq war took place from 1980 to 1988. Iraq was accused of using illegal chemical weapons to kill Iranian forces and against its own dissident Kurdish populations. Both sides suffered enormous casualties, but the poorly equipped Iranian armies suffered worse for it, being forced to use soldiers as young as 15 in human-wave attacks. Iran finally agreed to an armistice in 1988. The United States launched an aerial bombardment of Libya in 1986 in retaliation for Libyan support of terrorism and attacks on US personnel in Germany and Turkey. The South African Border War between South Africa and the alliance of Angola, Namibia and Zambia ended in 1989, ending over thirty years of conflict. The United States engaged in significant direct and indirect conflict in the decade via alliances with various groups in a number of Central and South American countries claiming that the U.S. was acting to oppose the spread of communism and end illicit drug trade. The U.S. government supported the government of Colombia's attempts to destroy its large illicit cocaine-trafficking industry and provided support for right-wing military government in the Salvadoran civil war which became controversial after the El Mozote massacre on December 11, 1981, in which U.S.-trained Salvadoran paramilitaries killed 1000 Salvadoran civilians. The United States, along with members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, invaded Grenada in 1983. The Iran–Contra affair erupted which involved U.S. interventionism in Nicaragua, resulting in members of the U.S. government being indicted in 1986. U.S. military action began against Panama in December 1989 to overthrow its dictator, Manuel Noriega resulting in 3,500 civilian casualties and the restoration of democratic rule. Battle of Cuito Cuanavale took place as part of the Angolan civil war and South African Border War from 1987 to 1988. The battle involved the largest fighting in Africa since World War II between military forces from Angola, Cuba (expeditionary forces) and Namibia versus military forces from South Africa and the dissident Angolan UNITA organization. The Nagorno-Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and the Armenia started in 1988 and lasted six years. Civil wars and guerrilla wars The most notable Internal conflicts of the decade include: The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 occurred in the People's Republic of China in 1989, in which pro-democracy protestors demanded political reform. The protests were crushed by the People's Liberation Army. The First Intifada (First Uprising) in the Gaza Strip and West Bank began in 1987 when Palestinian Arabs mounted large-scale protests against the Israeli military presence in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which the Palestinians claim as their own. The Intifada soon became violent as the Israeli army and Palestinian militants fought for control over the disputed territories. The First Intifada would continue until peace negotiations began between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government in 1993. Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) - Throughout the decade, Lebanon was engulfed in civil war between Islamic and Christian factions. The Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front began a violent campaign for independence in New Caledonia. Greenpeace's attempts to monitor French nuclear testing on Mururoa were halted by the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. The Second Sudanese Civil War erupts in 1983 between the Muslim government of Sudan in the north and non-Muslim rebel secessionists in Southern Sudan. The conflict continues through the present day Darfur genocide. Internal conflict in Peru: The communist Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement starts its fight against the Peruvian state in 1980, that would continue until the end of the 1990s. Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was overthrown by a popular uprising on February 6, 1986. Coups Main article: List of coups d'état and coup attempts § 1980 - 1989 The most prominent coups d'état of the decade include: A military coup is launched in Suriname on February 25, 1980; the country's politics are dominated by the military until 1991. Nigeria suffered multiple military coups in 1983 and 1985. Sitiveni Rabuka staged two military coups in Fiji in 1987, and declared the country a republic the same year. The "Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution" - a series of interconnected coups d'états - take place in Yugoslavia from 1988 to 1989 through mass protests organized and committed by supporters of Serbian politician Slobodan Milošević overthrow the governments of Serbia's autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina, and the government of Montenegro, and finally the main government of Serbia with Milošević becoming President of Serbia. Nuclear threats The Israeli Air Force F-16A Netz '243' which was flown by Colonel Ilan Ramon during Operation Opera. Operation Opera - a 1981 surprise Israeli air strike that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor being constructed in Osirak. Israeli military intelligence assumed this was for the purpose of plutonium production to further an Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Israeli intelligence also believed that the summer of 1981 would be the last chance to destroy the reactor before it would be loaded with nuclear fuel. President Reagan's decision to station intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe provoked mass protests involving more than one million people. Decolonization and independence Canada gained official independence from the United Kingdom with a new Constitution on 17 April 1982, authorized by the signature by Elizabeth II. This act severed all political dependencies of the United Kingdom in Canada (although the Queen remained the titular head of state). In 1986, Australia and the United Kingdom fully separated Australia's governments from the influence of the British Parliament, resulting in Australia's full independence that had been granted a century before. In 1986, New Zealand and the United Kingdom fully separated New Zealand's governments from the influence of the British Parliament, resulting in New Zealand's full independence with the Constitution Act 1986 which also reorganised the government of New Zealand. Independence was granted to Vanuatu from the British/French condonimum (1980), Kiribati from joint US-British government (1981) and Palau from the United States (1986). Zimbabwe becomes independent from official colonial rule of the United Kingdom in 1980. Independence was given to Antigua and Barbuda, Belize (both 1981), and Saint Kitts and Nevis (1983) of the Caribbean; and Brunei of Southeast Asia in 1984 The 1980s was a decade that began on January 1, 1980, and ended on December 31, 1989. The time period saw great social, economic, and general change as wealth and production migrated to newly industrializing economies. As economic liberalization increased in the developed world, multiple multinational corporations associated with the manufacturing industry relocated into Thailand, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. Japan and West Germany are the most notable developed countries that continued to enjoy rapid economic growth during the decade; Japan's would stall by the early 1990s. The United Kingdom and the United States moved closer to laissez-faire economic policies beginning a trend towards neoliberalism that would pick up more steam in the following decade as the fall of the USSR made right wing economic policy more popular. Developing countries across the world faced economic and social difficulties as they suffered from multiple debt crises in the 1980s, requiring many of these countries to apply for financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Ethiopia witnessed widespread famine in the mid-1980s during the corrupt rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam, resulting in the country having to depend on foreign aid to provide food to its population and worldwide efforts to address and raise money to help Ethiopians, such as the famous Live Aid concert in 1985. Television viewing became commonplace in the Third World, with the number of TV sets in China and India increasing 15 and 10 fold respectively.[1] The number of televisions in the world nearly doubled over the course of the decade from only 561 million in 1980 to 910 million in 1987 and around a billion by 1989.[2] Major civil discontent and violence occurred in the Middle East, including the Iran-Iraq War, the Soviet-Afghan War, the 1982 Lebanon War, the Nagorno-Karabakh War, the Bombing of Libya in 1986, and the First Intifada in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Despite a peak in tensions in the early part of the decade, by the late 1980s the Cold War was coming to an end.[3] In the eastern bloc hostility to authoritarianism and the rise of nationalism in communist-led socialist states, combined with economic recession resulted in a wave of reformist policies instigated by Mikhail Gorbachev in the USSR - such as perestroika and glasnost, along with the overthrow and attempted overthrow of a number of communist regimes, such as in Hungary, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in China, the Czechoslovak "Velvet Revolution", Poland and the overthrow of the Nicolae Ceauşescu regime in Romania and other communist Warsaw Pact states in Central and Eastern Europe including the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It came to be called the late 1980s' "purple passage of the autumn of nations". By 1989 the Soviet Union announced the abandonment of political hostility toward the Western world and the Cold War ended with the USSR's demise after the August Coup of 1991. The changes of the revolutions of 1989 continue to be felt today. The 1980s saw the development of the modern Internet, starting with the specification of File Transfer Protocol in 1980 [4] and ARPANET's move to TCP/IP around 1982-83.[5] Approximately 1.1 million people (86% of them in the United States) were using the Internet at the end of the 1980s.[6]Tim Berners Lee created a hypertext system called ENQUIRE in 1980 and began his work on the World Wide Web in March 1989; after its first demonstration at the end of 1990 it was released to the public in July 1991 and by approximately 1995 became widely known, beginning the ongoing worldwide boom of Internet use. People born in the 1980s are usually classified along with those born in the 1990s as part of the Millennial generation.[7] The issue of global warming first came to the attention of the public in the late 1980s,[8] largely due to the Yellowstone fires of 1988. |
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