About the time...

Culturally, the 1990s are characterized by the rise of and , which continued into the 2000s. Movements such as , the and spread around the world to young people during that decade, aided by then-new technology such as and the .

In the absence of , which collapsed in the first two years of the decade, the 1990s was politically defined by a movement towards the , including increase in support for parties in Europe as well as the advent of the Bharatiya Janata Party and in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK. The United States also saw a massive revival in the use of the in the 1990s, which reversed in the early 21st century. During the 1990s the character of the and were formed and codified in .

A combination of factors, including the continued mass mobilization of through , the thawing of the decades-long , the beginning of the widespread proliferation of such as the Internet from the middle of the decade onwards, increasing skepticism towards , and the led to a realignment and reconsolidation of economic and political power across the world and within countries. The of 1997–2000 brought wealth to some before its crash between 2000 and 2001.

The 1990s saw extreme advances in technology, with the , the first trial, and the first all emerging in 1990 and being improved and built upon throughout the decade.

New ethnic conflicts emerged in Africa, the , and the , the former two which led to the and , respectively. Signs of any resolution of tensions between and the remained elusive despite the progress of the , though in Northern Ireland came to a standstill in 1998 with the after 30 years of violence.