The 2000s were marked by significant economic growth in Asian countries, especially in China and India (by analogy with the previous "American century", the XXI century is considered the "Asian century"). Economic growth was accompanied by a rise in oil prices, which reached their all-time high in July 2008. At the same time, the crisis that began in the United States associated with an avalanche-like increase in loan defaults provoked a global recession in 2008.
After the unprecedented scale of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, the American government declared the so-called. "War on terrorism", in which the wars began in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). Conflicts continued in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the post-Soviet space. The disintegration of Yugoslavia is over. The expansion of NATO continued, in 2001 the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established.
There was a widespread introduction of digital technologies: the development of the Internet and a significant increase in its role in society, the spread of mobile phones, digital cameras, the emergence of the Blu-ray format. Construction of the ISS continued. In 2001, the Mir orbital station was flooded. The geography of the "space club" expanded: in 2003, China launched its first cosmonaut into space, and in 2009, Iran launched its first satellite.
As indicated in 2014 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the 2000s were the warmest in the history of meteorological observations.
