What significant political events of the 1960s changed the world?

There are a tremendous number of things that happened in the 1960s that were important political events that changed the world.  There is no way to list them all in this space.  Let me mention a few that will include domestic events in the United States, foreign events involving the US, and events that are not centered around the US.

One of the biggest political events of the 1960s in terms of American domestic politics was the Civil Rights Movement, which culminated with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  This event changed the world because it led to the creation of a new America, one in which all people had legal equality regardless of race.  Our country still has many problems that have to do with race, but, thanks to the Civil Rights Movement, there is much more racial justice today than there was before the movement occurred.

In American foreign policy, one of the biggest events was the escalation of the war in Vietnam.  If we want to cite a specific event, we can mention the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964.  This allowed President Johnson to take any actions he felt necessary to fight communism in South Vietnam.  It changed the world by bringing America into the war on a very intensive level.  The Vietnam War changed the way that the US conducted foreign policy for quite some time since the US loss in that war made American leaders somewhat leery of intervening in foreign countries for a while.

Outside the United States, a major event was the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961.  By building the wall, the communists created a major symbol of the Cold War.  They also changed the world by making it very hard for people to escape from the Communist Bloc.  This made the lives of millions of Eastern Europeans more difficult.

All of these were important political events in the 1960s, but this is in no way an exhaustive list of all of the most important events of that decade.

What political changes occurred in America during the 1960s?

We made major progress in desegregation of public schools and facilities, although we often had to use law enforcement or military troops to make it happen.  Politics changed from support of the Democrats to that of Republicans, from support of the Vietnam War to the majority of Americans being against it.  The loss of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 was a major blow to our nation's progress in civil rights, as was the loss of Robert F. Kennedy, JFK's brother, who many thought would follow the footsteps to the Presidency.  Women also began to be taken more seriously as a voting bloc in the US during that decade.

One way you might approach this question is by looking at one particular year in the decade. My suggestion is 1968. This was the year that brought the simmering decade to a boil. Although sweeping Civil Rights legislation was passed in '64-65, the non-violent Civil Rights movement turned violent by '68. Americans were stunned as they watched President Johnson on television announce his refusal to accept the democratic nomination for re-election. This action was interpreted by most Americans as 'throwing in the towel', and giving up. This caused tremendous political anxiety in the country. At the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago Americans were exposed to the fractures that existed in the nation via their television sets. There was rioting in the streets of Chicago, and to most Americans Chicago looked as if it were at war. As a result, politics left a bad taste in the mouth of Americans after that.  1968 is also remembered as the year that saw the assassinations of two Americans that held potential promise for a country that was in dire straits. These experiences reflected a sense of political instability that our nation had never experienced before. It could also be argued that the political changes that occurred in the 1960's forever changed the landscape of politics in The United States.

The civil rights movement is an area you could spend a lot of time on. It came to a head during the 1960's (after much work in the 1950's) and the effects are still being felt today. One could reasonably argue that if there is one defining political change of the 1960's, it is the civil rights movement.

http://www.enotes.com/topics/civil-rights

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955–1968)

http://www.enotes.com/civil-rights-article

Divide the question up into topics--huge changes occured in various areas, and if you search each, you should be fine.

Civil rights

Political activity of young Americans, with the voting age lowered to 18.

Anti-war activity

Women's liberation movement

Hippie/anti-establishment ethos

Reaction to international incidents/Cold War

Great Society of LBJ/Welfare State

What global changes occurred in the 1960s?

Most decades have witnessed major change in one way or another, but I would say that the 1960s were as turbulent as any. It is impossible, perhaps, to do justice to the profound social and political changes that took place around the world during the 60s, but the following is a very incomplete list of important political, social, and cultural developments:

• Escalation of conflict in Vietnam, with the United States increasingly involved.
• Revolutionary struggles and civil wars in European African colonies, including Angola, Mozambique, Algeria, Nigeria, and elsewhere.
• The Civil Rights Movement in the United States
• Youth, or counterculture movements in the United States and many other Western nations, particularly France
• Chinese Cultural Revolution
• Development or expansion of center-left governments, including the establishment of welfare states, in the West
• Beginnings of detente between the United States and the Soviet Union
• The space race culminates with the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.
• Feminist movements rise in many western societies.

There were all kinds of changes going on in various places around the globe during this decade.

Looking at the world as whole (and not just at the United States) one of the most important changes going on was the rise of independent nations in Africa.  Before the 1960s, very few African countries were independent.  Beginning in 1960, however, the majority of African countries were freed from their colonial status and became independent countries.

This trend had significance both in Africa and worldwide.  Worldwide, the major significance of African independence was on the Cold War.  The US and the USSR had to scramble to try to win the allegiance of the newly independent countries in Africa.

Although there were many other changes going on in the world in the 1960s, the decolonization of Africa was one of the most important.

Certainly, in the United States there was much social change as the Civil Rights Movement began.  This movement and its concomitant violence extended throughout the globe.  For instance, Nelson Mandela and his organization, Umkhonto we Sizwe, called for a constitutional convention, threatening violence if their demands were not met.  Other countries in Europe examined their positions on race, as well.

With the Vietnam Conflict ongoing at this time, there was much anti-American feeling in other parts of the world as well as protests against this was on American soil.  Throughout the world, the 1960s were a time of change and unrest.

Nowadays, the democratic way of life and capitalism in the U.S. as well as in European countries along with terrible national debts threaten to change the current ways of life.

Major changes happened in both eras, but they are different kinds of change.  In the '60s, it was more of a cultural change.  Traditional ways were being left behind and colonies were becoming independent.  Today's changes are more economic.  Countries that used to be poor are becoming richer and more important.  Both are important changes, but they are very different from one another.