Global politics was focused on the American occupation of Iraq and the Iraqi insurgency. The United States transferred control to the Iraqi Interim Government, and former ruler Saddam Hussein was put on trial for crimes against humanity. American involvement became more controversial as it was shown that American soldiers were committing acts of torture against Iraqi prisoners and doubts grew about whether American claims of an Iraqi weapons of mass destruction program were accurate. Afghanistan held its first presidential election, which was won by Hamid Karzai. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti was overthrown in a coup, and President Yasser Arafat of Palestine died in office. The International Criminal Court commenced operations and opened its first two investigations. NATO grew by seven members in 2004 and the European Union grew by ten. The nuclear weapons programs of Iran and North Korea saw renewed attention, especially after a suspected weapons test in North Korea.
The economy grew steadily in 2004, especially in the developing world, and the developed world tightened monetary policy and raised interest rates. The United States dollar depreciated throughout the year. Gay rights remained a major issue among Protestant denominations, while Islam wrestled with the violence of Islamism. The spread of H5N1 avian influenza led to fears of a pandemic, but the total number of cases remained small.
Russia's Soyuz program was the only crewed space program in 2004, but NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on Mars in January. The debate over stem cell usage remained a major controversy in science. A new prehistoric human species, Homo floresiensis, was discovered in 2004. The year's most destructive tropical storms included Hurricane Jeanne, Typhoon Rananim, Typhoon Muifa and Typhoon Nanmadol. The final days of 2004 were defined by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake that struck Indonesia and affected countries across the Indian Ocean, killing approximately 230,000 people.
The 2004 Summer Olympics were held in their birthplace of Athens, Greece, where the United States won the most gold medals. Shrek 2 was the highest grossing film of the year and Confessions by Usher was the best-selling album. Pablo Picasso's Garçon à la pipe sold for approximately $100 million, and the world's largest architectural design competition was held to design the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Tech releases in 2004 included the Nintendo DS handheld game console by Nintendo and the Firefox browser by Mozilla.
Population The world population on January 1, 2004, was estimated to be 6.462 billion people and increased to 6.545 billion people by January 1, 2005. An estimated 136.6 million births and 53.2 million deaths took place in 2004. The average global life expectancy was 67.7 years, an increase of 0.3 years from 2003. The estimated number of global refugees decreased from 9.59 million to 9.24 million by the end of the year. Afghanistan was the largest source of refugees, with approximately 2.1 million people.
Conflicts
There were 32 armed conflicts in 2004 that resulted in at least 25 fatalities, all of which involved violent non-state actors. Seven of these resulted in at least 1,000 fatalities: the Colombian conflict, the Iraqi insurgency, the Kashmir insurgency, the Nepalese Civil War, the Second Chechen War in Russia, the Second Sudanese Civil War, the Sudanese War in Darfur, and the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency in Uganda.
The Iraqi insurgency emerged in Iraq in 2004 and carried out attacks against the US-backed caretaker government. It was initially confined to the Sunni Triangle but expanded to other areas throughout the year with two suicide bombings in Iraqi Kurdistan on February 1 and a conflict with the Shia Mahdi Army in April. More intense fighting took place in the city of Fallujah toward the end of the year, resulting in the deaths of 51 Americans and about 1,200 insurgents. Several countries withdrew from Iraq as the war became increasingly unpopular. Conflicts with al-Qaeda continued in 2004, primarily in Pakistan along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. A group affiliated with al-Qaeda carried out a series of train bombings in Madrid, killing approximately 200 people in March.
The Second Chechen War continued in 2004 with a bombing that killed Russian-backed Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, two airliner bombings that killed 89, and the capture of a school in Beslan, Russia, by Chechen militants that resulted in over 300 fatalities in September. The frozen conflict between Georgia and the breakaway state of South Ossetia escalated in July and August until a ceasefire was signed on August 18.
Two major rebel groups acted for the first time in 2004: the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation and Reconstruction of Haiti successfully brought about the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, while the Islamic Jihad Union was defeated in its attempt to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan. The Haitian conflict led to the MINUSTAH UN peacekeeping mission.
Other major conflicts in 2004 included ethnic conflict in Kosovo that led to 19 fatalities, an ongoing Indonesian offensive against rebels in Aceh, an Islamist insurgency in Thailand that led to martial law in the southern region, an Islamic militant uprising in northern Nigeria. The Burundian Civil War was complicated as factionalism divided the CNDD-FDD and tentative peace agreements with the government were opposed by the National Forces of Liberation. The Nepalese Civil War escalated as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) abducted over one thousand people to train as fighters and the Nepalese government established civilian militias. Conflict between Israel and Palestine remained heightened in 2004, including the targeted killings of Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi by Israel, the bombing of Israeli tourists by Palestinian militants in October, and Israeli attacks on Gaza. The European Union launched EUFOR, its largest peacekeeping mission, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The War in Darfur escalated significantly in Sudan with debate over whether its mass killings constituted a genocide.
Major peace agreements were reached in two conflicts in 2004: the conflict between Senegal and the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance, and the partial one between Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. A ceasefire was established with the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, while a ceasefire in the First Ivorian Civil War broke down and attacks were launched against French peacekeeping forces. A 2003 ceasefire held in the Kashmir conflict, bringing about the conflict's first full year without military action in roughly a decade, although an insurgency continued in the region. Although the Second Congo War had ended, insurgencies continued within the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Ituri and in Kivu. Disarmament of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia began in November during the Colombian conflict, but fighting with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia continued and the Colombian government launched its Plan Patriota mobilization program.
Culture
Architecture
The world's largest architectural design competition was held to design the National September 11 Memorial & Museum with over 5,000 entries. The German Duchess Anna Amalia Library was destroyed in a fire that consumed approximately 30,000 books. Reconstruction finished on the exterior of the Frauenkirche church in Dresden, which had been destroyed in World War II. After three years at a temporary location, the Museum of Modern Art relocated to a new building designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. The Pritzker Architecture Prize was won by a woman, Zaha Hadid, for the first time.
Buildings that finished construction or opened in 2004 included the Gherkin and the Scottish Parliament Building in the United Kingdom, the Sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina in Italy, the in Canada, the Forum Building in Spain, and the Seattle Central Library in the United States. The Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport opened in China along with terminals in the Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada and Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. The Rio–Antirrio Bridge was completed in Greece, as was the Millau Viaduct in France. Among new rail stations were the Blue Line in Thailand, the Hiawatha Light Rail and the Las Vegas Monorail in the United States, the Yellow Line in India, and the Shenzhen Metro in China. The Södra länken motorway in Sweden and the final stage of the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia were also completed.
Art
Major art trends in 2004 included minimalism, Gothic art and grotesque art, the latter two making up what art critic Jerry Saltz called the "Modern Gothic". Paper drawings also saw popularity. In photography, there was nostalgia for works from the 1970s. Art speculation resurged in 2004 as the economy recovered from a recession. Major sales included Garçon à la pipe (1905) by Pablo Picasso for approximately $100 million, the Maurizio Cattelan sculptures La Nona Ora (1999) and The Ballad of Trotsky (1996) for $3 million and $2 million, and Richard Prince's photo Spiritual America for $1 million. Western fashion trends shifted from luxury designs to practical ones in 2004, and American-made jeans grew in popularity.
The biggest art exhibitions of 2004 were Treasures of a Sacred Mountain at the Tokyo National Museum and El Greco at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Elsewhere, the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection was put on display in Berlin, the Smithsonian Institution opened its National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein opened a museum in Vienna to display the royal family's art collection.
The Scream and Madonna were stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo in 2004, while efforts continued throughout the year to recover and preserve works from the Iraq Museum in response to the looting that took place amid the invasion of Iraq. About 300 artworks with a total value of $106 million were destroyed by a fire at a Momart warehouse in London, about one third of which were from the collection of Charles Saatchi, including the sculptures Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 by Tracey Emin and Hell by Jake and Dinos Chapman.
Photographs of subjects related to the Iraq War, including act of torture by the American military and coffins of American soldiers being stored in a cargo plane, caused public outrage. Art critic Susan Sontag cited this as evidence that photography had moved from an art of preservation to one of disseminating ideas and shaping public opinion.
Media
The highest-grossing film globally in 2004 was Shrek 2, followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Spider-Man 2. The highest-grossing non-English film was The Passion of the Christ, the fifth highest-grossing film of the year. Critically acclaimed films from 2004 include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kill Bill: Volume 2, and Million Dollar Baby Documentaries had a successful year in 2004 with releases like Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore and Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock.