World history developments in the middle decades of the twentieth century, headed by wars and the major communist revolutions, had important results for family life in many regions. Imperialism, however, that brought the clearest interaction between Western industrial nations and other world regions during the nineteenth century. In the twenty-first century it was estimated that 15 million children had been killed in war and civil strife during the final three decades of the twentieth century alone, with many others orphaned or wounded. Unprecedented global declarations of human rights had important implications, particularly for the position of women and children in the family, and they were supported not only by United Nations agencies but also the host of international Non-Governmental Organizations that began to proliferate from the foundation of Amnesty International, in 1961, onward. Many traditional institutions have virtually disappeared amid the currents of change in modern world history. Families help translate global trends into most personal aspects of modern life.