Four empires collapsed: the Russian Empire in 1917, the German and the Austro-Hungarian in 1918
Because of this region's relatively abundant access to water, the earliest civilizations were established in the Fertile Crescent, including
the Sumerians.
President Nixon believed that normalizing relations with China would "b) drive a wedge between China and the <span>Soviet Union," which was a Cold War goal. </span><span />
