We finished the last episode with the end of WWII and the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948. What was happening around the world at that time? 

Though it is impossible to give a short answer to this question, right after the war there was a period where different countries and people around the world were expecting to see what would happen next. After the atrocities committed by the Nazi Regime and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons by the US, the world was entering a period of time where countries were developing weapons that would change war and peace forever.