Studied by 6 people
Cold War
The rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States that divided much of Europe into a Soviet-aligned Communist bloc and a U.S.-aligned capitalist bloc between 1945 and 1989.
displaced persons
Postwar refugees, including 13 million Germans, former Nazi prisoners and forced laborers, and orphaned children.
Truman Doctrine
America’s policy geared to containing communism to those countries already under Soviet control.
Marshall Plan
American plan for providing economic aid to western Europe to help it rebuild.
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)
An economic organization of Communist states meant to help rebuild East Bloc countries under Soviet auspices.
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an anti-Soviet military alliance of Western governements.
Warsaw Pact
Soviet-backed military alliance of East Bloc Communist countries in Europe.
economic miracle
Term contemporaries used to describe rapid economic growth, often based on the consumer sector, in post-World War II western Europe.
Christian Democrats
Center-right political parties that rose to power in western Europe after the Second World War.
Common Market
The European Economic Community, created by six western and central European countries in the West Bloc in 1957 as a part of a larger search for European unity.
Socialist Realism
Artistic movement that followed the dictates of Communist ideals, enforced by state control in the Soviet Union and East Bloc countries in the 1950s and 1960s.
de-Stalinization
The liberalization of the post-Stalin Soviet Union led by reformed Nikita Krushchev.
decolonization
The postwar reversal of Europe’s overseas expansion caused by the rising demand of the colonized peoples themselves, the declining power of European nations, and the freedoms promised by U.S. and Soviet ideas.
nonalignment
Policy of postcolonial governments to remain neutral in the Cold War and play both the United States and the Soviet Union for what they could get.
neocolonialism
A postcolonial system that perpetuates Western economic exploitation in former colonial territories.
guest worker programs
Government-run programs in western Europe designed to recruit labor for the booming postwar economy.
postcolonial migration
The postwar movement of People from former colonies and the developing world into Europe.
Ostpolitik
German for Chancellor Willy Brant’s new “Eastern policy”; West Germany‘s attempt in the 1970s to ease diplomatic tensions with East Germany, exemplifying the policies of détente.
détente
The progressive relaxation of Cold War tensions that emerged in the early 1970s.
Second Vatican Council
A meeting of Catholic leaders convened from 1962 to 1965 that initiated a number of reforms including the replacement of Latin with local languages in church services, designed to democratize the church and renew its appeal.
New Left
A 1960s counterculture movement that embraced updated forms of Marxism to challenge both Western capitalism and Soviet-style communism.
Brezhnev Doctrine
Doctrine created by Leonid Brezhnev that held that the Soviet Union had the right to intervene in any East Bloc country when necessary to preserve Communist rule.
OPEC
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
stagflation
Term coined in the early 1980s to describe the combination of low growth and high inflation that led to a worldwide recession.
postindustrial society
A society that relies on high-tech and service-oriented jobs.
neoliberalism
Philosophy of 1980s conservatives who argued for privatization of state-run industries and decreased government spending on social services.
privatization
The sale of state-managed industries such as transportation and communication networks to private owners; a key aspect of broader neoliberal economic reforms meant to control government spending, increase private profits, and foster economic growth, which were implemented in western Europe in response to the economic crisis of the 1970s.
developed socialism
A term used by Communist leaders to describe the socialist accomplishments of their societies, such as nationalized industry, collective agriculture, and extensive social welfare.
Solidarity
Independent Polish trade union that worked for workers’ rights and political reform throughout the 1980s.
perestroika
Economic restructuring and reform implemented by premier Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union in 1985.
glosnost
Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s popular campaign for openness in government and the media.
Velvet Revolution
The term given to the relatively peaceful overthrow of communism in Czechoslovakia; the label came to signify the collapse of the East bloc in general in 1989 to 1990.
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