AP World History Vocab Unit 8 Pt. 2

Kwame Nkrumah

Ghanaian nationalist leader who led the Gold Coast's drive for independence from Britain and presided over its emergence as the new nation of Ghana. He served as its first prime minister and president from 1957 until he was overthrown in 1966.

Charles de Gaulle

French soldier, statesman, and architect of France's Fifth Republic. He led the Free French forces during World War II and served as president of France from 1959 to 1969.

Ho Chi Minh

President of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1969, he led a long and ultimately successful campaign to make Vietnam independent from colonial rule.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Egyptian army officer who became prime minister (1954-56) and then president (1956-70) of Egypt, playing a significant role in modernizing the country and promoting pan-Arabism.

Suez Crisis

An international crisis in the Middle East precipitated on July 26, 1956, when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, leading to a military intervention by Britain, France, and Israel.

Quiet Revolution

A period of rapid social and political change experienced in Québec during the 1960s, marked by secularization and the strengthening of the welfare state.

Muslim League

A political group founded in 1906 to safeguard the rights of Indian Muslims, which later led the movement calling for a separate Muslim nation, resulting in the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

Viet Cong

The guerrilla force that, with the support of the North Vietnamese Army, fought against South Vietnam and the United States during the Vietnam War.

Six-Day War

A brief war that took place from June 5 to June 10, 1967, between Israel and the Arab countries of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, resulting in a decisive Israeli victory and territorial expansion.

Yom Kippur War

The fourth Arab-Israeli war, initiated by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, aiming to regain territories lost in the Six-Day War.

Camp David Accords

Agreements between Israel and Egypt signed on September 17, 1978, that led to a peace treaty between the two countries, the first such treaty between Israel and any of its Arab neighbors.

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

An umbrella political organization representing the Palestinian people in their drive for a Palestinian state, formed in 1964 to centralize the leadership of various groups.

Fatah

A political and military organization of Arab Palestinians, founded in the late 1950s by Yasser Arafat and Khalil al-Wazir, aiming to wrest Palestine from Israeli control by waging guerrilla warfare.

Hamas

A militant Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement founded in 1987, dedicated to the establishment of an independent Islamic state in historical Palestine.

Khmer Rouge

A radical communist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 under the leadership of Pol Pot, responsible for the deaths of up to two million people through starvation, hardship, and execution.

Indira Gandhi

An Indian politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, and was known for her centralizing policies and the declaration of Emergency from 1975 to 1977.

Benazir Bhutto

A Pakistani politician who served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996, becoming the first woman to head a democratic government in a majority Muslim nation. She was the daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and was assassinated in 2007.

Metropole

A term used to refer to the parent state of a colony. In the context of colonial empires, the metropole was the central or mother country that controlled the colonies.​

Prague Spring

A brief period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia during 1968 under the leadership of Alexander Dubček, marked by attempts to grant additional rights to citizens and the loosening of restrictions on media, speech, and travel, which ended with the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops.

Imre Nagy

A Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister and led the 1956 Hungarian Revolution against Soviet-imposed policies, seeking to establish a multiparty system and withdraw from the Warsaw Pact. He was later arrested and executed in 1958.

Alexander Dubček

A Czechoslovak politician who led the country during the Prague Spring of 1968, promoting reforms for a more liberal and decentralized form of socialism, which were suppressed by the Soviet-led invasion.

Brezhnev Doctrine

A policy proclaimed in 1968 by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, stating that the Soviet Union had the right to intervene in any socialist country whenever it saw the need, used to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring.

Irish Republican Army (IRA)

A republican paramilitary organization founded in 1919, seeking the establishment of a republic, the end of British rule in Northern Ireland, and the reunification of Ireland.

Ulster Defence Association (UDA)

A loyalist organization founded in Northern Ireland in 1971 to coordinate the efforts of local Protestant vigilante groups during the sectarian conflict known as "The Troubles."

Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA)

A Basque separatist organization in Spain that used terrorism in its campaign for an independent Basque state.

Shining Path

A Peruvian revolutionary organization founded in 1970 that endorsed Maoism and employed guerrilla tactics and violent terrorism.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Baptist minister and social rights activist in the United States during the 1950s and '60s. He was a leader of the American civil rights movement, organizing peaceful protests such as the March on Washington in 1963, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Nelson Mandela

A Black nationalist and the first Black president of South Africa (1994-99). His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African President F.W. de Klerk helped end the country's apartheid system of racial segregation, and he was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Ronald Reagan

The 40th president of the United States (1981-89), noted for his conservative Republicanism, fervent anticommunism, and appealing personal style. His presidency saw significant events such as the Strategic Defense Initiative and negotiations with the Soviet Union.

Mikhail Gorbachev

A Soviet politician who served as the last general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985-91) and the last president of the Soviet Union (1990-91). He enacted policies of glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("restructuring") and supported democratic reforms.

Détente

A period of the easing of Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1979, marked by increased trade and cooperation, and the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) treaties.

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

Negotiations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that aimed to curtail the manufacture of strategic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The first treaty set an overall limit of about 2,400 such weapons systems for each side.

Perestroika

A program instituted in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s to restructure Soviet economic and political policy, aiming to decentralize economic controls and encourage self-financing enterprises.

Glasnost

A Soviet policy of open discussion of political and social issues, instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s, leading to the democratization of the Soviet Union and a reduction in the power of the Communist Party.

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)

An agreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that eliminated all nuclear and conventional missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,420 miles).

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

A proposed U.S. strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks, first proposed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, intended to defend the United States from attack by Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by intercepting them during various phases of their flight.