APWH Unit 7

The United Nations

A supranational peacekeeping body designed as a more-effective replacement for the defunct League of Nations. Founded by the western allies: France, Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China.

Iron Curtain

Movement in which almost all Eastern European countries became aligned with the Soviet Union; named by Winston Churchill

The Cold War

a tense half-century period in which the Soviet Union and the US never declared war but treated each other as enemies.

The Truman Doctrine

stated that the United States would contain communism in Europe and not allow it to expand.

Decolonization

the transition of non-self-governing powers to independence

Soviet Union and the United States

New Superpowers After WW2

Proxy War

a war in which two powerful countries, unable to fight on another directly, instead support rival countries or factions in their own respective conflicts.

Military Industrial Complex

in which the interplay between military, industry, and government created a lucrative but dangerous feedback loop. In short, threat of war or supply of weapons to other countries for proxy wars meant that the military demanded large numbers of weapons. Industry provided these weapons, becoming economically successful.

The Space Race

began after the Soviet Union launched the first satellite in 1957

Sputnik

The first satellite, launched in 1957

Marshall Plan

financial aid offered by the US by which Western Europe was rebuilt using American money (without expecting repayment).

Berlin Airlift

When the United States brought supplies to Berlin by air although the Soviets attempted to take control of the city by blockading it

Berlin Wall

Constructed by the Soviet Union, cut the city physically in two to prevent Eastern Germans from fleeing to West Germany.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

organization combining western European and North American countries in a coalition against the Soviet Union.

Warsaw Pact

an alliance smaller than NATO by the Soviet Union which effectively subordinated the eastern European countries militarily by the Soviet Union.

Non-Aligned Movement

a loose association of countries which explicitly refused to take sides in the Soviet-American struggle.

European Union

Under the protection of NATO, Western European countries enacted a series of treaties which formed the nucleus of a loose confederation in the 1990s under the protection of NATO

Schegen Agreement

Agreement between the countries in the European Union allowing the free movement of citizens between European countries

Margaret Thatcher

Prime Minister of Great Britain during the 1980s who was skeptical of the Union's utility for Great Britain and embarked on her own campaign to establish a less regulated, freer market in Britain.

Chiang Kai-shek

Leader of China's American-Backed Nationalist Government

Mao Zedong

communist leader who created the People's Republic of China, a communist regime that would become independent of the Soviet Union.

The People's Republic of China

established a communist state in China following its decades' long civil war

The Great Leap Forward

an attempt by communist China to rapidly and forcibly transition from a largely agricultural society to heavy industrialization under a state-directed economy (with highly controversial and debatable success).

Cultural Revolution (Chinese)

attempted to purge both capitalism and traditionalism from the country, killing millions of Chinese and wiping out much of the region's traditional culture.

Deng Xiaoping

one of Mao's successors who adopted economic reforms which transitioned China to a mixed economy with both capitalist and communist elements by the 1970s.

Tiananmen Square Massacre

Massacre in which the government deployed soldiers and tanks against citizens peacefully protesting in favor of democracy.

The 38th Parallel

became the border between North Korea and South Korea

Fidel Castro

Cuban communist politician who overthrew the American-backed government of Cuba and nationalized American-owned properties, causing Cuba to become a major battleground in the Cold War.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

The United States' attempt to invade Cuba using Cuban exiles, which failed completely and utterly.

Cuban Missile Crisis

the closest the world ever came to nuclear war, only narrowly averted by careful diplomacy between the United States and the Soviets; caused by the United States blockading Cuba in response to the Soviet Union constructing nuclear missile sites on the island in 1963

Sandinista-Contras Conflict

Proxy war fought in Nicaragua. Nicaragua had been ruled by a U.S. backed dictatorship under the Somoza family which, in 1979, was overthrown by the Soviet-backed Sandinistas. In an attempt to restore control over the country, the United States therefore backed a rival group called the Contras. Though non-Soviet aligned forces eventually regained control of the country, it came at the cost of destabilization, civil war, and tens of thousands dead.

Augusto Pinochet

Advanced U.S. influence by adopting capitalist economic policies and caused Chile to adopt a free market economy which removed trade barriers and banned trade unions. However, this communist's regime treated the opposition brutally, executing or "disappearing" thousands of his own citizens.

Shining Path

Communist party in Peru

Indian National Congress

Congress in which Gandhi extracted promises from the British during the Second World War that India would receive independence in exchange for support in the war.

the Muslim League

representing Muslim interests in South Asia, campaigned against a unified South Asian state (India) which would— they argued—subjugate India's Muslims under a Hindu majority.

Negotiated Independence of India

the British arranged for a Partition of India and Pakistan, with India as a Hindu-majority country and Pakistan as a Muslim-majority country.

land reform in Kerala, India

confiscated lands from the former landed nobility and redistributed them to the poor.

Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi

led opposition to Pakistan, eventually securing the country's partition into separate states of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Economic Policy of Indira Gandhi

moved between socialism in her early years, with nationalization of important industries, towards increased capitalism with deregulation of the economy in her later years

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

The prime minister of Sri Lanka and first female prime minister in the world, the island country adopted socialist policies by nationalizing important industries, including banking and education.

Viet Minh (Vietminh)

Vietnamese forces who managed to fight off the French under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh.

Domino Theory

fear by the US that if one Southeast Asia state fell into communism, then others would follow

Viet Cong

were formed as a resistance movement to the corrupt and unpopular South Vietnamese government backed by Americans in order to keep communists out of power. South Vietnam remained in control of its territory due to American financial support.

The Poor Man's Fight

The name of the Vietnam War because the draft overwhelmingly targeted impoverished citizens and racial minorities.

My Lai Massacre

Massacre in which a group of American soldiers slaughtered hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, and the use of destructive weapons like Agent Orange and Napalm

Khmer Rouge

Cambodian Communists

Cambodian Genocide

genocide against ethnic minorities (like Thais, Chams, and Vietnamese) as well as religious minorities (like Buddhists, Thais, and Christians), murdering millions.

Sukarno

leader who successfully campaigned diplomatically and militarily against the Dutch to secure independence for Indonesia.

Gamal Addel Nasser

overthrew the short-lived Egyptian monarchy and became Egypt's president

Suez Crisis

Hoping to assert Arab independence against the European powers, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, a vital lifeline to European colonies in Asia. Great Britain and France attempted to intervene militarily, but were forced to back down by the United States. This crisis demonstrated that the era of great power politics had definitely given way to the predominance of the superpowers. Following the Six Day War, in which Nasser had acted as a Soviet pawn in an attempt to destroy U.S.-backed Israel, Egypt was badly defeated and he had to resign from power.

Arab Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Oil embargo in the in the 1970s that caused the United States to increase its diplomatic interest in the region, attempting to facilitate peace

Camp David Records

Attempt by the US to facilitate peace with Egypt; saw a thaw in relations between Israel and Egypt.

White Revolution

the Shah attempted to weaken the power of the landed nobility by redistributing lands to peasant farmers, but angered Shi'ite Muslims, causing them to take over Iran and cause it to become an Islamic theocracy which firmly refused participation in either American or Soviet systems.

The Taliban

a rebel group of Muslim fundamentalists funded by the US against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan

Negotiated Independence

Independence without revolutionary wars; characterized decolonization.

Kwame Nkrumah

Founded the independent state of Ghana in the British Gold Coast, setting up an authoritarian dictatorship which enforced socialist reforms with Soviet support. Leader was ultimately deposed in favor of a regime more sympathetic to capitalism.

Algerian War

French attempt to maintain their rule in Algeria by force, with eight years of harsh fighting leaving several hundred thousands dead.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

deposed the last of the country's emperors and inaugurated a socialist regime which nationalized industry and redistributed land from feudal nobles to common farmers.

Julius Nyerere

established himself as authoritarian dictator of a socialist state, in which he argued that the EUROPEAN doctrine was, in fact, essentially the same as the practices of traditional African society.

Idi Amin

established a brutal military dictatorship in Uganda in which he persecuted ethnic minorities and the political opposition

Biafra Secessionist Movement

The Igbo people of the south attempted to secede from Hausa-dominated Nigeria to form an independent nation state called Biafra

Angolan Civil War

proxy war which pitted communist and anti-communist forces against one another

Québécois

People of the Canadian province of Quebec campaigned for independence during the later decades of the twentieth century by citing their French language and separate cultural traditions and demanding to become a separate nation state from Canada.

Ronald Reagan

President who helped the United States adopt an increasingly free market economy, deregulating their industries and cutting taxes.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Advocated a restructuring of the Soviet Union, economically and politically. (to eventually end the cold war)

Glastnost

"openness"

Perestroika

"economic restructuring"

Demokratizatsiya

"democratization"

Causes of World War II

1. Imperialsm
2. the Versailles Treaty
3. the Great Depression
4. the rise of Fascism and Totalitarianism

Treaty of Versailles

treaty that bred resentment through its harsh penalties for Germany and denial of equal treatment and territorial gains for Japan and Italy

The Great Depression

shattered the world economy, diminishing quality of life and weakening fragile post-war democracies

Fascism and Totalitarianism

a tyrannical form of absolute rule in which the state exercises total control over the lives of its citizens.

Manchukuo

Japanese Puppet State

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

idea suggesting that Japanese rule would bring civilization and development to conquered peoples, much like the Europeans during the New Imperialism of the proceeding period.

Showa Statism

a totalitarian government focused on the emperor but led by a powerful prime minister, that would be Japan's ideology until the end of the Second World War

Nanjing Massacre

the Japanese army committed mass murder against residents of Nanjing

Chinese Civil War

war in which the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalists) fought with local warlords and the Communist Party for control over the country.

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party

German Fascists who blamed both German democrats and ethnic minorities for Germany's defeat in the First World War.

The Spanish Civil War

war that pitted the Fascist Franco against the Spanish socialists, each side receiving substantial support from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union respectively.

Axis Powers

An alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan; named after the "Rome-Berlin Axis" on which the world would turn

Nazi blitzkrieg

a "lightning" war noted for its incredible speed in which France fell to Germany. France capitulated, the southern half of the country and most of its colonies becoming a Fascist puppet state known as Vichy France.

Winston Churchill

Conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Hawaii by Japan that caused the US to join the WWII

Allied Powers

Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and free France

Operation Torch

A US/Great Britain invasion of Italian North Africa designed to free the Mediterranean Sea from Axis control and protect the Middle Eastern oil fields.

Battle of Stalingrad

bloodiest battle in history, where 850,000 men died (for comparison, the entire American Civil War had 600,000 casualties.)

Operation Overlord

Britain and the United States invaded France in the D-Day invasion of Normandy in northern France.

Yalta Conference

Conference in which Americans demanded that the Soviet Union invade Japanese Territory, resulting in a Soviet advance into northern Korea.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Cities obliterated by America's newly-invented Atomic Bomb

Fire bombing

a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs.

Nuremberg Laws

Restricted Jewish Citizens' Rights

Kristallnacht

operation before the war in which the Nazis organized brutal attacks on Jewish businesses throughout Germany

Holocaust

a genocide known as the "Final Solution" for the Jewish people, who were taken to concentration camps and killed. This killed six million Jews along with five million members of other minority groups.

Nuremberg Trials

trials of the Nazi leaders that established the precedent that war crimes would be punished and rejected the defense that German officers were "just following orders."

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's post WWI plan, most of which was rejected by European leaders following the war. Some of the Fourteen Points Wilson Made: (1) implementing freedom of the seas; (2) an end to secret treaties; (3) arms reductions; (4) self-determination of nations, allowing every nation to have its own nation state; (5) and an intergovernmental peace-keeping organization known as the League of Nations.

Treaty of Versailles

an unsatisfactory resolution to the first World War which led both to the Great Depression and to the second World War caused (1) the formation of the League of Nations; (2) the war guilt clause, which blamed the war on Germany; (3) war reparations, exorbitant sums which Germany had to pay to Britain and France to cover the cost of the war; (4) the redrawing of national borders, supposedly along ethnic lines

John Maynard Keynes

British economist who wrote a scathing denunciation of the treaty of Versailles, predicting that it would lead to another war within twenty years

The Great Depression

a worldwide economic collapse

Assembly Line

made the production of automobiles hugely more efficient

Demented Merry-Go-Round

system in which Great Britain owed America the costs for the war, which then caused them to rely on Germany's payments. Germany relied on loans from America to pay Great Britain and France so America just became richer.