Unit 9 Key Terms: Cold War and Contemporary Europe

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering key terms related to the Cold War and contemporary Europe.

Marshall Plan

This recovery program was implemented as a way to combat communism and soviet expansion in Europe by providing economic assistance to European countries to help them develop and rebuild following the destruction of World War Two.

Comecon

Also known as the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was an organization established in January 1949 to facilitate and coordinate the economic development of the eastern European countries belonging to the Soviet bloc.

Brezhnev Doctrine

A Soviet foreign policy that proclaimed that any threat to "socialist rule" in any state of the Soviet Bloc in Central and Eastern Europe was a threat to all of them, and therefore, it justified the intervention of fellow socialist states.

Welfare State

A system whereby the government undertakes to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial or social need, by means of grants, pensions, and other benefits. This system grew popular in Western Europe and emerged as an aspect of socialism. It was the center of domestic debates during the late 1900s due to its costs and mounting economic trouble.

Prague Spring

A period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia in 1968 in which the government tried to lessen central planning and other communist ideals. This attempt resulted in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact members invading the country to suppress the reforms, which they successfully did.

Hungarian Revolt

Occuring In 1956, this uprising was a nationwide revolt against the communist government and soviet-imposed policies and lasted for a little over a month. This was the first rebellion that posed a threat to soviet control and as a result was put down with extreme force.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

Occuring In 1989, this event was a sign of the collapse of the soviet bloc and its influence in Eastern Europe. With the fall, the way was paved for the reunification of the once divided Germany

Polish Elections of 1989

This election was the first real “free election” since 1928 and the first since the communist party abandoned its monopoly on power in the country. The rise and emergence of the solidarity party paved the way for the fall of communism in the country and the further collapse of the soviet bloc.

Truman Doctrine

This doctrine was the culmination of the American Foreign Policy which focused on countering soviet geopolitical expansion. The doctrine first saw use when the United States provided aid to Greece and Turkey

Containment

The American foreign policy following World War Two which focused on limiting the influence of the Soviet Union to only the areas it currently was present.

Mutual Deterrence

The belief that an arsenal of nuclear weapons prevented war by assuring that if one nation launched its nuclear weapons in a preemptive strike, the other nation would still be able to respond and devastate the attacker.

NATO

Formed in 1949, this alliance containing many western and anti-communist nations was created in order to directly counter soviet expansion and influence within Europe. The members of this organization agreed to provide mutual assistance if any one of them was attacked.

Warsaw Pact

Formed In 1955 to counter NATO and solidify the Soviet Bloc, this organization was a military alliance between the USSR and many Eastern European countries in which the members agreed to provide mutual assistance if any one of them was attacked.

Decolonization

Following World War Two, many European colonial powers could no longer afford to maintain their empires as financial struggles and independence movements emerged. As such, nations underwent a process in which they released their colonial powers through a series of acts and proclamations from 1945-1970s.

Perestroika

Implemented by Soviet Premier Gorbachev, this policy reordered Soviet economic policy from a planned economy to a market economy with limited free enterprise and private property rights in the hopes of saving the Soviet Union. However, this reform failed to stabilize the already collapsing Soviet Union

Glasnost

One of the most important instruments of the Soviet restructuring program under Gorbachev, this policy allowed and encouraged citizens and officials to openly discuss the strengths and weaknesses and for the first time the state newspaper began to print articles on corruption and protests against the government.

Nikita Khrushchev

Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958-1964, he is most notable for ending the system of forced labor camps,de-stalinization, and his crushing of rebellions in Eastern Europe. Despite his reforms, he was disliked by his colleagues due to his non-endearing personality and attempts to curb their power.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The 8th and last Premier of the Soviet Union, he is most notable for his implementation of limited western inspired reforms in order to try and save the Soviet Union. However, his efforts failed and as a result he would be the last premier of the Soviet Union as it collapsed.

Iron Curtain

This term, first used by Winston Churchill, is representative of the distinct split between Western and Eastern Europe that lasted from the end of World War Two till the end of the Cold War. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the west.

Hot War

Open military conflict between nations. In the context of the Cold War, examples of these include Vietnam, Korea, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

signed in 1947 by 23 countries, is a treaty minimizing barriers to international trade by eliminating or reducing quotas, tariffs, and subsidies. It was intended to boost economic recovery after World War II

Sinn Féin

political party that long was widely regarded as the political wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Organized in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Sinn Féin strives for an end to the political partition of the island of Ireland, embodying an ideology that is variously characterized as nationalism and Republicanism

Eta

was an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization in the Basque Country between 1959 and 2018, with its goal being independence for the region. The group was founded in 1959 during Franco’s control of Spain, and later evolved from a pacifist group promoting traditional Basque culture to a violent paramilitary group.

The Euro

the common basic monetary unit of most countries of the European Union, launched in 1999.

Brexit

Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Following a referendum in 2016, Brexit officially took place in January 2020. The UK is the only sovereign country to have left the EU.