8C Decolonization and Fall of USSR

African National Congress

An organization founded in 1912 dedicated to obtaining equal voting and civil rights for black inhabitants of South Africa.

All-India Muslim League

Political organization founded in India in 1906 to defend the interests of India's Muslim minority. Led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, it attempted to negotiate with the Indian National Congress. Demanded the partition of a Muslim Pakistan.

Apartheid

Laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas.

Boris Yeltsin

Was the first President of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999. This era was a period marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, and enormous political and social problems.

Civil Disobedience

A nonviolent, public refusal to obey allegedly unjust laws.

Detente

A policy of reducing Cold War tensions that was adopted by the United States during the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Glasnost

a policy of the Soviet government allowing freer discussion of social problems

Haile Selassie

Emperor of Ethiopia (r. 1930-1974) and symbol of African independence. He fought the Italian invasion of his country in 1935 and regained his throne during World War II, when British forces expelled the Italians. He ruled Ethiopia as an autocrat.

Idi Amin Dada

This military officer seized power in 1971 and unleashed terror and bloodshed on Uganda for eight years.

Indian National Congress

A movement and political party founded in 1885 to demand greater Indian participation in government, and later independence from British rule. Led after 1920 by Mohandas K. Gandhi.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Indian statesman. He succeeded Mohandas K. Gandhi as leader of the Indian National Congress. He negotiated the end of British colonial rule in India and became India's first prime minister (1947-1964).

Kashmir

A region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent; India and Pakistan dispute control of it.

Kwame Nkrumah

Leader of nonviolent protests for freedom on the Gold Coast. When independence was gained, he became the first prime minister of Ghana.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Head of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. His liberalization effort improved relations with the West, but he lost power after his reforms led to the collapse of Communist governments in eastern Europe.

Mohandas Gandhi

Leader of the Indian independence movement and advocate of nonviolent resistance. After being educated as a lawyer in England, he returned to India and became leader of the Indian National Congress in 1920.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Indian Muslim politician who founded the state of Pakistan. Leader of the All-India Muslim League from the 1920s on, he negotiated with the British and INC for Muslim political rights

Perestroika

A policy initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev that involved restructuring of the social and economic status quo in communist Russia towards a market based economy and society

Prague Spring

(1968) Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dubcek promised civil liberties, democratic political reforms, and a more independent political system. The Soviet Union invaded the country and put down the short-lived period of freedom.

Salt March

passive resistance campaign of Mohandas Gandhi where many Indians protested the British tax on salt by marching to the sea to make their own salt.

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

Negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union that reduced the two nations' supply of long-range nuclear weapons.