AP World 1900-Present

World War I

The “Great War” (1914–1918), in essence a European civil war with a global reach that was marked by massive casualties, trench warfare, and mobilization of entire populations. It triggered the Russian Revolution, led to widespread disillusionment among intellectuals, and rearranged the political map of Eastern Europe and the Middle East

total war

War that requires each country involved to mobilize its entire population in the effort to defeat the enemy

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 treaty that officially ended World War I; the immense penalties it placed on Germany are regarded as one of the causes of World War II

League of Nations

A new international peacekeeping organization committed to the principle of “collective security” and intended to avoid any repetition of the horrors that had just ended during World War I; proposed by American president Woodrow Wilson

Russian Revolution of 1917

Massive revolutionary upheaval in 1917 that overthrew the Romanov dynasty in Russia and ended with the seizure of power by communists under the leadership of Lenin

Joseph Stalin

1878-1953; Leader of the Soviet Union from the late 1920s until his death

collectivization of agriculture

Communist policies that ended private ownership of land by incorporating peasants from small family farms into large-scale collective farms. Implemented forcibly in the Soviet Union (1928–1933), it led to a terrible famine and 5 million deaths; a similar process occurred much more peacefully in China during the 1950s

Great Depression

Worldwide economic contraction that began in 1929 with a stock market crash in the United States and continued in many areas until the outbreak of World War II

fascism

Political ideology that considered the conflict of nations to be the driving force of history; marked by intense nationalism and an appeal to post–World War I discontent. Fascists praised violence against enemies as a renewing force in society, celebrated action rather than reflection, and placed their faith in a charismatic leader. Fascists also bitterly condemned individualism, liberalism, feminism, parliamentary democracy, and communism

Benito Mussolini

1883-1945; Charismatic leader of the Italian Fascist Party who came to power in 1922 and ruled until his death

Nazi Party

German political party that established a fascist state dedicated to extreme nationalism, territorial expansion, and the purification of the German state

Adolf Hitler

1889-1945; Leader of the German Nazi Party and Germany’s head of state from 1933 until his death

Revolutionary Right

Also known as Radical Nationalism, this was a movement in Japanese political life during the Great Depression that was marked by extreme nationalism, a commitment to elite leadership focused around the emperor, and dedication to foreign expansion

World War II in Asia

A struggle to halt Japanese imperial expansion in Asia, fought by primarily Chinese and American forces

World War II in Europe

A struggle to halt German imperial expansion in Europe, fought by a coalition of allies that included Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States

Holocaust

Name commonly used for the Nazi genocide of Jews and other “undesirables” in German society

communism in Eastern Europe

Expansion of post–World War II communism to Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, imposed with Soviet pressure rather than growing out of domestic revolution

Ho Chi Minh

1890-1969; Leader of the Vietnamese communist movement that established control first in the north and then the whole of Vietnam after 1975

Chinese Revolution of 1949

An event that marks the coming to power of the Chinese Communist Party under the leadership of Mao Zedong, following a decades-long struggle against both domestic opponents and Japanese imperialism

Mao Zedong

1893-1976; Chairman of China’s Communist Party and de facto ruler of China from 1949 until his death

Guomindang

The Chinese Nationalist Party led by Chiang Kai-shek that governed from 1928 until its overthrow by the communists in 1949. (pron. GWOH-mihn-dahng)

European Economic Community (EEC)

An alliance formed in 1957 by six Western European countries dedicated to developing common trade policies and reduced tariffs; it gradually developed into the larger European Union

Marshall Plan

Huge U.S. government initiative to aid in the post–World War II recovery of Western Europe that was put into effect in 1948

Great Leap Forward

Communist push for collectivization that created “people’s communes” and aimed to mobilize China’s population for rapid development

Cultural Revolution

China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a massive campaign launched by Mao Zedong in the mid-1960s to combat the capitalist tendencies that he believed reached into even the highest ranks of the Communist Party; the campaign threw China into chaos

Cold War

Geopolitical and ideological conflict between communist regimes and capitalist powers after World War II, spreading from Eastern Europe through Asia; characterized by the avoidance of direct military conflict between the USSR and the United States and an arms race in nuclear weapons

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

A military alliance, created in 1949, between the United States and various European countries; largely aimed at defending against the threat of Soviet aggression during the cold war

Warsaw Pact

A military alliance between the Soviet Union and communist states in Eastern Europe, created in 1955 as a counterweight to NATO; expressed the tensions of the cold war in Europe

Cuban missile crisis

Major standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962 over Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba; the confrontation ended in compromise, with the USSR removing its missiles in exchange for the United States agreeing not to invade Cuba

decolonization

Process in which many African and Asian states won their independence from Western colonial rule, in most cases by negotiated settlement and in some cases through violent military confrontations

Indian National Congress

The political party led by Mahatma Gandhi that succeeded in bringing about Indian independence from Britain in 1947

Mohandas Gandhi

1869-1948; Often known as “Mahatma” or “Great Soul,” the political leader of the Indian drive for independence from Great Britain; rejected the goal of modern industrialization and advocated nonviolence

Muslim League

Political group formed in response to the Indian National Congress in India’s struggle for independence from Britain; the League’s leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, argued that regions of India with a Muslim majority should form a separate state called Pakistan

globalization of democracy

Late twentieth-century political shift that brought popular movements, multiparty elections, and new constitutions to countries around the world

Deng Xiaoping

1904-1997; Leader of China from 1978 to 1997 whose reforms dismantled many of the distinctly communist elements of the Chinese economy

Mikhail Gorbachev

1931-2022; Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 whose efforts to reform the USSR led to its collapse

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Struggle between the Jewish state of Israel and the adjacent Palestinian Muslim territories that has generated periodic wars and upheavals since 1948

Iranian revolution

Establishment of a radically Islamist government in Iran in 1979; helped trigger a war with Iraq in the 1980s

Syrian civil war

Conflict beginning in 2011 that generated over 12 million refugees and asylum seekers by mid-2016 and engaged both regional and world powers on various sides of the conflict

age of fossil fuels

Twentieth-century shift in energy production with increased use of coal, oil, and natural gas, resulting in the widespread availability of electricity and the internal combustion engine; a major source of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change

communication revolution

Modern transformation of communication technology, from the nineteenth-century telegraph to the present-day smart phone

economic globalization

The deepening economic entanglement of the world’s peoples, especially since 1950; accompanied by the spread of industrialization in the Global South and extraordinary economic growth following World War II; the process has also generated various forms of inequality and resistance as well as increasing living standards for many

“Asian Tigers”

Nickname for the East Asian countries of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, which experienced remarkable export-driven economic growth in the late twentieth century

Bretton Woods system

Name for the agreements and institutions (including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) set up in 1944 to regulate commercial and financial dealings among the major capitalist countries

transnational corporations (TNCs)

Global businesses that produce goods or deliver services simultaneously in many countries; growing in number since the 1960s, some have more assets and power than many countries

World Trade Organization (WTO)

An international body now representing 164 nations and charged with negotiating the rules for global commerce and promoting free trade; its meetings have been the site of major anti-globalization protests since 1999

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Free trade agreement between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, established in 1984. It was replaced in 2020 by a new agreement among the United States, Mexico, and Canada

consumerism

A culture of leisure and consumption that developed during the past century or so in tandem with global economic growth and an enlarged middle class; emerged first in the Western world and later elsewhere

export-processing zones (EPZs)

Areas where international companies can operate with tax and other benefits, offered as an incentive to attract manufacturers

service sector

Industries like government, medicine, education, finance, and communication that have grown due to increasing consumerism, population, and communication technologies

informal economy (shadow economy)

Also known as the “shadow” economy; refers to unofficial, unregulated, and untaxed economic activity

Chinese one-child family policy

Chinese policy of population control that lasted from 1980 to 2014; used financial incentives and penalties to promote birth control, sterilization, and abortions in an effort to limit most families to a single child

Women’s Department (Zhenotdel)

A distinctive organization, known as Zhenotdel, within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that worked to promote equality for women in the 1920s with conferences, publications, and education

second-wave feminism

Women’s rights movement that revived in the 1960s with a different agenda from earlier women’s suffrage movements; second-wave feminists demanded equal rights for women in employment and education, women’s right to control their own bodies, and the end of patriarchal domination

feminism in the Global South

Mobilization of women across Asia, Africa, and Latin America; distinct from Western feminism because of its focus on issues such as colonialism, racism, and poverty, rather than those exclusively related to gender

population explosion

An extraordinarily rapid growth in human population during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that quadrupled human numbers in little more than a century. Experienced primarily in the Global South

Green Revolution

Innovations in agriculture during the twentieth century, such as mechanical harvesters, chemical fertilizers, and the development of high-yielding crops, that enabled global food production to keep up with, and even exceed, growing human numbers

global urbanization

The explosive growth of cities after 1900, caused by the reduced need for rural labor and more opportunities for employment in manufacturing, commerce, government, and the service industry

megacities

Very large urban centers with populations of over 10 million; by 2020, there were thirty-seven such cities on five continents

labor migration

The movement of people, often illegally, into another country to escape poverty or violence and to seek opportunities for work that are less available in their own countries

influenza pandemic (1918-1919)

One of the worst pandemics in human history, caused by three waves of influenza that swept across the globe in 1918 and 1919, carried by demobilized soldiers, refugees, and other dislocated people returning home from World War I; at least 50 million people died in the pandemic

HIV/AIDS

A pathogen that spreads primarily through sexual contact, contaminated blood products, or the sharing of needles; after sparking a global pandemic in the 1980s, it spread rapidly across the globe and caused tens of millions of deaths