UNIT 9 AP World History

Marshall Plan

After 1945, the United states emerged as the dominant power of Western civilization. U.S initiative to exercise global leadership by rebuilding and reshaping European economies, funneling about $12 billion together with advisors and technicians. It was motivated by a desire to undermine European communism, some humanitarian effort, and to prevent depression by creating global customers for American goods.

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established in 1949 committing the US and its nuclear arsenal to defend Europe against the Soviet Union, confirming Western Germany a member of the Western Alliance. It allowed Western Europe to avoid intense military expenses.

Mao Zedong

Leader of the Chinese Communist Party and the founding father of the People's Republic of China. He led the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War and implemented major social and economic reforms. China was recovering from decades of civil war with his help. Launched the Great Leap Forward to respond towards distortions of Chinese socialism.

Great Leap Forward

(1958-1960): Mao’s first response to distortions of Chinese socialism. Called for simultaneous growth in agriculture and industry. Promoted small scale industrialization in rural areas instead of focusing large enterprise in cities, fostering widespread and practical technological education, and wanted an immediate transition to communism in peoples communes instead of waiting for industrial development to provide the economic balance for such a transition. It failed, undermined by poor quality steel & industrial goods. Administrative chaos, disruption of marketing networks, crop failures, produced a massive famine that killed 30 million people or more in between 1959-1962. This failure caused Mao to step down from head of state, but remained party chairman.

(Great Proletarian) Cultural Revolution

Launched by Mao in the mid 1960’s (1966-1969) to combat the capitalist tendencies noticed throughout the entirety of China. Intense communist radical beliefs. Involved new efforts to bring health care and education to the countryside and to reinvigorate past efforts of rural industrialization under local rather than central control. Mao struggled to overcome the inequalities associated with China’s modern development of socialism, especially to create socialism apart from the Soviet Union’s.

Cold War

A period of political tension and military rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, lasting from approximately 1947 to 1991, characterized by ideological conflict, proxy wars, and a nuclear arms race. Rift between Communists and Capitalists in the Western World became a place of fear. A few years after WWII, division erupted b/w Soviet Union, Britain, and the US in what was known as the cold war. Mainly based on the ideological and geopolitical realities of the postwar world, as the Soviet Union and the United States were the world’s major powers. Originally began in Eastern Europe where the Soviets demanded control while Am. and Brit. desires were for open and democratic societies with ties to the capitalist world economy. (ex:) Invention of NATO to defend themselves against Soviet Aggression. Primary political driving force during this time period. Both sides aided anticolonial and revolutionary movements vs anticommunist authoritarian regimes against the others, as well as arms races, etc..

Warsaw Pact

Joined the Soviet Union and Eastern European communist countries in an alliance intended to be a counterpart to NATO and to protect the communist bloc from Western ideals in 1955. Largely American sphere of influence in Western Europe and a Soviet sphere in Eastern Europe.

Iron Curtain

The heavily fortified border between Eastern and Western Europe. Though tensions flared in this defined line, especially in Berlin, there was no direct war. Winston Churchill coined this term.

Korean War (1950-1953)

North K invasion of South K, ending in an essential standoff that left the Korean peninsula divided. Considered a proxy war between the Soviet Union and the US as they backed opposite sides.

Vietnam War

Event where military efforts by South Vietnam with an already communist North Vietnam resulted in US involvement out of fear that a communist victory would open the door to further communist expansion in Asia and beyond. Backed by the Soviets and the Chinese, the Vietnamese bested the Americans in a humiliating loss that ended in 1975.

Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK, Nikita Khrushchev

Cuba, under a regime of communist leader Fidel Castro had constant conflict with the United States. US hostility prompted the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev who rose to power after Stalin’s death in 1953 to secretly deploy nuclear tipped Soviet missiles to Cuba to deter further US action against Castro. The missiles were discovered in October 1962- 13 days of waiting as American forces blockaded the island. Catastrophe of nuclear invasion was averted by a compromise between Khrushchev and US president JFK. Soviets returned their missiles if the Americans promised not to invade the island. This marked the concrete expression of the arms race in nuclear weapons.

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese leader who organized political parties and negotiated with China after decolonization, considered the father of Vietnam.

Kwarme Nkrumah

Ghanan leader who organized political parties and negotiated after decolonization, considered the father of Ghana.

Muslim League

Formed after growing disillusionment about one Indian state due to the sharp divide between Hindu and Muslim population. Leader was Muhammad Ali Jinnah, arguing that the parts of India that had a Muslim majority should have a separate political status (Pakistan).

Non Aligned Movement

Bloc of nations known variously as the third world after decolonization, the developing countries, or the Global South. (Independent nation states and its former colonies, such as China, Thailand, Ethiopia, Iran, Turkey, and Central and South America.) First large scale Asian-African Conference, held April 18-24th, 1955. Popularly known as the Badung Conference, 29 governments, owing to the fact that most African states were still under colonial control.

Deng Xiaoping

Reform process after Communism took shape under the leadership of this man. Paramount leader in 1978, following the death of Mao Zedong. Dismantled the system of collectivized farming and returned to small-scale private agriculture. Peasants pushed these rules even further. Industrial reform proceeded gradually. Managers of state enterprises had greater authority. China opened itself to foreign economy where foreign capitalists recieved tax breaks. Stunning economic growth and prosperity. Generated massive corruption and urban vices. Still maintained political monopoly even if it was effectively socially capitalist. Deng ordered the brutal crushing of talks of democracy in the late 1980s.

Quiet Revolution

Period of cultural and political change that occurred in Quebec throughout the 1960s. It began as a response to the traditional and conservative values held by the Catholic Church that dominated Quebec in the post-war period and after, resulting in rapid and significant social, political, and economic changes in the province.  It lasted for 20 years.  The Liberal Party begin to move Quebec toward a more secular society.  One of the reforms was taking the role of education away from the Catholic Church.  

Suez Crisis

1956 A major international conflict triggered by Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal, leading to a military intervention by Britain, France, and Israel, which ultimately failed and highlighted the decline of European power in the post-colonial era.

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was an Egyptian military officer and politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The struggle between the Jewish population in the new state of Israel, granted statehood in 1948, and the Palestinian Muslim people arguing over the land. This generated periodic wars that persisted into the cold war era. Countries and neighbors such as Syria, the United States. Russia, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey have been drawn into both sides of the conflict.

Iranian Revolution

1979 Revolution that overthrew over 2,000 years of Persian monarchy, replacing it with a theocratic republic under the Shia leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Upheaval triggered a radically Muslim government in Iran, triggering a bloody and long war with neighboring Iraq in the 1980’s and posed a serious threat to Israel, launching a continuous rivalry with Saudi Arabia.

Mikhail Gorbachev & Reagan,

USSR leader in the mid 1980’s. Committed to tackling the country’s many problems such as a rampant black market, economic stagnation, public apathy, and cynicism about the party. He made an economic policy, perestroika, and a social policy of glasnost. Gorbachev moved to end the cold war by making unilateral cuts in the Soviet military forces, engaging in arms control negotiations with the US (Reagan) and refusing to intervene when Eastern European countries overthrew communist government. Instead of strengthening the government and socialism, this caused economic collapse as the planned economy was dismantled before a functioning market based system could occur. Inflation, etc.. Few foreign investors found business in the Soviet Union and few farmers were willing to jump into private farming. Too many freedoms were let loose under his rule and refused to crush these revolutions with forced. Led to the collapse of the Soviet Union after 1989, and was officially couped in August 1991 after a brief and unsuccessful attempt to restore the old order.

Perestroika/Glasnost

Economic policy meaning “restructuring”, paralleling the structure of the new Chinese government by freeing state enterprise from heavy government control, permitting small scale businesses (cooperatives), opportunities for private farming, and foreign investment in joint enterprises. Glasnost means openness, where it permitted cultural and intellectual freedoms, releasing an incredible influx of information to the public exposing social pathologies such as crime and other urban vices. Introduced democratization and a new parliament with real powers chosen in competitive elections beginning in 1989.

Tehran Conference

Meeting among leaders of the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union in 1943 agreed to the opening of a new front in France. First WWII conference of the Big Three Allied forces. Though they had different objectives, the main outcome was to open a second front against Nazi Germany, including an invasion on France.

Yalta Conference

4-11 February 1945 meeting where the government officials of the US, the UK, and the Soviet Union to discuss the reorganization of post-WWII & Nazi Germany and Europe.

Postdam Conference

Held in the Soviet Union occupation zone from July 17th to August 12 in 1945 allowing the Soviet Union, the US, and the UK to plan post war peace avoiding the mistakes of the Paris conference in 1919. Stalin, Truman, and Churchill (later Attlee). Truman demanded free elections in Eastern Europe, while Stalin refused, worsening Cold War tensions. The U.S. revealed its nuclear capability here.

United Unions (UN)

Formed in 1945 to promote peace and prevent another world war, replacing the League of Nations. Five permanent members of council were the major powers (US, UK, Soviet Union, France, and China (originally represented Taiwan). Several countries would later join as they developed into stronger nation states as well.

Truman Doctrine

(March 12, 1947). The U.S. (Truman) pledged to support any country resisting communism, leading to direct involvement in conflicts like Greece, Turkey, Korea, and Vietnam.

Berlin Wall

(1961–1989): A physical and ideological barrier between East and West Berlin, symbolizing the Cold War divide.

Contra War

(1980s): U.S.-backed anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua fought the leftist Sandinista government, part of the Reagan administration’s Cold War interventions.

SEATO & CENTO

UK- led alliances to counter communist influence in Asia and the Middle East, respectively.

White Revolution

(1963–1979): Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s modernization reforms in Iran, leading to economic growth but also resentment that fueled the Iranian Revolution. Included land reform, women's rights, and economic development, but it faced opposition from religious and traditional groups and ultimately contributed to the 1979 Iranian Revolution. 

Camp David Accords

A peace agreement brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter between Egypt (led by Anwar Sadat) and Israel (led by Menachem Begin) at Camp David, Maryland.
Egypt and Israel had fought several wars, including the Six-Day War (1967) and Yom Kippur War (1973). The Cold War meant the U.S. supported Israel while the USSR backed Egypt. Brokered by Jimmy Carter.

PLO

(Palestinian Liberation Organization): Led by Yasser Arafat, it sought Palestinian statehood, often clashing with Israel.

Khmer Rouge

A communist group in Cambodia, led by Pol Pot, responsible for genocide and mass refugees in the 1970s.

Prague Spring

1968: A democratic reform movement in Czechoslovakia, crushed by Soviet tanks.

IRA (Irish Republican Army)

A militant group fighting for Irish independence from British rule. Some of the first examples of modern terrorism (bombs, etc..)

Kent State University

Kent State University (1970): U.S. National Guard troops shot and killed anti-Vietnam War protesting college students of Kent State University., sparking outrage. Occurred shortly after 1968, year of protest.

Nelson Mandela

Anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 after decades of resistance.

Six Day War

Six-Day War (1967): Israel defeated Arab states, seizing Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights,Sinai, increasing tensions.