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Iron Curtain
Definition: refers to the IMAGINARY line dividing Europe between Soviet influence and Western influence,
Significance: symbolizes efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas.
satellite countries
Definition: a country that is formally independent but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country.
Significance: The purpose of creating satellite nations was to guarantee security for the Soviet Union against potential future security threats from the West. The West was purporting to rebuild Europe under a capitalist framework, which clashed with Soviet communist ambitions, creating fear that the Soviets could be attacked by the West.
containment
Definition: was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II.
Significance: helped define American policy for many decades during the Cold War. Truman backed countries fighting against communist infiltration to to prevent communism from spreading.
Tehran Conference
Definition: The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from November 28 to December 1, 1943
Significance: The central aim of the Tehran conference was to plan the final strategy for the war against Nazi Germany and its allies, and the chief discussion was centred on the opening of a second front in Western Europe (D-Day).
Yalta Conference
Definition: was a meeting held in February 1945 where leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin discussed Europe's post-World War II reorganization.
Significance:helped to ensure that Germany would be divided into occupied and allied zones administered by U.S., British, French, and Soviet forces.
Potsdam Conference
Definition: The Big Three, (Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Harry Truman) met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II.
Significance: dealt with the end of World War II. These world leaders: set terms for the occupation of Germany. decided to demilitarize and democratize Germany.
Cold War
Definition: The state of relations between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies between the end of World War II to 1990.
Significance: lasted for several decades until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The end of the Cold War marked a significant shift in world politics, as the United States emerged as the sole superpower, and the threat of a nuclear war greatly decreased
self-determination
Definition: the process by which a group of people, usually possessing a certain degree of national consciousness, form their own state and choose their own government
Significance: originally promoted during WWI by President Woodrow Wilson, meaning that a nation—a group of people with similar political ambitions—can seek to create its own independent government or state. Eventually led to conecpts such as decolonization as more and more states sought out their independence.
hydrogen bomb
Definition: a type of thermonuclear weapon that uses hydrogen fusion.
Significance: also known as "H-Bomb", This bomb is 67 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The U.S. developed it first, closely followed by the Soviet Union.
United Nations
Definition: an international organization founded in 1945 to promote world peace and cooperation. It replaced the League of Nations.
Significance: was established after World War II in an attempt to maintain international peace and security and to achieve cooperation among nations on economic, social, and humanitarian problems -- similar to the League of Nations in that regard.
Truman Doctrine
Definition: With this, President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces
Significance: implied American support for other nations threatened by Moscow. It led to the formation of NATO in 1949.
Non-Aligned Movement
Definition: was an international political movement that allowed countries to not side with either the Eastern Bloc or Western Bloc.
Significance: played a crucial role in decolonization, formation of new independent states, and democratization of international relations.
mutual assured destruction
Definition: inciple of deterrence founded on the notion that a nuclear attack by one superpower would be met with an overwhelming nuclear counterattack such that both the attacker and the defender would be annihilated
Significance: threat created fear. This theory assumed that each superpower had enough nuclear weaponry to destroy the other. If one superpower attempted a first strike on the other, they themselves would also be destroyed.
Sputnik
Definition: The USSR rocketed to the lead in the Cold War's "Space Race" with the launch of Sputnik, a basketball-sized satellite that became the first manmade object to orbit the Earth.
Significance: The fact that the Soviets were successful fed fears that the U.S. military had generally fallen behind in developing new technology. As a result, the launch of Sputnik served to intensify the arms race and raise Cold War tensions.
Marshall Plan
Definition: a U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II.
Significance: expresses containment influences. This American economic plan provided enormous financial aid to rebuild Western Europe under democracy and capitalism, drawing them away from communism.
proxy war
Definition: conflicts in which two opposing powers avoid direct military confrontation by supporting opposing sides in a third country. Instead of engaging in direct combat, these opposing powers provide military and financial aid to their respective allies in the third country.
Significance: Example: United States, USSR, and China enganged in several proxy wars including the Korean War, the Vietnamese War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Afghan-Soviet War-- influenced relations between the US and the USSR during the Cold War.
domino theory
Definition: when one nation falls to communism the impact is such as to weaken the resistance of other countries and facilitate, if not cause, their fall to communism.
Significance: The domino theory assumed that Soviets, communists, and socialists everywhere were unqualifiedly evil. An American nuclear strike on Vietnam was essential in order to halt a Viet Cong victory which would set off a chain reaction of countries falling to the communists, like a row of falling dominoes.
NATO
Definition: an alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country; US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries.
Significance: created to resist the spread of Communism and protect against its forces, originally brought upon by the Soviet Union following World War II.
Warsaw Pact
Definition: made up of Eastern European countries that were under Soviet influence.
Significance: The organization was formed as a military alliance to counter NATO and to allow the USSR to exercise military and economic influence over Eastern Europe
communist bloc
Definition: the coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were aligned with the Soviet Union and existed during the Cold War (1947-1991)
Significance: It united all of the communist countries to form a common alliance and created a sense of nationalism. Phrase coined by Winston Churchill to describe the division between free and communist societies taking shape in Europe after 1946.
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Definition: treaty signed in Moscow on August 5, 1963, by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom that banned all tests of nuclear weapons except those conducted underground
Significance: The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a powerful normative tool to demonstrate that nuclear weapons are morally unacceptable. It strengthens the legal framework and legal stigma against nuclear weapons.
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Definition: was an agreement signed in 1968 by several of the major nuclear and non-nuclear powers that pledged their cooperation in stemming the spread of nuclear technology.
Significance: helped prevent additional states from acquiring nuclear weapons, provided the confidence necessary to facilitate cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and fostered a security environment that has enabled dramatic reductions in nuclear stockpiles.
Great Leap Forward
Definition: an attempt by China, under the direction of its leader, Mao Zedong, to make China into a modern industrial power.
Significance: was an economic policy of the Communist Party of China under Mao. Its primary goals were to transform China from a largely agrarian society to a modern socialist state through immediate industrialization and the collectivization of resources.
Cultural Revolution
Definition: was a chaotic mass movement in the People's Republic of China. Mao Zedong launched it in 1966, claiming that elitists were undermining the government and Chinese society.
Significance: It's stated goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. Though it failed to achieve its main objectives, the Cultural Revolution marked the effective return of Mao to the center of power.
Algerian War for Independence
Definition: war for Algerian independence from France.
Significance: led to serious political crises in France, causing the fall of the Fourth Republic (1946-58), to be replaced by the Fifth Republic with a strengthened presidency. gained momentum after French promises of greater self-rule in Algeria went unfulfilled after World War II
Algerian Civil War
Definition: in 1954 under the command of the National Liberation Front Algeria started the war against France, used Guerilla warfare, the French sent troops in 1958, hundreds of thousands of Algerians died, thousands of french soldiers died, but Algeria got their independence in 1962
Significance: Also known as the Algerian War for Indenependence, and gained momentum after French promises of greater self-rule in Algeria went unfulfilled after World War II
Suez Crisis
Definition: was an international crisis in the Middle East that was precipitated on July 26, 1956, when the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, nationalized the Suez Canal
Significance: threatened regional stability and challenged the U.S. relationship with two primary Cold War allies, Britain and France. Nasser nationalized the canal after the United States and Britain reneged on a previous agreement to finance the Aswan Dam project.
Biafran Civil War
Definition: was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence from Nigeria in 1967
Significance: a political-ethnic armed conflict caused by the attempted secession of the provinces of the south east of Nigeria, mostly populated by Igbo people, under the name of Biafra Republic.
Camp David Accords
Definition: a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt issuing from talks at Camp David between Egyptian President Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Begin, and the host, U.S. President Carter: signed in 1979.
Significance: was to establish a framework for peace in the Middle East by formalizing Arab recognition of Israel's right to exist, developing a procedure for the withdrawal of Israeli forces and citizens from the so-called "Occupied Territories" of the West Bank
Palestinian Liberation Organization
Definition: umbrella political organization claiming to represent the world's Palestinians—those Arabs, and their descendants, who lived in mandated Palestine before the creation there of the State of Israel in 1948
Significance: it initially sought to establish an Arab state over the entire territory of the former Mandatory Palestine, advocating the elimination of the State of Israel. However, seeks Arab statehood in the Palestinian territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
metropole
Definition: the homeland, central territory or the state exercising power over a colonial empire.
Significance: How the world was made up until World War II - connects to self determination and decolonization because of the rising of emergence of states seeking to create its own independent government or state.
detente
Definition: a period of relaxation and reduced tension between two opposing powers,
Significance: specifically refers to the United States and the Soviet Union during the late stages of the Cold War. It involved diplomatic efforts aimed at easing conflicts and promoting cooperation to ease Cold War tensions.
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
Definition: negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union that were aimed at curtailing the manufacture of strategic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
Significance: reducing the number of long-range ballistic missiles (strategic arms) that each side could possess and manufacture.
perestroika
Definition: a series of political and economic reforms meant to kick-start the stagnant 1980s economy of the Soviet Union.
Significance: was a political movement within the Communist Party of USSR during 1980s, led by Mikhail Gorbachev, which aimed at reforming failing economic structures and reducing corruption without abandoning socialism entirely.
glasnost
Definition: a Russian word meaning "openness". It was a policy introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev that encouraged transparency and freedom of speech within the Soviet Union
Significance: Glasnost reflected a commitment of the Gorbachev administration to allowing Soviet citizens to discuss publicly the problems of their system and potential solutions.
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