WHAP Vocab

Marshall Plan

U.S. sponsored program implemented following the end of WW2.

Great Leap Forward

A campaign initiated by the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong from 1958-1962.

Cultural Revolution

A movement challenging traditional Chinese society by targeting cultural norms, customs, and intellectualism.

Cold War

Period of economic, political, and military tension between the US and the Soviet Union.

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization; military alliance established in 1949 to protect Western European nations against the Soviet Union.

Warsaw Pact

Military alliance between the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries during the Cold War.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Direct and dangerous confrontations between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Decolonization

Process where colonies became independent of their colonizing country.

Indian National Congress

Established to provide a platform for educated Indians to voice concerns and seek political reforms under British rule.

Mohandas Gandhi

Leader of the Indian independence movement known for his strategy of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience.

Muslim League

Political group that led the movement calling for a separate Muslim nation to be created during the partition of British India.

Mao Zedong

Chinese communist revolutionary leader who founded the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Deng Xiaoping

Chinese politician and reformist leader.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Last leader of the Soviet Union.

Syrian Civil War

Ongoing multi-sided armed conflict in Syria fought between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic.

Iranian Revolution

Popular uprising in Iran in 1978–79 that resulted in the toppling of the monarchy and led to the establishment of an Islamic republic.

Iron Curtain

Ideological and physical boundary that separated Eastern and Western Europe during the Cold War.

Truman Doctrine

Established that the US would provide assistance to all democratic nations under threat from authoritarian forces.

Prague Spring

Brief period of economic and political liberalization in Czechoslovakia.

Proxy War

A war instigated by a major power that does not become involved itself.

Jomo Kenyatta

African statesman, first prime minister and then president of independent Kenya.