unit 8 vocab

Green Revolution

a period of significant agricultural advancements, primarily in the mid-20th century, that led to a dramatic increase in food production. This transformation was characterized by the introduction of high-yielding crop varieties, increased use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and the expansion of irrigation systems. The goal was to combat food scarcity and improve food security, particularly in developing countries.

Nonaligned nations

Developing countries that announced their neutrality in the Cold War.

Nonaligned Movement

founded in 1961 with the view to advancing interests of developing countries in the context of Cold War confrontation. In its first three decades, it played a crucial role in decolonization, and formation of new independent states.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Organization formed in 1949 as a military alliance of western European and North American states against the Soviet Union and its east European allies.

Warsaw pact

The 1955 treaty binding the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of eastern Europe in an alliance against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

United Nations

International organization founded in 1945 to promote world peace and cooperation. It replaced the League of Nations.

World Bank

A specialized agency of the United Nations that makes loans to countries for economic development, trade promotion, and debt consolidation. Its formal name is the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Marshall Plan

U.S. program to support the reconstruction of western Europe after World War II. By 1961 more than $20 billion in economic aid had been dispersed.

European Economic Community

An organization promoting economic unity in Europe, formed in 1957 by consolidation of earlier, more limited, agreements. With the addition of many new nations it became the European Union (EU) in 1993.

iron curtain

Winston Churchill's term for the Cold War division between the Soviet-dominated East and the U.S.-dominated West. The term suggested that Communist nations were, in effect, prisons.

Cold War

The ideological struggle between communism (Soviet Union) and capitalism (United States) for world influence. it came to an end when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.

Third World

Term applied to a group of developing countries who professed nonalignment during the Cold War.

Korean War

Conflict that began with North Korea's invasion of South Korea and that came to involve the United Nations (primarily the United States) allying with South Korea and the People's Republic of China allying with North Korea.

Vietnam War

Conflict pitting North Vietnam and South Vietnam communist guerrillas against the South Vietnamese government, aided after 1961 by the United States.

proxy wars

During the Cold War, local or regional wars in which the superpowers pursued their interests by arming, training, and financing local combatants.

Sandinistas

Members of a leftist coalition that overthrew the Nicaraguan dictatorship of Anastasia Somoza in 1979 and attempted to install a socialist economy. The United States financed armed opposition by the Contras. They lost national elections in 1990.

Cuban missile crisis

Brink-of-war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the latter's placement of nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba.

Helsinki Accords

Political and human rights agreement signed in Helsinki, Finland, by the Soviet Union and western European countries.

Cultural Revolution

(China) Campaign in China ordered by Mao Zedong to purge the Communist Party of his opponents and instill revolutionary values in the younger generation.

Cultural Revolution

Campaign in China ordered by Mao Zedong to purge the Communist Party of his opponents and instill revolutionary values in the younger generation.

Blaise Diagne

Senegalese political leader. He was the first African elected to the French National Assembly. During World War I, in exchange for promises to give French citizenship to Senegalese, he helped recruit Africans to serve in the French army. After the war, he led a movement to abolish forced labor in Africa.

African National Congress

An organization dedicated to obtaining equal voting and civil rights for black inhabitants of South Africa. Founded in 1912 as the South —---------—------. Though it was banned and its leaders were jailed for many years, it eventually helped bring majority rule to South Africa.

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 a traditional autocracy until he was overthrown in 1974.

Partition of India (India/Pakistan)

In 1947, resulted in the division of British India into two independent nations: India and Pakistan. This was driven by escalating religious tensions and the desire for a separate Muslim state.

Mohandas K. 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. He appealed to the poor, led nonviolent demonstrations against British colonial rule, and was jailed many times. Soon after independence he was assassinated for attempting to stop Hindu-Muslim rioting.

Nelson Mandela

A South African anti-apartheid activist and the first Black president of South Africa, serving from 1994 to 1999. He was a key figure in the struggle against racial segregation and played a crucial role in transitioning South Africa to a multi-racial democracy after the end of apartheid.

Martin Luther King Jr.

A key figure representing the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. He is known for his leadership in the nonviolent fight against racial discrimination and for advocating for civil rights for African Americans. His work, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, significantly impacted American society and led to landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

al Qaeda

A pan-Islamist militant organization, led by Sunni jihadists, that aimed to unite the Muslim world under a single Islamic caliphate through violence. It was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks, including the 9/11 attacks, and its activities significantly impacted global politics.

Indian National Congress

A movement and political party founded in 1885 to demand greater Indian participation in government. Its membership was middle class, and its demands were modest until World War I. Led after 1920 by Mohandas K. Gandhi, it appealed increasingly to the poor, and it organized mass protests demanding self-government and independence.

Bengal

Region of northeastern India. It was the first part of India to be conquered by the British in the eighteenth century and remained the political and economic center of British India throughout the nineteenth century. The 1905 split of the province into predominantly Hindu West Bengal and predominantly Muslim East Bengal (now Bangladesh) sparked anti-British riots.

All-India Muslim League

Political organization founded in India in 1906 to defend the interests of India's Muslim minority.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Indian Muslim politician who founded the state of Pakistan. A lawyer by training, he joined the All-India Muslim League in 1913. As leader of the League from the 1920s on, he negotiated with the British and the Indian National Congress for Muslim participation in Indian politics. From 1940 on, he led the movement for the independence of India's Muslims in a separate state of Pakistan, founded in 1947.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Indian statesman who 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.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Organization formed in 1960 by oil-producing states to promote their collective interest in generating revenue from oil.

Lázaro Cárdenas

President of Mexico (1934-1940). He brought major changes to Mexican life by distributing millions of acres of land to the peasants, bringing representatives of workers and farmers into the inner circles of politics, and nationalizing the oil industry.

Hipólito Irigoyen

Argentine politician, president of Argentina from 1916 to 1922 and 1928 to 1930. The first president elected by universal male suffrage, he began his presidency as a reformer but later became conservative.

Getulio Vargas

Dictator of Brazil from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Defeated in the presidential election of 1930, he overthrew the government and created Estado Novo ("New State"), a dictatorship that emphasized industrialization and helped the urban poor but did little to alleviate the problems of the peasants.

Juan Perón

President of Argentina (1946-1955, 1973-1974). As a military officer, he championed the rights of labor. Aided by his wife, he was elected president in 1946. He built up Argentinean industry, became very popular among the urban poor, but harmed the economy.

Eva Duarte Perón

Wife of Juan Perón and champion of the poor in Argentina. She was a gifted speaker and popular political leader who campaigned to improve the life of the urban poor by founding schools and hospitals and providing other social benefits.

Salvador Allende

Socialist politician elected president of Chile in 1970 and overthrown by the military in 1973. He was killed during the military attack on the presidential palace.

Dirty War

War waged by the Argentine military (1976-1983) against leftist groups. Characterized by the use of illegal imprisonment, torture, and executions by the military.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Shi'ite philosopher and cleric who led the overthrow of the shah of Iran in 1979 and created an Islamic republic.

Saddam Hussein

(1937-2006) President of Iraq from 1979 until overthrown by an American-led invasion in 2003. Waged war on Iran from 1980 to 1988. His invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was repulsed in the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

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.

perestroika

Policy of "restructuring" that was the centerpiece of Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to liberalize communism in the Soviet Union.

Solidarity

Polish trade union created in 1980 to protest working conditions and political repression by the Polish communist government allied with the Soviet Union. It began the nationalist opposition to communist rule that led in 1989 to the fall of communism in eastern Europe.

ethnic cleansing

Effort to eradicate a people and its culture by means of mass killing and the destruction of historical buildings and cultural materials. Ethnic cleansing was used by all sides in the conflicts that accompanied the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.