Unit 11: New Nations

Partition

Dividing the subcontinent into two nations

Kashmir

a state in the Himalayas

Indira Gandhi

Nehru's daughter, who served as prime minister for most of the years between 1966 and 1984. She had a global influence and challenged traditional discrimination against women.

Bangladesh

The Bengalis in East Pakistan declared independence and named their country Bangladesh

Autocratic

repressive

Deng Xiaoping

A practical reformer, more interested in improving economic output than in political purity.

Tiananmen Square

A huge public plaza in Beijing. Protesters waved banners calling for democracy. The government sent troops and tanks. Thousands of demonstrators were killed or wounded in the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

One-child policy

Limited urban families to a single child and allowed rural families two children

Mumbai

an overcrowded city where millions live in poverty without jobs, adequate food, or health care

Mother Teresa

A Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity. This group provides food and medical care to thousands.

Savanna

grasslands with scattered trees

Coup d'état

The forcible overthrow of a government

Islamist

People who want a government based on Islamic law and beliefs

Hutus

an ethnic group that forms the majority in Rwanda and Burundi

Tutsis

The main ethnic minority group in Rwanda and Burundi

Darfur

A region in western Sudan where ethnic conflict threatened to lead to genocide

Apartheid

the separation of the races

African National Congress (ANC)

the main party opposed to apartheid and led the sturggle for majority rule

Nelson Mandela

A leader who went underground. Mobilized young South Africans to peacefully resist apartheid laws.

Desmond Tutu

Won the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent opposition to apartheid.

Kibbutz

A collective farm

Gilda Meir

An early leader who had emigrated from Russia to the US as a child. Israel's first woman prime minister

Suez Canal

the vital waterway that provides the shortest sea route

Anwar Sadat

Nasser's successor. Turned to the US to help solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. He became the first Arab leader to make peace with Israel. Was assassinated

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

A religious leader who condemned Western influences and accused the Shah of violating Islamic law.

Theocracy

government by religious leaders

Secular

Having to do with worldly, rather than religious, matters; nonreligious

Hijab

a traditional Muslim headscarf, or loose, ankle-length garments meant to conceal.

Yasir Arafat

led the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which called for the destruction of Israel and waged guerrilla war against Israelis at home and abroad.

Inifada

Uprising

Yitzhak Rabin

Israeli Prime Minister who signed the Oslo Accords

Jerusalem

A city sacred to Jews, Christians, and muslims

Saddam Hussein

Iraqi dictator who too advanage of the turmoil to seize an oil-rich border region

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

Insurgent

Rebels

Agribusiness

giant commercial farms owned by multinational corporations

Indigenous

Native

Sandinista

socialist rebels in Nicaragua

Contra

guerrillas who fought the Sandinistas