4 Flashcards
1
Q
space
A
- After the fall of communism in the Soviet Union
in the early 1990s, the United States and Russia
became partners in space exploration with a jointly
run international space station. - By the early twenty-first century, other nations and
organizations, particularly China and the European
Space Agency, had launched missiles into space.
The enormous expense of space travel meant only
the wealthiest nations could afford it.
2
Q
einstein
A
- In the early twentieth century, the German mathematician
Albert Einstein contributed to the theory of relativity. - In this new view of the universe and humanity’s
place in it, there are no absolutes. - This view of the universe had tremendous impact
on Western society after World War l. - The “great civilized powers” of Europe had set out
to destroy each other with weapons produced by
the Industrial Revolution, and about 20 million
people were killed. Newton’s view of an ordered,
rational universe didn’t make sense any more. - Philosophers, artists, composers, and theologians
took the scientific concept of relativity and applied
it to society. Right and wrong were no longer
absolutes but instead were concepts for each
individual to determine.
3
Q
1900s medicine
A
- The polio vaccine, antibiotics, improved surgical
procedures such as sterilizing equipment, and advances
in cancer treatments all contributed. - Deadly infectious diseases such as smallpox and
whooping cough were virtually eliminated through
global campaigns of inoculation, yet other diseases
developed and spread. - These medical advances were largely limited, however, to
industrialized nations. In 2011, for example, 26 nations with
the lowest life expectancy were in Africa.
4
Q
green rev
A
In the mid-twentieth century, the development of powerful
fertilizers and pesticides combined with new high-yield,
disease-resistant crops led to predictions of a famine-free
world.
i. The Green Revolution held out hope that food could be
grown almost anywhere.
ii. Although food production skyrocketed during the Green
Revolution, so did the global population.
india was an early participant: New hybrid rice crops grown in combination with
strong pesticides produced very high yields, so much
so that India seemed to end its long cycle of periodic
famine and became a leader in rice exports.
5
Q
Attempts to spread the Green Revolution yielded mixed
results.
A
In the Philippines, rice yields soared, but in much of
Africa, agricultural production stagnated.
ii. Shifting weather patterns contributed to Africa’s lower
crop yield, as have the destructive nature of many civil
wars since the end of World War II.
6
Q
Criticisms of the Green Revolution included
A
environmental
concerns about overuse of pesticides and fertilizers, the
tendency of farmers to plant monocrops instead of a variety
of grains as they once had, and unprecedented population
growth. More food means more people can eat and thus
live and reproduce. But from a long-term global perspective,
experts wonder whether the Green Revolution can continue
to feed ever-increasing numbers of people.
7
Q
As in all wars, most of the civilian deaths were not a
result of battlefield conflict but rather of
A
disease and
famine.
8
Q
The first truly global disease epidemic
A
partly a result of
World War l. The 1918 influenza pandemic killed roughly
20 million people worldwide. It is thought that returning
soldiers carried the disease to their home countries around
the globe, with devastating effects. Through the course
of the twentieth century, new strains of flu occurred from
time to time, but they did not have the impact of the 1918
version.
9
Q
hiv/aids
A
HIV/AIDS was the second major pandemic of the twentieth
century
- First identified in the late twentieth century, HIV spread
through sexual contact and needle sharing, the latter
usually by people using illicit drugs. It then entered
undetected into hospital blood supplies and was
transmitted via transfusions.
- Once it entered the societies of Central Africa, it was—
and continues to be—highly destructive.
- AIDS is a leading cause of death in Africa. Government programs promoting both
abstinence and safe sex had limited success in that
continent.
10
Q
1900s famine
A
One result of modern war on civilian populations is a
disruption of the food supply.
- Famine struck Europe after World War l.
- Most of the 20 million deaths in the Russian civil war are
attributed to famine.
11
Q
gov-induced famines
A
Government policies of keeping food away from those deemed an enemy of the state killed many millions in the
twentieth century.
- In the 1930s, Stalin enacted an “artificial famine”
against rural communities that resisted his rule in the
USSR,and approximately 13 million died.
- In the mid-twentieth century, Mao’s insistence on
industrial over agricultural production caused perhaps
20 million deaths in China.
12
Q
league of nations
A
wwi 1914-18
- The creation of a global League
of Nations at the war’s end, designed to keep the peace, gave
many people hope that governments and individuals had
learned their lesson and would find ways to avoid future wars.
Their hopes were short-lived.
13
Q
WWI causes: imperialism
A
By the end of the nineteenth century, the colonial
powers of Europe had competed for decades
over land in Africa and Asia. By the beginning of
the twentieth century, wrangling continued over
ever-diminishing amounts of unclaimed territories,
leading to increased competitions and suspicions
among European nations.
14
Q
WWI causes: nationalism
A
Tensions rose inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Empire
from ethnic groups that wanted to break off and
form their own nations. In addition, leaders of the
newly unified nations, such as Germany and Italy,
naturally had great pride in their countries and
expressed it through imperialist expansion and
weapons buildup.
15
Q
WWI causes: arms race
A
The Industrial Revolution spurred the mass
production of weapons that could kill at faster
rates, and from longer distances, than ever before.
The French developed a machine gun that could
shoot 300 bullets a minute, and the Germans
built a cannon that could fire projectiles over 50
miles. National pride among the “Great Powers”
of Europe started an unofficial competition among governments to see who could produce the best
weapons.
16
Q
WWI causes: alliance system
A
Rather than risk going it alone in armed conflict,
the Great Powers formed two competing military
alliances in the early twentieth century: Russia,
England, and France formed the Triple Entente and
Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary formed the
Triple Alliance. Geographically, the Entente was
positioned on Germany’s eastern and western
borders, leading that nation’s leaders to develop
“first strike” plans in both directions.
17
Q
central powers adv
A
short-term.
- They were connected geographically; the Allies
were separated.
- Germany had the best trained and best equipped
army in the world going into the war.
- The German industrial system was better suited for
conversion to wartime production than were those
of the Allies.
18
Q
allies adv
A
long-term
- The Allies had more men of military age than did
the Central Powers.
- The Allies had more factories, but converting them
to war production took time.
- The Allies had a stronger navy and therefore able
to enforce a blockade of the ports of the Central
Powers.
19
Q
WWI: no one expected to be long
A
Germany attacked France
and Russiasimultaneously, expecting a quick victory that
would establish Germany as the unquestioned power in
Europe.
- When that did not occur, the two sides hunkered
down into defensive positions in France (the
Western Front) and Russia(the Eastern Front) by
the end of 1914.
- By 191 5, fighting spread to the Ottoman Empire
and the European colonies in Africa.
20
Q
The new weapons of World War I—including the
machine gun, poison gas, the airplane, and the
submarine—led to changes in tactics and philosophies
about the rules of war.
A
- The machine gun’s rapid killing power forced
combatants on all sides into defensive trenches,
but despite the enormous losses, military leaders
repeatedly sent long lines of men charging across
“No Man’s Land,” the open fields that lay between
the opponents.
The result was four years of shocking numbers of
deaths and injuries. - An unintended consequence of this kind of
slaughter was a lowering of the value of humanity
in war. Civilians came to be considered legitimate
targets in “total war”—where the full economic
production and political power of nations were
engaged in military victory. Submarines torpedoed
enemy civilian ships—like the British steamship
Lusitania—and cannons indiscriminately fired huge
artillery shells into cities far away.
21
Q
WWI: european global colonization
A
One effect of European global colonization was the use
of soldiers recruited from Africa and Asia to fight in the
war.
- India committed one million troops to aid the
British forces.
- Military campaigns ensued in the colonies,
especially in Africa, where German soldiers and
their African recruits battled British and French
soldiers and their African recruits.
- Australian soldiers joined their British counterparts
at the failed Allied assault on Gallipoli, in the
Ottoman Empire.
- The British also convinced Arabs to unite with
them against the Ottomans in Southwest Asia,
promising Arab independence from the Ottomans
as a reward.
22
Q
WWI: us entrance
A
In 191 7, the United States entered World War I on the
Allies’ side “to make the world safe for democracy,”
an idealistic pledge made by U.S. President Woodrow
Wilson.
- By late 1918, the addition of U.S. soldiers pushed
the Central Powers to the breaking point, and an
armistice was signed. An armistice is an agreement
that all sides will lay down their arms and leave the
battlefield without declaring a winner—or loser.
- Wilson hoped for “peace without victory,”
believing that punishing Germany after the war
would lead to resentment and another war.After the fighting stopped, however, England
and France declared themselves the winners and
Germany the loser.
23
Q
14 pt plan
A
President Wilson proposed the Fourteen Point plan,
designed to stop future wars through a checklist of
international agreements. The key component was an
international organization—the League of Nations—that
was set up to settle differences between member nations
before they erupted into armed conflict. The U.S.
Congress refused to join the very League that Wilson
created. Thus, the League was crippled from the outset.
24
Q
what was treaty of versailles
A
The Treaty of Versailles approved the League of Nations
but, yielding to pressures from angry citizens back
home, the leaders of England and France also dictated
terms to the Central Powers and focused on punishing
Germany (so much for “peace without victory”).
Germany was required to take full blame for starting the
war, drastically reduce its military forces, and pay billions
in war reparations to England and France.
25
germany after WWI
- Many German people developed a strong sense of
resentment toward the Allied nations, especially
after their economy imploded in the 1920s due to
harsh reparation demands from the English and
French.
- The German currency, the mark, plummeted
- The Allies required Germany to ditch its
constitutional monarchy and set up a republic—
known as the Weimar Republic.
- The government was too frail and fragmented to
deal effectively with the unprecedented economic
crisis. These events caused many Germans to seek
radical alternatives to the Weimar Republic and to
seek revenge against England and France.
26
WWI casualties and locations
Approximately 20 million soldiers and civilians died in
the war, which was fought in Europe, Southwest Asia,
and Africa.
27
The political, social, and economic impact
of the loss of so many people shaped many Europeans'
attitudes about war for the next two decades:
In the
1930s, for example, a large number of citizens and
politicians in England and France favored appeasement,
giving in to an aggressor nation rather than challenging
it and risking war.
28
5 power treaty and lonndon conference of 193
The first two treaties limited the number of
battleships each nation could have. Japan rejected
the limits because it was allotted fewer ships than
the United States and England.
29
geneva conventions
The Geneva Conventions set rules for war,
| particularly the treatment of prisoners of war.
30
kellogg-briand pact
outlawed war
31
reassignment of colonies
Many of the African and Middle Eastern colonies
controlled by Germany and the Ottoman Empire were
reassigned by the League of Nations to France and
England, who established a mandate system of rule over
them.
- Under this system, France and England were to
guide the Middle Eastern colonies of Syria and
Lebanon (France), Palestine and Jordan (England),
and Iraq (England) until the League decided the
colonies were ready for independence.
The reality of the situation was that these areas
were simply added to the British and French
colonial collection.
- These moves prompted more nationalist feelings
in the people living in the colonies in the Middle
East and Africa, and also in Southeast Asia.
32
2 superpowers after WWI
Two Allied nations, the United States and Japan,
emerged from the war with their industrial capacity and
colonial possessions intact, unlike most of Europe, and
were poised to rise to the top of the world's economic
ladder.
33
empires that fell during or just after WWI
The Russian,Austrian, Ottoman, and German empires
| fell during or just after World War l.
34
russia after WWI
Conducting the war amidst rising internal problems
proved too much for the Russian czar's government.
- In 191 7, the czar resigned and was replaced by
a provisional democracy. But it quickly fell to a
communist uprising.
- Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin negotiated an
early withdrawal from the war with the German
government and thus fighting on the eastern front
ended.
- As payback for quitting the war early (and because
they feared the new communist government), the
other Allied powers pretended Russiahad never
been on their side and refused to give them a seat
at Versailles.
35
Arming their colonial subjects to support the war effort
| may not have been in Europe's best interest because
at the end of the war, nationalist leaders in African and
Asian colonies had military training and equipment.
- Adding to their inclinations toward independence,
many elites had learned about European ideals, such as self-rule, while attending European schools
before the war.
- Another encouragement for leaders of colonial
independence movements was found in a key
feature of the Fourteen Points plan—a call for
"self-determination" for nationalist groups. This
Wilsonian concept was specifically intended for
groups in Europe, but none of the colonial subjects
in Africa or Asia worried about that detail.
36
The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to
accept full guilt for the war, reduce its military
forces, hand over its colonies, and pay billions in
war reparations to England and France. Germany,
however, was rocked by overwhelming economic
collapse. These humiliations left many Germans
seeking vengeance.
37
great dep causes
- The United States was the chief financer of
England, France, and Germany's debts in the
1920s, and when those nations struggled to repay
their loans, U.S. banks began to falter, setting off
chain reactions that damaged global financial
markets.
- Another cause of the Great Depression was
overproduction of goods in the United States—
especially farm products. More produce meant
lower prices to farmers; lower prices meant
farmers defaulted on bank loans, banks closed,
and money supplies dried up.
38
result of great dep
The result in the industrialized nations was that, in
the 1930s, they all reorganized their governments
to be more active in financial matters.
- Italy, Germany, and Japan were the most
prominent nations that radically changed their
governmental and financial systems. These systems
were changed to fascism to address the economic
crises in these three countries.
- Russia—known as the Soviet Union after 1922—
was isolated from the global economy. Europe and
the United States wanted nothing
39
fascism
Italy introduced fascism in the 1920s as a political and
social means to address its post—World War I economic
woes.
- Under fascism, the government attempted to
control the economy—which was also the case in
communism—but it allowed private ownership of
businesses and other property—as was the case
in capitalism. One catch—all decisions ultimately
came from a single dictator with enormous power, and dissent was severely punished. Anyone
considered "outside" the accepted fascist model
faced unemployment, jail, or death.
- Before the international meltdown of the Great
Depression, Italy's fascist system—led by Benito
Mussolini—appeared to be on an upswing in the
1920s.
- Fascism appealed to many people around the
world—Germany, Spain, and then Japan followed
Italy's political model.
40
nazism
- The National Socialist (abbreviated "Nazi") German
Workers' Party was a fringe group in the early 1920s,
at a time when the Weimar Republic was floundering.
It claimed opposition to both democracy on one hand
and communism on the other, and promoted past and
future German glories.
- After a failed coup in 1923 landed Hitler in
jail, he decided to undermine the Weimar
government from within the system. Impassioned
speeches about German glory gained Hitler
popular support, and the Nazis rose in power
in the Weimar legislature. Careful cultivation of
sympathetic government and business leaders
helped Hitler's cause.
- Using propaganda, lies, and murder, the Nazis
and Hitler were in absolute control of Germany by
1 934.
41
fascism requires
conquest to obtain cheap labor and
raw materials—and to unite its people against enemies,
real or invented.
- Italy invaded North Africa and Ethiopia in the
1930s.
- Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and Austria
about the same time.
42
japan aggression
Japan began attacking its neighbors even before it
officially turned to fascism. Some historians argue that
World War II really started in 1931 —eight years before
the official date—when Japan invaded Manchuria,
enslaved or killed its people, and occupied their coal
mines and factories. Not satisfied with that conquest
alone, Japan invaded China in 1937.
43
The well-intentioned but weak League of Nations
did
little to stop aggression by Italy, Germany, and Japan in
the 1930s. European leaders hoped that fascists would
be satisfied after limited conquests and seek no more
territories.
- This policy of appeasement only seemed to
encourage the attackers, who showed no respect
for the League of Nations' pleas for peace.
- The appeasement policy of the 1930s had longterm
effects: After World War II, one of the biggest
lessons the United States and the USSR took
from the prewar era was to reject appeasement
in favor of "peace through strength" during the
confrontational Cold War.
44
WWII alliances
- Germany, Italy, and Japan formed the Axis starting
in the late 1930s.
- England, France, Poland, and most of western
Europe formed the Allies by 1940. The Allies grew
in number as they were attacked by Axis nations. A year later, the USSRand the United States joined
the Allies.
45
WWI vs WWII
- Unlike World War l, which featured trench warfare
and little movement of forces, World War II began
with fast-moving fronts. This change occurred
because technology improved the machines that were
introduced in World War l.
Tanks and airplanes moved much faster by the
1930s, and defensive trenches were impractical.
- World War II's battlefields were on a greater global scale
than were those of World War l.
Campaigns throughout the Pacific were added to
those in Europe and Africa.
46
blitzkrieg
Germany introduced the blitzkrieg ("lightning
war"), which involved bombing from airplanes and
swift advances by tanks and support vehicles. Only
then did foot soldiers enter the battle—if there
were still people left to fight back. This method of
fighting stunned early victims of Nazi aggression.
47
In the European theater, the war started
in 1939 when
Germany invaded Poland. England had appeased the
German fascist dictator Hitler in his conquest of central
Europe, but it finally drew a line at Poland.
- After war was declared, Germany swiftly
conquered most of western Europe, including
France, by 1940.
- Russia and Germany had announced a peace
treaty in 1939, so England faced Nazi aggression
alone.
48
tide turners WWII:
- Two significant events in 1941 turned the tide
against Nazi Germany: Hitler's surprise invasion of
Russiawent poorly, and the United States entered
the war against the Axis Powers after Japan
attacked Pearl Harbor.
- big turning pt: Allied invasion of Normandy (in France) in 1944.
Steadily pushed back to their homeland on both
the eastern and western fronts, the Germans
surrendered in May 1945.
49
The first Allied offensive against the Axis powers was in
N africa
50
UN
- replaced league of nations after WWII
- Two key differences: the UN's headquarters was
in the United States, not Europe—a sign of the
United States' postwar influence—and, unlike
the League, the United Nations Security Council
had military authority that could be used to stop
aggression by nations.
- were employed in combat in the Korean
War and the Persian Gulf War
51
Western Europe's reign as the world's strongest
| economic and political force ended with World War II.
- Two devastating wars crippled Europe, while
the United States emerged as the only major
power whose economy and society was relatively
unscathed.
- Aided by the United Nations, Europe's colonies
in Africa and Asia gained independence, one by
one, starting soon after the war. These colonies
included the Dutch East Indies, Indochina, India,
and Ghana.
52
holocaust
The Holocaust was the worst fascist treatment of
"outsiders." Hitler's "final solution" targeted Jews and
other groups that did not fit into his perverted vision
for Germany. Six million of the 10 million people killed
in the Holocaust were Jews from central and eastern
Europe.
After the war, the United States and Britain steered
UN support for the establishment of a democratic
Jewish homeland (Israel) in Palestine.
53
yalta conference
Near the end of World War II, the "Big Three"
Allies (the United States, Britain, and the USSR)
met on the Crimean peninsula to redraw the maps
of Europe and Asia for the postwar world.
- Germany and its capital, Berlin, were divided into
Western and Soviet regions.
- The USSRtook control of most of eastern Europe
(now a separate entity from western Europe), after
promising the United States and Britain it would
allow self-determination.
When that pledge failed to materialize and Soviet
forces began to occupy eastern Europe, the West
became highly suspicious of Soviet intentions.
- For its part, leaders in the USSRfeared a U.S.-led
invasion through Germany or Japan.
- also divided Korea into communist
north and capitalist south nations.
- Japan was put into
the U.S. sphere of influence. The United States replaced
Japan's government with a democratic constitutional
monarchy and placed military bases there.
54
containment
Led by the United States, NATO and its allies enacted a
diplomatic and military policy of containment to keep
the Soviets from spreading communism beyond Eastern
Europe. World events challenged this policy around the
globe for 45 years.
55
berlin airlift
- In 1946, the USSRattempted to cut off Western
access to Berlin, which was in Soviet-controlled
East Germany. For a year, the United States and
Britain flew supplies into the Western sector of
Berlin. The Soviets realized the futility of their
blockade and lifted it.
- This event increased Cold War tensions between
the two sides. In 1961, communist EastGermany
built a wall dividing the pro-West sector of Berlin
from its communist half.
- The Berlin Wall lasted until 1989, when
anticommunist East Berliners rose up and began
tearing it down on live television.
56
marshall plan
- As part of the U.S. containment doctrine to limit
the expansion of communism, and to help its
Western European allies recover from the war, the
United States sent billions of dollars in economic
and construction aid to West Germany, England,
France, and other western European nations. Japan also received massive amounts of reconstruction
assistance.
- The Marshall Plan was lauded as a "brilliant
success" that rebuilt factories and roads.
- By the early 1950s, Western Europe and Japan had
booming economies.
- The USSRattempted a similar aid package for
Eastern Europe called Comecon, but its efforts
were less successful.
57
NATO versus the Warsaw Pact
- In 1949, the United States formed an alliance with
western European nations called the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO). It was designed to
contain Soviet aggression in Europe. Canada and
Turkey were also included.
- The USSRresponded with a military alliance of
its own, the Warsaw Pact, which most eastern
European nations were compelled to join.
58
korean war
- In 1950, communist North Korea invaded proWest
South Korea and, for the first time, the
United Nations sent soldiers from member nations
to push out the aggressor.
- The United States led the UN forces in this war,
which included a surprise massive surge from
communist Chinese soldiers into Korea.
- After three years of constant fighting, the
adversaries negotiated new boundaries of the
two Koreas near their previous borders. The
United States and its military allies announced
a global plan of containment designed to keep
communism from spreading beyond its 1950
borders.
59
vietnam war
- French colonial Indochina was divided in the
early 1950s into four nations, including procommunist
North Vietnam (led by Ho Chi Min),
pro-West South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
- Much like in Korea, North Vietnam soon invaded
South Vietnam to unify the country under
communist rule. Vietnam became the focus of
U.S. containment policy, and the U.S. government
committed its military to fighting a limited war
until running out of resolve.
- In 1975, the communists of North Vietnam
defeated and absorbed South Vietnam, creating a
unified socialist nation. Hundreds of thousands of
South Vietnamese migrated to France, Australia,
and the United States over the next two decades
to escape the communist system.
60
cuban missile crisis
- Cuba became a communist nation in 1959. In
the early 1960s, the USSRsecretly placed missiles
with nuclear capability there. The United States
discovered the missiles and brought the issue to
the United Nations. On the brink of a nuclear war,
cooler heads prevailed and the crisis eased.
- A direct line of communication was created to link
the White House in the United States and Soviet offices in Moscow, and the USSR removed the
controversial missiles.
61
consequences of cold war: nuclear legacy
- The enormous destructive nature of nuclear
bombs may well have been the deciding factor in
the Cold War remaining cold. The major rivals may
have avoided using nuclear weapons, but after
the Cold War, many nations developed or tried to
build their own nuclear arsenal.
- Few of them responded to calls from the United
States, the former USSR, or the United Nations to
curtail their nuclear programs.
- India, Pakistan, Israel, and Iran are some examples
of countries that have developed their own nuclear
programs.
62
decline of communism
- Under the leadership of Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev and pushed along by a military buildup by
U.S. President Ronald Reagan, the USSRsoftened its
strict communist philosophies and military aggression by
the mid-1980s. These events gave rise to anti-Soviet and
prodemocracy movements in Eastern Europe.
- The success of these movements was symbolized by the
uncontested tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
63
russian federation
Faced with a failing economy, loss of international
prestige, nationalist revolts from within the Soviet
Union, and an attempt by members of his own
government to overthrow him in a coup attempt,
Gorbachev announced the breakup of the USSRin 1991,
and a Russian Federation was established.
64
post-cold war latin amer
The decline of communism and its authoritarian methods
affected Latin America in that most military dictatorships
were replaced by democratic governments starting in the
1980s. Argentina and Chile are two examples.
65
Not all political movements were in the direction of
| democratic rule after the Cold War.
- In the Middle East, dictatorships and kingdoms
remained in some nations, for example, in Saudi Arabia
and Iran.
- In China, a prodemocracy movement led by students
in 1989 was brutally crushed by the government in
Beijing's Tiananmen Square, even as the communist
regime there was permitting limited capitalism.
66
india independence
The first major colony to gain independence after World
War II was also the largest, India.
i. Mohandas Gandhi led nonviolent resistance to the
British raj for decades, supported by the Indian National
Congress and the Muslim League. Their efforts were
successful in 1947, but Gandhi's dream of a united,
independent India was not fulfilled.
67
partition of india
Muslim-majority areas, such as Pakistan and Bangladesh,
formed separate nations in what was known as the
partition of India.
68
inodchina independence
France granted independence after Indochina split into
four nations: Laos, Cambodia, and North and South
Vietnam.
69
indonesia independence
The Netherlands granted independence to the new
| nation of Indonesia in 1965.
70
hong kong independence
Hong Kong did not gain independence, but the British
peacefully transferred sovereignty of Hong Kong—which
it had held since the Opium Wars—to communist China
in 1997 on the promise that the island would remain a
capitalist haven.
71
africa independence
North African nations tended to gain independence from
European control earlier than sub-Saharan nations.
- In the 1950s, the United Nations supported the peaceful
independence of Libya and Tunisia.
- The most significant rebellion in North Africa occurred in
Algeria, where French soldiers battled nationalist rebels
until France granted independence in 1962.
- Ghana was the first sub-Saharan colony to gain
independence, peacefully, in 1957.
72
south africa
South Africa wasn't a colony per se. It became an
independent country in 191 0, but it retained strong political
and economic ties to Britain.
- apartheid
73
5yr plans
Starting in the late 1920s, Stalin implemented a series
of Five Year Plans of government-directed economic
and industrial growth. Under the Five Year Plans and
their production goals, factories were built and massive
public works programs, such as dam construction, were
implemented. Stalin focused on heavy industry like steel and
concrete production.
74
communism in russia
1. During World War l, the Russian czar abdicated in favor of a
provisional republic, but the new government was unable to
fix Russia's many economic and social problems and it chose
to continue the czar's unpopular participation in World
War l.
2. The Bolshevik wing of the Communist Party, led by Vladimir
Lenin, ousted the provisional government from the capital
and engaged in a bloody civil war against various groups,
known as the "Whites" who opposed the communist
"Reds."
3. The communists won and established the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR), but Lenin died shortly afterward,
in 1924. Joseph Stalin emerged as the next leader and
remained in power for almost 30 years. Until World War
II, the USSRwas shunned by the majority of the world
community.
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stalin ruthlessness
Stalin was a ruthless ruler who purged millions of his
enemies, real and imagined.
- An estimated 14 million farmers and their families who
resisted Stalin's plan to force them to work on collective
farms were killed by execution or government-imposed
starvation in the 1930s.
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gulags
Gulags—prison "reeducation camps" sprang up
throughout the Soviet Union, especially in Siberia.
Little was known about these policies in the West. After
Germany attacked Russia in 1941, Britain was eager to
include Russiaas an Allied power. Stalin relished his new
role on the world stage, meeting with U.S. and British
leaders to plan the war.
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post-war soviet
- The USSR'smilitary rivaled that of the United States, but
its economy proved inadequate at supplying consumer
goods, unlike the economies of capitalist societies.
- The economic pressures caused by global military
interventions, notably in Afghanistan starting in 1979,
overburdened the Soviet system.
- In the early 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan
dramatically increased U.S. military spending, gambling
that the Soviet leaders would choose to do the same
and ignore growing discontent from their citizens who hoped for improved goods and services at home.
Reagan guessed correctly.
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russia: changes to communist system
In the mid-1980s, the Soviet Politburo—the policy-making
council of the USSR—chose a leader who pledged to
reform—but not end—the communist system: Mikhail
Gorbachev.
i. Gorbachev introduced limited capitalism (perestroika)
and loosened restrictions on criticism of the government
(glasnost). He hoped these measures, if doled out
in a controlled fashion, would restore both the
USSR'scrumbling economy and people's faith in the
communist system. They did neither. The world watched
in amazement as former Soviet-controlled nations in
eastern Europe—led by Poland's Solidarity movement—
peacefully broke with communism in the late 1980s.
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end of qing
The Qing dynasty was overthrown in 1911 and was not
replaced by a new imperial dynasty. This event marked the
end of thousands of years of dynastic rule in China.
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sun yat sen
The new government was the Republic of China, promoted
by Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yi Xian), a Western-educated member
of the Chinese elite. Sun struggled to create a stable, unified
China and sought aid from the West, but the only major
nation to respond was the newly-formed Soviet Union. This
support from communist sources had enormous long-term
implications.
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after sun
Sun died in 1925 and was replaced by Chiang Kai-Shek
(Jiang JieshD. Unlike Sun, Chiang vigorously opposed
cooperation with communists. Regions in China fell into civil
war between communists and "Nationalists" supporting the
Republic. A major reason why many peasants supported the communists was their perception that the republic was both
corrupt and inept.
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nationalist china vs comm china
- When Japan invaded China in 1937, the communists and
Nationalists united to fight their common enemy. When the
United States entered World War II, China was added to the
Allies, and Chiang met with U.S. and British leaders to plan
war strategy.
- At the end of World War II, China's civil war restarted and, in
1949, the communists, led by Mao Zedong, were victorious.
The Nationalist government and millions of its supporters,
backed by Western powers, fled to Taiwan and ruled from
there.
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women under mao
Mao's government officially granted full legal and voting
rights to women, which was a radical change from China's
past. Many women served in high government positions.
Unlike Lenin, who favored communist revolution by
industrial workers in cities, Mao's main support came from
agrarian peasants.
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great leap forward
- In the late 1950s, Mao pushed a Great Leap Forward that
promoted industrial output over agricultural production.
The result was an agrarian catastrophe that led to death by
starvation for as many as 20 million people.
- Mao's response to this disaster was to blame "outside"
capitalist influences that he said were still prevalent in China,
so a Cultural Revolution was enacted to purge all vestiges of
Western culture. Widespread government persecutions and
reeducation centers finally ended with Mao's death in 1976.
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china after mao
After Mao's death, reformers, including Deng Xiaoping,
improved China's economy and its position on the
world stage by inviting government-monitored capitalist
investment from the West. The economy and people's
standard of living boomed into the early twenty-first
century, but political reforms were slower to appear.
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mex rev
> In Mexico, a revolution promising sweeping political,
economic, and social reforms to promote the well-being of
the masses began in 191 0, and a constitution supporting
those goals was adopted in 1917.
> It was not until the 1930s, however, that land reform
occurred. This involved taking millions of acres of land from
large plantations held by foreign and domestic owners and
giving it to peasant farmers.
> Public education programs were enacted as well.
> After World War II, the government allowed foreign interests
to again buy land in Mexico, and the land reform program
faded.
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westernization of iran
1. In the 1950s, a Western-backed emperor, the shah, was
put into power in Iran. He supported foreign investment in
his nation's oil industry and received military aid from the
United States and Western Europe during the Cold War.
i. Iranian society allowed women to vote, and Western
culture and education was encouraged.
ii. In 1979, uprisings against government oppression of
opponents forced the shah out of power.
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de-westernization of iran
The shah was replaced by a radical anti-Western Muslim
leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. The ayatollah's message of
Muslim unity, the supremacy of Islamic law over secular
law, and rejection of Western influence was supported by
many in Iran. Those who did not support the changes were
brutally dealt with.
i. Women were required to be covered from head to toe,
but they were still allowed to vote.
ii. Khomeini actively pushed his brand of Islamic rule,
promoting its spread throughout the Muslim world. He
supplied rhetoric and money to support radical Islamic
groups like A1-Qaeda throughout the Middle East, much
to the dismay of the West.
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Organizations Formed to Encourage Global Cooperation: communication
The Universal Postal Union and the International
Telecommunication Union were founded in the late
nineteenth century and were made part of the United
Nations after World War II.
Their job is to create agreements between and
among member nations regarding exchanging
international mail and communications, such as
telephone, radio, and Internet usage.
- internaitonal olympic committee
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. International Economic Organizations Formed
After World War II, several organizations promoted
international trade and financial assistance to poorer nations
and regions.
- The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) promote sound banking principles and loan
money to nations with developing economies.
- The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
promoted international free trade. The World Trade
Organization (WTO) replaced it in the late twentieth
century.
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g7
The G7, founded in the 1970s, was an organization
representing the interests of the world's seven largest
economies. It has since become the G20.
- communist version: comecon
- It disbanded after the fall of communism in Russia and
the rest of eastern Europe at the end of the twentieth
century.
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EU
- capital: brussels, belgium
- The EU was formed in the 1950s by six western
European nations that wanted to lower trade barriers
between and among themselves and create a common
market to help compete against the giant U.S. economy
that emerged after World War II.
- Their original goal was to create a kind of "United States
of Europe" with a common money system, a capital
city, a flag, and a legislature. Its names over the years
were the European Coal and Steel Community; then
the European Economic Community; then the European
Community; and finally, in 1993, the European Union.
- In 1993, most of the twelve member nations from
western Europe went to a single monetary unit, the euro. NO ENGLAND
- After the fall of communism in eastern Europe, the EU
invited these European nations to join. By the early
twenty-first century, 27 nations comprised the EU.
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nafta
In response to the success of the European Union, the
United States, Mexico, and Canada entered into a free trade
agreement called the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) in the early 1990s, but it did not include the
political aspects of the EU's organization.
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opec
In 1960, oil-rich nations, primarily from the Middle East
but also including members in Africa and South America,
organized into a cartel, or trade union, that endeavored to
regulate the global price of crude oil.
- The cartel was named the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC). OPEC became a household
word in the West when its Arab members raised prices
and reduced exports of oil to western Europe and the
United States after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
- The West supported Israel in that war, and many Arab
leaders in OPEC pushed to punish western Europe and
the United States for that support. The combination
of higher oil prices and reduced petroleum supplies
had damaging effects on the West's economy. Inflation
soared and unemployment went up. As a result, the
West and the Arab world realized for the first time how
dependent the West was on imported petroleum.
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red cross
The oldest such group is the Red Cross, which was founded
in England in the mid-nineteenth century. It is a private
organization, but works with government agencies around
the world. In majority-Muslim regions, it goes by the name
Red Crescent.
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amnesty international
raises awareness of the plight of
| political prisoners around the globe.
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WHO
a UN agency committed
to combating infectious diseases and promoting the general
health of all citizens of the world.
98
unicef
UNICEF, also a UN agency, works for children's rights and
their survival, development, and protection around the
globe.
99
nuremberg trials
In 1945, the Allied Nations held trials for Nazi war
criminals for crimes against humanity. These crimes
referred to the torture and death campaigns that
German government officials ordered, carried out, or
consented to in their country and the countries they
invaded. The Allied prosecutors charged the accused officials of violating basic human rights—a concept
introduced during the Enlightenment. Those found
guilty usually faced the death penalty
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universal declawration of human rights
- In 1948, the United Nations echoed the concepts from
the Nuremberg Trials with its Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
- Among these rights are freedom of speech and religion;
the right to life, liberty, and personal security; freedom
of movement from another country or within a country;
and the right to a fair trial, work, and education.
- While all member UN nations signed the declaration,
not all fully participated in exercising its tenets.
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post-war catholic church
Vatican II modernized the Roman Catholic Church.
- In the early 1960s, Pope John XXIII called for updates
to the centuries-old traditions in the Roman Catholic
Church. More participation by nonclergy in church
services was encouraged, and the mass was no longer
delivered in Latin but in the language of the local
church. Pope John and his successors, most notably John
Paul II, also promoted ecumenism, cooperation between
faiths.
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eastern religions in the west
Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism, gained popularity
in the West. Part of the reason for the spread of Eastern
religions into the West may be the ecumenical spirit begun
in the 1960s, and another might be the global popularity of
the Beatles, who introduced aspects of South Asian music
and faith to the West.
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jesus mvmnt
Religious revival in the West was brought on by the rising
uncertainties that flowed through societies in the turbulent
1960s. One example of religious revival was the Jesus
movement that involved millions of young people in Western
culture.
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islam conservative revival
Islam went through a conservative revival as well. Beginning
in the 1950s, partly as a response against the growing
influence of Western culture that came from contacts
made in the oil trade, Islamic fundamentalism rejected
the so-called decadent culture of the infidel West. Islamic
fundamentalism's most famous examples were found in the
Iranian Revolution and in the formation of terrorist groups
such as Al-Qaeda.
