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History 1BB3-Pt 2

Terms

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White Mane's Burden
The White Man's Burden is a poem by the British poet Rudyard Kipling. It was originally published in the popular magazine McClure's, with the subtitle The United States and the Philippine Islands.[1] "The White Man's Burden" may be read as supporting the U.S. colonization of the Philippines and other former Spanish colonies in his poem[2] or, alternatively, as a warning to the United States of the cost of imperial adventure.[3] Although Kipling's poem mixed exhortation to empire with sober warnings of the costs involved, imperialists within the United States latched onto the phrase "white man's burden" as a euphemism for imperialism that seemed to justify the policy as a noble enterprise.[4] The first verse of the Kipling poem reads: A straightforward analysis of the poem may conclude that Kipling presents a Eurocentric view of the world, in which non-European cultures are seen as childlike and demonic. This view proposes that white people consequently have an obligation to rule over, and encourage the cultural development of, people from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds until they can take their place in the world by fully adopting Western ways.
Spanish American War
The Spanish-American War took place in 1898, and resulted in the United States gaining control over the former colonies of Spain in the Caribbean and Pacific. The US lost 379 troops in combat and over 5,000 to disease. As a result of the war, Cuba would be declared independent in 1902.
Herero Genocide
The Herero Genocide occurred in German South-West Africa (modern day Namibia) in 1904-1907 and is considered one of the worst atrocities in the history of the German colonial empire. German colonial rule in the area was far from egalitarian, the natives including the herero were used as slave laborers, their lands were frequently seized and given to colonists and resources, particularly diamond mines, exploited by the Germans. There have been many proven allegations of sexual exploitation of Herero women by German troops. In 1904 the Hereros revolted, led by Chief Samuel Maharero, and killed about 120 Germans, destroying their farms.
Russo japanese war
The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperialist ambitions of Russia and Japan in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of the war were Port Arthur (aka Lushun and Ryojun) and the Liaodong Peninsula, plus up the railway from the port to Harbin. The Russians were in constant pursuit of a warm-water port. The Japanese were driven to war through geostrategic concerns to secure their interior lines by stemming Russian interest in Korea. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, various Western countries were competing for influence, trade, and territory in East Asia as Japan strove to form itself into a modern great power. Great power status rested on access to colonies which provided raw materials, and these, in turn, rested on naval power, which required bases for the increasingly large battleships of the era, and a chain of coal stations for warships to restock the fuel for their boilers.
Battle of vimy ridge
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was one of the opening battles in a larger British campaign known as the Battle of Arras. It is also considered a seminal event in Canadian history for the primary role Canadian forces played in the attack. Vimy, located in northern France, was one of the most heavily defended points on the entire Western Front and was thought to be an impregnable fortress. The German army had fortified it with tunnels, three rows of trenches behind barbed wire, massive artillery, and numerous machine gun nests. The French and British had suffered thousands of casualties in previous attempts to take the ridge- the French alone lost 150,000 men at Vimy Ridge in 1915. The ridge, stretching from the town of Vimy to Givenchy-en-Gohelle, was a crucial point that allowed the Germans to control much of the surrounding territory. The ridge was the only major barrier keeping the allies from the wide open Lens-Douai plainThe Allied commanders decided to launch another assault in 1917. The duty was given to the still relatively fresh, but previously successful, Canadians. For the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps were brought together. They were joined by the British 5th Infantry Division.
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty which officially ended World War I between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany. After six months of negotiations, which took place at the Paris Peace Conference, the treaty was signed as a follow-up to the armistice signed in November 1918 in Compiègne Forest (which had put an end to the actual fighting). Although there were many agreements to the treaty, one of the more important and recognized agreements required that Germany accept full responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-247, make reparations to certain members of the Allies. Terms imposed by the Treaty included Germany losing a certain amount of its own territory to a number of surrounding countries, being stripped of all its overseas and African colonies, and its ability to make war again was limited by restrictions on the size of its military. Germany also acknowledged and agreed to respect the independence of Austria
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a term used to describe a concept in social theory which holds that Darwin's theory of evolution of biological traits in a population by natural selection can also be applied to competition between societies or groups within a society espousing variations in ethic and underpin a political ideology with success determined by shifts in the number of adherants to a particular ideology. It is also used to critique human social institutions. Initially expressed in the writings of English philosopher and author Herbert Spencer, and of William Graham Sumner, Social Darwinism first became popular in the late 19th century and continued in popularity until the end of World War II. The application of the term to 19th and 20th century modes of thought, however, generally did not occur until after the publication of American historian Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism in American Thought in 1944, which codified the concept in the sense it is generally used today. Thus the term is an anachronism, although it is still widely used by historians. In many ways it would be more proper to call it "Social Spencerism" instead of "Social Darwinism".Historically, proponents of Social Darwinism often used the theory to justify social inequality as being meritocratic, and it has also been used to justify racism and imperialism, in a cultural application of Herbert Spencer's idea of the "survival of the fittest." Thus, Herbert Spencer's notion of the evolution of society and man's moral faculty had been altered to something quite contrary to his philosophy. Social Darwinism itself does not necessarily engender a political position. Some Social Darwinists argue for the inevitability of progress and social reform, while others emphasize the potential for the degeneration of humanity. To a certain extent, Social Darwinism, like Darwinian evolution, has been associated with the controversial field of eugenics. While Social Darwinism applies the concept of evolution and natural selection to human cultural systems, the extent to which the ideologies related to it are a part of Darwin's biological theory of evolution or Spencer's classical liberal philosophy is arguable
Stalin
; 1878[1] – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922-1953), a position which had later become that of party leader.Born Stalin became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1922. Following the death of Vladimir Lenin, he prevailed over Leon Trotsky in a power struggle during the 1920s. In the 1930s Stalin initiated the Great Purge, a period of police terror that reached its peak in 1937. Stalin's rule molded the features that characterized the Soviet regime from the era of his rule to its collapse in 1991 — though Maoists, anti-revisionists and some others say he was actually the last legitimate socialist leader in the Soviet Union's history. Stalin's policies were based on Marxism-Leninism but are now often considered to represent a political and economic system called Stalinism.Stalin replaced the New Economic Policy (NEP) of the 1920s with Five-Year Plans in 1928 and collective farming at roughly the same time. The Soviet Union was transformed from a predominantly peasant society to a major world industrial power by the end of the 1930s. Confiscations of grain and other food by the Soviet authorities under his orders led famine between 1932 and 1934, especially in Ukraine (see Holodomor), Kazakhstan and North Caucasus resulting in up to ten million deaths. Many peasants resisted collectivization and grain confiscations, and Stalin ordered violent repression against peasants deemed "kulaks."A hard-won victory in World War II (the Great Patriotic War, 1941–45) was made possible in part through the capacity for production that was the outcome of industrialization. In the post-war years, Stalin laid the groundwork for the formation of the Warsaw Pact and established the USSR as one of the two major world powers, a position it maintained for nearly four decades following his death in 1953.Stalin's rule was characterized by a strong cult of personality, an extreme concentration of power, and little concern for the lives of people. Stalin tried to crush all opposition by establishing a ruthless security apparatus that resulted in the murder of millions of Soviet citizens. In addition to the purges and the famine, many were killed in the Gulags and in deportations. Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin's eventual successor, denounced his mass murders and cult of personality in 1956, initiating the process of "de-Stalinization" which later became part of the Sino-Soviet Split.
Sun Yet Seng
(November 12, 1866–March 12, 1925) was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader who had a significant role in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. A founder of the Kuomintang, Sun was the first provisional president when the Republic of China was founded in 1912. He developed a political philosophy known as the Three Principles of the People which still heavily influences Chinese governments today. Sun was a uniting figure in post-imperial China, and remains unique among 20th century Chinese politicians for being widely revered in both mainland China and Taiwan. In Taiwan, he is known by the posthumous name National Father, Mr. Sun Chungshan). On the mainland, Sun is also seen as a Chinese nationalist, and is highly regarded as the Forerunner of the Revolution Although Sun is considered one of the greatest leaders of modern China, his life was one of constant struggle and frequent exile. He quickly fell out of power in the newly-founded Republic, and led successive revolutionary governments as a challenge to the warlords who controlled much of the nation. Sun did not live to see his party bring about consolidation of power over the country and his fragile political alliance with the Chinese Communists fell apart after his death, but Sun grew in stature to become a greatly revered figure among Nationalists and Communists alike.
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925. He commanded the Northern Expedition to unify China against the warlords and emerged victorious in 1928 as the overall leader of the Republic of China (ROC). Chiang led China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which Chiang's stature within China weakened but his international prominence grew. During the Chinese Civil War (1926–1949), Chiang attempted to eradicate the Chinese Communists but ultimately failed, forcing his government to retreat to Taiwan, where he continued serving as the President of the Republic of China and Director-General of the KMT for the remainder of his life.
Third reich
Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the control of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP)), or Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as chancellor and head of state.
Kristallnacht
Die Kristallnacht, also known as die Reichskristallnacht (literally Imperial Crystal Night), die Pogromnacht and in English as the Night of Broken Glass, was a massive nationwide pogrom in Germany and Austria on the night of November 9, 1938 (including the early hours of the following day). It was directed at Jewish citizens throughout the country and portended the events of the Holocaust.
Nanjing
The Nanking Massacre, commonly known as "The Rape of Nanking", refers to the most infamous of the war crimes committed by the Japanese military during World War II—acts carried out by Japanese troops in and around Nanjing (then known in English as Nanking), China, after it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. The duration of the massacre is not clearly defined, although the period of carnage lasted well into the next six weeks, until early February 1938.During the occupation of Nanjing, the Japanese army committed numerous atrocities, such as rape, looting, arson and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians. Although the executions began under the pretext of eliminating Chinese soldiers disguised as civilians, a large number of innocent men were wrongfully identified as enemy combatants and killed. A largnumber of women and children were also killed, as rape and murder became more widespread.
The Maginot
The Maginot Line (IPA: [maʒi'no], named after French minister of defense André Maginot) was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and other defenses which France constructed along its borders with Germany and with Italy in the wake of World War I. Generally the term describes either the entire system or just the defences facing Germany while the Alpine Line is used for the Franco-Italian defences. The French believed the fortification would provide time for their army to mobilize in the event of attack and also compensate for numerical weakness. The success of static, defensive combat in World War I was a key influence on French thinking.
Blitzkrieg
is a popular name for an offensive operational-level military doctrine which involves an initial bombardment followed by employment of mobile forces attacking with speed and surprise to prevent an enemy from implementing a coherent defense. The doctrines resulting in the blitzkrieg effect were developed in the years after World War I as a method to help prevent trench warfare and linear warfare.Blitzkrieg was first used on any serious scale by the German Wehrmacht in World War II. While operations in Poland were rather conventional (see detailed discussion below), later operations early in the war — particularly the invasions of France, The Netherlands and initial operations in the Soviet Union — were effective owing to surprise penetrations, general enemy unexpectence and an inability to react swiftly enough to the superior German military doctrines. The Germans faced numerically superior forces and technically superior vehicles in the invasion of France, proving the early effectiveness of their tactics and strategies. From this peak, the Wehrmacht's cohesion deteriorated. Heinz Guderian, an early implementer of blitzkrieg, was relieved of command on 25 December 1941, for ordering a withdrawal in contradiction of Hitler's "standfast" order. This showed a fundamental doctrinal difference between Hitler's view of military strategy and the Wehrmacht's proven system. This event undermined confidence and military effectiveness from that point onwards. After this point, German offensive operations were severely limited- the last major blitzkrieg style operation in the East was at Kursk in July 1943, and the last in the west was the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944. By this period, the Allies had developed effective defensive tactics to deal with these operations (see below).
Dieppe
The Dieppe Raid, also known as The Battle of Dieppe or Operation Jubilee, during World War II, was an Allied attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France on August 19, 1942. Over 6,000 infantrymen, predominantly Canadian, were supported by large British naval and air contingents. Intended to seize and hold a major port for a short period, both to prove it was possible and to gather intelligence from prisoners and captured materials while assessing the German responses, the raid was also intended to use air power to draw the Luftwaffe into a large, planned encounter.The raid was generally considered to be an unmitigated tactical disaster, with no major objectives accomplished and 4,384 of the 6,086 men who made it ashore killed, wounded, or captured. The RAF and RCAF failed to lure the Luftwaffe into open battle, and lost 119 planes, whilst the Royal Navy suffered 555 casualties. The catastrophe at Dieppe may have later influenced Allied preparations for Operation Torch and D-Day
Dresden Firebombing
The bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945 remains one of the more controversial events of World War II. Early in 1945, the Allies' political-military leadership started to consider how they might aid the Soviets with the use of the strategic bomber force. The plan was to bomb Berlin and several other eastern cities in conjunction with the Soviet advance. In the summer of 1944, plans for a large and intense offensive targeting these cities had been discussed under the code name Operation Thunderclap, but then shelved on August 16[2]. These were re-examined, but the decision was made to draw up a more limited plan. Sir Charles Portal, the Chief of the Air Staff, noted on January 26, 1945, that "a severe blitz will not only cause confusion in the evacuation from the East, but will also hamper the movement of troops from the West".[3] However, he mentioned that aircraft diverted to such raids should not be taken away from the current primary tasks of destroying oil production facilities, jet aircraft factories, and submarine yards. Sir Norman Bottomley, the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff requested Arthur "Bomber" Harris, Commander-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command and an ardent supporter of area bombing, to undertake attacks on Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz as soon as moon and weather conditions allowed.
Holocaust
The Holocaust is the name applied to the systematic state-led persecution and genocide of the Jews of Europe and North Africa along with other groups during World War II by Nazi Germany and collaborators[1]. Early elements of the Holocaust include the Kristallnacht pogrom of the 8th and 9th November 1938 and the T-4 Euthanasia Program, leading to the later use of killing squads and extermination camps in a massive and centrally organized effort to exterminate every possible member of the populations targeted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.The Jews of Europe were the main victims of the Holocaust in what the Nazis called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question". The commonly used figure for the number of Jewish victims is six million, though estimates by historians using, among other sources, records from the Nazi regime itself, range from five million to seven million. About 220,000 Sinti and Roma were killed in the Holocaust (some estimates are as high as 800,000), between a quarter to a half of the European population. Other groups deemed "racially inferior" or "undesirable": Soviet military prisoners of war and civilians on occupied territories including Russians and other Slavs, Poles (3 million Polish Jews, and 2 million Polish gentiles, total 5 million Poles killed in Holocaust), the mentally or physically disabled, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists and political dissidents, trade unionists, Freemasons, and some Catholic and Protestant clergy, were also persecuted and killed. Many scholars do not include the Nazi persecution of all of these groups in the definition of the Holocaust, with some scholars limiting the Holocaust to the genocide of the Jews- some to genocide of the Jews, Roma, and disabled- and some to all groups targeted by Nazi racism.[2] Taking all these other groups into account, however, the total death toll rises considerably, estimates generally place the total number of Holocaust victims at 9 to 11 million, though some estimates have been as high as 26 million.[3]
Hiroshima
the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hiroshima gained municipality status on April 1, 1889 and was designated on April 1, 1980 by government ordinance. As of 2004, the city's mayor is Tadatoshi Akiba.
Yalta conference The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from February 4 to 11, 1945 between the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. The delegations were headed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, respectively. The key Allied leaders, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill, were known as the “Big Three” because of the might of the nations they represented and their peaceful collaboration during World War II. These three leaders met together only twice during World War II, but when they did conference, their decisions changed the course of history
Truman doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was part of the United States' political response to perceived aggression by the Soviet Union in Europe and the Middle East, illustrated through the communist movements in Iran, Turkey and Greece. As a result, American foreign policy towards the USSR shifted, as George F. Kennan phrased it, to that of containment. Many believe the Truman Doctrine to be the first in a succession of containment moves by the United States, followed by economic containment (The Marshall Plan) and military containment (the creation of NATO.) Under the Truman Doctrine, the United States was prepared to send any money, equipment, or military force to countries that were threatened by the communist government, thereby offering assistance to those countries resisting communism. In U.S. President Harry S Truman's words, it became "the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."President Truman made the proclamation in an address to the U.S. Congress on March 12, 1947 amid the crisis of the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). Truman insisted that if Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid that they needed, they would inevitably fall to communism with consequences throughout the region.Truman signed the act into law on May 22, 1947 which granted $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece. It should be noted however that this American aid was in many ways a replacement for British aid which the British were no longer financially in a position to give. The policy of containment and opposition to communists in Greece for example was carried out by the British before 1947 in many of the same ways it was carried out afterward by the Americans
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, known officially following its enactment as the European Recovery Program (ERP), was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding the allied countries of Europe and repelling communism after World War II. The initiative was named for United States Secretary of State George Marshall and was largely the creation of State Department officials, especially William L. Clayton and George F. Kennan.The reconstruction plan was developed at a meeting of the participating European states in July 1947. The Marshall Plan offered the same aid to the Soviet Union and its allies, if they would make political reforms and accept certain outside controls. In fact, America worried that Russia would take advantage of the plan and therefore made the terms deliberately hard for the USSR to accept. The plan was in operation for four fiscal years beginning in July 1947. During that period some $13 billion of economic and technical assistance, equivalent to around $130 billion in 2006, when adjusted for inflation, was given to help the recovery of the European countries which had joined in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Blockade, one of the first major crises of the Cold War, occurred from June 24, 1948 to May 11, 1949 when the Soviet Union blocked railroad and street access to West Berlin. The crisis abated after the Soviet Union did not act to stop American, British and French airlifts of food and other provisions to the Western-held sectors of Berlin following the Soviet blockade - referred to as Operation Vittles. The Berlin Blockade was one of the largest blockades in history.
Marshall Tito
(May 7, (originally May 25th on the official birth certificate) 1892 – May 4, 1980) was the leader of Yugoslavia between the end of World War II and his death in 1980.
Mao Zedong
September 9, 1976- Mao Tse-tung in Wade-Giles) was the chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1943 and the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1945 until his death in 1976. Under his leadership, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) became the ruling party of Mainland China after victory over Chinese Nationalists, the Kuomintang, in the Chinese Civil War. On October 1, 1949, Mao declared the formation of the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square. From the 1950s until his death, Mao initiated various economic and political campaigns, such as the Anti-Rightist Campaign, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people. His knowledge of these deaths is disputed.With Zhu De, Mao co-founded the People's Liberation Army as the Red Army on August 1, 1927 after Chiang Kai-Shek began leading a series of purges against the Communists. After gaining power, Mao initiated a transformation of the economic and social system through a process of collectivisation, transformed China into a Communist state, and contributed to the Sino-Soviet Split.Mao Zedong is sometimes referred to as Chairman Mao in the West and in China simply as the Chairman. At the height of his personality cult, Mao was commonly known in China as the "Four Greats": "Great Teacher, Great Leader, Great Supreme Commander, Great Helmsman". Mao was an avid reader, particularly of Chinese history and it has been argued that his skill at outmaneuvering his political opponents as well as his belief in the overriding importance of unifying and revolutionizing China, regardless of the sacrifices imposed on his people, owed much to his understanding of Chinese imperial history. His political writings were influential in the development of Marxist thought and he also wrote poetry which retains some popularity in China.
Satyagraha
Satyagraha is the philosophy of nonviolent resistance most famously employed by Mohandas Gandhi in forcing an end to the British Raj and also against apartheid in South Africa. Satya - truth- implying openness, honesty, and fairness. Ahimsa - refusal to inflict injury upon others. Tapasya - willingness for self-sacrifice.
Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee or Lee Seungman (March 26, 1875 – July 19, 1965) was the first president of South Korea. His rule, from April 1948 to April 1960, remains controversial, affected by Cold War tensions on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere. Rhee was a strong anti-Communist, and led South Korea through the Korean War. His presidency ended in resignation following popular protests against a disputed election. He died in exile in Hawaii.
Korean War
The Korean War from June 25, 1950 to cease-fire on July 27, 1953 (the war has not ended officially), was a conflict between North Korea and South Korea. Some consider this Cold War-era conflict to have been a proxy war between the United States and its allies, and the Communist powers of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The principal combatants were North Korea, supported by People's Volunteer Army (PVA) of Communist China, and later Soviet combat advisors, aircraft pilots, and weapons- and South Korea, supported principally by the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (UK), and the Philippines, although many other nations sent troops under the aegis of the United Nations (UN).In South Korea, it is often called "6⬢25" (the date of the start of the conflict), or, more formally, Hanguk Jeonjaeng ).In the United States, the conflict was termed a police action, as the Korean Conflict, under the aegis of the United Nations rather than a war, largely in order to remove the necessity of a Congressional declaration of war.
The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) was founded in 1909, as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. The D'Arcy Oil Concession was granted to the British during the reign of Mozzafar-al-Din Shah Qajar, a Turkmen descent who was deeply hated by the Iranians, effectively gave away control of Iranian oil reserves to Britain for 60 years The Anglo-Persian Oil Company continued its large Persian operations although it changed its name to the AIOC in 1935. By 1950 Abadan had become the world's largest refinery. In spite of diversification the AIOC still relied heavily on its Iranian oil fields for three-quarters of its supplies, and controlled all oil in Iran. The Iranian government wanted to take a significant share in the company, and would not negotiate when only offered a larger share of revenues. This culminated in the nationalization of the industry by the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1951, which led to the Abadan Crisis. Foreign countries refused to take Iranian oil and Abadan refinery was closed. AIOC withdrew from Iran and traded off its other reserves until military intervention restored its ownership in 1954, although it lost its monopoly. It was forced to operate as one member of a consortium of Iranian Oil Participants.
Mohammed Mossadegh
Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh (May 19, 1882 - March 5, 1967) was the democratically elected prime minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953. He was removed from power by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, and pro-monarchy forces in a complex coup led by British and US intelligence agencies. After negotiations for higher oil royalties failed, on March 15, 1951 the Iranian parliament (the Majlis) voted to nationalize Iran's oil industry and seize control of the British-owned and operated Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). Prime minister General Haji-Ali Razmara, elected in June 1950, had opposed the nationalization bill on technical grounds. He was assassinated on March 7, 1951 by Khalil Tahmasebi, a member of the militant fundamentalist group Fadayan-e Islam. On April 28, 1951, the Majlis named Mossadegh as new prime minister by a vote of 79-12. Aware of Mossadegh's rising popularity and political power, the young Shah was left with no other option but to give assent to the Parliament's vote. Shortly after coming to office, Mossadegh enforced the Oil Nationalization Act, which involved the expropriation of the AIOC's assets.Responding to the latter, the British government announced it would not allow Mossadegh's government to export any oil produced in the formerly British-controlled factories. A blockade of British ships was established in the Persian Gulf to prevent any attempts by Iran to ship oil out of the country. Furthermore, the AIOC withdrew its British trained technicians when Mossadegh nationalized the oil industry. Thus, many of the refineries lacked properly trained technicians that were needed to continue production. An economic stalemate thus ensued, with Mossadegh's government refusing to allow any British involvement in Iran's oil industry, and Britain refusing to allow any oil to leave Iran.Since Britain had long been Iran's primary oil-consumer, the stalemate was particularly hard on Iran. While the country had once boasted over a 100 million dollars a year in exports to Britain, after nationalization, the same oil industry began increasing Iran's debt by nearly 10 million dollars a month. The Abadan Crisis quickly plunged the country into economic difficulties.
Bandung Conference
The Bandung Conference was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, organized by Egypt, Indonesia, Burma, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, and Pakistan. The conference's stated aims were to promote Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose colonialism or neocolonialism by the United States, the Soviet Union, or any other imperialistic nation. The conference met April 18-April 24, 1955, in Bandung, Indonesia, and was coordinated by Indonesian Foreign Minister Ruslan Abdulgani.
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also known as the Suez War or 1956 War (commonly known in the Arab world as the Tripartite aggression- other names include the Suez-Sinai war, 1956 Arab-Israeli War, Suez Campaign, Kadesh Operation, and Operation Musketeer) was a war fought on Egyptian territory in 1956. The conflict pitted Egypt against a secret alliance between France, the United Kingdom and Israel. This secret alliance against Egypt largely took place as a result of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser's goal of nationalizing the Suez Canal, which was an important asset to French and British economies. The alliance between the two European nations and Israel was largely one of convenience- the European nations had economic and trading interests in the Suez Canal, while Israel wanted to reopen the canal for Israeli shipping and end Egyptian-supported guerrilla incursions. When the USSR threatened to intervene on behalf of Egypt, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lester B. Pearson feared a larger war and forced the British and French to withdraw, and his formation of a United Nations Peace Corps won him the Nobel Peace Prize.The Crisis resulted in the resignation of the British Conservative Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, and marked the completion of the shift in the global balance of power from European powers to the United States and the Soviet Union.
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy (born in Kaposvár, Hungary June 7, 1896, executed June 16, 1958) was Prime Minister of Hungary on two occasions.Nagy was born in a peasant family and was apprenticed to a locksmith, before fighting in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I on the Eastern Front. He was taken prisoner in 1915. He then became a Communist, fighting in the Red Army. He returned to Hungary after WWI and served in the brief government of Béla Kun. In 1929 he went to the Soviet Union, becoming involved in agricultural research, and working in the Hungarian section of Comintern.During the time Nagy spent in the Soviet Union, many non-Russian communists were arrested, imprisoned and executed by the Soviet government. In particular, Béla Kun who led the Hungarian Soviet Republic disappeared in the mid 1930s. This incident spurred panic amongst Hungarian communist emigres, as documented in Julius Hay's Born 1900. At this time Nagy became an agent for the Soviet security apparatus. This was common practice, and the fact that Nagy survived the 1930s and 1940s indicates that he operated for the security apparatus. (see Granville 1995 and TsKhSD, F. 89, Per. 45, Dok. 82.). It is apparent that Nagy had ceased operating for the Soviet security apparatus by the late 1940s, as at this time he fell from ministerial positions in Hungary.In 1944 he returned to Hungary again, and served in the Communist government, as Minister of Agriculture and in other posts, becoming an expert on peasants' welfare.After two years as Prime Minister (1953-1955), during which he promoted his "New Course" Nagy was forced to resign and was expelled from the Communist Party by hardline colleagues, including First Secretary Mátyás Rákosi as a result of the liberalizing tendency that he showed in this office. He then spent time teaching. He became Prime Minister again during the brief anti-Soviet revolution in 1956, through popular support, replacing the hardliner András Hegedűs. But was forced to work with hardliner Ernő Gerő, who remained the First Party Secretary. On 31 October he announced Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and on 1 November he appealed through the UN for the great powers, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, to recognize Hungarian neutrality. (Gyorgy Litvan, The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, (Longman House: New York, 1996), 55-59) When the revolution was crushed by the Soviet invasion of the country, Nagy, with others, secured sanctuary in the Yugoslav Embassy. He was arrested, 22 November, in violation of a guarantee of free passage and taken to Romania. He was then returned to Budapest and executed (hanged), with others, after a secret trial in June 1958.He was buried along with others in a distant corner (section 301) of the Municipal Cemetery outside Budapest to which access was not allowed until 1989. Next to his grave stands a memorial bell inscribed in Latin, Hungarian, German and English. The Latin reads: "Vivos voco Mortuos plango Fulgura frango," which is translated as: "I call the living, I mourn the dead, I chase the lightning."During the time when the Communist leadership of Hungary would not mark or allow access to his true burial place, a cenotaph in his honor was placed in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. In 1989 he was rehabilitated and his remains reburied in a state funeral.
Treaty of Rome
The Treaty of Rome refers to the treaty which established the European Economic Community (EEC) and was signed by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (the latter three as part of the Benelux) on March 25, 1957. Its original full name was Treaty establishing the European Economic Community -- however the Treaty of Maastricht amended it and among other things removed the word "Economic" from the name of both the community and the treaty. The treaty is therefore now generally called the Treaty establishing the European Community or the EC Treaty.Another treaty was signed the same day establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) : both treaties in conjunction with the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, which expired in 2002, have become known as the Treaties of Rome (plural). As well the Treaty of Rome as the Euratom Treaty came into force on 1 January 1958.The original Treaty was amended by all the subsequent treaties- the Treaty of Nice sought to consolidate all treaties into one document but the EC Treaty as amended remains a single section within this, with its own article numbering.Though the entry in force of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 was a further step in the direction of European integration, most decisions of the institutions of the Union are still taken on the legal basis of EC Treaty, which remains the main source of communitary legislation.
Nikita Khrushchev
(April 17, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. He was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. He was removed from power by his party colleagues in 1964 and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. He spent the last seven years of his life under house arrest.
U-2 incident
The U-2 Crisis of 1960 occurred when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. The U.S. denied the true purpose of the plane, but were forced to admit it when the U.S.S.R produced the living pilot and the largely intact plane to corroborate their claim of being spied on aerially. The incident worsened East-West relations during the Cold War and was a great embarrassment for the United States.On May 1, 1960 (fifteen days before the scheduled opening of an East-West summit conference in Paris), a U.S. Lockheed U-2 spy plane, piloted by Gary Powers, left Peshawar, Pakistan intending to overfly the Soviet Union and land at Bodø, Norway. The goal of the mission was to photograph ICBM development sites in and around Sverdlovsk and Plesetsk in the Soviet Union. Attempts to intercept the plane by Soviet fighters failed due to the U-2's extreme altitude, but eventually one of the 14 SA-Guideline surface-to-air missiles launched at the plane managed to get close enough. According to Soviet defector Viktor Belenko, a Soviet fighter pursuing Powers was caught and destroyed in the missile salvo [1]. Powers' aircraft was badly damaged, and crashed near Yekaterinburg, deep inside Soviet territory. Powers was captured after making a parachute landing
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an Austrian economist and political philosopher, noted for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought in the mid-20th century. Widely regarded as one of the most influential members of the Austrian School of economics, he also made significant contributions in the fields of jurisprudence and cognitive science. He shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with ideological rival Gunnar Myrdal.
Simone De Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986) was a French author and philosopher. She wrote novels, monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues, essays, biographies, and an autobiography. She is now best known for her 1949 treatise Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex), a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism.
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-born zoologist and marine biologist whose landmark book, Silent Spring, is often credited with having launched the global environmental movement. Silent Spring had an immense effect in the United States, where it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy.
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah (September 21, 1909 – April 27, 1972) was an African anti-colonial leader, founder and first president of the modern Ghanaian state and one of the most influential Pan-Africanists of the 20th century.
Salvador Allende
Salvador Isabelino del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Allende Gossens (June 26, 1908 – September 11, 1973) was a Chilean Socialist Party politician whose career in government spanned nearly 40 years, as a senator, deputy, and cabinet minister. Allende was elected President of Chile in the election of 1970 after three previous attempts for the office in 1952, 1958, and 1964. He imposed a controversial populist, socialist, Soviet-aligned agenda which led to a state of civil unrest amid strikes, lockouts, U.S. economic sanctions, and calls by some sectors of the opposition for the military to restore order. Allende allegedly (though it is unclear if he was assasinated by the Chilean Military) committed suicide during his forcible removal from power on September 11, 1973, less than a month after his condemnation by the Chamber of Deputies of Chile's Resolution of August 22, 1973. (Commander of the Army Augusto Pinochet used the opportunity to seize total power by subsequently refusing to return governmental authority back to the legislature.)
SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative)
Strategic defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), commonly called Star Wars after the popular science fiction movies, was a system proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983[1] to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the previous strategic offense doctrine of mutual assured destruction. Though it was never fully implemented, the research and technologies of SDI paved the way for the Anti-ballistic missile systems of today.
Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)
is the doctrine of military strategy in which a full scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. It is based on the theory of deterrence according to which the deployment of strong weapons is essential to threaten the enemy in order to prevent the use of the very same weapons. It is also cited by gun control opponents as the reason why crime rates sometimes tend to be lower in heavily armed populations. The strategy is effectively a form of Nash Equilibrium, in which both sides are attempting to avoid their worst possible outcome--Nuclear Annihilation
Deng Xiaoping
August 22, 1904–February 19, 1997) was a leader in the Communist Party of China (CPC). Deng never held office as the head of state or the head of government, but served as the de facto ruler of the People's Republic of China from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. He pioneered "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and Chinese economic reform, also known as the "socialist market economy". Anti-revisionist communists accuse him of returning the country to capitalism. Deng formed the core of the "second generation" CPC leadership. Under his tutelage, China developed one of the fastest growing economies in the world while keeping the Communist Party in tight overall control.
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution was the 1979 revolution that transformed Iran from a pro-western constitutional monarchy, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to an Islamic, populist theocratic republic under the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The revolution has been divided into two stages: the first stage saw an alliance of liberal, leftist, and religious groups oust the Shah- the second stage, often named the Islamic Revolution, saw the Ayatollah's rise to power.The Shah had been in power since 1941, with a brief interruption in 1953- through the 1960s and 1970s he faced continued opposition, from religious figures as well as from urban middle classes, many of which supported a constitutional democracy with fewer powers resting with the Shah. The Shah enforced a strict regime, imprisoning hundreds of political activists, and enforcing censorship laws. At the same time, however, living conditions for the people improved significantly, and many basic human and democratic rights were established (e.g. extending suffrage to women), which were fiercely opposed by Mullas who opposed the Shah. The Shah was denounced by many for being a puppet of the United States.
Gang of Four
was a group of Communist Party leaders in the People's Republic of China who were arrested and removed from their positions in 1976, following the death of Mao Zedong, and were blamed for the events of the Cultural Revolution. The group consisted of Mao's widow Jiang Qing and three of her close associates, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen. Two other men who were already dead in 1976, Kang Sheng and Xie Fuzhi, were named as having been part of the "gang."The removal of this group from power marked the end of the Cultural Revolution, which had been launched by Mao in 1966 as part of his power struggle with leaders such as Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and Peng Zhen. Mao placed Jiang, who before 1966 had not taken a public political role, in charge of the country’s cultural apparatus. Zhang, Yao and Wang were party leaders in Shanghai who had played leading roles in securing that city for Mao during the Cultural Revolution. The military leader, Lin Biao, was also part of this group until his death in a plane crash in 1971.Around Lin's death, the Cultural Revolution began to lose impetus. The new commanders of the People's Liberation Army demanded that order be restored in light of the dangerous situation along the border with the Soviet Union (see Sino-Soviet split). The Premier, Zhou Enlai, who had accepted the Cultural Revolution but never fully supported it, regained his authority, and used it to bring Deng Xiaoping back into the Party leadership at the 10th Party Congress in 1973. Liu Shaoqi had meanwhile died in prison in 1969.It is now officially claimed by Chinese propaganda agencies that Mao in his last year turned against Jiang and her associates, and that after his death on 9 September 1976 they attempted to seize power (the same allegation made against Lin Biao in 1971). Even 26 years later, it is impossible to know the full truth of these events. It does appear that their influence was in decline before Mao's death: when Zhou Enlai died in January 1976, he was succeeded not by one of the radicals but by the unknown Hua Guofeng.
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)) is a political and paramilitary organization regarded by Arab nations as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." Founded by the Arab League in 1964, its goal was the destruction of the State of Israel through armed struggle, and replacing it with an "independent Palestinian state" between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. More recently, the PLO adopted a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side, as its goal. A key argument for this aspiration is that Palestinian Arabs are entitled to the right of self-determination and sovereignty in their own land, and are also entitled to the right of return. [1] In 1993, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat recognized the State of Israel in an official letter to its prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, though the PLO charter was amended in 1988 to recognise Israel and consign its objectives to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside it. In response to Arafat's letter, Israel recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Arafat was the Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee from 1969 until his death in 2004. He was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen).
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, (born 13 October 1925) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.She was the longest serving British Prime Minister in the 20th century, the longest since Gladstone, and had the longest single period in office since Lord Liverpool. She is also the only woman to be UK Prime Minister or leader of a major British political party. Undoubtedly one of the most significant British politicians in recent political history, she was both loved and loathed by many people.She was also Secretary of State for Education and Science from 1970 to 1974, and Leader of the Opposition from 1975 to 1979. She won three successive general elections as party leader, the only British politician to do so in the 20th century. However, although she had strong support from the largest minority of voters for most of her tenure she eventually resigned after failing to win outright a leadership election triggered by opponents within her own party, and was replaced by John Major in 1990. She is an elder stateswoman of the Conservative Party and the figurehead of a political philosophy that became known as Thatcherism, which involves selectively reduced public spending in some areas, lower direct taxation, de-regulation, a monetarist policy, and a programme of privatisation of government-owned industries. Even before coming to power she was nicknamed the "Iron Lady" in Soviet media (because of her vocal opposition to communism), an appellation that stuck.Thatcher served as Secretary of State for Education and Science in the government of Edward Heath from 1970 to 1974, and successfully challenged Heath for the Conservative leadership in 1975. As party Leader she was undefeated at the polls, winning the 1979, 1983 and 1987 general elections. In foreign relations, she maintained the "special relationship" with the United States, and formed a close bond with Ronald Reagan. In 1982 her government dispatched a Royal Navy task force to retake the Falkland Islands from Argentina in the Falklands War.The profound changes Thatcher set in motion as Prime Minister altered much of the economic and cultural landscape of the United Kingdom. She curtailed the power of the trade unions, attempted to cut back the role of the state in business, and dramatically expanded home ownership, all of which were intended to create a more entrepreneurial culture. She also aimed to cut back the welfare state and foster a more flexible labour market which she believed would create jobs and could adapt to market conditions. Exacerbated by the global recession of the early 1980s, her policies caused large-scale unemployment and contributed to the continued 'de-industrialisation' of the UK. She is particularly disliked in the old mining areas of Britain, such as South Wales, County Durham and the southern parts of Yorkshire. In a speech on 19th June, 1984, she had referred to the striking miners as "the enemy within", who had to be defeated for the good of liberty and democracy.
Lech Walesa
Lech Wałęsa (born September 29, 1943, Popowo, Poland) is a Polish politician, a former trade union and human rights activist, and also a former electrician. He co-founded Solidarity the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995 (succeeded by Aleksander Kwaśniewski).
Mikhail Gorbachev
commonly anglicized as Gorbachev (born March 2, 1931) was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. His attempts at reform led to the end of the Cold War, but also caused the end of the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Gorbachev joined the CPSU in 1952 at the age of 21. In 1966, at age 35, he obtained a correspondence degree as an agronomist-economist from the Agricultural Institute. His career moved forward rapidly, and in 1970, he was appointed First Secretary for Agriculture and the following year made a member of the Central Committee. In 1972, he headed a Soviet delegation to Belgium and two years later, in 1974, he was made a Representative to the Supreme Soviet, and Chairman of the Standing Commission on Youth Affairs.In 1979, Gorbachev was promoted to the Politburo. There, he received the patronage of Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB and also a native of Stavropol, and was promoted during Andropov's brief time as leader of the Party before Andropov's death in 1984. With responsibility over personnel, working together with Andropov, 20 percent of the top echelon of government ministers and regional governors were replaced, often with younger men. During this time Grigory Romanov, Nikolai Ryzhkov, and Yegor Ligachev were elevated, the latter two working closely with Gorbachev, Ryzhkov on economics, Ligachev on personnel. He was also close to Konstantin Chernenko, Andropov's successor, serving as second secretary.
Bhopal
is a city in central India. It is the capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Bhopal has earned the sobriquet, On December 3, 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal leaked 40 tons of toxic methyl isocyanate gas, which killed more than 3 thousand people outright and injured anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others. Another 12,000 deaths have officially been ascribed to the disaster's effects, although campaign groups put the figure much higher.
Stephen Biko
(18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a noted nonviolent anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s. He was a student at the University of Natal Medical School. He was initially involved with the multiracial National Union of South African Students, but after he became convinced that black, Indian and Colored students needed an organisation of their own, he helped found the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) in 1968 and was elected its first president. The SASO evolved into the influential Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). In 1972 Biko became honorary president of the Black People's Convention. He was banned during the height of apartheid in March 1973 meaning that he was not allowed to speak to more than one person at a time, was restricted to certain areas, and could not make speeches in public. It was also forbidden to quote anything he said, including speeches or simple conversations, or to otherwise mention him. In spite of the repression of the apartheid government, Biko and the BCM played a large role in organizing the protests which led to the Soweto riots on 16 June 1976.
Nelson Mendella
(born 18 July 1918) was the first President of South Africa to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections. Before his presidency he was a prominent anti-apartheid activist who, while imprisoned for 27 years, was involved in the planning of underground armed resistance activities. The armed struggle was, for Mandela, a last resort- he remained steadfastly committed to non-violence. Through his 27-year imprisonment, much of it spent in a cell on Robben Island, Mandela became the most widely known persona in the struggle against South African apartheid. Although the apartheid regime and nations sympathetic to it considered him and the ANC to be terrorist, the armed struggle was an integral part of the overall campaign against aparteid. The switch in policy to that of reconciliation, which Mandela pursued upon his release in 1990, facilitated a peaceful transition to fully-representative democracy in South Africa.Having received over a hundred awards over four decades, Mandela is currently a celebrated elder statesman who continues to voice his opinion on topical issues. In South Africa he is often known as Madiba, an honorary title adopted by elders of Mandela's clan. The title has come to be synonymous with Nelson Mandela. Many South Africans also refer to him reverently as 'mkhulu' (grandfather). The respect and love South Africans have for Madiba is immeasurable.
Apartheid
which means "apartness" or "separateness" in Afrikaans, was a system of racial segregation that operated in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. Under apartheid, the races, classified by law into White, Black, Indian, and Coloured groups, were separated, each with their own homelands and institutions. In practice this prevented non-white people, even if actually resident in white South Africa, from having a vote or influence, restricting their rights to faraway homelands of poor-quality land which they may never have visited. Education, medical care and other public services were sometimes claimed to be separate but equal, but those available to non-white people were in fact far inferior.
United Fruit Company
(1899–1970) was a major American corporation that traded tropical fruit (primarily bananas and pineapples) grown in Third World plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. Critics often accused the company of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the so-called "banana republics." The United Fruit Company was known as la frutera ("the fruit company") or Mamita Yunay ("Mommy United") in Central America, where it was most active. For much of the 20th century, it dominated the exportation of bananas from Latin America and maintained a virtual monopoly on the banana trade in certain regions. The company had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries.
Dreyfus Affair
was a political scandal which divided France during the 1890s and early 1900s. It involved the wrongful conviction of Jewish military officer Alfred Dreyfus for treason
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Uprising was a Chinese rebellion against foreign influence in areas such as trade, politics, religion and technology that occurred in China during the final years of the Qing Dynasty from November 1899 to September 7, 1901[1]. By August 1900, over 230 foreigners, thousands of Chinese Christians, an unknown number of rebels, their sympathizers and innocent bystanders were killed in the ensuing chaos. The uprising crumbled on August 4, 1900 when 20,000 foreign troops entered Beijing.(pg 232. The search for Modern China, Spence)
Open Door Policy
As a specific policy, it was first advanced by the United States, but it was rooted in the typical nation clause of the treaties concluded with China after the Opium War (1839-1842). The Open Door Policy is the current stated policy of the government of the People's Republic of China starting in 1978 with the Chinese economic reform policies under Deng Xiaoping. In 1898, the United States became an East Asian power through the acquisition of the Philippine Islands, and when the partition of China by the European powers and Japan seemed imminent, the U.S. government strove to preserve equal industrial and commercial privileges. In 1899, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay sent notes to the major powers (France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, and Russia), asking them to declare formally that they would uphold Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and would not interfere with the free use of the treaty ports within their spheres of influence in China
King Leopold II
(April 9, 1835 – December 17, 1909), succeeded his father, Leopold I of Belgium, to the Belgian throne in 1865 as Leopold II, King of the Belgians, and remained king until his death. Outside of Belgium, however, he is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken by the King to extract rubber and ivory, which relied on slavery and is held responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans.
Jomo Kenyatta
(October 20, 1892 ?– August 22, 1978) was an African politician, the first Prime Minister (1963–1964) and President (1964–1978) of an independent Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan Nation. Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is named after him. His reputation with the British government was marred by his assumed involvement with the Mau Mau Rebellion. He was arrested in October 1952, accused of organizing the Mau Mau and on April 8, 1953 was sentenced to seven years in prison and hard labour, had a lot of western education in Moscow, and London. In elections in May 1963 Kenyatta's KANU won 83 seats out of 124. On June 1 Kenyatta became prime minister of the autonomous Kenyan government, and was known as mzee (a Swahili word meaning old man or elder). At this stage he asked white settlers not to leave Kenya and supported reconciliation. He retained the role of prime minister after independence was declared on December 12, 1963. On December 12, 1964, Kenya became a republic, with Kenyatta as executive president
Great Leap Forward
of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social plan to use China's vast population to rapidly transform mainland China from a primarily agrarian economy dominated by peasant farmers into a modern, industrialized communist society. Mao Tse-Tung based this program on
the Theory of Productive Forces.The Leap was initiated and led by Mao, and carried out by the Chinese Communist Party from 1958 to early 1962. Mao believed that progress and its resulting abundance of goods, if implemented fearlessly, could come in great leaps and bounds. The plan did not achieve the intended results, led to widespread economic dislocation, and is widely regarded both in and out of China as a policy disaster.
Brezhnev Doctrine
was a Soviet policy doctrine, introduced by Leonid Brezhnev in a speech at the Fifth Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party on November 13, 1968, which stated: "When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries." Implicit in this doctrine was that the leadership of the Soviet Union reserved, for itself, the right to define "socialism" and "capitalism". This meant in practice that no country was allowed to leave the Warsaw Pact or to disturb that nation's communist party's monopoly on power.
Six-Day War
also known as the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Six Days' War, or June War, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Following Egypt's blockade of Israeli shipping in the Straits of Tiran and the deployment of its troops in the Sinai near the Israeli border, and after months of increasingly tense border incidents and diplomatic crises, Israel launched what it described as a pre-emptive attack against Egypt. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar, Russian: пѬажская весна) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5, 1968 when Alexander Dubček came to power, and running until August 20 of that year when the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies (except for Romania) invaded the country. The term Prague Spring was coined by Western media after the event became known worldwide, and was eventually adopted in Czechoslovakia itself. It made reference to the Springtime of Peoples, a lyrical title given to the Revolutions of 1848.
Tonkin Gulf Crisis
A clash between naval forces of the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in August 1964 marked a significant turning point in the Cold War struggle for Southeast Asia. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara, grew concerned in early 1964 that the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), America's ally, was losing its fight against Communist Viet Cong guerrillas. The American leaders decided to put military pressure on Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnamese government in Hanoi, which directed and provided military support for the Communists in the South. Johnson, McNamara, and their advisors believed that naval forces could be used to help compel Ho Chi Minh to cease his support for the Viet Cong.
Calvo Doctrine
is a foreign policy doctrine which holds that jurisdiction in international investment disputes lies with the country in which the investment is located. The Calvo Doctrine thus proposed to prohibit diplomatic (or armed) intervention before local resources were exhausted. An investor, under this doctrine, has no recourse but to use the local courts, rather than those of their home country. The principle, named after Carlos Calvo, an Argentine jurist, has been applied throughout Latin America and other areas of the world. Calvo justified his doctrine as necessary to prevent the abuse of the jurisdiction of weak nations by more powerful nations
Tet Offensive
(January 30, 1968 - June 8, 1969) was a series of operational offensives during the Vietnam War, coordinated between battalion strength elements of the National Liberation Front's People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF) or and divisional strength elements of the North Vietnam's People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), against South Vietnam's Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), and United States military and other ARVN-allied forces. The operations are called the Tết Offensive as they were timed to begin on the night of January 30–31, 1968, Tết Nguyên Đán (the lunar new year day). The offensive began spectacularly during celebrations of the Lunar New Year, and sporadic operations associated with the offensive continuing into 1969. The Tết Offensive is sometimes seen, though perhaps incorrectly, as a turning point of the war in Vietnam, in which the NLF and PAVN won an enormous
psychological and propaganda victory leading to the loss of popular support for the War in the United States and the eventual withdrawal of American troops.
Arusha Declaration
was made by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere on 5 February 1967, outlining the principles of Ujamaa(Nyerere's vision of socialism) to develop the nation's economy. The declaration called for an overhaul of the economic system, through African socialism and self-reliance in locally administered villages through a villagization program.
Chipko Movement
was a group of villagers in the Uttarakhand region of India who opposed commercial logging. The movement is best known for its tactic of hugging trees to prevent them being cut down. This gave rise to the term tree hugger for environmentalists. Also, it was notable in that the movement was led by women who were influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. The name of the movement comes from the Hindi word for 'embrace', as the villagers hugged the trees, and prevented the contractors from felling them.
Anwar Sadat Mohamed
(December 25, 1918 – October 6, 1981) was an Egyptian politician and served as the third President of Egypt from September 28, 1970 until his assassination on October 6, 1981. He is considered in Egypt and in the west to be one of the most important Egyptian and Arab leaders in modern history. In 1973, Sadat, together with Syria, led Egypt into the Yom Kippur War with Israel, and succeeded in regaining parts of the Sinai Peninsula, which had been conquered by Israel during the Six-Day War. While the territorial gains of Egypt in this war were limited, approximately 15 km into the Sinai desert, Sadat's initial victories eventually led to regaining and reopening the Suez canal, and both restored Egyptian morale and shook Israeli confidence in their military supremacy, laying the ground for a peace settlement several years later. For many years after, Sadat was known as the "hero of the Crossing".
Minamata
is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It is on the west coast of Kyushu. The city was founded on April 1, 1949. The city is best known as the former site of an environmental disaster caused by industrial pollution of the bay with mercury. Minamata disease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include birth defects, ataxia, sensory disturbance in the hands and feet, damage to vision and hearing, weakness, and in extreme cases, paralysis and death. Because it was brought about by industrial pollution caused by the Chisso Corporation, it is now sometimes called Chisso-Minamata Disease in Japan. It is one of the Four Big Pollution Diseases of Japan.
Frantz Fanon
(July 20, 1925 – December 6, 1961) was perhaps the preeminent thinker of the 20th century on the issue of decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization. His works have inspired anti-colonial liberation movements throughout the world for more than four decades.
Gamal Abdel Nasser
(January 15, 1918 – September 28, 1970) was the second President of Egypt after Muhammad Naguib. He was the foremost exponent of Arab Nationalism during the 1950s and 1960s and creator of a new ideology called Nasserism. He is considered as one of the most important Arab leaders in history. In spite of initially good relations with the Western powers, Nasser gradually began to lose their favor and inclined more and more towards the Soviet bloc. On January 16, 1956, Nasser vowed to liberate Palestine and, in summer 1956, after the U.S. and Britain pulled out of an agreement to help finance the Aswan Dam he announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal to finance the Dam's construction. This angered the United Kingdom and France, who had shares in the Canal. With the help of Israel, the United Kingdom and France waged war upon Egypt. They eventually overran the Sinai and much of Port Said, sending the Egyptian military into retreat.
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide (also known as the Armenian Holocaust or the Armenian Massacre) is a term which refers to the forced mass evacuation and related deaths of hundreds of thousands or over a million Armenians, during the government of the Young Turks from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire. the Turkish government rejects that it was genocide, on the alleged basis that the deaths among the Armenians were not a result of a state-sponsored plan of mass extermination, but of inter-ethnic strife, disease and famine during the turmoil of World War I.
Bolshevik Revolution
also known as the Bolshevik Revolution or November Revolution, was the second phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the first having been instigated by the events around the February Revolution. The October Revolution was led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks and marked the first official Marxist communist revolution of the twentieth century. The crucial revolutionary activities in Petrograd were under the command of the Petrograd Soviet headed by Leon Trotsky and the Military Revolutionary Committee headed by Adolph Joffe. The revolution was widely regarded as a reaction to the strains that had been placed upon Tsarist Russia as a result of the great war. The revolution overthrew the Russian Provisional Government, which led to the Russian Civil War from 1918-1920, followed by the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, at Brest, formerly "Brest-Litovsk", between Russia and the Central Powers, marking Russia's exit from World War I. The treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year but is significant as a chief contributor, although unintentionally, to the independence of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
United States President Woodrow Wilson delivered a speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, outlining Fourteen Points for reconstructing a new Europe following World War I. While many of the points were specific, others were more general, including freedom of the seas, abolishing secret treaties, disarmament, restored sovereignty of some occupied lands, and the right of national self-determination of others. The speech, which was made without prior coordination or consultation with his counterparts in Europe, reached for the highest ideals, and was a precursor to the League of Nations (see point 14). However, history shows that despite the idealism, the post-war reconstruction of Europe adopted only a few of the points.
Balfour Declaration
The name Balfour Declaration is applied to two key British government policy statements associated with Conservative statesman and former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.The first and most known, is the Balfour Declaration of 1917: An official letter from the British Foreign Office headed by Arthur Balfour, the UK's official Foreign Secretary (from December 1916 to October 1919), to Lord Rothschild, who was seen as a representative of the Jewish people. The letter stated that the British government "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". The second, lesser-known, Balfour Declaration of 1926, recognized the self-governing Dominions of the British Empire as fully autonomous states.
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the historical name for the republic that governed Germany from 1919 to 1933. This period of German history is often known as the Weimar period. The republic was named after the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the German Monarchy was abolished following the nation's defeat in World War I. Despite its political form, the new Republic still called itself "Deutsches Reich" (German Empire), the same name used by the German monarchy before 1919. The phrase Weimar Republic is an invention of historians, and was not used officially during its existence.This first attempt to establish a liberal democracy in Germany happened during a time of civil conflict, and failed with the ascent of Adolf Hitler
and the Nazi Party in 1933. Although technically the 1919 constitution was not invalidated until after World War II, the legal measures taken by the Nazi government in 1933 (commonly known as Gleichschaltung) destroyed the mechanisms of a typical democratic system, so 1933 is cited as the end of the Weimar Republic.
Ruhr Crisis
occurred in 1923 when Germany stopped making their reparation payments required by the Treaty of Versailles. In response, France, under Poincaré, occupied the Ruhr Area. This region had coal mines and was the center of steel production for the Germans. This occupation cost the French the good will of the United Kingdom and the United States, who presumably thought this was too harsh an action and not warranted by the circumstances. In response to this loss of good will, France shifted its policy and began to accept the fact that Germany was once again going to be a major player in central European politics. Thus, until the beginning of World War II, France assumed a defensive posture towards Germany instead of an offensive policy as manifested in the Ruhr occupation.
Ukraine Genocide
In 1924 Stalin became the leader of the USSR. He was determined to crush nationalism in Ukraine, and also to break the resistance of the kulaks, the smallholders who had made a success of their farms (and therefore a profit). Their free market system was condemned by communists, whose ideal was 'collectivisation': ownership of land and its produce by the state, which was the workers' employer and paid them a basic wage. In itself, this move towards equality had its virtues. But in practice it's an arrangement that can work only by consent, not by force, and then only if efficiently and honestly run. The peasant farmers of Ukraine - nearly 90% of the population - didn't care for the idea, and resisted it as strongly as they could. Meanwhile, management was now in the hands of communist party officials, who had little or no experience or training, and even less understanding of farming; and not all were either efficient or honest. The Stalin-led regime ruled by fear and force, with the aid of ruthless party activists and the powerful and brutal secret police.

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