Europe since 1970
Terms
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- Helsinki Agreements
- 1975 agreements that all major states agreed upon that recognized the Soviet sphere of influence and the importance human rights
- Yeltsin
- first President of Russia; saved Gorbachev in a attempted hardliner coup
- Tony Blair
- British Labour Prime Minister, 1997 to 2007; staunch American Ally on war against terrorism
- Thatcher
- British Prime Minister that increased the British political, military, and economic strength
- Existentialism
- philosophy that focused on meaninglessness of the age; developed from the disillusionment of the two world wars, and relied on materialism and determinism
- Ayatollah Khomeini
- Shiite religious leader of Iran, led the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and ordered the invasion of the US Embassy
- Camus and Sartre
- two prominent Existentialists
- guest workers
- immigrant workers who originally welcomed in West Germany as an answer to the labor crisis; in the 1990's they became a source of controversy as they called for equal citizenship, especially after the euphoria of reunificaiton in Germany
- Ostpolitik
- Willy Brandt's policy of "opening toward the east" that increased relations between West and East Germany in 1972
- Kosovo
- region of Yugoslavia that had autonomy until Milosovic attempted to crush the Albanian group with ethnic cleansing; 1999 NATO used military strikes against Yugoslavia until the crisis came to an end in 1999
- magic realism
- Postmodern literary movement in Latin America that combined realistic events with dreamlike or fantastic backgrounds, Garcia's One Hundred Years of Solitude is among the best examples
- minimalism
- offshoot of serialism, more harmonic than serialism; best example is Philip Glass
- IRA
- Irish Republican Army that has used terrorism off and on for the past several decades
- Bosnia
- political chaos occurred between Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims after its independence; the 1995 Dayton Accords established some type of stability
- SDI
- Reagan's strategic defense initiative that attempted to create a defensive shield, reducing the threat of MAD; nicknamed "star wars"
- Pope John XXIII
- reigned as Pope from 1958-1963, sparked a Catholic revival and summoned Vatican II that liberalized (modernized) a number of Catholic practices
- Postmodernism
- philosophy that rejects absolute truths; allows for relativism. Artistically, a rise of medieval art such as pottery and weaving became important
- Gulf War
- 1990 US led check on Iraqi power when Hussein invaded Kuwait; the first test of the newly created US-Soviet relations
- Walesa
- Polish Solidarity leader that was arrested in 1981 and became the first President of Poland in 1989; failed to solve the economic issues and lost election by 1991
- glasnost
- Gorbachev's policy of "openness" that allowed for freedom of the press, Pravda was able to print political controversy
- Kohl
- Christian Democrat Chancellor of West Germany that witnessed the unification of Germany
- Evil Empire
- Reagan's nickname for the Soviet Union, illustrated an end to detente
- OPEC
- Organization of Petropleum Exporting Countries; international cartel that inflates price of oil by limiting supply; Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and UAE are prominent members
- the EC
- the European Community that was established to increase European Economies, became the EU with the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht
- Solidarity
- Polish labor movement that called for emancipation from the Warsaw Pact; in 1981 its leaders were imprisoned and the Soviet Union asserted authority
- Falklands War
- conflict between Britain and Argentina; a military junta claimed ownswership of the British colony sparking an international crisis. The British won the war and the military junta lost authority in Argentina
- perestroika
- Gorbachev's policy of "restructuring" of economics, allowed for development of Free Enterprise System
- the Red Brigades and Mafia
- illustration of the Italian chaos where the communist group assassinated key officials and rise of organized crime; the Italian government could not stem the chaos leading to instability
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Soviet dictator from 1985 to 1991 whose policies caused the end of the Soviet Union; revisionist historians identify him as the true Cold War Hero, not Reagan
- Waiting for Godot
- Samuel Beckett's novel that identified the unrealistic; two men wait for an appointment that may or may have not been made; the suspense is not what is going to happen, but what is exactly happening right now
- Pierre Trudeau
- Canadaian Liberal Prime Minister from 1968 to 1984 (with one short break); he liberalized social laws such as legalizing homosexuality and expanding the right to divorce; attempted to bring stability with the French speaking Canadians by creating Official Languages Act, allowing for bilingualism to be the official policy
- Francois Mitterand
- Socialist President of France from 1981 to 1995
- serialism
- dominant Post-War music movement; compositional procedure where an order of succession is set for specific values: pitch, loudness, and units of time.Oliver Messian is identifed as first Serialist
- computers
- technology that has changed the way Western Civilization operates; led to the internet and ever increasing globalism
- Watergate
- US political crisis in which Nixon tried to cover up an irrelevant political event; the cover up, along with the Vietnam Crisis, discredited Nixon forcing him to resign
- Czech Republic and Slovakia
- established as independent states in 1993 because of the ethnic conflicts that could not be resolved during democratic reforms
- Slovenia and Croatia
- the first two Slavic states that declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991
- Honecker
- East German dictator from 1971 to 1989 that ruled with an iron fist, secret police and refusal of reforms; in 1989, his economic policies cause a mass East German migration through Hungary to get to West Germany, which caused him to open borders with West Germany
- Brezhnev
- Soviet Dictator from 1964 to 1982; brought an end to the Dethawing of the Cold War, instituted his doctrine of intervention in Eastern Europe; invaded Afghanistan in 1979
- CIS
- the political organization that took the place of the Soviet Union in 1991; excluded the old Soviet states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia
- Pope John Paul II
- the "rock star" Pope who sought a revived relationship with the global youth; transcended politics calling for leaders to work to prevent war
- New World Order
- from 1989 to 1991, the world believed that earth was progressing into a positive state of affairs with the end of the Cold War, unfortunately this euphoria came to an end with the rise of global terrorism
- Green Parties
- political organizations throughout Europe that have focused attention on the ecological issues, women's rights, and the need for a greater welfare states
- World Trade Center
- Once an icon for the global economy in New York, became a target for terrorism in 1993 and 2001; al Queda was solely responsible for the 9-11 attacks
- Americanism
- the wave of American pop culture that has permeated all aspects of Western Culture; rooted with rock and roll such as Elvis, the music revolution saw a British fad headed by the Beatles
- Theater of the Absurd
- postwar literary movement that reflected the times (1950's and 60's) of disillusionment with fixed ideological belives in politics or religion; a semse of meaninglessness underscored the movement. Samuel Beckett and Gunter Grass are among key writers
- Milosevic
- Yugoslavian dictator that used Serbian nationalism to strengthen his position; he was imprisoned for crimes against humanity with his policy of "ethnic cleansing"
- supply-side economics
- macroecomic movement that called for tax cuts, especially to the industrialists, in hopes to spark new investments in infrastructure; then, with a greater supply being produced, the number of jobs would increase. With more jobs, more money to be spent was created. Ronald Reagan supported this policy in the 1980's
- global village
- McLuhan's optimistic idea that the world would become barrierless because of the growing technology; the new world would have fewer cultural distinctions
- NGO's
- groups that work to cultivate a global perspective; focus on social, environmental, and economic issues while not being politically aligned
- Thatcherism
- Thatcher's economic policy that focused on streamlining the government expenses to strengthen the British Pound; this was done at a social cost
- Vaclav Havel
- Czech playwright that called for the independence of Czechoslovakia by 1989; became the first President of Czechoslavakia and the first President of the Czech Republic in 1993
- Abrastract Expressionism
- American artistic movement that reflected the exuberance of the Post-War world; Jackson Pollack's Lavender Mist seems to be best example