Accelerating Global Change/Contemporary: 1914 - 2014
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| 13885574900 | African National Congress | South African political party formed in 1912; strongly opposed to apartheid | 0 | |
| 13885574901 | apartheid | A series of laws initiated by the Afrikaner National Party in South Africa which was designed to divide South African society by skin color and ethnicity; this system also reserved South Africa's resources for whites |  | 1 |
| 13885574902 | Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini | Religious leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran; led an anti-Western revolution against the Shah of Iran in 1979 | 2 | |
| 13885574903 | Big Bang theory | Theory which suggests that at some moment all matter in the universe was contained in a single point, which is considered the beginning of the universe | 3 | |
| 13885574904 | Vladimir Lenin | Leader of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and premier of the Soviet Union; sparked a Bolshevik revolution in late 1917. |  | 4 |
| 13885574905 | Central Powers | One of the two warring factions in World War I; composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria; also known as the Quadruple Alliance | 5 | |
| 13885574906 | Chiang Kai-shek | Chinese military officer who was leader of the Guomindang; fled to Taiwan after the Chinese Communist Party came to power in China |  | 6 |
| 13885574907 | Chinese Revolution | Prolonged communist movement in China and lasted from 1946 to 1950; resulted in the communist takeover of mainland China |  | 7 |
| 13885574908 | Cold War | Sustained state of political and military tension between members of NATO and members of the Warsaw Pact; dissolution of the Soviet Union was the end of this "conflict" | 8 | |
| 13885574909 | collectivization | Also known as collective farming and communal farming; system in which the holdings of several farmers are run collectively as a unit; imposed by the government in the Soviet Union | 9 | |
| 13885574910 | containment | U.S. policy to prevent the spread of communism abroad during the Cold War; a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Africa, and Vietnam | 10 | |
| 13885574911 | Cuban missile crisis | Thirteen-day confrontation in October 1962 between the Soviet Union and the United States; Soviet missiles moved to Cuban soil in an agreement by Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev; U.S. responds by blockading Cuba; Khrushchev and U.S. President John F. Kennedy reach an agreement in which the Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba in return for an American promise not to invade Cuba |  | 11 |
| 13885574912 | cultural imperialism | Practice of promoting or imposing one's culture on another, usually between powerful societies and less-powerful ones | 12 | |
| 13885574913 | Cultural Revolution | Also known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution; launched by Mao in the late 1960's; aimed to combat the capitalist tendencies he believed had penetrated even the highest ranks of the communist party itself; involved new policies to bring health care and education to the countryside and reinvigorate earlier efforts at rural industrialization under local control | 13 | |
| 13885574914 | decolonization | Process of the dissolution of colonial territories and the establishment of independent nations | 14 | |
| 13885574915 | environmentalism | Ideology which regards the environmental concerns | 15 | |
| 13885574916 | Fascism | Political ideology which was intensely nationalistic; celebrated action and placed faith in charismatic leaders; and condemned individualism, liberalism, feminism, parliamentary democracy, and communism; adopted by Italy, Germany, and Japan in the years following World War I | 16 | |
| 13885574917 | Five-Year Plan | Planned economy in which a committee came together to determine rations | 17 | |
| 13885574918 | UN General Assembly | One of the six principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation; oversee the budget of the United Nations, appoint the non-permanent members to the Security Council, receive reports from other parts of the United Nations and make recommendations in the form of General Assembly Resolutions |  | 18 |
| 13885574919 | genocide | Systematic destruction of all or part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group | 19 | |
| 13885574920 | global warming | Refers to the continuing rise in the average temperature of Earth's climate system; viewed as a result of human emissions of greenhouse gases | 20 | |
| 13885574921 | Great Depression | Economic decline as a result of the crash of the American stock market; lasted from 1929 until World War II; causes drop in world trade, loss of investment, and businesses unable to make profit; countries or colonies tied to exporting one or two products hard hit as the West consumed less. |  | 21 |
| 13885574922 | Great Leap Forward | Mao Zedong's response to distortions of Chinese socialism; promoted smallscale industrialization in rural areas; tried to foster widespread and practical technological education for all rather than relying on a small elite of highly trained technical experts; envisioned an immediate transition to full communism in the "people's communes" rather than waiting for industrial development to provide the material basis for that transition; massive famine which followed temporarily discredited Mao's radicalism | 22 | |
| 13885574923 | Great Purges | Period of immense paranoia in the Soviet Union of the late 1930's in which communist members accused each other being corrupted by capitalist ideals; enveloped tens of thousands of prominent communists, including all of Lenin's top associates, and millions more of ordinary peoples; based on suspicious associations in the past, denunciations by colleagues, connections to foreign countries, or bad luck; such people were arrested in the middle of the night, then tried and sentenced to either death or long harsh years in remote labor camps known as gulags; close to 1 million peoples executed between 1936 and 1941; additional 4 to 5 million people sent to the gulag, where they were forced to work in horrendous conditions and died in appalling numbers | 23 | |
| 13885574924 | Green Revolution | Series of research, and development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1960s, that increased agriculture production worldwide, particularly in the developing world | 24 | |
| 13885574925 | Adolf Hitler | Leader of the Nazi party in Germany; chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945; dictator of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945 |  | 25 |
| 13885574926 | Ho Chi Minh | Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader; was prime minister (from 1945 to 1955) and president (from 1945 to 1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam |  | 26 |
| 13885574927 | Holocaust | Mass murder of approximately six million Jews during World War II; a program of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany; led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party | 27 | |
| 13885574928 | Indian National Congress | Organization established in 1885; gave expression to the idea of India as a single nation; played a major role in India's independence movement from British colonial rule | 28 | |
| 13885574929 | iron curtain | Heavily fortified border between Eastern and Western Europe | 29 | |
| 13885574930 | League of Nations | International peacekeeping organization founded as a result of the First World World; proposed by US president Woodrow Wilson; committed to the principle of "collective security" and intended to avoid the repetition of war | 30 | |
| 13885574931 | Mahatma Gandhi | Leader of the Indian nationalist movement during British control over India; used nonviolent civil disobedience, such as hunger strikes |  | 31 |
| 13885574932 | Mao Zedong | Chinese communist revolutionary and leader of the People's Republic of China from its establishment 1949 to his death in 1976 |  | 32 |
| 13885574933 | Marshall Plan | Ssought to rebuild and reshape devastated European economies; funneled Europe some $12 billion with numerous advisers and technicians; motivated by combination of humanitarian concern, a desire to prevent a new depression by creating overseas customers for American goods, and interest in undermining the growing appeal of European communist parties; required European nations to cooperate with one another |  | 33 |
| 13885574934 | Mikhail Gorbachev | Last general secretary of the Soviet Union (1985 to 1991); passed reforms such as perestroika and policies such as glasnost which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union |  | 34 |
| 13885574935 | Muhammad Ali Jinnah | Founder of Pakistan and the leader of the All-India Muslim League until Pakistan's independence |  | 35 |
| 13885574936 | Munich Conference | Meeting of European leaders which permitted Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along German borders mainly inhabited by German speakers; territory now known as "Sudetenland"; widely regarded as a failed act of appeasement toward Germany; agreement was signed in the early hours of 30 September 1938; agreement was signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy; Czechoslovakia not invited to the conference | 36 | |
| 13885574937 | Benito Mussolini | Leader of the Italian National Fascist Party; prime minister of Italy from 1922 to 1943 |  | 37 |
| 13885574938 | Mustafa Kemal Ataturk | Founder and the first President of the Republic of Turkey; passed a series of reforms to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern, secular, and democratic nation | 38 | |
| 13885574939 | North American Free Trade Agreement | Regional alliance founded in 1993 and consists of Canada, Mexico, and the United States; the world's second largest free-trade zone | 39 | |
| 13885574940 | North Atlantic Treaty Organization | Military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed in 1949; alliance in which its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party; consists of 28 member states across North America and Europe |  | 40 |
| 13885574941 | Nazi Germany | The Third Reich; lasted from 1933 to 1945; Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler | 41 | |
| 13885574942 | Nelson Mandela | South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician; President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999; served as President of the African National Congress from 1991 to 1997 |  | 42 |
| 13885574943 | New Deal | Series of reforms proposed by United States President Woodrow Wilson; lasted from 1933 to 1942; experimental combination of reforms seeking to restart economic growth and prevent similar failures in the future; argued that government actions and spending programs could moderate recessions and depressions; consisted of immediate programs of public spending (for dams, highways, bridges, and parks) and long-term reforms, such as the Social Security system, minimum wage, and various relief and welfare programs | 43 | |
| 13885574944 | Pan-Arabism | Ideology proposing the unification of the countries of North Africa and West Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, referred to as the Arab World | 44 | |
| 13885574945 | Pan-Africanism | Ideology which encourages the unity of Africans worldwide | 45 | |
| 13885574946 | ebola epidemic | Viral epidemic with symptoms that include fever, throat and muscle pains, headaches, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys; an 2014 outbreak in West Africa has led to a reported 142 deaths | 46 | |
| 13885574947 | influenza epidemic | Epidemic caused by the H1N1 influenza virus; lasted from 1918 to 1920; resulted in 50 to 100 million deaths, ranking it one of the most deadliest natural disasters in human history | 47 | |
| 13885574948 | perestroika | Economic program launched by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev which freed state enterprises from government regulation, permitted small-scale private businesses, offered opportunities for private farming, and welcomed foreign investment in joint enterprises | 48 | |
| 13885574949 | glasnost | Soviet policy established by Mikhail Gorbachev which permitted cultural and intellectual freedoms | 49 | |
| 13885574950 | Potsdam Conference | Conference which was held from July 17 to August 2, 1945; participants include the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States; gathered to decide how to punish Nazi Germany, sought to establish a post-war order, address peace treaty issues, and counter the effects of World War II | 50 | |
| 13885574951 | Prague Spring | Period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of Soviet domination; began on January 5, 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and continued until August 21 when the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded the country to halt the reforms | 51 | |
| 13885574952 | 1917 Russian Revolution | Collective term for the series of revolutions in 1917 which ousted Tsar Nicholas II and the tsarist autocracy and replaced it with the communist Bolshiveks | 52 | |
| 13885574953 | social realism | International art movement; refers to the work of painters, printmakers, photographers and filmmakers who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor; often are critical of the social structures that maintain these conditions | 53 | |
| 13885574954 | space race | Competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in spaceflight capability; pioneered advancements such as artificial satellites, as well as manned and unmanned missions into outer space | 54 | |
| 13885574955 | sphere of influence | Concept in which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military, or political exclusivity, accommodating to the interests of powers outside the sphere; examples include European "semi-colony" of China | 55 | |
| 13885574956 | Joseph Stalin | Leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952; implemented a highly centralized command economy, which resulted in the transformation of Russian society from agrarian to industrialized; imprisoned millions in labor camps and deported many to remote areas; issued the Great Purges, in which hundreds of thousands, including many prominent communists, were executed |  | 56 |
| 13885574957 | total war | Conflict which requires the mobilization of each country's entire populations | 57 | |
| 13885574958 | Treaty of Versailles | Document which formally concluded the World War I in 1919; established the conditions for a World War II; Germany losses colonial empire and 15% of its European territory, required to pay heavy reparations to the winners, had its military forces severely restricted, and had to accept sole responsibility for the war; immense German resentment created from the treaty |  | 58 |
| 13885574959 | trench warfare | Type of warfare using occupied fighting lines consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are significantly protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery; resulted in enormous casualties while gaining or losing a few yards of ground during World War I |  | 59 |
| 13885574960 | Truman Doctrine | International relations policy set by the U.S. President Harry Truman in a speech on March 12, 1947; stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere; often referred to as the beginning of the US policy of containment |  | 60 |
| 13885574961 | United Nations | Organization established in 1945 as a successor to the League of Nations; attempts to find solutions to global problems and deal with virtually any matter of concern to humanity |  | 61 |
| 13885574962 | Universal Declaration of Human Rights | Policy adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1949 regarding acceptable conduct between peoples | 62 | |
| 13885574963 | Vietnam War | Conflict which occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1956 to 1975; U.S. entered the war to prevent South Vietnam from becoming communist, as a result of its containment policy; Soviet Union backed Northern Vietnamese forces in an attempt to spread communism to Southeast Asia; resulted in the unification of Vietnam under a communist government and the spread of communism to Cambodia and Laos |  | 63 |
| 13885574964 | Warsaw Pact | Agreement which brought the Soviet Union and Eastern European communist states in a military alliance designed to counter NATO | 64 | |
| 13885574965 | Winston Churchill | British politician; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955 |  | 65 |
| 13885574966 | Woodrow Wilson | 28th President of the United States (1913-1921); leader of the Progressive Movement; famous for his Fourteen Points, which sought to avoid another worldwide conflict |  | 66 |
| 13885574967 | Fourteen Points | Statement given on January 8, 1918 by United States President Woodrow Wilson declaring that World War I was being fought for a moral cause and called for postwar peace in Europe | 67 | |
| 13885574968 | World War I | Conflict which lasted from 1914 to 1918; also known as the Great War; pitted the Allies (United Kingdom, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria); resulted in an Allied victory and Treaty of Versailles, which set the stage for another world war |  | 68 |
| 13885574969 | World War II | Conflict which lasted from 1939 to 1945; pitted the Allied Powers (Soviet Union, United Kingdom, United States, China and France) against the Axis Powers (Germany, Japan, and Italy); resulted in an Allied victory, the creation of the United Nations, and set the stage for the Cold War |  | 69 |
| 13885574970 | Yalta Conference | Meeting which lasted from February 4 to February 11, 1945; meeting attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization; convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea |  | 70 |
| 13885574971 | Zionist Movement | Movement of Jews and Jewish culture that supports the creation of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the Land of Israel |  | 71 |
