Panama Canal
*A canal built trough the Isthmus of Panama connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
*When the US took control of the project, Panama was under Colombian control, and it failed to give its permission to build. US President Theodore Roosevelt offered Pa
Mexican Revolution: Causes
*Discontent after decades of limited social reform led Mexicans to demand change
*After Mexico gained independence from Spain in the early 1800s, it quickly fell under the control of a series of dictators
*General Porfirio Diaz ruled Mexico in the early 1
Mexican Revolution: Results
*In 1917 Mexico adopted a new construction that established land reform through the government policy of land redistribution and granted rights to workers and women
*Education and healthcare were improved
*Universal suffrage was granted
*Mexican nationali
Background Causes of World War I
*By 1900 nationalism was a powerful force, at some times urging people to unite for a common purpose and at others acting to break groups up. Ethnic minorities living in the multinational empires of the Ottomans and Austria-Hungary were seeking independen
Immediate Cause of World War I
*The crisis sometimes referred to as the "spark" that started the war come on June 28, 1914. While on a visit to Sarajevo (in Bosnia) Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist. Almost immedi
Total War
*When all of nation's resources are dedicated to the war effort and both the civilian and military populations mobilize to defeat an enemy
*A significant consequence is the purposeful targeting of civilian populations and the cities they live in
*The abil
The Fall of the Qing
*Despite the Qing's enacting of series of reforms in the second half of the 19th century, the signing of a number of unequal treaties and numerous internal rebellions had left the ruling family weak, and in 1911 revolution broke out in China
*Nationalism
Chinese Revolution, 1911
*A revolution in 1911 led to the abdication of the last emperor of China and the end of the Qing Empire
*The overthrow of the existing government came as a result of the rise of revolutionary and nationalistic feelings across China
*Sun Yat-sen, western-e
Twenty-one Demands
*In 1915, Japan, at war with Germany, invaded Germany-held territory in one of China's provinces
*Despite China's request that Japan withdraw, Japan issued a secret ultimatum, the Twenty-one Demands, to the Chinesegovhopingtosecure China
*If accepted, the
Technology of World War I
*WWI was the world's 1st truly modern war: new weapons revolutionized warfare
*New weapons created new fighting tactics, trench warfare, which lead to stalemate, which lead to more development of weapons and strategies
*Estimates of military deaths up to
Results of World War I
*Cites throughout Europe were destroyed and millions were dead, injured, or homeless
*France and Great Britain retained imperial control over vast empires, in reality the process of decolonization was under way. After the war, there was a significant incr
Armenian Genocide
*The massive and deliberate killing of Armenian civilians by the Ottoman Turks
*As the Ottomans attempted to reform society to prevent collapse, nationalism increased
*W/ the increase in nationalism, the gov, historically been tolerant of the many religio
Paris Peace Conference
*The Allied nations met in Paris in 1919 to settle peace terms with the Central Powers. 5 treaties were negotiated; most sig was Treaty of Versailles, b/w Allies and Germany
*Wilson proposed his 14 points, end to secret alliances, promotion of free trade,
Treaty of Versailles
*The peace settlement negotiated by the Allies with Germany at the end of WWI, focused on ensuring that Germany would never again be a threat to the security of Europe
*Terms incl a war-guilt cause; sigf loss of German territory;Rhineland est as a demilit
League of Nations
*After WWI, it was the 1st permanent international org dedicated to maintaining peace
*Made by Wilson with the 14 Points Plan
*Included France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, not US
*League sought to pressure member nations to settle disputes w/ diplomacy.
Mandate System
*An article in the covenant of the LoN stated that colonies and terrt needed assistance as they prepared for self-government and that more advanced nations would act as guides for the less experienced ones
*Infl by idea of self-determination
*Mandates wer
Russo-Japanese War
*Imperial rivalries led to armed conflict b/w Russia and Japan for control of parts of Korea and Manchuria
*Japan's industrialization supported imperial ambitions
*Japan's victory over China surprised many and worried the Russians, who m=wanted to control
Bloody Sunday
*In 1905 a peaceful demonstration at the Russian czar's winter palace in St. Petersburg turned violent and the guards opened fire on the unarmed crowd
*The protesters, led by a priest, wanted to present a petition to Czar Nicholas II asking for rep assemb
Russian Revolution (March 1917)
*In February 1917, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne and ended 300 years of Romanov rule
*His abdication was the result of decades of political, social, and eco unrest exacerbated by Russia's involvement in WWI
*The provisional gov struggled to mainta
October Revolution (Bolshevik Revolution)
*The second part of the Russian Revolution led by Lenin and his Bolshevik Party
*Lenin, a student of Marxism, put forth the idea that the proletariat would rise up against the bourgeoisie
*In October 1917 the Bolsheviks gained control of the Petrograd sov
V. I. Lenin
*Student of Marxism, led Bolshevik party whose members supported the ideals of communism
*Took control in the October Revolution, Bolsheviks seized control of the prov gov and renamed Communists, immediately set to transform the nation politically and eco
New Economic Policy (NEP)
*Introduced to the USSR by Lenin, the policy provided for some private business
*Replaced war communism, a policy of nationalization that had limited success
*Lenin allowed few capitalistic ventures largely in response to global depression; his goal was a
War Communism
*Nationalism on a massive scale
*All major businesses were put under the control of the government, the gov made all planning and production decisions, food was rationed, and private ownership of businesses was prohibited
*Implemented by Lenin in Russia
Age of Anxiety
*The period after WWI when doubt was cast upon previously existing ways of life
*Feelings of uncertainty were reflected in science, art, architecture, and psychology
*Novelists, like Ernest Hemingway, wrote about the destruction of war
*Pablo Picasso and
Great Depression
*In 1929 economic depression spread across the world as the US stock market crashed and European countries struggled to rebuild their damaged postwar economies
*During and after WWI, the US lent millions of dollars to other nations and became the banking
New Deal
*In response to the Great Depression, President FDR proposed legislation aimed at eco recovery
*Laws essentially fell under one of the 3: relief, recovery, or reform
*Laws were enacted to protect the banking industry, provide jobs, guarentee a minimum wag
Rise of Fascism
*Fascism emerged in Italy and Germany in the interwar period; both nations were faced w/ eco depression and in a desperate need of strong leaders, powerful dictators emerged influenced by fascist ideology
*Fascism was characterized by extreme nationalism
Adolph Hitler: Rise to Power
*Rose to power in the 1920s and 1930s
*Leader of the Nazis, tried in 1923 but was arrested
*Mein Kamf outlined his political views. Nazism had broad appeal w/ its message of restoring the nation to the greatness it had before WWI
*1933, Hitler appointed c
Adolph Hitler at War
*In the late 1930s, Europe felt compelled to respond to the aggressive actions of Hitler
*At the 1938 Munich Conference, Hitler promised to not invade Czechoslovakia in return of the Sudetenland (ex of appeasement)
*Europe's policy of appeasing Hitler did
Benito Mussolini
*Responsible for he est of the world's 1st fascist state
*Emerged as a dictator is postwar Italy, a nation struggling to recover from eco depression
*He suspended people's civil liberties and used fear and terror to enforce his will
*In 1936 he signed the
Nationalist Movements (I)
*Influenced by Western ideas, struggling for self-determination and/or responding to European imperialism led to a rise to nationalism across the globe after World War I.
*In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal led a Turkish nationalist movement that resulted in the ov
Nationalist Movements (II)
*Influenced by Western ideas, struggling for self-determination and/or responding to European imperialism led to a rise in nationalism across the globe after World War I.
*Across the globe, Jewish people looked to create a Jewish state in Palestine.
*In I
Indian National Congress (INC): In Action
*Partnered with the Muslim League to lead a mass movement to gain self-rule from Great Britain for the Indian subcontinent.
*In 1919 a large group of Indians assembled violation of a new law prohibiting such meetings. British troops opened fire on the cro
Mohandas Gandhi: Early Years
*An Indian nationalist leader who fought for Indian's independence from Great Britain .
*After attending law school in London, he took a job in South Africa; his experience there working with the Indian population in their struggle against racial inequali
Mohandas Gandhi: Indian Nationalist
*He quickly became a popular leader among the ordinary citizens of India, and the support of an extensive segment of population made the Non-Cooperation and the Civil Disobedience movements largely successful .
*Indians were urged to boycott British-made
Chinese Civil War
*A conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communist parties.
*The Qing dynasty had been overthrown in 1911, and Sun Yat-sen emerged as the leader of the new Chinese republic.
*Sun Yan-sen 's party, the Kuomintang (the Nationalist People's Party ), promot
Mao Zedong
*A nationalist leader in China, successfully defeated the Kuomintang in civil war in large measure because of the support of peasants.
*Influenced by Marxist ideology, China became the world's largest communist nation, and Mao sought to make it a modern ,
Cultural Revolution
*Known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, it was launched in China in 1966 by Mao Zedong in order to seek out and silence opposition to Mao's leadership and his vision of communism.
*A common target of persecution was China's elite- the intelle
Red Guards
*Red Guards were mostly young students trained in Marxist thought who sought out opposition to Mao and his policies.
*Red Guards were given the authority to rid China of opposition during the Cultural Revolution.
*A common target of persecution was China'
Joseph Stalin
*Following the death of V. I. Lenin, Stalin, the "man of steel," became the totalitarian dictator of the Soviet Union.
*Replaced the NEP with a five-year plan, a program initiated in 1929 and aimed at transforming the Soviet union from an agrarian economy
Soviet Five-Year Plans
*Economic policy initiated by Joseph Stalin that set high quotas in an attempt to improve Soviet agricultural and industrial output.
*This method of centralized planning was adopted by other communist nations, notably the People's Republic of China.
*The
Origins of World War II
*Axis powers: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Japan; Allied powers: France and its empire, Great Britain and its empire, Commonwealth allies (Canada, Austria, New Zealand), Soviet Union, China, and the United States.
*In an effort to fulfill imperialist
Nazi-Soviet Pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
*A nonaggression treaty signed between Germany and the Soviet union in 1939 in which the two nations publicly agreed to avoid armed conflict with another.
*Secretly, another agreement was negotiated in which Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to divide t
Mukden Incident (Manchurian Incident)
*Occurred in Manchuria in September 1931, when Japanese troops blew up part of the South Manchurian Railway.
*Japan accused China of sabotage and used the incident as a pretext to annex Manchuria.
*By 1932, Japanese troops gained control of Manchuria and
Japanese Invasion of China (1937)
*Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in the hopes of gained control of China's extensive natural resources.
*Japan quickly gained control of northern and eastern China.
*The international community condemned the attack but was ill-prepared to st
Rape of Nanking
*Following Japan's invasion of mainland China in 1937, China experienced mass death and suffering ;Japan began aerial bombing of major Chinese cities (especially Shanghai, where people died by the thousands).
*Japanese troops, fueled by racial superiority
Blitzkrieg ("Lighting War")
*Germans invaded Poland unannounced on September 1, 1939. Their strategy included a preemptive air attack to weaken resistance, followed by land forces-Panzer ("armored") columns, which were fast and mobile.
*German forces subdued enemies in the west with
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
*In an attempt to destroy American naval forces in the Pacific, Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.
*President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it "a date which will live in infamy."
*Japanese pilots took off from
Dropping if Atomic Bomb
*The war in Europe ended in May 1945 but waged on in the Pacific.
*U.S. General MacArthur gained ground with his island-hopping campaign; the fall of Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa gave U.S. bombers access to Japanese main islands.
*President Truman issued
U.S. Occupation of Japan
*After Japan's unconditional surrender in World War II, Japan was occupied by U.S. forces under General Douglas MacArthur.
*MacArthur ensured that Japan's transformation would benefit the United States and its Allies.
*A new constitution, adopted in 1947,
Jewish Holocaust
*Nazi regime killed over 6 million Jews and an additional 5 million Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, communists, and other "undesirables"-a man disaster on a previous unknown scale.
*Genocide was assisted by an historic acceptance of anti-Semitism in Europe.
United Nations
*Created at the end of World Was II as a coalition dedicated to maintaining world peace and security. Had more power than the League of Nations, which had been ineffective in preventing World War II.
*Representatives from the United States, China, Great B
Cold War: Orgins
*The Cold War was an ideological war between two ideologically opposed superpowers.
*Establishment of U.S. foreign policies: Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan aimed at the containment of communism. U.S. pledge to resist the spread of communism increased t
Iron Curtain: Creation
*First articulated in a 1946 speech by English prime minister Winston Churchill, the term refers to the symbolic division of Europe after the end of World War II.
*Eastern bloc nations were under the influence f the Soviet Union and communism. There natio
Nuclear Arms Race
*As the Cold War progressed, a new reality emerged: The struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union to claim political hegemony across the globe led to an expensive arms race and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
*Although the United State
Satellite Nations
*Soviet-occupied nations at the end of World War II: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. Soviets set up a communist government in Poland.
*Other nations: Stalin prevented free elections and suppressed noncommunist political parties, in
Truman Doctrine
*Established March 12, 1947, by President Harry S. Truman, it was an economic and military program intended to help nations resist Soviet aggression and prevent the spread of communism.
*Based on the theory of containment ( limiting communism to areas alr
Marshall Plan
*Also Known as the European Recovery Program, a massive economic aid package, part of the containment policy, designed to strengthen democracy and lessen the appeal of communism (developed after WWII).
*Over 13 billion dollars was sent to war-torn western
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
*Established in 1949 as a military alliance of democratic nations against Soviet aggression.
*Original members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the Unites States.
*Goal: t
Warsaw Pact
*A defensive military alliance of communist nations designed to counter the collective defense formed by the democratic nations of NATO.
*Original members: Soviet Union, Poland East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
*NATO and the Wa
Geneva Conference
*Cold War peace conference held in 1954.
*Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the seventeenth parallel, north Vietnam to be controlled by communist leader Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam to remain in the control of noncommunists. Led to U.S. support of
Korean War
*After World War II, Korea, which had been annexed by Japan, was occupied by both the Soviet Union and the United States- the Soviet Union north of the 38th parallel and the United States south of it. The occupation was to be for a limited time while the
Cuban Revolution
*In 1959, Marxist leader Fidel Castro ousted Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and took control of Cuba.
*Castro gained much of his support from the urban poor and from landless peasants.
*Castro nationalized industries throughout the country (many busines
Cuban Missile Crisis
*Fidel Castro, leader of communist Cuba, formed an alliance with Stalin, leader of the Soviet union, after the Bay of Pigs incident and an attempted assassination by rebels funded by United States.
*Castro permitted Stalin to build nuclear missile bases i
Nonalignment
*Represented a "third path," an alternative to allying with either the United States or the Soviet Union.
*Nations did not take a side during the Cold War.
*Nations that remained neutral included India, Yugoslavia, and many African nations.
*Goal was to a
Arab Nationalism
*Former Arab colonies easily gained independence from their mother countries post-World War II.
*A key ideological goals the creation/political unification of the Arab world (geographic region with language, culture, and history in common). These new Arab
Creation of Israel
*The Zionist movement, which originated in Eastern Europe during the late 19th century and was formally organized in 1897, called for the restoration of the Jewish national homeland in Palestine.
*Created by the United Nations in 1947 as a result of UN Re
Decolonization
*In the post-World War II world, mother countries could no longer maintain control of their colonies as they attempted to repair own war-torn lands.
*There was mounting pressure from nationalist movements within the colonies for home rule.
*Imperial power
Indian Independence
*After World War II, overseas empires became increasingly difficult to maintain.
Great Britain held on, but election the Labour Party ushered in a movement toward home rule.
*Leaders of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League worked with Mohand
Pan-Africanism
*Pan-African movements first emerged in the United States and the Caribbean and then spread to French West Africa as a movement known as Negritude ("Blackness").
*Negritude strove to revive African culture and traditions-African pride was expressed by poe
Jomo Kenyatta
*A Kenyan nationalist leader who led a movement to gain independence from Great Britain. He was jailed 1953 by the British government in its effort suppress all nationalist movements.
*As resistance to colonial rule increased, the British responded by inc
European Community
*Formed in 1957, six founding member nations: France, Belgium, West Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, the Netherlands; characterized by a common market and free trade.
*Signed the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community (renamed the Eu
Detente
*Policy adopted by the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War in an effort to reduce tensions between the two superpowers over the arms race and control of developing countries.
*Encouraged cooperation in the following areas: environmental
Vietnam War
The United States intervened in the conflict on the side of noncommunist South Vietnam after the French were defeated.
- Military involvement increased under presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson; in 1968 more than 500,000 troops were engaged in Vie
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
*Muslim-controlled Afghanistan maintained a position of nonalignment in the Cold War until 1978, when a pro-Soviet coup dragged the country into a civil war.
*People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) gained control and radically reformed laws regar
Apartheid
*Established by the Afrikaner National Party in 1948 in an effort to maintain control over the black African majority.
*Meaning "separateness," it was the policy of legal segregation imposed by the white minority government in South Africa.
*13 percent of
Nelson Mandela
*A leader of the ANC (African National Congress), arrested for military protests against apartheid and sentenced to jail for life.
*Became a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement and white oppression.
*Released from jail by President F. W. DeKlerk in 1990
Iranian Revolution
*1941: Muhammad Reza Pahlavi declared himself shah. Backed by the United States and Britain, he modernized and westernized Iran.
*Pahlavi's reforms were in direct opposition to conservative Muslim beliefs. An opposition party quickly rose against Pahlavi,
Iran-Iraq War
*1979: Saddam Hussein became the leader of Iraq and seized control over a disputed border area.
*Hussein used power to invade Iran in 1980; his goal was a quick victory over Iran and a pan-Arab movement throughout the Middle East.
*War lasted eight years
Deng Xiaoping
*1976: Replaced Mao Zedong as leader of communist China; introduced new economic reforms but little extension of individual political rights.
*Four Modernizations: In an attempt to promote trade and contact with the West, Deng introduced reforms in the ar
Globalization
*Interdependence and interconnection of world economies.
*Goal: A global economy to facilitate the movement of goods and trade, associated with the term free trade (trade unrestricted by state limits as it crosses borders).
*IMF (International Monetary Fu
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
*An organization of producers of oil, established in 1960. Member nations include Abu Dhabi, Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Kuwait, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
*Goal: To control the price of oil through cooperation
Mikhail Gorbachev
*Controlled the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991.
*Introduced reforms glastnot (openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring); led people to speak out against the Soviet state.
*Backed free-market reforms, which were in direct violation of the communis
Iron Curtain: Demise
*In November 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, allowing people to travel freely from east to west. Soon the entire wall was torn down, symbolizing the end of the Cold War.
*With the end of the Cold War, democracy spread across Eastern Europe, and the Iron
Fall of Soviet Union
*Failed invasion of Afghanistan contributed to the decline as resources strained to support an unpopular and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to expand Soviet influence.
*Gorbachev's reforms: Glastnost (openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring) le
Nuclear Arms Race since the Fall of Soviet Union
*With the collapse of the Soviet Union, both the United States and Russia dramatically reduced their nuclear weapons spending.
*India and Pakistan, two nations with a violent history of territorial disputes, raced to develop nuclear weapons.
*Today only f
Green Revolution
*In the 1960s, new methods of farming were introduced in many developing countries, most notably India, to increase the production of staple crops such as rice and wheat. The success of such programs is known as the Green Revolution
*Although the food sup
Genocide
*The killing of a specific group of people based on specific ethnic, religious, or racial characteristics.
*Holocaust, led by Hitler in Germany, included a plan called the Final Solution to eliminate the Jews and produce a "pure" Aryan race.
*Ethnic clean
Feminism
*Women make up 40 to 50 percent of workforce in industrialized societies, 20 percent in developing countries. Jobs characterized as "women's work": teaching, clerical work.
*Discrimination in the workplace was the catalyst for the women's movement. Women
Islamic Fundamentalism
*The term is often used by Western sources to describe an extreme movement to replace secular states with Islamic ones.
*Increased in popularity as an extremist movement in response to opposition to westernization reforms in Muslim countries in the Middle
Intifada
*Part of the Arab-Israeli conflict over the struggle for control of Israel that began as a result of UN Resolution 181, in which the United Nations created Israel from lands claimed by Palestinians.
*The first intifada (uprising), launched in late 1987 by
Persian Gulf War (1991)
*Saddam Hussein's Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait and took control of its oil fields.
*The U.S. response was initially a trade embargo because they saw this action as a threat to the flow of oil and to Saudi Arabia. However,with Middle Eastern nations pitted
Asian Tigers
*Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan enjoyed rapid growth rates and were major economic powers by the 1980s.
*Competed economically with Japan, even though thy suffered from limitations (lack of natural resources, overpopulation, and shortage of
Global Problems
*Poverty: Unequal distribution of basic resources (such as food, water, shelter) and income (scarcity). Occurs most often in underdeveloped areas of Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. It is important to note that these areas are also often f
Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)
*A group that has no connection to a government; not funded by a government.
*United Nations ( outgrowth of unsuccessful League of Nations): Created after World War II in an attempt to find solutions to global problems through mediation, economic sanction
Machine Gun
*A weapon invented by Sir Hiram Maxim in 1884. The Maxim used energy from recoil force to expel the spent cartridge and insert the next one. It could fire 400 to 600 rounds per minutes, but it was heavy and cumbersome. Also, it required a team of men to o
Commercial Cellular/Mobile Phones
*Developed with the radio technology from World War II, cell phones (as they are popularly called) are divided into four generations to mark changes/ technological developments.
*The first generation used multiple cell sites and transferred calls during a
Internet
*The Soviet launch of Sputnik led to the U.S. funding of technological research on many important areas, such as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the grandfather of a series of agencies that led to the creation of the Internet.
*A "network of