Leonid Brezhnev
replaced Khrushchev as Soviet dictator in 1964; he insisted that the USSR had the right to intervene in a country if communism was threatened (Brezhnev Doctrine
Delente
a relaxation of tensions & improved relations b/n the 2 super powers (US & USSR)
Dissidents
those who speak out against a ruler; Brezhnev punished dissidents, but allowed more access to Western styles of dress, music & art
KGB
the Soviet secret police
notes
Under Brezhnev, economic policies still emphasized producing heavy industry. Problems were that the gov't was big & inefficient, and that many collective farmers preferred to work on their small, private plots rather than working on the collective brigade
notes
By the 1970's, the Communist ruling class had become corrupt. Party & state leaders, army leaders, & the KGB leaders enjoyed a high standard of living.
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan-
the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979 in order to restore a pro-Soviet regime there. The US viewed this as an act of expansion & US-Soviet relations broke down. Pres. Carter placed a grain embargo on the Soviets & the US boycotted the Olympic games in Mosc
Pres. Reagan-
Great Communicator" as president, he called the Soviets an "evil empire" & began a military buildup & new arms race. Reagan also gave aid to the Afghan rebels. Star Wars Defense Initiative (SDI) intercepted nuclear missiles
Mikhail Gorbachev-
became the new Soviet leader in 1985 & ushered in a new era of communism; he was reform minded & restructured economic policy to be ore responsive to consumers. He allowed limited free enterprise of some businesses. He also worked on political reform. (Pe
Congress of People's Deputies-
new Soviet Parliament set up by Gorbachev; Gorbachev created a new state presidency & he became the Soviet Union's first & last president.
Intermediate-Range INF Treaty-
agreement b/n Gorbachev & Reagan to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons
notes
Gorbachev stop sending military aid to Eastern Europe which opened the door to the overthrow of Communist regimes. The reunification of Germany occurred on Oct. 3, 1990.
notes
The Soviet Union was made up of 92 ethnic groups. As Gorbachev lessened the grip of the Communist party, ethnic groups began nationalist movements for independence. The conservative leaders of the Soviet army, KGB, gov't, & military industries became worr
Boris Yeltsin-
President of the Russian Republic who bravely resisted the rebel forces in Moscow; he kept the Soviets who had arrested Gorbachev from seizing power. This enabled the Soviet republics to gain independence.
-The Russian Republic, the Ukraine & Belarus all
Boris Yeltsin
became the new president of Russia; he was committed to introducing a free market economy. Economic problems (inflation & unemployment), social classes, & organized crime made this transition difficult.
Chechnya-
a province in the south that wanted to secede from Russia & become independent; Yeltsin used brutal force to keep the Chechens in Russia.
Vladimir Putin-
was elected president of Russia in 2000; was a former KGB officer who wanted to keep a tight rein on gov't power; he introduced reforms such as free sale & purchase of land and tax cuts; Russia joined the World Trade Organization.
notes
Russia has gained a budget surplus b/c of oil & gas exports.
notes
Russia has experienced ongoing turmoil in Chechnya; rising alcoholism, criminal activities & the decline of the family system have added to their challenges.
Lech Walesa-
POLAND-
Polish worker who organized a national trade union known as Solidarity. They gained support of workers & the Catholic Church; movement continued even when Walesa was arrested; 1988 there was a move toward democracy & Walesa was elected President
Pope John Paul II-
Pope in 1980 who was the first Polish Pope; supported Solidarity
notes
The Poles were allowed to have free elections & set up a parliamentary gov't, ending Communist rule. Walesa was elected president
notes
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
In Czechoslovakia in 1988 & 1989, mass demonstrations for independence took place, and the Communist gov't collapsed. Vaclav Havel , a writer who had been active in the independence movement, was elected president.
Ethnic groups faced old t
Nicolae Ceausescu-
ROMANIA
Communist leader of Romania who used secret police to crush all dissent & keep an iron grip on Romania. His economic policies led to a huge drop in the standard of living w/ food shortages.
notes
In Dec. 1989, the secret police murdered thousands of peaceful demonstrators. Ceausescu lost support of the army. He & his wife were executed. A new president, Traian Basescu, who was not an old communist, was elected in 1996.
Erich Honecker-
GERMAN UNIFICATION
head of Communist East Germany in 1989; demonstrators led mass demonstrations against his gov't; in response to the mass protests, the East German gov't opened the gates between East & West Berlin. Soon afterward, crowds began to tear d
notes
President Reagan made an appeal to Gorbachev to release the Soviet hold on East Germany by stating, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall.
Oct. 3, 1990-
reunification of Germany took place
Yugoslavia-
YUGOSLAVIA
a communist country independent of Moscow; the communist party collapsed in 1990
Slobodan Milosevic-
leader of Serbia who rejected efforts toward independence; he felt the republics' borders needed to be redrawn to form a Greater Serbian state.
1. Slovenia & Croatia declared their independence in 1991
2. The Yugoslav army assaulted Croatia with the help
Bosnia-Herzegovina-
area attacked by the Serbs that had many Muslims; they took 70% of their territory
Kosovo-
(1998) a self-governing province within Yugoslavia whose autonomy was taken away by Milosevic;
autonomous
(self-governing)
Milosevic-
rule ended in 2000; Yugoslavia was dissolved in 2004 and renamed Serbia & Montenegro; he went on trial for war crimes for killing civilians. He died in 2006.
European Economic Community (EEC)-
an economic union that became the world's largest trading bloc in 1992; France, West Germany, the Benelux, Italy, Gr. Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Finland, & Sweden; they established a common currency, the Euro. (12 of the
Francois Mitterand-
FRANCE
Socialist President of France elected in 1981; he passed laws to help workers(increased minimum wage, 39-hour work week, & higher taxes for the rich); his gov't nationalized banks, the steel industry, space & electronics industries, & insurance fir
Jacques Chirac-
Conservative mayor of Paris who was elected President of France in 2002
Willy Brandt
GERMANY
the 1st Social Democratic chancellor in West Germany; won Nobel Peace Prize for 1971 for opening up economic, cultural & personal ties b/n East & West Germany
Helmut Kohl-
formed a conservative gov't in West Germany with his Christian Democratic Union Party; led West Germany through an economic boom; then his gov't faced the economic problems of German reunification & the task of rebuilding East Germany
Angela Merkel-
became Germany's first woman chancellor in 2005; she was a member of the Christian Democrats
notes
GREAT BRITAIN
Between 1964-1979, the Conservative Party & Labour Party faced the intense fighting b/n Catholics & Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Margaret Thatcher- "Iron Lady
;1st female prime minister of Gr. Britain elected in 1979; was a Conservative; she believed in "privatization, " a system of laws that enabled private enterprise to flourish; limited social welfare, restricted power of the unions & controlled inflation
Thatcherism-
Economic policy of Thatcher that improved the British economic situation
Tony Blair-
a moderate from the Labour Party was elected prime minister in 1997; lost popularity due to his support of the US war in Iraq
Richard Nixon-
THE UNITED STATES -
Republican president of the US from 1969-1974; first US president to resign from office
Watergate Scandal-
Nixon used illegal wiretapping methods to gain information from the democrats; A group of men working for Nixon's re-election campaign broke into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in DC. They were caught trying to install electro
Gerald Ford-
became president when Nixon resigned; lost re-election to Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter-
Democrat who was elected President in 1976; faced with high inflation rates & a decline in average earnings; Iranian hostage crisis was during his term
Ayatollah Khomeini-
political leader of Iran when the Iranian gov't held 52 Americans hostage for 344 days in Iran; Carter worked to get the hostages released but was unsuccessful at first.
Ronald Reagan-
Republican president who won the 1980 election & dominated US politics in the 80's; the Iranian hostages were released the day he was inaugurated
Reagan Revolution-
sent US policy in a new direction by cutting back on the welfare state, decreasing spending on food stamps, school lunches, & job programs; he oversaw the largest peacetime military buildup in history
Budget deficits-
when the gov't spends more than it collects in revenues; Reagan's spending policies produced record budget deficits as spending rose from $631 billion in 1981 to over 1 trillion in 1987
George Bush
- vice-president under Reagan who became president in 1988; his inability to deal w/ the budget deficit & economic problems caused him to serve only 1 term
Bill Clinton-
Democrat who was elected president in 1992; he claimed to be a new Democrat who favored some Republican policies; won 2 terms; was impeached on 2 counts of misconduct for the Monica Lewinsky scandal; he was acquitted
George W. Bush-
Republican who was elected president in 2000; directed most of his presidency to the problems of terrorism
Osama Bin Laden-
directed terrorists to hijack 4 commercial jets in Boston, Newark & Washington, D.C.; 2 planes were flown into the World Trade Towers, one into the Pentagon, and one crashed in a field in Pennsylvania
Taliban-
militant Islamic group that controlled Afghanistan & allowed Bin Laden to train al-Qaeda terrorists there
Pierre Trudeau-
CANADA-
became prime minister of Canada in 1968; from the Liberal Party; he passed the Official Languages Act which allowed both English & French to be used in the federal civil service
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)- Canada
, US & Mexico made an agreement to make trade easier & more profitable
Stephen Harper-
became Prime Minister of Canada in 2006; a Conservative
Sputnik I-
the 1st rocket to orbit the earth; It was Russian (1957); President Kennedy predicted that Americans would land on the moon within the decade
1969-
the US landed the 1st man on the moon; Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin & Michael Collins
notes
During the 1960's & 1970's, critics argued that technology was damaging the environment. They argued that chemical fertilizers produced higher yield crops, but were destroyed the ecological balance of streams, rivers, & woodlands.
Gender Stereotyping-
restricting what a person can do b/c of a person's gender
Equal Pay Act- (1963)
law passed by US gov't that required that women be paid the same as men for performing the same work
Roe v. Wade-
US Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1972
Gender parity
- laws passed in Norway & Denmark that state that women must make up a certain number of candidates in an election or a certain number of those elected
Jackson Pollack-
abstract impressionist of the post-war period (after 1945)
Postmodernism- (
1980's) a revival of traditional elements & techniques, includes traditional painting styles & traditional crafts
Popular Culture
- entertainment created for a profit for a mass audience; music, movies, television, sports
Munich Olympics (1972)-
a Palestinian terrorist group seized 11 Israeli hostages; all were killed. In 1980, the US boycotted the Moscow Olympics b/c of the war in Afghanistan. The USSR boycotted the LA Olympics in 1984.
Cultural imperialism-
a Western nation controls other world cultures the same way Western nations had controlled colonial gov'ts
Basque Region-
area in the Western Pyrenees where part of the territory belongs to Spain and France; there are Basque extremists (or Separatists) who use violence b/c they want to rule the area. They are a part of the ETA, or the group called Basque Fatherland and Liber
notes
Ireland was partitioned in 1921 into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is mostly Catholic, and is a part of Great Britain.
Bloody Sunday- Jan. 30, 1972;
clashes between Catholics & Protestants in Northern Ireland came to a head when British troops fired on a crowd of civil rights protesters & killed 13 people.-
IRA
IRA - Irish Republican Army
Good Friday Agreement-
signed by Catholic & Protestant leaders in Ireland & Britain in 1998