Chapter 21

Deng Xiaoping

1904-1997 The leader of China and the Communist party following Mao Zedong's death who implemented new policies that led China toward a mix of a socialist and market economy. Although his policies increased the living standards of many, he was known for brutality, like at Tiananmen Square.

Negritude Movement

The literary movement of Black French speakers, which was born out of the Paris intellectual environment of 1930s and 1940s. It is a product of black writers joining together through the French language to assert their cultural identity. An important aspect of the movement was the rejection of colonialism.

Augusto Pinochet

Military dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990. He implemented extreme free market reforms and repressed dissent and leftist movements. He left power in 1990 after losing the 1988 referendum to prolong his term in power. He died before being tried for human rights violations.

Tiananmen Square incident

Also called June Fourth incident or 6/4, series of protests and demonstrations in China in 1989 calling for political, social, and economic reforms to the communist system. It culminated on the night of June 3-4 with a government crackdown on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Kwame Nkrumah

Leader of nonviolent protests for freedom on the Gold Coast. When independence was gained, he became the first prime minister of Ghana in 1957. He developed economic projects, but was criticized for spending too much time on Pan-African efforts, and neglecting his own countries' issues

Anti-Apartheid Movement

The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), originally known as the Boycott Movement, was a British organisation that was at the center of the international movement opposing South Africa's system of apartheid and supporting South Africa's non-whites during the 1960s and 1970s.

United Nations Security Council

The Security Council is the United Nations' most powerful body. It has "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security." Five powerful countries sit as "permanent members" with veto power along with ten other member states, elected for two-year terms.

decolonization

The collapse of European colonial empires. Between 1947 and 1962, practically all former colonies in Asia and Africa gained independence.

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

This refers to those oppressed castes and tribes listed in "schedules" of the Indian Constitution of 1949. Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are entitled to a certain number of government jobs and educational opportunities. Nonetheless the caste system still oppresses lower members of society.

Zionism

Founded by Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) it sought the creation of a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine. It was supported by the British Balfour Declaration during WWI but did not become a reality until 1948

The Great Leap Forward

In 1958 Zedong launched a program; he urged people to make a superhuman effort to increase farm and industrial output and created communes; Rural communes set up "backyard" industries to produce steel; this program failed b/c "backyards" produced low-quality, communes had slow food output, bad weather, and a famine.

Containment

A U.S. foreign policy adopted by President Harry Truman in the late 1940s, in which the United States tried to stop the spread of communism by creating alliances and helping weak countries to resist Soviet advances. The Vietnam and Korean wars were an example of this policy.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

A military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of April 4, 1949, which sought to create a counterweight to Soviet armies stationed in central and eastern Europe after World War II. The primary purpose was to unify and strengthen the Western Allies' military response to a possible invasion of western Europe by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. Countries included USA, all Western European nations and Turkey.

Warsaw Pact

A military alliance of communist nations in eastern Europe. Organized in 1955 in answer to NATO, the Warsaw Pact included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.

Palestinian Liberation Organziation (PLO)

A political organization claiming to represent the world's Palestinians—those Arabs, and their descendants, who lived in mandated Palestine before the creation there of the State of Israel in 1948. It was formed in 1964 to centralize the leadership of various Palestinian groups that previously had operated as clandestine resistance movements. Since the 1990s it has represented Palestinians in peace negotiations.

Iranian Revolution

A popular uprising against the shah of Iran in 1978-79 that resulted in the toppling of the monarchy on April 1, 1979, and led to the establishment of an Islamic republic. It was caused by high inflation and a sense the country was westernizing too fast.

Iron Curtain Speech

A speech given by Winston Churchill where he said that an 'iron curtain' has been set across East and West Europe, separating Western democracies from Eastern Communist countries. It is seen as the beginning of the official Cold War in 1945

Apartheid

A system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority black inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by whites was maintained.

Mohandas Gandhi

(1869-1848) Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India. As such, he came to be considered the father of his country. Gandhi is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest (satyagraha) to achieve political and social progress.

Nelson Mandela

(844) Leader of African National Congress. Early 1990 South African govt retreated from apartheid policies and legalized chief black party in the nation (ANC), which had been banned for decades and released this guy from prison. He became first black president of South Africa and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

United Fruit Company

An American corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas), grown on Central and South American plantations, and sold in the United States and Europe. Critics often accused it of exploiting Central American countries, influencing the internal politics of countries trying to control its own resources.

Cuban Revolution

An armed revolt in 1959 conducted by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and its allies against the right-wing authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. It started a close relationship between Cuba and the Soviet Union. In response the US placed a trade and travel embargo (ending trade and travel) which hurt many Cubans.

United Nations

An international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. It was founded in 1945 at the signing of the United Nations Charter by 50 countries, replacing the League of Nations, founded in 1919.