WHAP Test Study Guide

Ayatollah Khomeini

(1902-1989) An Iranian religious and political leader, who in 1979 made Iran the world's first Islamic republic. He became a religious scholar and in the early 1920s rose to become an '__________', a term for a leading Shia scholar.

Harry S. Truman

(1884-1972) He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's vice president for just 82 days before Roosevelt died and he became the 33rd president. In his first months in office he dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. His policy of communist containment started the Cold War, and he initiated U.S. involvement in the Korean War. He left office in 1953.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

(1863-1914) In 1900, Ferdinand gave up his children's rights to the throne in order to marry a lady-in-waiting. While in power, he attempted to restore Austro-Russian relations while maintaining an alliance with Germany. In 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated him. One month later, Austria declared war on Serbia and World War I began.

Emiliano Zapata

(1879-1919) A leader of peasants and indigenous people during the Mexican revolution. He and his followers never gained control of the central Mexican government, but they redistributed land and aided poor farmers within the territory under their control. On April 10, 1919, he was ambushed and shot to death by government forces. His influence has endured long after his death, and his agrarian reform movement remains important to many Mexicans today.

Alexander Kerensky

(1881-1970) served at the head of the Russian Provisional Government from July-October 1917; with the Bolshevik October Revolution he was forced to flee the country, remaining in exile for the remaining 53 years of his life.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

(1882-1945) He was elected as the nation's 32nd president in 1932. With the country mired in the depths of the Great Depression, he immediately acted to restore public confidence, proclaiming a bank holiday and speaking directly to the public in a series of radio broadcasts or "fireside chats." His ambitious slate of New Deal programs and reforms redefined the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans. Reelected by comfortable margins in 1936, 1940 and 1944, he led the United States from isolationism to victory over Nazi Germany and its allies in World War II. He spearheaded the successful wartime alliance between Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States and helped lay the groundwork for the post-war peace organization that would become the United Nations. The only American president in history to be elected four times, he died in office in April 1945.

Benito Mussolini

(1883-1945) He went by the nickname "Il Duce" ("the Leader"), was an Italian dictator who created the Fascist Party in 1919 and eventually held all the power in Italy as the country's prime minister from 1922 until 1943. An ardent socialist as a youth, he followed in his father's political footsteps but was expelled by the party for his support of World War I. As dictator during World War II, he overextended his forces and was eventually killed by his own people in Mezzegra, Italy.

David Ben-Gurion

(1886-1973) Zionist statesman and political leader, the first prime minister (1948-53, 1955-63) and defense minister (1948-53; 1955-63) of Israel. On May 14, 1948, at Tel Aviv, he delivered Israel's declaration of independence. His charismatic personality won him the adoration of the masses, and, after his retirement from the government and, later, from the Knesset (the Israeli house of representatives), he was revered as the "Father of the Nation."

Adolf Hitler

(1889-1945) The leader of Germany's Nazi Party, was one of the most powerful and notorious dictators of the 20th century. He capitalized on economic woes, popular discontent and political infighting to take absolute power in Germany beginning in 1933. Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 led to the outbreak of World War II, and by 1941 Nazi forces had occupied much of Europe. His virulent anti-Semitism and obsessive pursuit of Aryan supremacy fueled the murder of some 6 million Jews, along with other victims of the Holocaust. After the tide of war turned against him, he committed suicide in a Berlin bunker in April 1945.

Ho Chi Minh

(1890-1969) Vietnamese Marxist revolutionary leader and the principal force behind the Vietnamese struggle against French colonial rule. The leader of the North Vietnamese when war with the United States broke out. In Vietnam today, he is regarded by the Communist government with god-like status in a nationwide cult of personality, even though the government has abandoned most of his economic policies since the mid-1980s.

Francisco Franco

(1892-1975) Ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), he persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as he got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Gavrilo Princip

(1894-1918) South Slav nationalist who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his consort, Sophie, Duchess von Hohenberg, at Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914. His act gave Austria-Hungary the excuse that it had sought for opening hostilities against Serbia and thus precipitated World War I. In Yugoslavia—the South Slav state that he had envisioned—he came to be regarded as a national hero.

Deng Xiaoping

(1904-1997) Leader of the Communist Party of China, was a reformer who led China towards a market economy. His economic policies were at odds with the political ideologies of Chairman Mao Zedong. As a result, he was purged twice during the Cultural Revolution but regained prominence in 1978 by outmaneuvering Mao's chosen successor.

Armenian Genocide

(1914-1923) The atrocities committed against the Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire during WWI. The Armenian people were subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation. The great bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger. Large numbers of Armenians were methodically massacred throughout the Ottoman Empire. Women and children were abducted and horribly abused. The entire wealth of the Armenian people was expropriated. After only a little more than a year of calm at the end of WWI, the atrocities were renewed between 1920 and 1923, and the remaining Armenians were subjected to further massacres and expulsions.

Augusto Pinochet

(1915-2006) He joined the Chilean army in 1935. He rose through the ranks and was appointed Commander in Chief by President Salvador Allende in 1973. A month later, he led the military coup that overthrew Allende. After 25 years in power, he was put under arrest, but died in 2006, before he could be tried for alleged human rights violations.

Fourteen Points

(1918) A statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The principles were outlined in a speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson.

Gamal Nasser

(1918-1970) He was a pivotal figure in the recent history of the Middle East and played a highly prominent role in the 1956 Suez Crisis. He has been described as the first leader of an Arab nation who challenged what was perceived as the western dominance of the Middle East. He remains a highly revered figure in both Egypt and the Arab world.

Amritsar Massacre

(1919) British and Gurkha troops massacre at least 379 unarmed demonstrators meeting at the Jallianwala Bagh, a city park. Most of those killed were Indian nationalists meeting to protest the British government's forced conscription of Indian soldiers and the heavy war tax imposed against the Indian people. The event stirred nationalist feelings across India and had a profound effect on one of the movement's leaders, Mohandas Gandhi. During World War I, Gandhi had actively supported the British in the hope of winning partial autonomy for India, but after this he became convinced that India should accept nothing less than full independence.

Fidel Castro

(1926-2016) Established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He ruled over Cuba for nearly five decades, until handing off power to his younger brother Raúl in 2008. During that time, his regime was successful in reducing illiteracy, stamping out racism and improving public health care, but was widely criticized for stifling economic and political freedoms. His Cuba also had a highly antagonistic relationship with the United States-most notably resulting in the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The two nations officially normalized relations in July 2015, ending a trade embargo that had been in place since 1960, when U.S.-owned businesses in Cuba were nationalized without compensation.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara

(1928-1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. He believed that communism would save the impoverished people of Latin America. He was a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956-59) who went on to become a guerrilla leader in South America. Executed by the Bolivian army in 1967, he has since been regarded as a martyred hero by generations of leftists worldwide. His image remains a prevalent icon of leftist radicalism and anti-imperialism. Others however, still remember that he could be ruthless and ordered prisoners executed without trial in Cuba.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

(1929-1968)American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 through 1968. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using the tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience.

Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere

(1930-45) This is remembered largely as a front for the Japanese control of occupied countries during World War II, in which puppet governments manipulated local populations and economies for the benefit of Imperial Japan.

Desmond Tutu

(1931 - ) A vocal and committed opponent of apartheid in South Africa, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. In the transition to democracy in South Africa, he was an influential figure in promoting the concept of forgiveness and reconciliation. He has been recognized as the 'moral conscience of South Africa' and frequently speaks up on issues of justice and peace.

Boris Yeltsin

(1931-2007) The president of Russia from 1991 until 1999. Though a Communist Party member for much of his life, he eventually came to believe in both democratic and free market reforms, and played an instrumental role in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Good Neighbor Policy

(1933) President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office determined to improve relations with the nations of Central and South America. Under his leadership the United States emphasized cooperation and trade rather than military force to maintain stability in the hemisphere. Represented an attempt to distance the United States from earlier interventionist policies, such as the Roosevelt Corollary and military interventions in the region during the 1910s and 1920s.

Battle of Britain

(1940-41) In the summer and fall of 1940, German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. A significant turning point of World War II, the it ended when Germany's Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting its air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population. The decisive victory saved the country from a ground invasion and possible occupation by German forces while proving that air power alone could be used to win a major battle.

Battle of El Alamein

(1942) A significant Allied victory and the most decisive in Africa with respect to closing of a war front, although Rommel did not lose hope until the end of the Tunisia Campaign. After three years, the African theater was cleared of Axis forces and the Allies could look northward to the Mediterranean.

Battle of Midway

(1942) Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan's planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position.

Battle of Stalingrad

(1942-43) A brutal military campaign between Russian forces and those of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers during World War II. It is infamous as one of the largest, longest and bloodiest engagements in modern warfare: From August 1942 through February 1943, more than two million troops fought in close quarters - and nearly two million people were killed or injured in the fighting, including tens of thousands of Russian civilians. But it (site was one of Russia's important industrial cities) ultimately turned the tide of World War II in favor of the Allied forces.

Glasnost

(1986) Means "openness" and was the name for the social and political reforms to bestow more rights and freedoms upon the Soviet people. Its goals were to include more people in the political process through freedom of expression. This led to a decreased censoring of the media, which in effect allowed writers and journalists to expose news of government corruption and the depressed condition of the Soviet people. It also permitted criticism of government officials, encouraging more social freedoms like those that Western societies had already provided. Yet, the totalitarian state present since 1917 was difficult to dismantle, and when it fell apart, citizens were not accustomed to the lack of regulation and command. The outburst of information about escalating crime and crimes by the government caused panic in the people. This caused an increase in social protests in a nation used to living under the strictest government control, and went against the goals of Gorbachev.

European Union

(1993- )Created in an effort to integrate Europe since World War II. At the end of the war, several western European countries sought closer economic, social, and political ties to achieve economic growth and military security and to promote a lasting reconciliation between France and Germany. This international organization is comprised 28 European countries and governing common economic, social, and security policies. It was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2012, in recognition of the organization's efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe.

Iraq War (2nd Gulf War)

(2003-11) Conflict in Iraq that consisted of two phases. The first of these was a brief, conventionally fought war in March-April 2003, in which a combined force of troops from the United States and Great Britain (with smaller contingents from several other countries) invaded Iraq and rapidly defeated Iraqi military and paramilitary forces. It was followed by a longer second phase in which a U.S.-led occupation of Iraq was opposed by an insurgency. After violence began to decline in 2007, the United States gradually reduced its military presence in Iraq, formally completing its withdrawal in December 2011.

Beginning of WWI

1914 - Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe—especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe—for years. A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire, Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements. Sparked in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand—heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire—was shot to death along with his wife Sophie by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip.

Russian Revolution

1917 - One of the most explosive political events of the twentieth century. The ensuing violence marked the end of the Romanov dynasty and centuries of Russian Imperial rule. The Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the tradition of czarist rule. The Bolsheviks would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Treaty of Versailles - end of WWI

1919 - Negotiated among the Allied powers with little participation by Germany, its 15 parts and 440 articles reassigned German boundaries and assigned liability for reparations. After strict enforcement for five years, the French assented to the modification of important provisions. Germany agreed to pay reparations under the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan, but those plans were cancelled in 1932, and Hitler's rise to power and subsequent actions rendered moot the remaining terms of the treaty.

Stock Market Crash

1929 - Most economists agree that several, compounding factors led to this event. A soaring, overheated economy that was destined to one day fall likely played a large role. Equally relevant issues, such as overpriced shares, public panic, rising bank loans, an agriculture crisis, higher interest rates and a cynical press added to the disarray. Many investors and ordinary people lost their entire savings, while numerous banks and companies went bankrupt. While historians sometimes debate whether it directly caused the Great Depression, there's no doubt that it greatly affected the American economy for many years.

Japanese invasion of Manchuria

1931 - Seizure of the city of Mukden by foreign troops, which was followed by the invasion of all of northeast China and the establishment of the foreign-dominated state of Manchukuo in the area. Most observers believe the incident was contrived by the foreign army, without authorization of its government, to justify the invasion and occupation that followed. It contributed to the international isolation of this invading east Asian land and is seen as a crucial event on the path to the outbreak of World War II.

Italian invasion of Ethiopia

1935 - Benito Mussolini, ordered his troops to invade. The fascist government had embarked upon a policy of colonial expansion in northeast Africa. Haile Selassie, the Emperor of this northeast African state , appealed to the League of Nations for assistance to halt the aggression. Canada, along with Britain and France, refused to support military intervention, but there was a proposal of economic sanctions. Many refused to support this measure and as a result, no action was taken. The League of Nations clearly demonstrated that it could not provide collective security for its member states.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

1941 - A surprise military strike in which hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on a U.S. base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.

Germany attacks Poland/WWII Begins

1945 - At 4:45 a.m., some 1.5 million troops invaded all along the 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the Luftwaffe bombed airfields, and warships and U-boats attacked naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany.

End of WWII

1945 - Ended with the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. On May 8th, the Allies accepted Germany's surrender, about a week after Adolf Hitler had committed suicide. Japan, did not surrender at the same time as Germany. It was able to hold out for another few months. In early August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. After that the Imperial government sought the Emperor's personal authority to surrender which he granted. He made a personal radio address announcing the decision. The surrender was signed on September 2nd aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Cold War

1945-1991 - During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers. However, the relationship between the two nations was a tense one. Americans had long been wary of Soviet communism and concerned about Russian leader Joseph Stalin's tyrannical, blood-thirsty rule of his own country. For their part, the Soviets resented the Americans' decades-long refusal to treat the USSR as a legitimate part of the international community as well as their delayed entry into World War II, which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Russians. After the war ended, these grievances ripened into an overwhelming sense of mutual distrust and enmity. Postwar Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe fueled many Americans' fears of a Russian plan to control the world. Meanwhile, the USSR came to resent what they perceived as American officials' hostile threats, arms buildup and interventionist approach to international relations.

Independence and partition of India

1947 - The long-awaited agreement ended 200 years of British rule and was hailed by Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi as the "noblest act of the British nation." However, religious strife between Hindus and Muslims marred Gandhi's exhilaration. In the northern province of Punjab, which was sharply divided between Hindus and Muslims, hundreds of people were killed in the first few days.

Birth of Israel

1948 - David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. In the distance, the rumble of guns could be heard from fighting that broke out between Jews and Arabs immediately following the British army withdrawal earlier that day. Egypt launched an air assault that evening. Jews joyously celebrated their new nation, especially after word was received that the United States had recognized the Jewish state. It officially came into being upon termination of the British mandate in Palestine.

Chinese Communist Revolution

1949 - Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The announcement ended the costly full-scale civil war which broke out immediately following World War II and had been preceded by on and off conflict between the two sides since the 1920's. The creation of the PRC also completed the long process of governmental upheaval in China begun by the Chinese Revolution of 1911.

Korean War

1950-1953 - Began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic to the north and the pro-Western Republic to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China-or even, as some warned, World War III. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives during the war. The peninsula is still divided today.

Vietnamese defeat French at Dien Bien Phu

1954 - Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh forces decisively defeat imperial forces. Although the defeat brought an end to their colonial efforts in Indochina, the United States soon stepped up to fill the vacuum, increasing military aid to South Vietnam and sending the first U.S. military advisers to the country in 1959.

De-Stalinization

1956 - Consisted of a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of its long-time leader in 1953, and the ascension of Nikita Khrushchev to power The reforms consisted of changing or removing key institutions that helped the former leader hold power: the cult of personality that surrounded him, his political system, and the Gulag labour-camp system, all of which had been created and dominated by him.

Nationalization of Suez Canal

1956 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the transfer to state control of a valuable Egyptian waterway. A joint British-French enterprise had owned and operated it since its construction in 1869. Nasser's announcement came about following months of mounting political tensions between Egypt, Britain, and France. Although Nasser offered full economic compensation for the Company, the British and French Governments, long suspicious of Nasser's opposition to the continuation of their political influence in the region, were outraged. The Egyptian leader, in turn, resented what he saw as European efforts to perpetuate their colonial domination.

Great Leap Forward

1958-1962 - The name given to China's Second Five Year Plan. It was born from Mao's impatience to transform China quickly into a modern industrialized state. The social plan, which lasted from 1958 to 1960 and mandated collective farming, led to catastrophic grain shortages and a famine that killed tens of millions of Chinese.

Cuban Revolution

1959 - Conducted by Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement and its allies against the authoritarian government of President Fulgencio Batista. Had powerful domestic and international repercussions. It transformed the relationship with the United States. In the immediate aftermath, Castro's government began a program of nationalization and political consolidation that transformed the economy and civil society.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 - Leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. In a TV address, President John Kennedy notified Americans about the presence of the missiles, explained his decision to enact a naval blockade and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. Following this news, many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war. However, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's offer to remove the missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade. Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.

6-day war

1967 - A brief but bloody conflict fought between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Following years of diplomatic friction and skirmishes between Israel and its neighbors, Israel Defense Forces launched preemptive air strikes that crippled the air forces of Egypt and its allies. Israel then staged a successful ground offensive and seized the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The brief war ended with a U.N.-brokered ceasefire, but it significantly altered the map of the Mideast and gave rise to lingering geopolitical friction.

Chinese Cultural Revolution

1967 - Created by Mao Zedong in order to reassert his authority over the Chinese government. Believing that current Communist leaders were taking the party, and China itself, in the wrong direction, Mao called on the nation's youth to purge the "impure" elements of Chinese society and revive the revolutionary spirit that had led to victory in the civil war two decades earlier and the formation of the People's Republic of China. It continued in various phases until Mao's death in 1976, and its tormented and violent legacy would resonate in Chinese politics and society for decades to come.

Yom Kippur War

1973 - On October 6, hoping to win back territory lost to Israel during the third Arab-Israeli war, in 1967, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a coordinated attack against Israel on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Taking the Israeli Defense Forces by surprise, Egyptian troops swept deep into the Sinai Peninsula, while Syria struggled to throw occupying Israeli troops out of the Golan Heights. Israel counterattacked and recaptured the Golan Heights. A cease-fire went into effect on October 25.

Iranian Revolution

1979 - A series of events that involved the overthrow of the last monarch of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and the replacement of his government with an Islamic republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a leader of one of the factions. The movement against the United States-backed monarchy was supported by various leftist and Islamist organizations and student movements. It was unusual for the surprise it created throughout the world: it lacked many of the customary causes (defeat at war, a financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military), occurred in a nation that was experiencing relative prosperity, produced profound change at great speed, was massively popular, resulted in the exile of many Iranians, and replaced a pro-Western authoritarian monarchy with an anti-Western totalitarian theocracy based on the concept of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists. Although there was violence in its aftermath, it was a relatively non-violent.

1st Palestinian Intifada

1987 - Uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, the first riots of the "shaking off," began one day after an Israeli truck crashed into a station wagon carrying workers in the Jabaliya refugee district of Gaza, killing four and wounding 10. Gaza residents saw the incident as a deliberate act of retaliation against the killing of a Jew in Gaza several days before, and on December 9 they took to the streets in protest, burning tires and throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli police and troops. At Jabalya, an Israeli army patrol car fired on attackers, killing a 17-year-old and wounding 16 others. The next day, crack Israeli paratroopers were sent into Gaza to quell the violence, and riots spread to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The uprising lasted from until the Madrid Conference in 1991, though some date its conclusion to 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

1989 - As the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders. East and West Berliners flocked to gates, drinking beer and champagne and chanting "Tor auf!" ("Open the gate!"). At midnight, they flooded through the checkpoints. More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, "the greatest street party in the history of the world." People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks, while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section.

Tiananmen Square Massacre

1989 - Nearly a million Chinese, mostly young students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive. For nearly three weeks, the protesters kept up daily vigils, and marched and chanted. Western reporters captured much of the drama for television and newspaper audiences in the United States and Europe. However, Chinese troops and security police stormed and fired indiscriminately into the crowds of protesters. Turmoil ensued, as tens of thousands of the young students tried to escape the rampaging Chinese forces. Other protesters fought back, stoning the attacking troops and overturning and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats on the scene estimated that at least 300, and perhaps thousands, of the protesters had been killed and as many as 10,000 were arrested. The savagery of the Chinese government's attack shocked both its allies and Cold War enemies.

Fall of the USSR

1991 - Gorbachev believed that a better economy depended on better relationships with the rest of the world, especially the United States. He vowed to bow out of the arms race. He announced that he would withdraw troops from Afghanistan, where they had been fighting a war since 1979, and he reduced the military presence in the Warsaw Pact nations of Eastern Europe. This policy of nonintervention had important consequences, but first, it caused the Eastern European alliances to, as Gorbachev put it, "crumble like a dry saltine cracker in just a few months." The first revolution of 1989 took place in Poland, where the non-Communist trade unionists in the Solidarity movement bargained with the Communist government for freer elections in which they enjoyed great success. This, in turn, sparked peaceful revolutions across Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall fell and the "velvet revolution" in Czechoslovakia overthrew that country's Communist government. An atmosphere of possibility, frustration with the bad economy combined with Gorbachev's hands-off approach to satellite states inspired a series of independence movements in the republic's fringes. One by one, the Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) declared their independence. Then, the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine broke away and created the Commonwealth of Independent States. Weeks later, they were followed by eight of the nine remaining republics, Georgia joined two years later.

1st all race elections in South Africa

1994 - An overwhelming majority chose anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela to head a new coalition government that included his African National Congress Party, former President F.W. de Klerk's National Party, and Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party. Mandela was inaugurated as president, becoming South Africa's first black head of state.

Genocide in Rwanda

1994 - Members of the Hutu ethnic majority in an east-central African nation murdered as many as 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority. Started by Hutu nationalists in the capital of Kigali, the genocide spread throughout the country with shocking speed and brutality, as ordinary citizens were incited by local officials and the Hutu Power government to take up arms against their neighbors. By the time the Tutsi-led Patriotic Front gained control of the country through a military offensive, hundreds of thousands were dead and 2 million refugees (mainly Hutus) fled, exacerbating what had already become a full-blown humanitarian crisis.

9/11 Attacks

2001 - 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the attacks, which triggered major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism and defined the presidency of George W. Bush.

Hamas

A Palestinian Islamist political organization and militant group that has waged war on Israel since the group's 1987 founding, most notably through suicide bombings and rocket attacks. It seeks to replace Israel with a Palestinian state. It also governs Gaza independently of the Palestinian Authority.

Green Revolution

A period (1950-60) when the productivity of global agriculture increased drastically as a result of new advances. During this time period, new chemical fertilizers and synthetic herbicides and pesticides were created. The chemical fertilizers made it possible to supply crops with extra nutrients and, therefore, increase yield. The newly developed synthetic herbicides and pesticides controlled weeds, deterred or kill insects, and prevented diseases, which also resulted in higher productivity.

Agent Orange

A powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover and crops for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. Later proven to cause serious health issues—including cancer, birth defects, rashes and severe psychological and neurological problems—among the Vietnamese people as well as among returning U.S. servicemen and their families.

Arab Spring

A series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across the Middle East in late 2010. It began in response to oppressive regimes and a low standard of living, beginning with protests in Tunisia.

Article 231/War Guilt Clause

A statement in the Treaty of Versailles that said that Germany was responsible for beginning World War I. It was added in order to get the French and Belgians to agree to reduce the sum of money that Germany would have to pay to compensate for war damage. The article was seen as a concession to the Germans by the negotiators. It was bitterly resented, however, by virtually all Germans who did not believe they were responsible for the outbreak of the war. It was a constant thorn in the side of the Weimar leaders who tried to meet the terms of the agreement while trying to have these terms modified.

Command economy

A system where the government, rather than the free market, determines what goods should be produced, how much should be produced and the price at which the goods are offered for sale. This a key feature of any communist society.

Iron Curtain

A term that received prominence after a Winston Churchill speech. He was referring to the boundary line that divided Europe in two different political areas: Western Europe had political freedom, while Eastern Europe was under communist Soviet rule. The term also symbolized the way in which the Soviet Union blocked its territories from open contact with the West.

Bolsheviks

A wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, which, led by Vladimir Lenin, seized control of the government in Russia (October 1917) and became the dominant political power.

Appeasement, 1938

Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sign the Munich Pact, which seals the fate of Czechoslovakia, virtually handing it over to Germany in the name of peace. Upon return to Britain, Chamberlain would declare that the meeting had achieved "peace in our time."

Decolonization/national liberation

After World War II, European countries lacked the wealth and political support necessary to suppress far-away revolts. They could not oppose the new superpowers the U.S. and the Soviet Union's stands against colonialism. Between 1945 and 1960, three dozen new states in Asia and Africa achieved autonomy or outright independence from their European colonial rulers. One of the most important effects of this is the instability of the post-colonial political systems, deep economic problems, inhibiting growth and widening disparities between the northern and southern part of the globe.

Berlin Blockade/Berlin Airlift

After World War II, the Allies partitioned the defeated Germany into a Soviet-occupied zone, an American-occupied zone, a British-occupied zone and a French-occupied zone. Berlin, the German capital city, was located deep in the Soviet zone, but it was also divided into four sections. In June 1948, the Russians-who wanted Berlin all for themselves-closed all highways, railroads and canals from western-occupied Germany into western-occupied Berlin. This, they believed, would make it impossible for the people who lived there to get food or any other supplies and would eventually drive Britain, France and the U.S. out of the city for good. Instead of retreating from West Berlin, however, the U.S. and its allies decided to supply their sectors of the city from the air. This effort lasted for more than a year and carried more than 2.3 million tons of cargo into West Berlin.

Conferences at Yalta, Potsdam, and Tehran

Allied meetings held toward the end of World War II meant to both plan an end to the war and make proposals for a post war world. Led to tensions between western capitalist nations and the communist Soviets.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

April 1961, the CIA launched a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. However, it did not go well: The invaders were badly outnumbered by Castro's troops, and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting. According to many historians, the CIA and the Cuban exile brigade believed that President Kennedy would eventually allow the American military to intervene in Cuba on their behalf. However, the president was resolute: As much as he did not want to "abandon Cuba to the communists," he said, he would not start a fight that might end in World War III.

Intifada

Arabic word which literally means "shaking off," though it is usually translated into English as "uprising" or "resistance". Modern examples usually include Palestinian uprisings against the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian Territories.

Crimes against humanity

Certain acts that are deliberately committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian or an identifiable part of a civilian population. The first prosecution for this took place at the Nuremberg trials.

Chiang Kai-shek/Jiang Jieshi

Chinese military and political leader that joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (known as the Kuomintang, or KMT) in 1918. Succeeding party founder Sun Yat-sen as KMT leader in 1925, he expelled Chinese communists from the party and led a successful unification of China. Despite a professed focus on reform, his government concentrated on battling Communism within China as well as confronting Japanese aggression. When the Allies declared war on Japan in 1941, China took its place among the Big Four. Civil war broke out in 1946, ending in a victory by Mao Zedong's Communist forces and the creation of the People's Republic of China. From 1949 until his death, he led the KMT government in exile in Taiwan, which many countries continued to recognize as China's legitimate government.

D-Day

Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France's Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Prior to it, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe.

Containment theory

Cold War foreign policy of the United States and its allies to prevent the spread of communism by allowing communism to remain where it existed but not allowing it to spread.

Domino Theory

Cold War idea that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states.

Allied Powers

Countries joined in opposition to the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey) in World War I they were Great Britain (and the British Empire), France, and the Russian Empire, or to the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) in World War II they were Great Britain, France (except during the German occupation, 1940-44), the Soviet Union (after its entry in June 1941), the United States (after its entry on December 8, 1941), and China.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

Founded as both a political party and a revolutionary movement in 1921. Grew quickly, and by 1949 it had driven the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government from mainland China, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

Holocaust

Historically used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. Since 1945, the word has taken on a new and horrible meaning: the mass murder of some 6 million European Jews (as well as millions of others, including Gypsies and homosexuals) by the German Nazi regime during the Second World War. To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community. After years of Nazi rule in Germany, during which Jews were consistently persecuted, Hitler's "final solution" came to fruition under the cover of world war, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland.

1st Gulf War

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait. Alarmed by these actions, fellow Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on the United States and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied United Nations Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait, and led to a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. After 42 days of relentless attacks by the allied coalition in the air and on the ground, U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared a ceasefire; by that time, most Iraqi forces in Kuwait had either surrendered or fled. Though this was initially considered an unqualified success for the international coalition, simmering conflict in the troubled region led to a second conflict-known as the Iraq War-that began in 2003.

Balfour Declaration

Issued by the British government in 1917 during World War I announcing support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The influence of it on the course of post-war events was immediate: According to the "mandate" system created by the Versailles Treaty of 1919, Britain was entrusted with the administration of Palestine, with the understanding that it would work on behalf of both its Jewish and Arab inhabitants.

Hezbollah

Meaning Party of God in Arabic, is a major force in the Middle East politics. It started off, in 1982, as an Islamic struggle movement and now enjoys the status of one of most influential military, political and social organizations in the Arab context. Based in Lebanon, it gets support of Iran, Syria and other Arab nations for its anti-Israel stand while some Western countries consider it a terrorist organization. It follows the Shi'ite Islamist ideology and enjoys a massive support in Lebanon as well as in many other Arab countries.

Five Year Plans

Method of planning economic growth over limited periods, through the use of quotas, used first in the Soviet Union and later in other socialist states. In the Soviet Union, the first of these (1928-32), implemented by Joseph Stalin, concentrated on developing heavy industry and collectivizing agriculture, at the cost of a drastic fall in consumer goods. The second (1933-37) continued the objectives of the first. Collectivization led to terrible famines, especially in the Ukraine, that caused the deaths of millions. The third (1938-42) emphasized the production of armaments. The fourth (1946-53) again stressed heavy industry and military buildup, angering the Western powers. In China, the first (1953-57) stressed rapid industrial development, with Soviet assistance; it proved highly successful. Shortly after the second began in 1958, the Great Leap Forward was announced; its goals conflicted with the plan, leading to failure and the withdrawal of Soviet aid in 1960.

Berlin Wall

On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete "Antifascistischer Schutzwall," or "antifascist bulwark," between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this was to keep Western "fascists" from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. It stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at it. To this day, it remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over this Japanese city. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb, on another city, killing an estimated 40,000 people.

Authoritarian government

One ruler or a small group of leaders have the real power in this political system. They may hold elections and they may have contact with their citizens, but citizens do not have any voice in how they are ruled. The leaders do not give their subjects free choice. Instead, they decide what the people can or cannot have. This system does not allow freedoms of speech, press, and religion, and they do not follow majority rule nor protect minority rights. Examples of such regimes include China, Myanmar, Cuba, and Iran.

Collectivization (USSR and China)

Policy adopted by the Soviet government, pursued most intensively between 1929 and 1933, to transform traditional agriculture in the Soviet Union and to reduce the economic power of the kulaks (prosperous peasants). Under this, the peasantry were forced to give up their individual farms and join large farms. The process was ultimately undertaken in conjunction with the campaign to industrialize the Soviet Union rapidly. In China under Mao in the 1950s, agricultural land was removed from private ownership and organized into large state and communal farms.

ISIS

Started as an al Qaeda splinter group. The group is implementing Sharia Law, rooted in eighth-century Islam, to establish a society that mirrors the region's ancient past. Known for killing dozens of people at a time and carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts. It uses modern tools like social media to promote reactionary politics and religious fundamentalism. Fighters are destroying holy sites and valuable antiquities even as their leaders propagate a return to the early days of Islam.

Ethnic cleansing

The attempt to get rid of (through deportation, displacement or even mass killing) members of an unwanted group in order to establish a homogenous geographic area. Though these campaigns have existed throughout history, the rise of extreme nationalist movements during the 20th century led to an unprecedented level of brutality, including the Turkish massacre of Armenians during World War I; the Nazis' annihilation of some 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust; and the forced displacement and mass killings carried out in the former Yugoslavia and the African country of Rwanda during the 1990s.

Axis Powers

The coalition headed by Germany, Italy, and Japan that opposed the Allied powers in World War II. The alliance originated in a series of agreements between Germany and Italy, (October 25, 1936), with the two powers claiming that the world would henceforth rotate on the Rome-Berlin axis. This was followed by the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern Pact against the Soviet Union (November 25, 1936).

Détente

The easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. Between the late 1960s and the late 1970s, there was a thawing of the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. This easing took several forms, including increased discussion on arms control.

Al Qaeda

The global terror network founded by Osama bin Laden has been responsible for thousands of deaths on 9/11 and several other deadly attacks across the globe.

Embargo

The partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country, in order to isolate it. Considered a strong diplomatic measure imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is imposed.

Fascism

This is used to describe a variety of nationalist movements that existed in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. Followers view violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality. This authoritarian form of government is anti-communist, anti-democratic, anti-individualist, anti-liberal, anti-parliamentary, anti-bourgeois and anti-proletarian, anti-conservative on certain issues, and in many cases anti-capitalist.