World History Exam 3
Describe the "three acts" of the communist era coming to an end:
- Act One began in China during the late 1970s, following the death of its towering revolutionary leader Mao Zedong in 1976. Over the next several decades, the CCP gradually abandoned almost everything that had been associated with Maoist communism, even as the party retained its political control of the country. - Act Two took place in Eastern Europe in the "miracle year" of 1989, when popular movements toppled despised communist governments one after another all across the region. - The climactic act in this "end of communism" drama occurred in 1991 in the Soviet Union, where the entire "play" had opened seventy-four years earlier. There the reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev had come to power in 1985 intending to revive and save Soviet socialism from its accumulated dysfunctions. Those efforts, however, only exacerbated the country's many difficulties and led to the political disintegration of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991. The curtain had fallen on the communist era.
In what different ways was the cold war expressed and experienced?
- America, member of NATO, intervened in East Asia to prevent spread of communism - Afghanistan, a non-aligned member, had a Marxist communist party take over, but reform movements persisted. USSR intervened and fought Afghan with US aid. USSR withdrew and Afghan communist regime collapsed. - Cuba, member of Warsaw pact, had missile deployed by USSR to halt US action. (Western perceptions of the cold war= a struggle between tyranny and freedom Soviet Union perception of the cold war= Soviet communism was a reasonable alternative to capitalism)
What factors contributed to the end of European colonial empires in Africa and Asia?
- The world wars had weakened Europe while discrediting any sense of European moral superiority. - New generations of Western-educated elites no longer viewed colonial rule as a vehicle for their peoples' progress as their fathers had; and they increasingly insisted on immediate independence. - Deliberate planning for decolonization included gradual political reforms; investments in railroads, ports, and telegraph lines; the holding of elections; and the writing of constitutions. To some observers, it seemed as if independence was granted by colonial rulers rather than gained or seized by anticolonial initiatives.
What were the two general failures of the communist experiment?
1. Economic --> communist economies by the late 1970s showed no signs of catching up to the more advanced capitalist countries. 2. Moral --> The horrors of Stalin's Terror and the gulag, of Mao's Cultural Revolution, of something approaching genocide in communist Cambodia — all of this wore away at communist claims to moral superiority over capitalism.
What were the three motivating factors of the Marshall Plan being created?
1. Genuine humanitarian concern 2. A desire to prevent a new depression by creating overseas customers for American industrial goods 3. An interest in undermining the growing appeal of European communist parties.
What three factors help to explain Europe's astonishing recovery in the second half of the twentieth century?
1. The apparent resiliency of an industrial society, once it has been established. 2. Putting aside nationalism in return for enduring peace and common prosperity. 3. The Marshall Plan from the Untied States
In 2002, nineteen of the European Union's (formerly the EEC) members developed what?
A common currency, the euro.
What national catastrophe did the Great Leap Forward in China cause?
Administrative chaos, disruption of marketing networks, and bad weather combined to produce a massive famine, that killed some 30 million people or more between 1959 and 1962.
What empires collapsed following World War 1?
Austrian and Ottoman empires
Who was the rising economic giant of the twenty-first century?
China
What were the political party systems like after independence?
Communist Party control in China, Vietnam, and Cuba; multiparty democracy in India and South Africa; one-party democracy in Mexico, Tanzania, and Senegal; military regimes for a time in much of Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East; personal dictatorships in Iraq, Uganda, and the Philippines. In many places, one kind of political system followed another in kaleidoscopic succession.
major standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962 over Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba; the confrontation ended in compromise, with the USSR removing its missiles in exchange for the United States agreeing not to invade Cuba.
Cuban Missile Crisis
leader of China from 1978-1997 whose reforms dismantled many of the distinctly communist elements of the Chinese economy.
Deng Xiaoping
The demise of world communism during the last quarter of the twentieth century effectively did what three things?
Ended the cold war, diminished the threat of a nuclear holocaust, and marked the birth of another twenty or so new nation-states.
What enabled Europe, the Soviet Union, and Japan to recover from the devastation of the war?
Europe and Japan: - Resiliency of industrial society, despite physical infrastructure being destroyed - Ability to integrate their recovering economies, putting aside prickly nationalism (EEC) - American's economic assistance and political & military security against German aggression. -> Marshal Plan & NATO Soviet Union: - Huge convict labor force resulting from Stalinist policies. - State-planned economy focusing on heavy industry. - Wartime seizure of industrial complexes and valuables.
an alliance formed in 1957 by six Western European countries dedicated to developing common trade policies and reduced tariffs; it gradually developed into the larger European Union.
European Economic Community (EEC)
World War 2 ended what two empires?
German and Japanese empires.
the political party led by Mahatma Gandhi that succeeded in bringing about Indian independence from Britain in 1947.
Indian National Congress
establishment of a radically Islamic government in Iran in 1979; helped trigger a war with Iraq in the 1980s.
Iranian revolution
struggle between the Jewish state of Israel and the adjacent Palestinian Muslim territories that has generated periodic wars and upheavals since 1948.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
What was Africa's political system like after gaining independence?
Many of the apparently popular political parties that had led the struggle for independence lost mass support and were swept away by military coups, one-party systems, or "big man" dictatorships. Across much of Africa, economic disappointments, class resentments, and ethnic conflicts provided the context for numerous military takeovers. By the early 1980s, the military had intervened in at least thirty of Africa's forty-six independent states and actively governed more than half of them. Army officers swept aside the old political parties and constitutions and vowed to begin anew, while promising to return power to civilians and restore democracy at some point in the future.
Chairman of China's Communist Party and de facto ruler of China from 1949 until his death.
Mao Zedong
huge U.S. government initiative to aid in the post World War II recovery of Western Europe that was put into effect in 1948.
Marshall Plan
What is the Arab Spring?
Mass movements in various Arab countries — Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen — challenged the hold of entrenched, corrupt, and autocratic rulers, while proclaiming their commitment to democracy, human dignity, and honest government.
leader of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991 whose efforts to reform the USSR led to its collapse.
Mikhail Gorbachev
What did "building socialism" mean to Communist Party leaders?
Modernization and industrialization
often known as "Mahatma" or "Great Soul", the political leader of the Indian drive for independence from Great Britain; rejected the goal of modern industrialization and advocated nonviolence.
Mohandas Gandhi
political group formed in response to the Indian National Congress in India's struggle for independence from Britain; the League's leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, argued that regions of India with a Muslim majority should form a separate state called Pakistan.
Muslim League
a military alliance, created in 1949, between the United States and various European countries; largely aimed at defending against the threat of Soviet aggression during the cold war.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Which country proved most resistant in the face of liberation movements during the twentieth century?
Portugal
In what different ways was the erosion of communism experienced in China and the Soviet Union?
Soviet Union: - Largely stagnant economy: citizens forced to stand in long lines for consumer goods (poor quality and declining availability), which is embarrassing for communist leaders - Comparisons well-known thanks to the global information revolution - Political and national security implications - Horror's of Stalin's Terror is morally incorrect China: - Great Leap Forward produced catastrophe, human tragedy, and massive famine. - Cultural Revolution had no results, which discredited communism. - Transitioned to full communism without industrial development
What was distinctive about the Chinese experience of communism compared to that of the Soviet Union?
Soviet Union: - Russian Bolsheviks faced a hostile capitalist world alone. - New rulers who came to power quickly with no previous experience. - Found their support mainly in the cities. - Stalin and his successors largely accepted inequalities between educated, technically trained elites and workers/peasants. - Search for enemies under control of state authorities. China: - Coming to power thirty years later, China had an established Soviet Union as a friendly northern neighbor and ally. - Had previous governing experience. - Found their support in vast peasant population rather than Soviet urban dwellers. - Less developed society to build from (had a greater population, industrial base was far smaller; China's literacy and modern education, as well as its transportation network, were much less developed). - Pushed collectivization agriculture is peaceful, but more extreme (Great leap forward). - Focused on small-scale industrialization in rural areas rather than heavy industry in cities. - Fostered widespread tech education for all rather than relying on small elite. - Immediate transition to full communism rather than waiting for industrial development (Great leap forward). - Mao Zedong did not accept inequalities; greater emphasis on eliminating class inequality (cultural revolution). - Search for enemies is public.
conflict beginning in 2011 that generated over 12 million refugees and asylum seekers by mid-2016 and engaged both regional and world powers on various sides of the conflict.
Syrian civil war
Why was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization formed?
The American commitment to Europe soon came to include political and military security against the possibility of renewed German aggression and the more immediate communist threat from the Soviet Union.
China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a massive campaign launched by Mao Zedong in the mid-1960s to combat the capitalist tendencies that he believed reached into even the highest ranks of the Communist Party; the campaign threw China into chaos. (It also involved new efforts to bring health care and education to the countryside and to reinvigorate earlier attempts at rural industrialization under local rather than central control)
The Cultural Revolution
Communist push for collectivization that created "people's communes" and aimed to mobilize China's population for rapid development. (1958-1960)
The Great Leap Forward
Who was the superpower of the communist world?
The Soviet Union
What was the only major industrial country to escape the physical devastation of war on its own soil?
The United States
What did decolonization signal?
The declining legitimacy of both empire and race as a credible basis for political or social life. It promised not only national freedom but also personal dignity, opportunity, and prosperity.
What is the Iron Curtain?
The heavily fortified border between Eastern and Western Europe. (Communist world vs. Western democratic world)
What did the African and Asian movements for independence share with the other end-of-empire stories?
The ideal of national self-determination
What did the Red Guards do following gigantic and ecstatic rallies in Beijing?
They fanned out across the country and attacked local party and government officials, teachers, intellectuals, factory managers, and others they defined as enemies. Many were "sent down" to the countryside for hard physical labor and to "learn from the peasants." Others were humiliated, beaten, and sometimes killed.
What was India's political system like after gaining independence?
They formed a Western-style democracy, including regular elections, multiple parties, civil liberties, and peaceful changes in government, which has been practiced almost continuously since independence.
What was the end result of Mao's two great campaigns, the "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution"?
They led to the death and ruin of tens of millions and the widespread discrediting of communism.
What happened in Europe in the second half of the twentieth century?
They rebuilt their industrial economies and revived their democratic political systems.
How did Algeria gain its independence from France in 1962?
They used violence --> eight years of bitter guerrilla warfare
In 1945, who was the dominant center of Western civilization and a global superpower?
United States
What were the "hot" wars during the Cold War?
Vietnam War and Korean War
a military alliance between the Soviet Union and communist states in Eastern Europe, created in 1955 as a counterweight to NATO and to prevent Western influence in the communist bloc; expressed the tensions of the cold war in Europe.
Warsaw Pact
Which of the following was a critical part of China's economic reform after 1976? a. China sought to attract foreign capitalists with tax breaks. b. China replaced its collectivized farms with large corporate farms on the American model, some of which surpassed U.S. farms in productivity. c. Township and village enterprises were eliminated when collectivized farms were eliminated. d. China eliminated state-run factories by selling them to private entrepreneurs.
a. China sought to attract foreign capitalists with tax breaks.
What was an outcome of the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949? a. The United States committed itself to the defense of Europe against the Soviet Union. b. Western Europe subsidized the U.S. military forces stationed in Europe rather than maintain its own armed forces. c. The Warsaw Pact was disbanded. d. West Germany was disarmed in exchange for the rest of the alliance guaranteeing its security.
a. The United States committed itself to the defense of Europe against the Soviet Union.
Which of the following has been the most globally unsettling and novel aspect of post-cold war international life? a. The rise of radical Islamic terrorism b. The Soviet Union's continued existence c. Militaristic government in Latin America d. The state support for Chinese piracy on the high seas
a. The rise of radical Islamic terrorism
Which of the following was an important factor in explaining why democracies proved so fragile in post-independence Africa? a. Africans had little experience in reaching consensus because their societies were dominated by individualistic values. b. African governments staked their legitimacy on economic performance. c. Better opportunities in the private sector meant that few educated Africans took poorly paid government jobs. d. African political parties were too broadly based to be effective.
b. African governments staked their legitimacy on economic performance.
In the aftermath of early twentieth-century conflicts, what enabled Western Europe's recovery from the devastation of war? a. Europeans implemented the Marshall Plan, which pooled their remaining resources at the end of the war in order to better coordinate recovery. b. After centuries of military conflict, Western Europeans put aside some of their nationalist sentiments to work toward common prosperity. c. Unlike Japan, Western Europe rejected American aid, thereby promoting domestic industrial production. d. Western European economies adopted strongly protectionist policies that largely prohibited international trade, allowing their own industries the space to recover.
b. After centuries of military conflict, Western Europeans put aside some of their nationalist sentiments to work toward common prosperity.
How did collectivization of agriculture differ between the Soviet Union and China? a. China's collectivization remained small-scale, avoiding the huge "people's communes" established in the Soviet Union. b. Collectivization was a more peaceful process in China than in the Soviet Union. c. Only the Soviet Union organized meetings where peasants confronted and humiliated landlords and more wealthy peasants in their communities. d. Only the Soviet Union was forced to abandon collectivization because of local resistance.
b. Collectivization was a more peaceful process in China than in the Soviet Union.
Which of the following was an outcome of the Chinese initiative to form enormous "people's communes" during the Great Leap Forward of the 1950s? a. It led to the fall of Mao's government in the face of a peasant revolt. b. It led to administrative chaos; disruption of marketing networks and bad weather combined with the collectivization project to produce a massive famine. c. It led to widespread violence between richer peasants known as kulaks and Chinese authorities. d. It led to the transformation of agricultural production in China, making it the most productive in the world.
b. It led to administrative chaos; disruption of marketing networks and bad weather combined with the collectivization project to produce a massive famine.
Which of the following statements accurately reflects the relationship between communist states during the cold war? a. Vietnam and China were close allies throughout the period. b. The Soviet Union invaded both Hungary and Czechoslovakia. c. China and the Soviet Union maintained a close alliance against the West. d. The Soviet Union was most successful in dominating the internal affairs of Yugoslavia.
b. The Soviet Union invaded both Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Why did leadership of the West pass to the United States at the conclusion of World War II? a. Only the United States was able to maintain its representative democracy during the war. b. The United States was physically untouched by the war. c. The United States established the League of Nations, through which it could control political and economic policy in the West. d. Through the Marshall Plan, the United States actively undermined both German and British efforts to secure the leadership in the postwar years.
b. The United States was physically untouched by the war.
Which economic factor motivated the United States to invest $12 billion in the Marshall Plan? a. To make sure that Europe did not reindustrialize, which American officials feared would lead to another world war b. To prevent a new depression by creating overseas customers for American industrial goods c. To counter a similar $5 billion initiative by the Soviet Union to create communist governments and economies in Western Europe d. To provide compensation for the damage caused by U.S. troops during the war
b. To prevent a new depression by creating overseas customers for American industrial goods
Which of the following best reflects the decolonization process in Asia and Africa during the twentieth century? a. European colonial powers opposed the decolonization process, but the United States and Soviet Union forced decolonization through coordinated action in the United Nations. b. While colonial powers in many cases were willing to peacefully relinquish control over their colonies, they frequently did so under considerable pressure from nationalist movements. c. Decolonization was granted by colonial rulers rather than gained or seized by nationalist movements. d. Nationalist movements seized control of colonies across the region by force.
b. While colonial powers in many cases were willing to peacefully relinquish control over their colonies, they frequently did so under considerable pressure from nationalist movements.
Which of the following is true of the nuclear standoff during the cold war? a. While Stalin and his successors viewed nuclear war as "winnable," American leaders did not. b. Fear of nuclear destructiveness led both the United States and Soviet Union to build small deterrent forces. c. Following the Cuban missile crisis, both powers continued to expand their arsenals. d. The Cuban missile crisis lessened fears that nuclear war was too destructive to contemplate.
c. Following the Cuban missile crisis, both powers continued to expand their arsenals.
Which of the following was an outcome of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution? a. Mao was removed from power by a coup led by high-ranking officials fearful for their own positions. b. There was an orderly purging of high-ranking party officials. c. Mao had to call the army out to restore order and to stop the violence that threatened civil war. d. Mao sought to further centralize industrial production in the cities, where the loyalty of workers and factory officials could be better monitored.
c. Mao had to call the army out to restore order and to stop the violence that threatened civil war.
Which of the following was an important difference between the industrial histories of the Soviet Union and China? a. Only the Soviet Union succeeded in industrializing. b. Only China used the five-year plan model of centralized industrial development. c. Only the Soviets came to accept that industrialization and urbanization required that a new set of privileged elites emerge. d. Only China focused on agriculture rather than industry to spur economic development.
c. Only the Soviets came to accept that industrialization and urbanization required that a new set of privileged elites emerge.
During the 1980s, with what did China's leadership associate democracy? a. Marx's ideal society b. Rapid modernization and economic expansion c. The chaos of the Cultural Revolution d. The chaos of the Great Depression in the West
c. The chaos of the Cultural Revolution
Which of the following best characterizes the Soviet economy during the period of Gorbachev's reforms? a. The Soviet economy successfully made the transition to a functioning market economy even as political instability brought down the Soviet Union. b. While land reform improved agricultural production markedly, industrial reform failed. c. The planned economy was dismantled before a functioning market-based system could emerge. d. Foreign investors quickly came to dominate the economy by buying state-run industries.
c. The planned economy was dismantled before a functioning market-based system could emerge.
Which of the following statements best reflects Soviet and Chinese industrialization during the twentieth century? a. While the Soviets succeeded in industrializing, the Chinese failed. b. Neither succeeded in creating a fully industrialized economy. c. They experienced unprecedented economic growth through massive mobilization of their nations' human and material resources. d. Once they abandoned the disastrous five-year plan model for economic development, their economies grew rapidly.
c. They experienced unprecedented economic growth through massive mobilization of their nations' human and material resources.
geopolitical and ideological conflict between communist regimes and capitalist power after World War II, spreading from Eastern Europe through Asia; characterized by the avoidance of direct military conflict between the USSR and the United States and an arms race in nuclear weapons.
cold war
What distinguished the extension of communism into Asia as compared to Europe following World War II? a. The communists had little success in Europe. b. Europe was the scene of the most destructive and prolonged hot wars during the cold war. c. The communists had little success in Asia. d. Asia was the scene of the most destructive and prolonged hot wars during the cold war.
d. Asia was the scene of the most destructive and prolonged hot wars during the cold war.
After 1976, which critical economic reform was implemented in China? a. China allowed foreign capitalists into the country but required them to pay special taxes for the privilege. b. China replaced its collectivized farms with large corporate farms on the American model. c. Township and village enterprises were eliminated when collectivized farms were eliminated. d. Managers of state-run factories were encouraged to act like private owners by seeking profits.
d. Managers of state-run factories were encouraged to act like private owners by seeking profits.
What was distinctive about the end of Europe's African and Asian empires compared to other cases of imperial disintegration? a. Never before had fascist ideology been used by colonists to rally support for independence. b. Few newly independent colonies in Africa and Asia claimed full international status equivalent to their former rulers, while those in the Americas did. c. Never before had imperial dissolution been accompanied by such violence. d. Never before had the end of empire been so associated with the mobilization of the masses around a nationalist ideology.
d. Never before had the end of empire been so associated with the mobilization of the masses around a nationalist ideology.
What distinguished the dissolution of Europe's Asian and African empires in the twentieth century from the dissolution of its colonies in the Americas during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? a. In the twentieth century, few newly independent colonies claimed full international status equivalent to their former rulers. b. In the Americas, independence was achieved without violence, whereas in the Asian and African empires violence was endemic. c. Most Asian and African independence struggles frequently rejected nationalism as a Western idea. d. The Asian and African independence struggles frequently affirmed the vitality of local cultures after independence.
d. The Asian and African independence struggles frequently affirmed the vitality of local cultures after independence.
Which of the following statements best describes the experience of third-world countries during the cold war? a. They generally had no control over the situation, becoming pawns in a game dominated by the superpowers. b. They were largely forced to choose a side in the conflict and found it impossible to later escape from their "patron." c. They typically found it impossible not to join one side or the other. d. Third-world countries had varied experiences, with their individual circumstances running the spectrum from being the pawn of a superpower to actually benefiting from the rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union.
d. Third-world countries had varied experiences, with their individual circumstances running the spectrum from being the pawn of a superpower to actually benefiting from the rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union.
process in which many African and Asian states won their independence from Western colonial rule, in most cases by negotiated settlement and in some cases through violent military confrontations.
decolonization
late twentieth-century political shift that brought popular movements, multiparty elections, and new constitutions to countries around the world.
globalization of democracy
Who were the Red Guards?
militia units formed by young Chinese people in response to Mao Zedong's call for a social and cultural revolution; they set out to rid China of those who were "taking the capitalist road."