All Flashcards
What happened in 1939?
Hitler's invasion of Poland, marking the start of WWII.
What happened in 1945?
The end of WWII and the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, which shaped the post-war world.
What happened in 1947?
The implementation of the Marshall Plan to aid Western Europe.
What happened in 1949?
The formation of NATO and the establishment of communist China.
What happened during 1950-1953?
The Korean War, a major proxy war between the USA and USSR.
What happened in 1955?
The Bandung Conference, promoting non-alignment among newly independent nations.
What happened in 1957?
Ghana gained independence, a key event in African decolonization.
What happened during 1959-1975?
The Vietnam War, another significant proxy war in Southeast Asia.
What happened in 1962?
The Cuban Missile Crisis, a tense standoff that brought the world close to nuclear war.
What happened in 1989?
The collapse of the Berlin Wall and the independence of many countries from the Soviet bloc.
What is the Cold War?
A period of geopolitical tension between the USA and the USSR, characterized by proxy wars, espionage, and ideological conflict.
What is Decolonization?
The process by which colonies gain independence from colonial powers.
What is Capitalism?
An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.
What is Communism?
A political and economic ideology advocating a classless society in which the means of production are owned communally.
What is NATO?
A military alliance formed in 1949 by the USA and its allies to counter Soviet expansion.
What is the Warsaw Pact?
A military alliance formed in 1955 by the USSR and its satellite states in response to NATO.
What is Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)?
A doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.
What is a Proxy War?
A conflict in which opposing powers use third parties as substitutes instead of fighting each other directly.
What was the Marshall Plan?
A U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II.
What is non-alignment?
The policy of some countries, mainly newly independent nations, to not align with either the USA or the USSR during the Cold War.
Compare NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
Both were military alliances formed during the Cold War. NATO was led by the USA and its allies, while the Warsaw Pact was led by the USSR and its satellite states. They represented opposing ideological blocs.
Compare negotiated and violent independence movements.
Negotiated independence involved peaceful means like boycotts and negotiations (e.g., India). Violent independence involved wars and armed conflict (e.g., Vietnam, Algeria).