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WWI
The assassination on 28 June 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was the proximate trigger of the war. Long-term causes, such as imperialistic foreign policies of the great powers of Europe, such as the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, France, and Italy, played a major role. By the war's end, four major imperial powers had been militarily and politically defeated -
Russian Revolution
Civil war erupted between the "Red" (Bolshevik), and "White" (anti-Bolshevik) factions, which was to continue for several years, with the Bolsheviks ultimately victorious. In this way the Revolution paved the way for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar gone and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917. Provisional Government removed and replaced with a Bolshevik Party. -
Wilson's 14- Point Plan
The evacuation of all French territory, including Alsace-Lorraine
The readjustment of Italian boundaries along clearly recognizable lines of nationality
Independence for various national groups in Austria-Hungary
The restoration of the Balkan nations and free access to the sea for Serbia
Protection for minorities in Turkey and the free passage of the ships of all nations through the Dardanelles
Independence for Poland, including access to the sea
A league of nations to protect "mutual guar -
Wilson's 14-point Plan
There should be an end to all secret diplomacy amongst countries. Freedom of the seas in peace and war
The reduction of trade barriers among nations
The general reduction of armaments
The adjustment of colonial claims in the interest of the inhabitants as well as of the colonial powers
The evacuation of Russian territory and a welcome for its government to the society of nations
The restoration of Belgian territories in Germany -
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty.The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties -
Gandhi
Gandhi first employed civil disobedience while an expatriate lawyer in South Africa. After his return to India in 1915, he organized protests by peasants, farmers, and urban laborers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination. After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. -
Chinese Civil War
was fought from 1927 to 1949. On one side were the Communists, who wanted to make China like the Soviet Union. They were backed by the Soviet Union, and they had the support of many poor people. On the others side were the Nationalists, who wanted to make China like the United States. They were backed by the United States and the United Kingdom, and they had the support of the richer people and the Chinese who lived in cities. -
Stalin's 5-Year Plan
1928-1991
Each five-year plan dealt with all aspects of development: capital goods (those used to produce other goods, like coal, iron, and machinery), consumer goods (e.g. chairs, carpets, and irons), agriculture, transportation, communications, health, education, and welfare. However, the emphasis varied from plan to plan, although generally the emphasis was on power (electricity), capital goods, and agriculture. There were base and optimum targets -
Great Depression
It was the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century. The depression originated in the U.S., starting with the fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929 and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 The Great Depression had devastating effects in virtually every country, rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged -
HItler comes to power
In January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, the head of the German government, and many Germans believed that they had found a savior for their nation
The party's rise to power was rapid.Hitler was a powerful and spellbinding speaker who attracted a wide following of Germans desperate for change. He promised the disenchanted a better life and a new and glorious Germany. The Nazis appealed especially to the unemployed, young people, and members of the lower middle class. -
League Of Nations
The League was the first permanent international security organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. it had 58 members. The League's primary goals included preventing war through collective security, disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, treatment of native inhabitants, trafficking in persons and drugs, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war,. -
WWII
two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilised. In a state of "total war," the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the use of nuclear weapons -
Mao Zedong
was a Chinese revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, poet, political theorist, and leader of the Chinese Revolution. He was the architect and founding father of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949, and held authoritarian control over the nation until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism-Leninism, along with his military strategies and brand of political policies, are now collectively known as Maoism. -
WWII
The Axis advance was stopped in 1942 after the defeat of Japan in a series of naval battles and after defeats of European Axis troops.The war in Europe ended with the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.The war ended with the total victory of the Allies over Germany and Japan in 1945. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. -
Juan Peron
In 1946, he was elected President. He instituted massive social reform but was ruthless in suppressing all opposition. Peron's rule rapidly disintegrated into dictatorship. In the early 1950's, economic difficulties in the country led to a growing opposition. The death in 1952 of his popular wife, Eva, as well as his subsequent excommunication by the Catholic church in such an overwhelmingly Catholic country as Argentina, led to Peron's ouster from office by military coup in 1955. -
Cold War
1947-1991
olitical conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World – primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies – and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States and its allies. The Cold War featured periods of relative calm and of international high tension – the Berlin Blockade (1948–1949), the Korean War (1950–1953), the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Vietnam War (1959–1975), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). -
Indian Independence
15 August 1947, India became an independent nation. Violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims followed. Prime Minister Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel invited Mountbatten to continue as Governor General of India. He was replaced in June 1948 by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari. Patel took on the responsibility of unifying 565 princely states, steering efforts by his “iron fist in a velvet glove” policies, exemplified by the use of military force. -
Creation of Pakistan
The idea of Pakistan began from this part of Northern India, gaining a popular following from the Muslim diaspora of this region and spreading onwards to the rest of India.The movement was led by lawyer Muhammad Ali Jinnah, along with other prominent political figures such as Allama Iqbal, Jinnah, Bahadur Yar Jung, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jahur. The movement ultimately achieved success in 1947, when part of northwest India was partitioned, granted independence and renamed Pakistan. -
NATO
an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium and the organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. -
Maoism
anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong (1893–1976). Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it is widely applied as the political and military guiding ideology in the Communist Party of China (CPC) from Mao's ascendancy to its leadership until the party was taken over by Deng Xiaoping, who implemented Deng Xiaoping Theory and Chinese economic reforms in 1978. -
Korean War
military conflict between South Korea, supported by the United Nations (primarily the United States), and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China (PRC), with military material aid from the Soviet Union. The war was a result of the physical division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. -
Warsaw Pact
The treaty was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Treaty’s organization was two-fold: the Political Consultative Committee handled political matters, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States (with the aid of the South Vietnamese) attempting to prevent the spread of communism. -
Great Leap Forward
1958 to 1961
an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China (CPC), reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern communist society through the process of agriculturalization, industrialization, and collectivization. -
Bay of Pigs
unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the invading combatants within three days. -
Berlin Wall
August 13, 1961 -- November 9, 1989 The Berlin Wall was the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany. However, it was also the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was erected in the dead of night and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. Its destruction, which was nearly as instantaneous as its creation, was celebrated around the world -
Cuban Missile Crises
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. In the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build its missile installations in Cuba.
Tensions finally began to ease on October 28 when Khrushchev announced that he would dismantle the installations and return the missiles to the Soviet Union, expressing his trust that the United States would not invade Cuba. -
helsinki accords
The agreement recognized the inviolability of the post-World War II frontiers in Europe and pledged the 35 signatory nations to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to cooperate in economic, scientific, humanitarian, and other areas.
Thirty-five states, including the USA, Canada, and all European states except Albania and Andorra, signed the declaration in an attempt to improve relations between the Communist bloc and the West. -
Islamic Revolution
Between August and December 1978 strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country. The Shah left Iran for exile in mid-January 1979, and in the resulting power vacuum two weeks later Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to a greeting by several million Iranians. The royal regime collapsed shortly after on February 11 when guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. Iran voted by national referendum to become an Islamic Republic on April 1, 1979, -
Iran-Iraq War
22 September 1980 – August 20, 1988
The objectives of Iraq's invasion of Iran were:
Control of the Shatt al-Arab waterway by Iraqis
Acquisition of the three islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, on behalf of the UAE.
Annexation of Khuzestan to Iraq
Prevent the spread of the Islamic Revolution in the region.
The war finally ended with a United Nations brokered ceasefire in the form of United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, which was accepted by both sides. -
Tiananmen Square
were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China (PRC) beginning on 15 April 1989. The movement used mainly non-violent methods and can be considered a case of civil resistance.Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in the year that was to see the collapse of a number of communist governments in eastern Europe. -
Reunification of Germany
The swift and unexpected downfall of the German Democratic Republic was triggered by the decay of the other communist regimes in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The liberalizing reforms of President Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union appalled the Honecker regime, which in desperation was by 1988 forbidding the circulation within East Germany of Soviet publications that it viewed as dangerously subversive. The Berlin Wall was in effect breached in the summer of 1988 -
USSR Disintegrates
It resulted in the destruction of the Soviet Federal Government ("the Union centre") and independence of the USSR's republics on December 25, 1991. The process was caused by weakening of the Soviet government, which led to disintegration and took place from about January 19, 1990 to December 31, 1991. The process was characterized by many of the republics of the Soviet Union declaring their independence and being recognized as sovereign nation-states. -
Nelson Mandela
served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life in prison. Mandela served 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. -
September 11, 2001
The hijackers crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board, both towers collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror, invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, harboring al-Qaeda terrorists. 3,000 victims and the 19 hijackers