Government of India Act
(1935) Was the last pre-independence constitution of the British Raj. It granted Indian provinces autonomy. Direct elections are introduced for the first time. The right to vote was increased from seven million to thirty-five million.
Great Leap Forward
The disastrous economic policy introduced by Mao Zedong that proposed the implementation of small-scale industrial projects.
Guomindang (Kuomintang)
China's Nationalist political party founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1912 and based on democratic principles; in 1925, the party was taken over by Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek), who made it into a more authoritarian party.
Iron Curtain
Term coined by Winston Churchill for the political barrier isolating Soviet dominated Eastern Europe from Western Europe.
Korean Conflict
Conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces in Korea from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953.
Kulaks
Russian peasants who became wealthy under Lenin's New Economic Policy.
Marshall Plan
A U.S. plan to support the recovery and reconstruction of Western Europe after World War II.
May Fourth Movement
A 1919 protest in China against the Treaty of Versailles and foreign influence.
New Economic Policy (NEP)
Lenin's policy that allowed some private ownership and limited foreign investment to revitalize the Soviet economy.
Nonalignment
The policy of some developing nations to refrain from aligning with either the United States or the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
A defense alliance between nations of Western Europe and North America formed in 1949.
Perestroika
A restructuring of the Soviet economy to allow some local decision making.
Prague Spring
A 1968 program of reform to soften socialism in Czechoslovakia; it resulted in the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia
Purges
Joseph Stalin's policy of exiling or killing millions of his opponents in the Soviet Union.
Red Guard
A militia of young Chinese people organized to carry out Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.
Sandinistas
A left-wing group that overthrew the dictatorship of Nicaraguan Anastacio Somoza in 1979.
Six-Day War
A brief war between Israel and a number of Arab states in 1967; during this conflict Israel took over Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula, and the West Bank.
Solidarity
A Polish trade union that began the nation's protest against communist rule.
Tiananmen Square
Beijing site of a 1989 student protest in favor of democracy; the Chinese military killed a large number of protestors.
Truman Doctrine
A 1947 statement by U.S. President Truman that pledged aid to any nation resisting communism.
Warsaw Pact
The 1955 agreement between the Soviet Union and the countries of eastern Europe in response to NATO
Al-Qaeda
A terrorist group based in Afghanistan in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Cartels
Unions of independent businesses in order to regulate production, prices, and the marketing of goods
International Monetary Fund
An international organization founded in 1944 to promote market economies and free trade
Persian Gulf War
The 1991 war between Iraq and a U.S.
World Bank
An agency of the United Nations that offers loans to countries to promote trade and economic development.
Euro
The standard currency introduced and adopted by the majority of members of the European Union in January 2002.
European Economic Community (EEC or Common Market)
An economic organization of European states set up by the Treaties of ROME in March 1957. Its member states agreed to coordinate their economic policies, and to establish common policies for agriculture, transport, the movement of capital and labor, the erection of common external tariffs, and the ultimate establishment of political unification.
European Community
An organization of Western European countries, which came into being in 1967 through the merger of the European Economic Community (Common Market or EEC), European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and was committed to economic and political integration as envisaged by the Treaties of Rome. It was superseded in 1993 by the EUROPEAN UNION.
Import Substitution Industrialization
An economic system that attempts to strengthen a country's industrial power by restricting foreign imports.
McDonaldization
Term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society (1995). He describes it as the process by which a society takes on the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant (efficiency, calculability, predictability, & control); extension of world trade to the Soviet Union.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
An organization that prohibits tariffs and other trade barriers between Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
Organization formed in 1960 by oil-producing countries to regulate oil supplies and prices.
World Trade Organization (WTO)
An international organization begun in 1995 to promote and organize world trade.