World History Unit 8
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114 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 weapons of mass destruction | Nuclear, chemical, and biological |
| Ostpolitik | Meaning "Eastern Policy," term used to describe Willy |
| abstract expressionism | Style of painting after 1945 that involved personal expression from the artist |
| Jackson Pollock | Leading abstract expressionist artist who believed art was a personal expression that came from the artist's unconscious mind |
| pop art | Style used by artists who painted common objects such as soup cans, pictures from comic books, or road signs |
| op art | Art of the 1950s and 1960s in which artists used brilliant colors and shapes to create optical illusions |
| conceptual art | Style of art in which the act of creating the art is more important than the actual art object |
| performance art | Art form in which the artist becomes a living work of art |
| George Balanchine | Russian exile who became founder, artistic director, and chief choreographer of the New York City Ballet |
| Martha Graham | American who became a leader in modern dance |
| Federico Fellini | Italian film director in the 1940s and 1950s who produced films that sharply criticized social and political injustice |
| Akira Kurosawa | Japanese film director who used violence and dark atmosphere to create startling and frightening new effects |
| Bertolt Brecht | East German playwright who staged plays that brought attention to their artificiality |
| theater of the absurd | Type of theater characterized by biting social commentary |
| Beats | Group of writers in the post-World War II years that criticized wealthy citizens and their values |
| Toni Morrison | African American female writer who won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature |
| Maya Angelou | African American writer who wrote books and poetry that explored black experience in the South |
| Yury Gagarin | Soviet cosmonaut who became the first person to orbit Earth |
| Alan Shepard | Astronaut who became the first American to travel in space |
| Neil Armstrong | Astronaut who became the first human to step foot on the moon |
| Columbia | The first space shuttle, launched by the United States in 1981 |
| Alpha | First international space station |
| miniaturization | Process of making machines smaller and lighter |
| supercomputers | Powerful computers that help solve complex scientific and engineering problems |
| laser | Device that concentrates light and releases it in an intense beam that travels in a straight line |
| antibiotics | Substances that can kill or limit bacterial growth |
| DNA | The small units of chromosomes that convey characteristics from parent to child |
| genetic code | Sequence of DNA's chemical "letters" that determines the characteristics for each human life |
| cloning | Process of making a genetically identical copy of an animal's cell |
| urbanization | Migration from the countryside to the city |
| biodiversity | Variety of plants and animals that naturally occurs in the environment |
| acid rain | Rainfall that contains toxins produced from burning fossil fuels |
| Rachel Carson | Author of the 1962 book Silent Spring, which raised awareness of the effects of pesticides on the environment |
| greenhouse effect | Warming of the earth's surface |
| Universal Declaration of Human Rights | Document adopted by the United Nations in 1948 that outlined the basic human rights that every person should have |
| Convention on the Rights of the Child | An agreement passed by the United Nations in 1989 that outlines the legal, social, and economic guidelines each country must follow to protect children |
| Richard Nixon | Republican president of the United States during the Vietnam War who invaded Cambodia, leading to antiwar protests in which the National Guard fired on students; he later resigned to avoid impeachment for the Watergate scandal |
| Vietnamization | Process of preparing the South Vietnamese to take over the fighting of the Vietnam War, allowing the withdrawal of U.S. troops |
| Watergate scandal | The illegal break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972 that led to President Nixon's resignation |
| Jimmy Carter | Democratic president of the United States from 1976 to 1980, who demonstrated integrity but was troubled by a sluggish economy and the Iranian hostage crisis |
| Ronald Reagan | Former governor of California and Republican president of the United States from 1980 to 1988, during the Irancontra affair |
| Iran-contra affair | Scandal in which members of President Ronald Reagan's National Security Council illegally sold weapons to Iran in exchange for hostages, and used the money to fund Nicaraguan rebels called contras |
| Bill Clinton | Popular Democratic president of the United States from 1992 to 2000, when the U.S. economy experienced record growth, but whose image was harmed by questionable financial dealings and accusations of sexual misconduct |
| George W. Bush | Son of President George Bush who became President of the United States in 2001 after a closely disputed election |
| détente | Era of improved Soviet-American relations |
| Carter Doctrine | Statement declaring that the United States would regard any attempts by outside forces to control the Persian Gulf as an assault on U.S. interests |
| weapons of mass destruction | Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons of great power |
| Pierre Trudeau | Liberal Party prime minister of Canada in the 1970s, who tried to keep Canada united while protecting French Canadian culture |
| Meech Lake Accord | Failed agreement between Canadian leaders to accept Quebec as a "distinct society" within Canadian |
| Margaret Thatcher | Conservative Party leader and Britain's first female prime minister, who reduced the role of government in the economy, reduced taxes, and eliminated social programs in the 1980s |
| Tony Blair | Labour Party leader who became prime minister of Great Britain in 1997, promising liberal reforms |
| Georges Pompidou | President of France who strengthened ties with French allies, such as the United States, and ended French opposition to British membership in the European Economic Community |
| Francois Mitterand | Socialist president of France in 1981 who sought to strengthen the economy by increasing the role of government and also increased French involvement overseas |
| Willy Brandt | Chancellor of West Germany in 1969 who tried to reduce tensions between his country and Eastern Europe through his policy of Ostpolitik |
| Ostpolitik | Meaning "Eastern Policy," term used to describe Willy Brandt's efforts to improve relations between East and West |
| Helmut Kohl | Conservative Christian Democrat who as chancellor of West Germany presided over the reunification of Germany in 1989 |
| Juan Carlos | King of Spain after Franco's death in 1975, who restored democracy and held the first free elections in over 40 years |
| Helsinki Accords | Series of agreements in 1975 that gave European nations a new framework for economic and technological cooperation, among other democratic agreements |
| Maastricht Treaty | Treaty that created the European Union |
| Leonid Brezhnev | Leader of the Soviet Union in the 1970s who crushed opposition at home and in satellite nations, but tried to stabilize relations with the U.S. through the policy of détente |
| Brezhnev Doctrine | Doctrine stating that the Soviet Union would intervene in any satellite nation that seemed to be moving away from communism |
| Mikhail Gorbachev | Leader of the Soviet Union who overhauled the Soviet political and economic systems through a series of reforms |
| perestroika | Soviet "restructuring" policy designed to overhaul the Soviet political and economic system |
| glasnost | Soviet policy of "openness," which relaxed government controls on the economy and eased restrictions on dissent |
| Boris Yeltsin | President of Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union, who faced many challenges in converting Russia into a democracy and a market economy |
| Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) | Commonwealth established to coordinate defense and economic policies for the new independent republics following the breakup of the Soviet Union |
| Lech Walesa | Leader of an independent trade union called Solidarity, which led protests that eventually caused the downfall |
| Vaclav Havel | Czechoslovakian writer and former dissident leader |
| ethnic cleansing | Campaign of terror and murder intended to drive out certain ethnic groups from a region or an area |
| Dayton Accord | Agreement mediated by the United States that gave Bosnian Serbs a degree of autonomy while recognizing the sovereignty of the Muslim-led government |
| World Trade Center | New York City office complex that was struck by a devastating terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 |
| Pentagon | Headquarters of the U.S. military leadership, located near Washington, D.C., and the scene of a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 |
| Rudolph Giuliani | Mayor of New York who provided strong leadership during the days following September 11, 2001 |
| Tom Ridge | Head of the Office of Homeland Security, created after September 11, 2001 to coordinate domestic security efforts of various government agencies |
| Donald Rumsfeld | U.S. Secretary of Defense during the war on terrorism |
| Colin Powell | Secretary of State of the United States who led U.S. efforts to build an international coalition against terrorism and to isolate the Taliban regime |
| multinational corporations | Foreign owned businesses in a host country |
| monoculture | Country's reliance on one crop |
| import substitution | Economic policy of replacing certain imported goods with a country's own manufactured goods produced inside the country |
| NAFTA | North American Free Trade Agreement, linking Mexico, Canada, and the United States in a large free-trade zone |
| Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo | Group of Argentine women whose family members disappeared due to government-sanctioned violence and abuses, which they opposed in peaceful demonstrations |
| Organization of American States | Group designed to foster military, economic, and cultural cooperation among nations of the Western Hemisphere |
| PRI | Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party, which held power for more than 70 years |
| Vicente Fox | First non PRI president of Mexico in 70 years |
| Sandinistas | Marxist group who led the revolution against Nicaragua's dictator, Anastasio Somoza |
| Daniel Ortega | Sandinista leader who led the government of Nicaragua after the overthrow of its dictator, Somoza |
| contras | Group seeking to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government |
| Violeta Barrios de Chamorro | President of Nicaragua after its first free elections since the overthrow of Somoza |
| Contadora Principles | Agreement promoting negotiations rather than violence as a way to settle regional conflicts in Latin America |
| Oscar Arias | Costa Rican president who in 1987 proposed a peace plan to end all fighting in Central America and won the Nobel Peace Prize |
| Fidel Castro | Leader of the Cuban revolution and communist dictator of Cuba since 1959 |
| Ernesto "Che" Guevara | Young Argentine doctor and revolutionary who fought in the Cuban revolution and died in Bolivia leading another revolutionary guerrilla operation |
| dissidents | People who disagree with a government |
| Luis Muñoz Marin | Leader of Puerto Rico's movement for greater autonomy from the United State who became Puerto Rico's first governor in 1948 and created Operation Bootstrap |
| Operation Bootstrap | Plan for outside investment and industrialization to boost Puerto Rico's economy |
| Jean-Claude Duvalier | Leader of Haiti who succeeded his father as dictator in 1971 but was forced into exile in 1986 |
| Jean-Bertrand Aristide | Haiti's first democratically elected president, who was overthrown by rebel troops but was reinstated to power after U.S. military intervention |
| Fernando Henrique Cardoso | Finance minister who devised successful reforms to address Brazil's economic problems and was later elected president |
| desaparecidos | "Disappeared persons" in Argentina; people who criticized the government and were taken away in the night, tortured, killed, and buried by the military |
| Juan Péron | Popular Argentine colonel who became president in 1946 and ruled as a dictator until 1955, when he was forced into exile; he became president again in 1973, but died soon thereafter |
| Eva Péron | Juan Péron's wife, known as "Evita"; a popular former film and radio actress who was a hero of the Argentine working class until her death of cancer in 1952 |
| Shining Path | Maoist guerilla group in Peru that carried out its terrorist campaign in the rural highland areas |
| Alberto Fujimori | Japanese immigrant who was president of Peru from 1990 until 2000, but was later charged with crimes against humanity for his involvement with Peruvian death squads |
| Salvador Allende | Democratically elected socialist president of Chile who was overthrown and killed in a bloody military coup led by Augusto Pinochet |
| Augusto Pinochet | Military leader who seized power in Chile in a 1973 coup, dissolved all democratic processes, and jailed or executed his opposition; he was later charged with torture and human rights abuses |
| Pan-Africanism | Movement promoting the cultural unity of people of African heritage in their struggle for freedom |
| Kwame Nkrumah | Nationalist leader who led a successful independence movement against British rule in the Gold Coast and renamed the new nation Ghana |
| Mau Mau | Kikuyu organization that waged a guerilla campaign against British presence in Kenya |
| Robert Mugabe | Guerrilla leader in Rhodesia who won the first free elections in the nation that became Zimbabwe |
| apartheid | Government policy of segregation and economic exploitation in South Africa |
| Nelson Mandela | South African leader of the ANC who spent 27 years in prison and in 1994 became South Africa's first president after the end of apartheid |
| Desmond Tutu | Anglican archbishop and South African leader who spoke out against apartheid |
| Steven Biko | South African student leader who was killed for speaking out against apartheid |
| F.W. de Klerk | President of South Africa beginning in 1989 who released Nelson Mandela from prison and moved South Africa toward reforms |
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