ÿþ<html> <head> <title> WHKMLA : Course in World History : Historical Dictionaries : Early Civilizations</title> <!-- copyright Alexander Ganse, 2006 --> </head> <body bgcolor="lightblue" text="black" link="blue" vlink="red" alink="brown"> <style> <!-- A{ font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; font-face: arial; } --> </style> <DIV align ="center"> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD align = "center" valign = "center"> <A HREF = "../../index.html"> <img src = "../../whkmla2.jpg" border = "0"></a></TD></TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width = "150" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <font size = "2" face = "arial"><B> Timeline </b></font></TD> <TD width = "36" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <img src = "../../region/arrowleft.gif" width = "36" height = "36" border = "0"> </a></TD> <TD align = "center" valign = "center"> <A HREF = "../../timelines/whchapters.html"> <img src = "../banhistdic.jpg" border = "0"> </TD> <TD width = "36" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <img src = "../../region/arrowright.gif" width = "36" height = "36" border = "0"> </a></TD> <TD width = "100" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <font size = "2" face = "arial"><B> Biographies </b></font></TD></TR></TABLE> <font size = "3" face = "arial"><B><i>First posted on August 26th 2004 </i></b></font><BR><BR><BR><BR> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD align = "center" valign = "center" width = "900"> <font face = "Times Roman" size = "5"><B> Historical Dictionaries : Comparative History since 1950 </B></font> <BR> <font face = "Times Roman" size = "2"><i> http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histdic/wh/hdsince1950.html </i></font> </B></font></TD></TR></TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD align = "left" valign = "center" width = "150"> <font face = "Times Roman" size = "2"> <B>Afghanistan, War in</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Apartheid</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Arab-Israeli Wars</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Arms Race</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Berlin Blockade <BR> and Airlift</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Chinese Civil War</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Cold War</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Communism</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Cuban Missile Crisis</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Decolonization</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Detente</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Dirty Wars</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Domino Theory</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>East Bloc</B> <BR><BR><BR> <B>Horn of Africa</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Indo-Pakistani Wars</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Iron Curtain</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Korean War</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Marshall Plan</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>McCarthyism</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Medal Race</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Model Communist <BR> Nations</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Monolithic Communism</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Natural Alliance</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Non-Alignment <BR> Movement</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Nuclear Proliferation</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Oil Crisis</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>OPEC</B> <BR><BR><BR> <B>Potsdam Conference</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Propaganda, Anti-Communist</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Propaganda, Communist</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Sino-Soviet Rift</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Space Race</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Stalinism</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Suez Crisis</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Third World</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>Vietnam War</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>the West</B> <BR><BR><BR><BR> <B>West Bloc</B> <BR> <B>Yalta Conference</B> <BR><BR> </font></TD> <TD align = "left" valign = "center" width = "500"> <font face = "Times Roman" size = "2"> Since High Imperialism, Afghanistan had been a buffer state between the British <BR> and the Russian spheres of interest. In the 1960es and 1970es, Afghanistan <BR> came increasingly under Soviet influence; in 1979 Soviet troops invaded, <BR> interfering in Afghan internal political struggle; the country became a Soviet <BR> satellite. The U.S. saw the chance of creating a 'Soviet Vietnam', by arming and <BR> partially financing Afghan resistance, without appearing of getting directly <BR> involved. Muslim volunteers from other countries, among them Osama bin <BR> Laden, were brought into the country in order to fight 'the infidel'. The U.S. <BR> encouraged Afghanistan to become a major opium producer, in order to <BR> finance the war. Soviet troops withdrew in 1989; Afghanistan then entered a <BR> period of civil war, the various groups of resistance fighters turning against <BR> each other. See WHKMLA <A HREF = "../../region/centrasia/xafghanistan.html">Afghanistan Pages</A> <BR> System of racial segregation. During the period of colonialism such a system <BR> was applied in all colonies, but it was based on the political structure, not on <BR> explicit laws to that effect; in 1948 the Union of South Africa formulated <BR> Apartheid legislation, defining Whites, Asians, Coloureds and Blacks, <BR> assigning residential areas, banning interracial marriage etc. Internationally, <BR> the system was widely criticized from the 1960es; from the 1970es South <BR> Africa was banned in many international organizations. Apartheid was <BR> abolished in 1990-1994. <BR> 1948, 1956 (Suez Crisis), 1967, 1973. Israel, since it was established in <BR> 1948, tops the list of countries receiving U.S. financial aid; the success of <BR> her armed forces in the wars listed above was based on superior arms, to <BR> a significant part provided by the USA. In the wars of 1967 and 1973, Egypt <BR> and Syria were supplied with arms by the USSR. The Israeli-Arab wars <BR> thus served as a testing ground for US and Soviet arms. <BR> Both superpowers were engaged in the development of more sophisticated, <BR> more destructive weapons, faster weapons, weapons with a further range. <BR> Airplanes, tanks, battleships, missiles, nuclear bombs, satellites with <BR> military function etc. Within both U.S. and Soviet society there existed <BR> lobbies who wanted this confrontation policy to continue - the Military- <BR> Industrial Complex. Both the U.S. and the USSR were major exporters of <BR> arms. <BR> West Berlin was surrounded by the Soviet Zone of Occupation in Germany. <BR> In 1949 Stalin ordered all roads, canals and railroad lines connecting <BR> West Berlin (a city of 2 million) with West Germany to be closed; for 11 <BR> months, West Berlin was supplied through the air. In 1949 Stalin lifted the <BR> blockade; the first confrontation in the Cold War. Both sides did not want <BR> it to deteriorate into a full scale war. <BR> 1927-1949. Begun by China's KMT (Chiang Kai Shek) in 1927 when he <BR> turned on the Communists, who had established local governments in <BR> various regions of China. Interrupted 1937-1946, when both fought the <BR> Japanese. The U.S. supported the KMT, the USSR the Communists. <BR> The war resumed in 1946, at the insistance of Chiang Kai Shek. When <BR> the U.S. withdrew her financial aid, and then her planes (needed in the <BR> Berlin airlift), the KMT rapidly lost control and withdrew to Taiwan. <BR> The war, technically, is not over yet; occasionally the conflict between <BR> the PRC and Taiwan turns into a shooting war (1954-1955, 1958, 1994-1995) <BR> Describing the situation when the blocks lead by the two superpowers <BR> confronted each other, regarding each other as enemies, prepared <BR> themselves for a possible military confrontation, tried everything to harm <BR> the other side, without entering a direct confrontation. From 1946 to 1989. <BR> While most of the 'Communist countries' wee ruled by their respective <BR> Communist Party, they would describe themselves as Peoples' Republics, <BR> use attributes such as Soviet or Socialist, because 'Communist', in <BR> Marxist terminology, was reserved for a utopian state in which all <BR> property was communal, in which exploitation was a matter of the past, <BR> everybody was happy and the state itself unnecessary. It would be the<BR> final stage of a development in three stages - socialism, advanced <BR> socialism, communism. <BR> Western propagandistic language identified communism with the <BR> dictatorship of the Communist Party, collectivization of private property, <BR> a centrally planned economy, with secret police controlling everybody, <BR> with the lack of freedom, the abuse of civil rights, with the state organs <BR> acting ruthless (USSR = "the Evil Empire"). <BR> The U.S. had stationed missiles in Turkey which could reach Soviet <BR> cities. When a communist government was established in Cuba in <BR> 1959, the USSR planned to station Soviet missiles there, which could <BR> reach U.S. cities. In 1962 the U.S. imposed a blockade on Cuba, which <BR> at that time was regarded the climax of the Cold War; the western press <BR> celebrated the event as a U.S. political success; in reality both powers <BR> agreed to withdraw their missiles, and the U.S. promised never to invade <BR> Cuba again <BR> The process of transferring colonies into independent states; begun with <BR> the Philippines and Jordan in 1946, largely completed with Gambia in 1965. <BR> The bulk of African nations was released into independence in 1960. The <BR> process was accelerated by the fact that the U.S., the USSR and the UN <BR> criticized colonialism, that the USSR and the PRC provided resistance <BR> fighters in the colonies with arms and financial support, and by the fact <BR> that certain political groups in the mother countries opposed colonialism <BR> (socialist, social democratic, labour parties) <BR> A policy aiming at decreasing political tension. First implemented by the <BR> West German government under Willy Brandt 1969-, vis-a-vis the <BR> nations of Eastern Central Europe and the USSR (Ostpolitik); since 1971 <BR> implemented by the U.S. vis-a-vis China (Ping-Pong Diplomacy) and, <BR> less enthusiastically, with the USSR. This policy did not mean an end to <BR> the Cold War; both sides agreed to cut down in its expenses <BR> Civil wars mainly fought in Latin America, by the respective government <BR> forces, against real communist rebels, against rebels the government <BR> labelled communist, or against imaginary communist rebels. The U.S. <BR> supported rightist military dictators financially as well as militarily and <BR> encouraged them in brutally suppressing leftist organizations. Examples <BR> Chile 1973, Argentina 1976-1983 etc. <BR> The concept of a perceived Communist strategy to take over the world, <BR> envisioned of a set of Domino stones of various sizes. While the larger <BR> stones would represent stable capitalist economies such as the U.S., <BR> the UK etc., the smaller ones were fragile Third World economies; <BR> western strategists perceived a communist strategy of toppling one <BR> stone at a time, beginning with the weakest. Thus, the strategy had to <BR> be countered by supporting all governments threatened by a <BR> communist insurrection/takeover, thus U.S. involvement in Vietnam. <BR> The Soviet Union and her satellites (Poland, East Germany, Hungary, <BR> Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria; until 1968, also China, North <BR> Vietnam, Mongolia, North Korea, Cuba) <BR> Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia. Until 1974, Somalia, nominally communist and <BR> with Soviet support, fought Ethiopia over the Ogaden region, belonging <BR> to christian Ethiopia but inhabited by Muslim Somali. Following a coup <BR> in Ethiopia, the USSR switched her support to Ethiopia; now the U.S. <BR> supported (still communist) Somalia and the rebels in Eritrea (also <BR> communist). <BR> 1948, 1965, 1971, 1999. When Pakistan and India became independent <BR> in 1947, the matter of her borders were unclear; the war of 1948 turned <BR> both into each other's nemesis, brought the exchange of refugees and <BR> started an Indo-Pakistani arms race. India sought a strategic alliance <BR> with the USSR (since 1955), Pakistan after 1968 with the PRC. The <BR> Indo-Pakistani Wars were mainly fought over the issue of Kashmir, pre- <BR> dominantly Muslim, but claimed and partially held by India because her <BR> last prince was a Hindu and opted for India. In the course of the first <BR> war the borders of India and Pakistan were established; in the course <BR> of the Third (1971), East Pakistan gained independence as Bangladesh. <BR> A border fortification planned to be impenetrable for refugees, erected <BR> along the western borders of the East Bloc in the late 1940es. It <BR> symbolizes the border between the Communist East Bloc and the West <BR> Bloc; completed in 1961 by the Berlin Wall; taken down in 1989. <BR> In Communist propaganda : Anti-Imperialist Protection Wall. <BR> 1950-1953, begun by communist North Korean forces invading the south. <BR> South Korea was supported by UN forces; when these reached the Yalu <BR> river late in 1950, PRC volunteer forces intervened. The war turned into <BR> a stalemate; armistice concluded in 1953. The Eastern Bloc nations <BR> except PRC expressed their verbal support for North Korea, but <BR> refrained from direct interference. <BR> In order to get the economy in Post-War Europe going again, and to <BR> check socialist tendencies within European societies, the U.S. invested <BR> 13 billion US $ into the European economies in 1947-1951, as credit to <BR> be repaid without interest. The policy was hugely successful, starting <BR> the greatest economic boom in European history. <BR> Named after U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy, who personified U.S. fear <BR> of Soviet spies, saboteurs and Communist sympathizers in the 1950es. <BR> McCarthy headed the Committee against Anti-American Activities, <BR> which accused U.S. citizens of sympathies for Communism and expelled <BR> non-U.S. citizens suspected of anything threatening to undermine the <BR> 'American way of life', such as actor Charlie Chaplin. This modern form <BR> of witch hunt was disciontinued in the US in 1954. <BR> Competition of the athletes of the East Bloc and of the West Bloc <BR> (predominantly USSR, US, GDR, but also Cuba) for medals; the communist <BR> nations wanted to use the success of their athletes as an indicator for <BR> progress, competitiveness of the socialist system and even for its <BR> superiority; the west did not want to stay behind. Hardly affected the <BR> Third World, exception Cuba. <BR> In the 1960es, with many former colonies just having been released into <BR> independence, the Eastern Bloc vied for political sympathies. One way <BR> to present Communism as a viable alternative to western capitalism was <BR> to subsidize third world countries which had adopted communism as <BR> state ideology (Cuba, North Korea); these states developed a health care <BR> system, recreation facilities (sports) and an education system which <BR> were propagated as having model character within their respective <BR> regions. Cuba was seen as a showpiece within Latin America. <BR> A misconception on the side of western politicians, cultivated by <BR> western propagandists, that World Communism was 'of one block' and <BR> intent to take over the world. While Stalin used the Comintern in order to <BR> control communist parties everywhere outside the East Bloc and <BR> directly interfered in the policy of East Bloc countries, dissident <BR> Yugoslavia (communist) since 1951 was independent from Moscow, <BR> and the PRC never was under Soviet control, China being too big for <BR> the USSR to control. China broke with the USSR in 1956, a breach only <BR> becoming apparent in the world media in 1968/1969. Western <BR> propaganda ceased to use this concept in 1971. <BR> Term describing the situation of 1941 : Because both Britain and the <BR> USSR, both soon joined by the US, were at war with Nazi Germany, <BR> they became allies by circumstance, without having signed a treaty <BR> of alliance, and despite having conflicting state ideologies and being <BR> suspicious of each other's motives. This Natural or Uneasy Alliance <BR> ended in 1945, with the defeat of Nazi Germany. <BR> An organization of mainly Third World countries (mostly former <BR> colonies) who wanted to steer a neutral course during the Cold War. <BR> Suggested in 1954, organized in the Bandung Conference of 1961. <BR> Leading members included Yugoslavia, Egypt, Indonesia. The <BR> organization lacked effectiveness, as her members were economically <BR> weak and because of hostilities between member nations. <BR> The U.S. and Britain commonly pursued the Manhattan Project and <BR> became nuclear powers in 1945; the USSR by espionage in 1949. <BR> China and France in 1964. By that time, many nations pursued plans <BR> of developing nuclear weapons, including states such as Switzerland; <BR> the great powers then promoted the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. <BR> The IAEA was to monitor that member states develop nuclear <BR> technology for civilian purposes only. Meanwhile, India and Pakistan <BR> have nuclear weapons; Israel is widely suspected to have it, other <BR> countries are working on it. <BR> Advanced western industrial economies import either part or their <BR> entire consumption of oil (petrol). In 1973, OPEC, in response to the <BR> open support of Israel displayed by the U.S., by implementing <BR> production quotas for member nations, caused a drastic rise in oil <BR> prices, which lasted until 1981. The consumer nations implemented <BR> policies at reducing their overall energy consumption and of developing <BR> alternative sources of energy; the OPEC nations became suddenly <BR> very rich. Losers included the communist, oil-less nations of eastern <BR> Europe and non-oil prioducing countries in the Third World. <BR> (Organization of) Oil Producing and Exporting Countries, established <BR> in 1960. Members include Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, <BR> Indonesia, Algeria, Nigeria, Libya. <BR> Conference attended by representatives of the U.S., the U.S.S.R. and <BR> the UK, held July-August 1945. Here matters of the treatment of jointly <BR> administrated Germany and Austria, as well as the final stage of <BR> the war against Japan and the treatment of territory held by the <BR> Japanese forces (partition of Korea, Vietnam) was discussed. <BR> Stressed the brutal, oppressive nature of the Communist system, <BR> portrayed Communism as a monolithic, atheist machinery intent to <BR> take over the world by force; the west, opposing this menace, by <BR> contrast was free, democratic, human, providing a better standard <BR> of living (Golden West). In the third world, dictatorial regimes often <BR> would label their opposition as Communist to justify the use of <BR> violence against them, and to obtain financial aid etc. from the U.S. <BR> Described Socialism (real socialism, as existing in the 'Communist' <BR> countries) as a progressive society based on social and economic <BR> justice, the capitalist west instead as a system in which evil, <BR> scheming capitalists exploit the people at home and abroad. <BR> The U.S., Britain, France etc. were, in their words, Imperialists, <BR> a label the Soviet Union claimed to have avoided because it had <BR> established a federal system in the 1920es/1930es. <BR> Emerged in 1956 when the USSR underwent Destalinization; China <BR> upheld the view of Stalin as a hero. Became apparent in 1968/1969, <BR> when Chinese and Soviet forces shot at each other along their <BR> common border. After 1968, the communist nations divided in two <BR> camps, one supporting the USSR, the other China. The U.S., by the <BR> means of the Ping-Pong Diplomacy, played the Chinese card <BR> against the USSR (see under Detente). <BR> Began when the USSR sent the first satellite (Sputnik, 1957) and the <BR> first man (Yuri Gagarin, 1961) into space. The US landed the first <BR> man on the moon in 1969. Meanwhile the PRC has joined the two <BR> as a nation having sent a man into space; the EU, Brazil and India <BR> pursue space technology projects. <BR> A form of Communism in which the state supervises the moves of <BR> every individual, in which the individual has no rights, the state can <BR> punish the individual, as well as his family, his associates or even <BR> his ethnicity at will; a situation George Orwell described in '1984'. <BR> In the USSR implemented in 1928-1956; terminated in Destalinization. <BR> Caused by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the <BR> Suez Canal (without compensation). The Suez Canal Company <BR> shares were owned by the United Kingdom and by French; Britain <BR> and France, supported by Israel, occupied the Canal Zone, only to <BR> withdraw their troops when the U.S. expressed their displeasure <BR> about the actions taken. The 1956 crisis disrupted Europe's oil <BR> supplies briefly. <BR> A term coined in 1952 by Frenchman Alfred Sauvy to describe the <BR> countries neither part of the West Bloc (First World, including <BR> Europe's neutral countries) and the East Bloc (Second World, both <BR> industrialized), thus the Third World includes (non-industrialized) <BR> countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia. <BR> France granted independence to North and South Vietnam in 1954; <BR> the Communist north did not recognize this partition of the country<BR> and worked to destabilize the regime in Saigon. The U.S., believing <BR> in the Domino Theory, supported the south and got involved <BR> without declaring war. U.S. involvement escalated until it reached a <BR> climax in 1968-1971; in 1973 U.S. forces withdrew, in 1975 Saigon <BR> fell. North Vietnam enjoyed the support of the entire Communist <BR> camp, throughout the war. <BR> It was generally understood that this term described advanced <BR> capitalist, democratic nations such as the U.S., Canada, the UK, <BR> France, the FRG, other NATO members, perhaps the free democratic <BR> countries of Europe, later also the industrializing nations of Asia. <BR> The members of NATO, SEATO and similar organizations. <BR> Held in February 1945, attended by the representatives of the U.S., <BR> the USSR and the UK; the post-war order of Europe was discussed. <BR> </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD align = "left" valign = "center" width = "700"> <font face = "Times Roman" size = "2"> PRINTED REFERENCE : <BR> </font></TD></TR></TABLE> <BR><BR> </DIV> </DIV> <DIV align="center"> <A href="mailto:aganse@hotmail.com"> <IMG src="../../email.gif" border="0"></a><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <!-- Start of CH Counter --> <script type="text/javascript"> //<!-- // chCounter v2.0.0 // settings: cstatus = "active"; visible = "0"; path_to_counterfile = "http://www.zum.de/whkmla/counter/counter.php"; urlhp = "http://www.zum.de"; //////////////// url = unescape(location.href); file = url.substring(url.lastIndexOf(urlhp) + urlhp.length, url.length); file = (file.charAt(0) != "/") ? 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