THE MODERN ERA

1945-Present

THE COLD WAR BEGINS

• 1945 brings an end to World War II, but the beginning of a new “war” between the East and the West (Communism vs. Capitalism)

• Proxy wars will be fought all around the globe because of the Cold War (Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan, Cambodia, etc.)

COLD WAR (continued)COLD WAR (continued)

• Berlin Wall built to separate East Berlin from West Berlin

• “Iron Curtain” symbolizes the divide between the two great superpowers after World War II (the Soviet Union and the United States)

NATO vs. Warsaw Pact

• The U.S. joined Britain, France, Holland, Italy, and West Germany in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to protect western Europe from the threat of the spread of Communism

• The Soviet Union (USSR) responds with the Warsaw Pact, a group of Communist nations from eastern Europe (Soviet Bloc)

NATO vs. Warsaw Pact

THE MARSHALL PLANTHE MARSHALL PLAN

• The United States had a plan to help rebuild western Europe after World War II

• The hope was that if the U.S. helped them, they would not turn to the Soviets for help, thus preventing the spread of Communism in Europe

THE KOREAN WARTHE KOREAN WAR

• Early 1950’s, Soviet troops in North Early 1950’s, Soviet troops in North Korea help install a Communist regime Korea help install a Communist regime there, resulting in a civil war because there, resulting in a civil war because South Korea resisted this changeSouth Korea resisted this change

• The United States helps out the South The United States helps out the South Koreans for 3 years…stalemate is the Koreans for 3 years…stalemate is the result and North and South Korea are result and North and South Korea are still two deeply divided nations still two deeply divided nations (Communist vs. Capitalists)(Communist vs. Capitalists)

THE KOREAN WARTHE KOREAN WAR

THE VIETNAM WAR• Former French colony of Indochina is the sight of strong

nationalist movement led by Ho Chi Minh (late 1950’s)• The Communists from the North (Viet Cong) fight against

the U.S. backed South • The U.S. wants to stop the spread of Communism in

Southeast Asia (the Domino Theory)• American escalation to full war for 10 years• Result: over a million Vietnamese deaths and 58,000

American deaths• War ends in 1973; North Vietnam takes over South

Vietnam in 1975 • Vietnam changes America (more cautious, hesitant in

foreign conflicts)

VIETNAMVIETNAM

THE SPACE RACE

• The Soviets and the Americans both wanted to be the first nation into space

• The Soviets launched the first satellite into space in 1957

• The U.S. responded with a concerted effort to improve science education in schools and the creation of NASA

• The Americans put the first man on the moon in 1969

THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, 1962

• Cuba experienced a revolution in 1959 under the leadership of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara

• The Soviets backed the new Cuban government in their conversion to socialism…domino theory panic time.

• The United States was worried, having a Communist country with Soviet backing only miles from Florida’s coast!

Cuban Missile Crisis Cuban Missile Crisis (continued)

• The Soviets wanted to use Cuba as a missile installation since the U.S. had done the same thing in Turkey earlier

• A tense standoff occurred, with the very real threat of a nuclear war on the minds of all Americans

• Kennedy and Khrushchev both gave a little ground and avoided Armageddon

DECOLONIZATION• The 19th century saw an increase in colonialism

throughout the world, with the core states of Europe and the U.S. gaining territories globally

• In the 20th century, especially after World War II, colonies began to experience their own independence movements, fueled by nationalist feelings, and led by charismatic leaders who were often educated in the colonizing nation

• Examples: Algeria (French colony in North Africa), Kenya (British colony in East Africa), India (British colony in South Asia), Ghana (British colony in West Africa)

• Some colonies were freed without a war, but others had to fight for their freedom from colonial rule (Algeria vs. France 1954-1962)

DECOLONIZATION LEADERS

Mohandas K. Gandhi (India)

Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya)

Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana)

PROBLEMS WITH DECOLONIZATION

• Because colonies were managed with maximum profit in mind for the colonizing nation (not the colonized), there were many obstacles in the way after independence:– Lack of educated leadership– Lack of infrastructure, overwhelming poverty– Lack of stable democratic history, corruption from colonial era– Combination of ethnic and religious groups that were traditional

enemies (constant civil wars resulted)– Jobs that existed were in place to benefit the colonizing nation

(poor economies)– “Brain Drain” (the best and brightest from the former colonies

often left to attend school in the colonizing country and never returned to their homeland)

THE PARTITIONING OF INDIA, 1947• British colonial rule (Raj) lasts until the end of World War II,

when leaders like Gandhi helped gain independence for India through non-violent resistance (boycott of British textiles, the Salt March, hunger strikes)

• Three nations are created due to religious tensions between Muslims and Hindus– Pakistan and Bangladesh: Islam– India: Hindu– Hundreds of thousands die in religiously motivated

violence following independence

APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA• White minority in South Africa ruled over the Black African majority for

hundreds of years, creating an official policy of “separation” in 1910 known as Apartheid

• African National Congress combats this policy but meets with brutality and imprisonment

• Nelson Mandela goes to prison for almost 30 years for protesting Apartheid

• Apartheid finally ends in the early 1990’s, and Nelson Mandela is elected president

The United States and Latin America

• Dating back to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, The U.S. viewed Latin America as their sphere of influence

• American companies, from railroads to steel to fruit, were heavily invested in Latin American economies from Mexico to Chile…

• Economic interests will bring the U.S. into the political, social, and economic lives of Latin Americans, especially during the Cold War

U.S./ LATIN AMERICAN RELATIONS

• Intervention in Cuba after Castro’s Revolution – Bay of Pigs (attempted overthrow of Cuban government…failed)

• Training of armed forces of Latin American nations (in Latin America and even in the US)

• Funding of secret wars against governments unfriendly to U.S. interests (Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador)

• Propping up of dictators who were friendly to American economic interests (Somoza in Nicaragua)

CHAIRMAN MAO & CHINA• After the Communists defeated the Nationalists

in China, Mao Zedong begins a radical program of change in the People’s Republic of China

• Collectivization of agriculture and industry in an effort to strengthen China

• The Great Leap Forward in the late 1950’s was intended to bring about the Marxist dream, but it ended up killing up to 30 million people by starvation

• Soviet Union and China do not get along, even though both are Marxist theoretically

CHINA & MAO

The Cultural Revolution 1966

Propaganda Poster featuring Mao and the Little Red Book

MAO’S GREAT LEAP FORWARD (1950’s)

• Mao’s Great Leap Forward was similar to Stalin’s Five Year Plans– Attempted to strengthen China by creating huge

communes where people had to do agricultural work…– Unfortunately millions of people died of starvation as a

result of collectivization (just like Stalinist Russia/Ukraine)

MAO’S CULTURAL REVOLUTION, 1966

• Mao wanted to see China return to its original Communist path, so he set out to purge the nation of all influences that were not helpful to that end– Dissidents were jailed or killed– Western and other influences prohibited– “elites” (doctors, lawyers, professors) all were sent to work as farmers for

“cultural retraining”– Farmers became doctors and doctors became farmers– The program was a failure and forced China to begin to open up in the 1970’s

ISRAEL AND PALESTINEISRAEL AND PALESTINE• Balfour Declaration of 1917 encourages more Jewish immigration to

Palestine, desiring safety as well as a return to what they considered their ancestral homeland

• Zionism = belief that Jews deserved their own homeland in the Middle East

• Arab-Israeli War, Six Days War all evidence that Israel’s new neighbors were not happy about the situation, but Israel always won these wars (thanks to U.S. support)

THE RISE OF MILITANT ISLAMTHE RISE OF MILITANT ISLAM

• After independence, fundamentalist Islamic leaders arose in the Middle East

• Populations viewed the West as corrupt, evil infidels and often referred to the United States as the “Great Satan” (the main obstacle that stood in the way of the worldwide spread of Islam)

IRAN• In the 1950’s and 1960’s the United States was very active

in the Middle East, attempting to keep leaders who were allies in power, and making sure that leaders who favored Communism and the Soviets were kept out

• This meant keeping some bad leaders in positions of power in countries like Iran

• The Shah of Iran was hated by many of his citizens for his brutality and westernization efforts, but he stayed in power for a long time thanks to U.S. support

The Iranian Revolution, 1979The Iranian Revolution, 1979

• Radical Muslims overthrew the Shah and installed a theocracy led by Ayatollah Khomeini

• The American Embassy in Tehran, Iran was taken over by militant Muslims who took 55 Americans hostage for over a year

IRAQ • Saddam Hussein was an ally of the U.S. for years

until he invaded Kuwait in 1990• The UN (United States) went to war with Iraq in

1991 (the Persian Gulf War) and forced Iraqi troops to leave Kuwait

• Saddam Hussein stayed in power and another war would start between the U.S. and Iraq in 2003

afghanistanafghanistan

• In the 1980’s, the Soviet Union attempted to take over the nation of Afghanistan

• A group of resistance fighters (Mujahedeen) fought back using money and weapons from Saudi Arabia (Osama bin Laden) and the U.S.

• After a decade, the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban in charge of the nation and bin Laden a hero in the Muslim world…

CHINA OPENS UP…A LITTLE• After Mao’s death in 1976, China began to slowly

open up to the outside world and became part of the world’s economic community

• Deng Xiaoping became the new leader and subtle changes were made

• Economic reforms did not mean political reforms, as Tiananmen Square demonstrated in 1989

COLLAPSE OF THE USSR• In the 1980’s, the Soviet Union was struggling to keep up

with defense spending with the United States• Citizens in the Soviet Union were demanding reform• Mikhail Gorbachev became the Premier, and he promised

Perestroika (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness)• Changes were made, but it was not enough to keep the

Soviet Union from collapsing in 1991• The nations comprising the Soviet Union became

independent countries (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, etc.)

• The Cold War was over after 45 years and trillions of dollars

Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989

A NEW WORLD

GENOCIDE IN THE MODERN ERA• Rwanda 1994 (Hutu-Tutsi violence claims almost 1 million

lives or almost 1/7 of the population)

• Balkans 1993(breakup of Yugoslavia leads to nationalist and ethnic conflict with Muslims the victims of ethnic cleansing)

• Cambodia 1975-79 (Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge attempt to restore Cambodia to the glory of the past and kill millions of people)

GLOBALISM• The 1990’s saw an increase in connectivity

in the world (internet, satellite, multinational corporations)

DEVELOPED/UNDEVELOPEDDEVELOPED/UNDEVELOPED

• After all of the change experienced in the 20th century, some problems still remain:– Income Gap– Developed vs. Developing World

DEVELOPED/UNDEVELOPED DEVELOPED/UNDEVELOPED

OPEC

• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

• 1960 OPEC forms with nations like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya, &Venezuela

• Member nations set production quotas and prices worldwide

• Has the potential to either help or hurt the global economy

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

• United Nations • Olympics • Red Cross and Red Crescent• European Union

Women’s Rights• In the modern era, women gained more

rights and took strides toward greater equality in most parts of the world

• Higher education, career opportunities, health care all have been major improvements

• Realistically still a struggle but progress has been made

THE WAR ON TERROR• September 11th, 2001 terrorist

attacks on the U.S. created ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

• Osama bin Laden created a terror network known as Al-Qaeda, whose goal is the destruction of the United States