AP®︎ European History: Unit 9 Flashcards

The February 1945 Allied meeting that arranged occupation zones in Germany and Berlin and endorsed ambiguously defined democratic elections in liberated Europe

The July–August 1945 Allied meeting at which growing distrust over Germany, Eastern Europe, and Soviet-backed governments revealed the wartime alliance's breakdown

The international organization founded in 1945 to preserve peace and cooperation, though superpower vetoes often limited action on Cold War disputes

Allied trials held after World War II that prosecuted leading Nazis for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace

The political, military, ideological, and increasingly physical boundary separating Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe from Western Europe

The Western strategy of preventing further communist expansion rather than overthrowing every government already under communist rule

The 1947 American commitment to support Greece and Turkey against communist pressure as part of containment

1948–1952 U.S. program that supplied about $13 billion in grants, loans, goods, and technical aid to reconstruct Western and Central Europe, stimulate growth, and contain communism

The rapid Western and Central European growth of the 1950s and 1960s, marked by rising production, productivity, wages, and employment

The postwar international economic system established in 1944 around managed exchange rates, the IMF, and the World Bank to promote monetary stability, reconstruction, and trade

The 1947 framework for reducing tariffs and trade barriers through multilateral negotiation and expanding commerce among capitalist economies

Social order in which mass production, advertising, brands, leisure, and private consumption increasingly shape daily life, status, and personal identity

The 1948–1949 Soviet cutoff of Western land access to West Berlin and the successful Western airlift that supplied the city until the blockade ended

The Western-aligned German state created from the western occupation zones in May 1949, with West Berlin tied to it politically and economically

The Soviet-aligned German state created from the Soviet occupation zone in October 1949

Collective-defense alliance founded in 1949 that gave Western Europe a permanent American security guarantee and treated an attack on one member as an attack on all

Soviet-dominated military alliance founded in 1955 that integrated Eastern European forces and enforced Soviet control over member states

Soviet-led organization founded in 1949 to coordinate communist-bloc economies through specialized production, protected trade, and dependence on Soviet resources and markets

The Soviet Union and the communist states of Eastern Europe bound to it through political control, central planning, COMECON, and the Warsaw Pact

A formally independent country that followed Soviet direction in foreign policy, military affairs, and major domestic decisions

A system of state ownership and compulsory planning that set production, prices, labor, and investment while emphasizing heavy industry, welfare guarantees, and restricted consumer choice

The U.S.-Soviet buildup of conventional forces and increasingly destructive nuclear weapons, missiles, bombers, and submarines

Preventing attack by convincing an opponent that aggression would produce unacceptable nuclear retaliation

The condition in which both superpowers could survive a first strike and retaliate with enough nuclear force to destroy the attacker

A regional conflict in which the superpowers supported opposing states or movements rather than fighting one another directly

The 1950–1953 war in which U.S.-led UN forces defended South Korea against Soviet-supported North Korea and Chinese intervention, leaving Korea divided

The Cold War-era conflict in which the U.S. supported South Vietnam against Soviet- and Chinese-backed communist forces, ending with communist reunification in 1975

The 1962 confrontation over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba that ended with their removal, a U.S. noninvasion pledge, and secret removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey

The 1979–1989 Soviet war to preserve Afghanistan's communist government against foreign-supported mujahideen, weakening détente and burdening the USSR.

Speeches, media, education, culture, and public displays used by each bloc to praise its system and discredit the other

Espionage secretly gathers information; covert action secretly attempts to change political outcomes

Communist leader of Yugoslavia who broke with Stalin in 1948 and pursued an independent communist course outside the Soviet bloc

Khrushchev’s effort to repudiate Stalin’s cult, terror, and abuses while preserving communist one-party rule and Soviet control of Eastern Europe

Soviet leader who initiated de-Stalinization and limited economic reforms but used force to preserve communist rule and Soviet control of Eastern Europe

Khrushchev’s 1956 speech to the Twentieth Party Congress denouncing Stalin’s cult of personality, purges, and abuses of power

Hungarian uprising for political freedom, Soviet withdrawal, and neutrality that was crushed after Imre Nagy announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact

Czechoslovakia’s 1968 attempt under Alexander Dubček to liberalize communism, ended by a Warsaw Pact invasion and renewed repression

Czechoslovak communist leader whose Prague Spring reforms sought socialism with a human face before a Warsaw Pact invasion removed him from power

The claim that socialist states had limited sovereignty and that the Soviet Union could intervene when reforms threatened socialism or the communist bloc

The period of reduced U.S.-Soviet tension from the later 1960s through the 1970s, characterized by negotiation without ending Cold War competition

West German policy under Willy Brandt that reduced Cold War tensions by normalizing relations with East Germany, Poland, and the Soviet bloc

The 1975 agreements recognizing Europe’s postwar borders while committing signatories to cooperation and human rights, which dissidents later used against communist governments

Ethnic nationalism bases nationhood on ancestry, language, religion, and memory; civic nationalism bases it on shared citizenship and political participation

An effort by a regional or national community to leave an existing state and form an independent political unit

The violent Northern Ireland conflict among republicans, unionists, paramilitaries, and British forces that caused more than 3,500 deaths

A republican paramilitary organization that used bombings, assassinations, and guerrilla warfare to try to end British rule in Northern Ireland

A Basque separatist organization founded in 1959 that used terrorism for independence, ended armed activity in 2011, and dissolved in 2018

The nationalist conflicts accompanying Yugoslavia’s breakup in the 1990s, especially the wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, marked by ethnic cleansing and international intervention

Serbian leader who mobilized Serbian nationalism, reduced provincial autonomy, supported Serb territorial projects, and later faced trial at the ICTY.

The deliberate removal of an ethnic, national, or religious population from a territory to make it more homogeneous or secure political control

The Bosnian Serb murder of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in a UN safe area, later legally recognized as genocide

Conflict in which Serbian and Yugoslav forces displaced Kosovo Albanians until NATO intervention forced their withdrawal and placed Kosovo under international administration

Two post-Soviet wars in which Chechen separatists sought independence and Russian forces eventually restored control through destructive military operations and repression

A government that assumes substantial responsibility for citizens’ social and economic well-being through benefits, insurance, and public services

Broad government protection throughout the life cycle, including health care, education, unemployment aid, family benefits, and old-age pensions

An economy combining private property and markets with government regulation, some state ownership, economic management, and extensive social services

A postwar center-right movement combining parliamentary democracy, Christian social principles, anticommunism, welfare protections, and a regulated market economy

A reformist political tradition seeking greater equality through parliamentary democracy, labor rights, welfare programs, and regulation rather than revolutionary communism

The oil embargo and sharp price increase that raised European costs, slowed growth, and helped end the favorable conditions supporting welfare expansion

Economic stagnation or weak growth occurring together with high inflation, often accompanied by rising unemployment

A market-oriented program favoring privatization, deregulation, lower direct taxes, weaker unions, inflation control, and limits on public spending

British Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990 whose market-oriented reforms challenged the postwar consensus but did not abolish the welfare state

Britain’s market-oriented program of privatization, deregulation, lower direct taxes, reduced trade-union power, and limits on public spending

The transfer of enterprises or services from government ownership and management to private owners and market competition

Soviet leader from 1985 whose reforms and refusal to enforce communist rule militarily unintentionally accelerated the collapse of the Soviet bloc and USSR.

Gorbachev’s policy of “restructuring” the Soviet economy and administration through limited decentralization and market mechanisms

Gorbachev’s policy of “openness” permitting greater access to information, public criticism, and freedom of expression

Independent Polish trade union and opposition movement founded in 1980 that challenged communist rule and won the freely contested seats in the 1989 elections

Polish labor leader who led Solidarity’s challenge to communist rule

First Polish pope, elected in 1978, whose public support for Polish Catholic identity made him a major symbol of resistance to communism

Rapid, mostly peaceful overthrow of communist governments across Central and Eastern Europe after the Soviet Union withdrew its military guarantee

Opening of East Germany’s Berlin Wall crossings on November 9, 1989, symbolizing the collapse of communist authority and Europe’s Cold War division

Overwhelmingly peaceful 1989 revolution in Czechoslovakia that ended the Communist Party’s monopoly and brought Václav Havel to the presidency

Czechoslovak dissident playwright who became president after the Velvet Revolution ended communist rule

The violent December 1989 uprising that overthrew Romania’s communist dictatorship and ended with the capture and execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu

East Germany’s October 3, 1990, incorporation into the Federal Republic of Germany, extending West German democratic and capitalist institutions eastward

December 1991 breakup of the USSR into fifteen independent states, definitively ending the Cold War’s Soviet superpower bloc

Rapid postcommunist liberalization of prices and privatization of state enterprises intended to create a market economy quickly

Peaceful January 1, 1993, division of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Feminist thought and activism from the 1960s through the 1980s addressing inequality in work, education, sexuality, marriage, family life, and culture

French existentialist philosopher whose The Second Sex argued that society constructed women’s dependent roles

Simone de Beauvoir’s 1949 work arguing that culture made woman the subordinate “Other” rather than femininity following naturally from biology

Postwar movements seeking equality and autonomy in education, employment, politics, family law, and reproductive life

Reliable contraception introduced in Europe in the early 1960s that enabled women to plan childbirth and separate sexual activity more effectively from reproduction

Termination of pregnancy by medical or surgical means; safer methods encouraged legalization debates over bodily autonomy, public health, and fetal life

The principle and legal demand that women and men receive equal compensation for equal or equivalent work

The postwar liberalization of attitudes and laws concerning premarital sex, contraception, abortion, homosexuality, marriage, and gender roles

The principle that a people should choose its own political status and government without outside control

The prolonged process by which colonies ended formal imperial rule and became sovereign states

The 1947 end of British rule in the Indian subcontinent, accompanied by partition into independent India and Pakistan

Indian National Congress leader who mobilized resistance to British rule through disciplined nonviolence, boycotts, and civil disobedience

The 1947 division of British India into India and Pakistan, accompanied by mass displacement and communal violence

Vietnamese communist nationalist who led the Viet Minh and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945

The decisive 1954 Viet Minh victory that ended France’s attempt to reconquer Vietnam

The 1954–1962 war in which the FLN fought French rule, ending with the Evian Accords and Algerian independence

The Algerian nationalist organization that began an armed revolt against French rule in 1954

The 1956 crisis in which Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt after Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal but withdrew under American and Soviet pressure

Egyptian nationalist president who nationalized the Suez Canal, promoted pan-Arabism and nonalignment, and became a leading opponent of European imperial influence

Ghanaian nationalist leader whose Convention People’s Party used elections, strikes, and mass pressure to achieve independence in 1957

The 1950s anticolonial uprising in Kenya that prompted harsh British counterinsurgency before Kenya gained independence in 1963

The 1955 meeting of Asian and African states promoting anticolonialism, political independence, and cooperation outside the Cold War blocs

The organization established in 1961 by states seeking political independence from both Cold War blocs

Continued foreign economic, political, strategic, or cultural control or influence after formal independence

Six-state community operating from 1952 that created a common coal-and-steel market to aid recovery, bind West Germany to Western Europe, and make war less likely

French planner and leading architect of European integration who promoted practical economic cooperation through the Schuman Plan and European Coal and Steel Community

Robert Schuman’s 1950 proposal to place French and West German coal and steel under a common European authority to promote recovery and prevent war

The 1957 treaties that created the European Economic Community and Euratom, effective in 1958

Organization created by the Treaties of Rome to remove trade barriers, form a customs union, and integrate the economies of its members

Treaty signed in 1992 and effective in 1993 that created the EU, introduced EU citizenship, and set a path toward economic and monetary union

Economic and political union established in 1993 through which sovereign European states share institutions, laws, markets, and selected powers

Common currency launched electronically in 1999 and as notes and coins in 2002, reducing exchange costs while ending participating states’ independent monetary policies

System initiated by the 1985 agreement that removed internal passport and border checks among participating countries; its membership is not identical to the EU’s

The debate over whether European states gain influence by pooling powers in supranational institutions or lose democratic control and national autonomy by doing so

Britain’s withdrawal from the EU after the 2016 referendum, completed in 2020, which restored some autonomy but created new barriers and reduced influence over EU decisions

Foreign workers recruited by West Germany as a supposedly temporary labor force, including Italians and, after 1961, Turks

Ship whose 1948 arrival with Caribbean migrants became a symbol of postwar Commonwealth immigration to Britain

European settlers in French Algeria who held disproportionate power and strongly opposed Algerian independence

An approach allowing or encouraging immigrant communities to retain distinct cultural practices within a shared political system

Fear or hostility toward foreigners or immigrants, often expressed through discrimination, exclusion, and claims that newcomers threaten jobs, welfare, security, or national culture

Nationalist politics emphasizing immigration restrictions, cultural homogeneity, sovereignty, and opposition to multiculturalism and aspects of European integration

Migration from former colonies to European metropoles along enduring imperial, linguistic, economic, and personal connections

Medicines that kill bacteria or inhibit their growth, dramatically reducing deaths from bacterial infections after their postwar mass production

The surgical transfer of organs from donors to recipients, made increasingly successful by improved surgery and immunosuppressive drugs while raising ethical questions about consent and allocation

Fertilization of an egg outside the body followed by embryo transfer into a uterus; first successfully produced a child, Louise Brown, in England in 1978

Deliberate alteration or technological use of genetic material to produce desired medical or biological results, including medicines and gene therapies

The production of genetically identical organisms or cells, highlighted by the cloning of Dolly the sheep and debates over possible human cloning

The international scientific project completed in 2003 that mapped and sequenced the human genome, expanding genetic research while raising privacy and discrimination concerns

Field applying moral reasoning to medicine and the life sciences, especially questions of consent, autonomy, and the acceptable limits of medical intervention

Worldwide network enabling rapid circulation of information and ideas while also fostering misinformation, surveillance, reduced privacy, and extremism

Increasing cross-border movement of information, ideas, culture, goods, services, and people, creating worldwide interdependence

Adoption or influence of American products, technologies, styles, values, and practices in postwar Europe

Companies that own, produce, or conduct business in multiple countries and organize investment, production, labor, and sales across national borders

Communication technologies such as radio and television that distribute news, entertainment, advertising, and political messages to large audiences

Late-20th-century environmental parties that challenged consumerism, advocated sustainable development, and warned against the environmental and social costs of globalization

Development that meets present economic and social needs without destroying future generations’ ability to meet theirs

The 1986 Soviet nuclear reactor catastrophe that exposed administrative and safety failures, secrecy, and the need for glasnost

Postwar philosophy emphasizing individual freedom, responsibility, alienation, and the creation of meaning through authentic choices in an apparently absurd world

French existentialist who argued that “existence precedes essence,” making individuals responsible for defining themselves through their choices

Writer associated with postwar existentialism who explored the absurd conflict between humanity’s search for meaning and an indifferent universe but rejected the existentialist label

Later-20th-century movement skeptical of universal truths and grand historical explanations, emphasizing fragmented, perspective-dependent meanings shaped by language, culture, and power

Decline of religious observance and clerical authority in public and private life, despite organized religion’s continuing cultural and political influence

Catholic reform council of 1962–1965 that promoted vernacular worship, lay participation, religious liberty, ecumenism, and dialogue with Jews and other religions

The reform-minded pope who convened the Second Vatican Council in 1962 to modernize Catholic practice and improve relations with other faiths and the secular world

Postwar movement emphasizing large abstract canvases, spontaneity, gesture, and the physical act of painting, centered especially in the United States

1950s–1960s movement using advertising, consumer goods, comics, and celebrities to blur elite and popular culture and ambiguously portray consumer society

A youth-oriented musical style rooted in African American rhythm and blues that spread American influence and challenged postwar European social and cultural conventions

A postwar dramatic movement using illogical plots, repetitive dialogue, and bleak humor to portray alienation and the apparent meaninglessness of human existence

Irish playwright and novelist whose Waiting for Godot became a defining work of the Theatre of the Absurd

Sharp post-1945 rise in births caused by postponed marriages, demobilization, economic recovery, welfare support, and government encouragement of larger families

A youth-centered movement that rejected conventional authority, consumerism, war, traditional sexual morality, and established social norms

International wave of student, worker, and intellectual protests against authoritarian institutions, capitalism, consumerism, war, and restrictive social conventions

French crisis in which student protests and university occupations triggered mass worker strikes, challenged de Gaulle’s government, and produced lasting cultural change

Movements opposing criminalization, harassment, medical stigma, and discrimination while seeking legal recognition, protections, and marriage equality

The increase in a population’s median age and elderly share caused by longer life expectancy and declining birth rates, placing pressure on pensions, health care, and the workforce