Global Political History Since 1945

• Mikhail Gorbachev introduced ‘perestroika’ meaning restructuring, so that the Soviet government would no longer control all the economy and industry.
• With the introduction of ‘glasnost’ which meant openness, it became easier to speak out without fear of arrest in the Soviet Union.

• Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He had advised the East German leaders to allow people to cross the Berlin wall freely during the Berlin war conflict.
• Some historians claim that this marked the real end to the Cold War.

• Mikhail Gorbachev advised the East German leaders to allow people to cross the Berlin wall freely.
• Some historians claim that this marked the real end to the Cold War.

• In October 1989, the East German government was threatened by crowds of 300000 East Germans demonstrating in the cities of Leipzig and Dresden.
• The crowds demanded an end to the communist rule.

• From 1956 relations with the US became difficult when the Soviet Union invaded its ally, Hungary.
• The invasion was done to stop the country’s leaders from giving more freedom to their people.

• In October 1989, the East German government was threatened by crowds of 300000 East Germans demonstrating in the cities of Leipzig and Dresden, demanding an end to communist rule.
• The East German leader was Egon Krenz.

• In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union.
• He was a firm communist but knew that his country was lagging behind the rest of the world and could no longer afford the expense of the Cold War.

• Relations with the USA worsened, especially in 1971 when US President Nixon visited communist China.
• China was an enemy of the Soviet Union back then. This worried the Soviet leaders.

The primary purpose of the European Common Market was to establish a tariff-free flow of goods among member nations. In 1957, the European Common Market was formed by six industrialized Western nations to expand trade by ending tariffs and allowing capital and labor to move freely across the borders of these European nations. The Common Market was a trade agreement, not a distribution center for goods. It was only for Western industrialized countries. The Common Market did not reduce dependence on foreign oil reserves as the Arab Embargo of the 1970s demonstrated. The Common Market was for industrialized and diversified economies.

• During Saddam’s rule, Al-Qaeda had not operated in Iraq, but the power vacuum created by the invasion of Iraq by the US allowed them in.
• Al-Qaeda aimed to force the withdrawal of foreign troops by making Iraq ungovernable.

• Despite huge economic changes, political power in China was under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.
• The communists violently suppressed a student movement demanding democratic reform in 1989. It even succeeded in forcing internet companies to censor their content.

• By 1988, Osama bin Laden had established an organisation called Al-Qaeda.
• It was a network of jihadis that outlasted Soviet defeat in 1989.

• On 11th September 2001, thousands of people were getting about their daily business in the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in Newyork.
• Suddenly, out of a clear blue sky, an airliner crashed into one of the towers, followed later by a second plane into the other tower.

In 1966, to consolidate his grip over the Communist Party, Mao Zedong launched a Cultural Revolution, urging the youthful Red Guards to criticise their communist elders.

• Saddam Hussein was the leader of Iraq.
• In 2003, the US invaded Iraq in a bid to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism and to free the Iraqi people.

• The active Muslim supporter of holy war was called Jihadis.
• In 1984, Bin Laden moved to Peshawar in Pakistan, on the border with Afghanistan, where he organised Muslims from abroad, mostly from Arab countries, who were willing to fight as jihadis against the Soviets.

• On 20 March 2003, a coalition of forces led by the USA began the invasion of Iraq.
• President Bush claimed that the aim of the war was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism and to free the Iraqi people.

• Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president attended the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final in Johannesburg, hoping to rally the country’s divided black and white population around the largely white national rugby team, the Springboks.
• He donned a Springboks green and orange shirt to greet the players.

• Robben Island was known as the South African penal colony for political prisoners.
• Nelson Mandela served an imprisonment term on Robben Island for his support to the violent overthrow of the government.

• F.W. de Klerk was the last white president of South Africa.
• Nelson Mandela helped him negotiate an end to apartheid and organise free elections.