China
China’s civil war of the 1930s was fought between Nationalists led by Chiang Kai‑shek and Communists led by this man.
Mao Zedong
This West African colony became the first British colony in Africa to gain independence in 1957.
Ghana
Formerly known as Southern Rhodesia, this country gained majority rule in 1980.
Zimbabwe
This system of racial segregation, instituted in 1948, ensured white minority control of South Africa.
Apartheid
This U.S. president announced a policy in 1947 promising American support to countries fighting communism.
Harry S. Truman
After losing the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the Nationalist leaders fled to this island.
Taiwan
Africans in colonies like Ghana and Kenya used these nonviolent tactics, such as work stoppages and refusing to cooperate, to protest European colonial rule.
Strikes and boycotts
This radical leader won Zimbabwe’s first free election but later created a one‑party state.
Robert Mugabe
In 1989, this South African president ended apartheid and lifted the ban on the ANC.
F. W. de Klerk
This longtime Soviet leader ruled from the 1920s until 1953, using secret police, purges, and strict control to build a totalitarian state.
Joseph Stalin
This 1953 economic program aimed to improve Chinese agriculture and industry but included a violent land reform campaign.
First Five Year Plan
He led Ghana’s independence movement and became the nation’s first prime minister.
Kwame Nkrumah
This French colony used guerrilla warfare from 1954 to 1962 to gain independence.
Algeria
This Dutch‑descended group helped create and enforce apartheid after their political party won control of South Africa in 1948.
the Afrikaners
This communist leader helped establish the People’s Republic of China in 1949, aligning China with the communist bloc during the Cold War.
Mao Zedong
Mao’s 1958 program intended to rapidly industrialize China instead led to widespread famine.
This Kenyan leader promoted a nonviolent movement for land rights and later became the country’s first president.
Jomo Kenyatta
After independence, this African country fell into civil war and later came under dictator Mobutu’s rule.
The Congo
This political organization led protests against apartheid and was banned by the South African government in 1960.
The African National Congress (ANC)
After a 1959 revolution, this leader transformed Cuba into a communist state and became a key U.S. rival during the Cold War.
Fidel Castro
Launched in 1966, this movement attempted to eliminate traditional customs and often used violence to enforce radical change.
Cultural Revolution
Some Kenyan nationalists used guerrilla warfare against the British and were known by this name.
The Mau Mau
After years of guerrilla warfare, this group led Algeria’s struggle for independence from France between 1954 and 1962.
The National Liberation Front (FLN)
During the Cold War, South Africa supported white minority governments in neighboring countries for roughly this length of time.
30 years
This Soviet leader introduced political and economic reforms known as glasnost and perestroika, helping bring an end to the Cold War.
Mikhail Gorbachev