Unit Overview & Big Concepts
When two superpowers fight by supporting opposite sides in another country instead of fighting directly.
Proxy War
In 1947, Great Britain divided the subcontinent into India and this newly created nation.
Pakistan
The 1947 UN Partition Plan tried to divide this British Mandate into an Arab state and a Jewish state.
Palestine
In 1953, the US and UK helped overthrow the leader of Iran because he wanted to keep the profits from this resource.
Oil
Using money, debt, and resource control to stay in power without using a physical army.
Neo-colonialism
During the Cold War, the US intervened in South American countries to stop the spread of this system.
Communism
The fear of total destruction that kept the US and USSR from fighting a direct nuclear war.
Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)
This rushed boundary line caused massive violence when it divided people by religion.
The Radcliffe Line
This Anatolian empire controlled Palestine before surrendering it to the British after WWI.
The Ottoman Empire
This was the title of the Iranian king who used a brutal secret police force to silence his people.
The Shah
Western powers backed the assassination of Patrice Lumumba because they were terrified the Soviet Union would gain access to the Congo's massive supply of this highly radioactive mineral.
Uranium
n 1954, the CIA organized a coup in Guatemala to protect the profits of a company that sold this fruit.
Bananas
The process of a colony gaining its political independence from an empire.
The 1947 partition of India and Pakistan triggered a massive migration to separate these two religious groups.
Hindus and Muslims
Emerging in the late 19th century, this political and nationalist movement called for the creation of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East.
Zionism
The US gave weapons to the Mujahideen in this country to fight the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Afghanistan
Kwame Nkrumah wanted a united Africa so the continent could take control of foreign-owned businesses and keep the profits local, a process known by this vocabulary term.
Nationalization
This island nation caused a massive panic in 1962 when the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles there.
Cuba
The real motive for many Cold War interventions was to control global markets and these.
Natural Resources
This specific border region is still a highly contested and violent dispute between India and Pakistan today.
Kashmir
This movement sought to unite Arab populations, pushing for their own independent nations free from outside control.
Arab Nationalism
During the 1980s, the United States tried to weaken the new Iranian government by backing this neighboring nation and its dictator in a brutal 8-year war.
Iraq, Saddam Hussein
To warn his people against the neo-colonial trap of foreign loans, Thomas Sankara famously stated, "Those who feed you, _______ ___."
control you
Originally from Argentina, this famous revolutionary teamed up with Fidel Castro to overthrow the Cuban government and became a global symbol for communist rebellion.
Che Guevara
The unintended negative consequence of a covert operation, like when funded groups later attack you.
Blowback
The conflict between India and Pakistan is a major global threat today because both nations have these.
Nuclear Weapons
Issued by the British government in 1917, this famous document officially promised support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine.
Balfour Declaration
When a superpower or empire suddenly abandons a region without leaving a stable government behind, it creates this dangerous political emptiness that violent or extremist groups rush to fill.
By proving that Africa's instability was intentionally manufactured by foreign interference rather than inherent chaos, the stories of Nkrumah, Lumumba, and Sankara dismantle this racist 19th-century myth.
The "Dark Continent" Myth
The CIA orchestrated a 1954 coup to overthrow this democratically elected president of Guatemala after his land reforms threatened the massive profits of the United Fruit Company.
Jacobo Árbenz