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Partition of India
The dissolution of of the British Raj, ending British colonial rule of India. The subcontinent was separated into a Hindu majority, India and Muslim majority, Pakistan as separate independent nations. This caused the displacement of over 10 million and the deaths of over a million people. Tensions remain to this day, especially in the border regions between the two nuclear powers. -
Marshall Plan
An American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine pledges American support for democracies against authoritarian threats. The doctrine originated with the primary goal of countering the growth of communism during the Cold War. This specific speech to congress by Truman is often used to date the start of the Cold War. -
Formation of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance of the United States and Western European allies. -
"First Lightning"
The Soviet Union secretly conducted its first successful atomic weapon test. This sends competing global powers into a nuclear arms race - though all parties feared Mutually Assured Destruction and kept the cold war relatively free of direct military conflict. -
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The Korean War
The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953 when North Korea invaded South Korea. The north was supported by China and the Soviet Union while the south was supported by United Nations (UN) forces led by the United States. -
Domino Theory
In a new conference by U.S. President Eisenhower, American military involvement overseas (particularly Asia) is justified on the premise of keeping nations from "falling to communism" one-by-one like falling dominos. -
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The Vietnam War
The war was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The north was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist states, while the south was supported by the United States and other anti-communist allies, making the war a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union. It lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S. military involvement ending in 1973. -
Construction of the Berlin Wall
A guarded, concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic to keep East Germans from defecting to West Germany. -
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Cambodian Genocide
The systematic persecution and killing of Cambodian citizens by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea, Pol Pot. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, nearly 25% of Cambodia's population in 1975 -
Helsinki Accords
A series of meetings to discuss peace, or détente between the East and West. -
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Soviet-Afghan War
The war was a major conflict of the Cold War as it saw extensive fighting between the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the Soviet Union and allied paramilitary groups against the Afghan mujahideen and their allied foreign fighters. The majority of their support came from Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. The involvement of the foreign powers made the war a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union. -
Perestroika & Glasnost
Political reforms instituted by Gorbachev, as a means of restructuring policies in the Soviet Union to help promote economic and social progress. -
Break up of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia, which was set up as a federation of multiple states after WW1, gets systematically split apart due to rising ethnic and religious tensions. This is going to cause chaos in the region - erupting into genocide and civil wars. -
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Rwandan Genocide
Attempts to end the Rwandan Civil War failed, leading to the assassination of the ethnically Hutu president, Juvénal Habyarimana. This leads to the genocidal killings of members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, by armed Hutu militias. -
Srebrenica genocide
The killing of over 8000 Bosniaks Muslim men and boys by the Army of Republika Srpska (Serbian Nationalists).