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China Invades India:
Explain: A war between China and India that occurred in 162.
Cause: A disputed Himalayan border was the main pretext for war, but other issues played a role. There had been a series of violent border incidents after the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when India had granted asylum to the Dalai Lama. India initiated a Forward Policy in which it placed outposts along the border, including several north of the McMahon Line, the eastern portion of a Line of Actual Control proclaimed by Chinese Premier Zhou -
Yalta Conference
Explain: A meeting of British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt early in February 1945 as World War II was winding down.
Cause: The conferees accepted the principle that the Allies had no duty toward the Germans except to provide minimum subsistence, declared that the German military industry would be abolished or confiscated, and agreed that major war criminals would be tried before an international court, which subsequently pre -
Czech Uprising:
Explain: By the 1950’s, however, the concept of central planning had crippled the nation’s fledgling heavy industries with waste and corruption resulting in high labor turnover, low productivity, and poor product quality.
Cause: After the Second World War, unlike the other nations in the Soviet Block, Czechoslovakia began to stress heavy industry and consumer goods over agricultural and services.
Outcome: The Czechoslovakian government immediately declared that the “invasion was a violation o -
Potsdam Conference:
Explain: The Potsdam Conference, 1945. The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II.
Cause: The major issue at Potsdam was the question of how to handle Germany. At Yalta, the Soviets had pressed for heavy postwar reparations from Germany, half of which would go to th -
Truman Doctrine:
Explain:On March 3rd, 1947, United States President Harry Truman gave a speech in which he proclaimed the Truman Doctrine. This doctrine outlined the United States' plan to give military aid as well as money to Turkey and Greece, in hopes that it would keep the two from falling to the Soviet Union and its communist ways.
Cause: With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nati -
Berlin Airlift:
Explain: the Berlin Airlift, 1948–1949. At the end of the Second World War, U.S., British, and Soviet military forces divided and occupied Germany. Also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located far inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany.
Cause: Truman, however, did not want to cause World War III. Instead, he ordered a massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin.
Outcome: The unbelievably successful American airlift also backfired against the Russians by highlighting the technologica -
Korea:
Explain:When Japan collapsed in 1945, Soviet troops had accepted the Japanese surrender north of the thirty-eighth parallel on the Korean peninsula, and American troops had done likewise south of that line.
Cause: The Soviets wanted to expand the sphere of communist influence into Korea. The United States countered by encouraging the establishment of democracy. Additionally, the United States stressed the importance of containment, which is a foreign policy used to prevent the spread of commun -
Overthrow of Iranian Govt
Explain: The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup, was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Cause: In favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the United Kingdom (under the name "Operation Boot") and the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project).
Outcome: The coup is widely believed to have significantly contributed to anti-American and anti-British sentiment in -
Domino Theory
Explain: a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s, that speculated that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect.
Cause: In Southeast Asia, the United States government used the domino theory to justify its support of a non-communist regime in South Vietnam against the communist government of North Vietnam, and ultimately its increasing involvement in the long-running Vietnam War (1954-75). -
Dien Ben Phu
Explain: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries
Cause: The battle that settled the fate of French Indochina was initiated in November 1953, when Viet Minh forces at Chinese insistence moved to attack Lai Chau, the capital of the T’ai Federation (in Upper Tonkin), which was loyal to the French.
Outcome: The Viet Minh victory at Dien Bie -
SEATO Formed:
Explain: In September of 1954, the United States, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, or SEATO.
Cause: The purpose of the organization was to prevent communism from gaining ground in the region. Although called the “Southeast Asia Treaty Organization,” only two Southeast Asian countries became members.
Outcome: Pakistan formally left SEATO in 1973, because the organization had failed to provide it wi -
Hungarian Revolt
Explain: a nationwide revolt against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956
Cause: Khrushchev's policy of 'de-Stalinization' caused problems in many Eastern European Communist countries, where people hated the hard-line Stalinist regimes that Russia had put in place. There was also trouble in Poland in 1956, and Khrushchev had to send in Russian troops.
Outcome: Public discussion about this revolution wa -
Sputnik
Explain: Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. It was a 58 cm diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennae to broadcast radio pulses.
Cause: In July 1955, the White House announced plans to launch an Earth-orbiting satellite for the IGY and solicited proposals from various Government research agencies to undertake development. In September 1955, the Naval Research Laboratory's Va -
Cuba falls to Castro
Explain: The Cuban Revolution (1953–1959) was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and its allies against the US-backed authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista.
Cause: The takeover of former president Fulgencio Batista. Even though he had the support of the U.S., many Cubans opposed him. One of them was an outspoken lawyer, Fidel Castro.
Outcome: As the Castro government moved toward a closer relationship with the Soviet Union, and Castro declar -
Mercury Program:
Explain: Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States running from 1958 through 1963.
Cause: its goal was to put a human into Earth orbit and return the person safely, ideally before the Soviet Union
outcome: Taken over from the U.S. Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it spanned twenty unmanned developmental missions involving test animals, and successful missions completed by six of the seven Mercury astronauts. -
Bay of Pigs
Explain: The CIA backed counter revolutionaries in Cuba.
Cause: a CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro.
Outcome: Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. -
Berlin Wall:
Explain: On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifaschistischer Schutzwall,” or “anti fascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin.
Cause: The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West.
Outcome: To this day, the Be -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Explain: A 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba
Cause; President John Kennedy (1917-63) notified Americans about the presence of the missiles, explained his decision to enact a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security
Outcome: Both the Americans and Soviets were sobered by the Cuban Missile Crisis. T -
Kennedy Assassination
Explain: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. By the fall of 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his political advisers were preparing for the next presidential campaign.
Cause: no–one really knows why JFK was assassinated.
Outcome: Kennedy's death marked the fourth and latest successful assassination of an American President. -
Apollo 11
Explain: Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on July 20, 1969, at 20:18
Cause: The primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961: perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth.
Outcome: Apollo 11 accomplishes the mission of landing on the moon and returning safely. -
Nixon goes to China
Explain: a historical reference to United States President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China, where he met with Chairman Mao Zedong.
Cause: It refers to the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among his or her supporters for representing and defending their values to take actions that would draw their criticism and even opposition if taken by someone without those credentials.
Outcome: Nixon's visit to China was of particular significance because i -
Watergate
Explain: The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s,
Cause: The FBI investigated and discovered a connection between cash found on the burglars and a slush fund used by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP)
Outcome: The scandal led to the discovery of multiple abuses of power by the Nixon administration, articles of impeachment,and the resignation of Nixon as President of the United States in August 1974. -
Fall of Soviet Vietnam:
Explain: On December of 1991, as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism.
Cause: The Soviet Union was built on approximately the same territory as the Russian Empire which it succeeded. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the newly-formed government developed a philosophy -
Soviets Invade Afghanistan:
Explain: At the end of December 1979, the Soviet Union sent thousands of troops into Afghanistan and immediately assumed complete military and political control of Kabul and large portions of the country.
Cause: This event began a brutal, decade-long attempt by Moscow to subdue the Afghan civil war and maintain a friendly and socialist government on its border.
Outcome: The United States and its European allies, guided by their own doctrine of containment, sharply criticized the Soviet move int -
Solidarity-Poland:
Explain: a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed. In December 1990, Wałęsa was elected President of Poland. Since then Solidarity has become a more traditional, liberal trade union.
Cause: The origin of Solidarity traces back to 1976, when a Worker's’ Defense Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotnikow; KOR) was founded by a group of dissident intellectuals after several thousand striking workers had been attacked and jailed by authorities in various cities. The KOR supported families of impri -
Able Archer
Explain: Able Archer 83 was a ten-day North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) command post exercise starting on November 2, 1983
Cause: The exercise also introduced a new, unique format of coded communication, radio silences, and the participation of heads of government.
Outcome: one of the times when the world has come closest to nuclear war -
Iran Contra Affair
Explain: The Iran-contra affair was the product of two separate initiatives during the administration of President Ronald Reagan.
Cause: The first was a commitment to aid the contras who were conducting a guerrilla war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.
Outcome: Several investigations ensued, including those by the U.S. Congress and the three-person, Reagan-appointed Tower Commission. -
Tiananmen Square:
Explain: The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, commonly known as the June Fourth Incident or '89 Democracy Movement in Chinese, were student-led popular demonstrations in Beijing which took place in the spring.
Cause: There were many factors that led to the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989, but a number of these causes can be traced back a decade prior to Deng Xiao Ping’s 1979 “opening” of China to major economic reforms.
Outcome: In the end, though many of the elite youth protesters were arres -
Berlin Wall Falls
Explain:The fall of the Berlin Wall had begun with the building of the Wall in 1961.
However it took about three decades until the Wall was torn down.
Cause: The Berlin Wall was torn down due to political changes in Europe; Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev lost his control by 1990, and the Soviet Union fell apart.
Outcome: The East Germans could now be free to travel west and be free. -
German reunification
Explain:was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germanyto form the reunited nation of Germany, and when Berlin reunited into a single city,
Causes: In 1989, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev started to open the Soviet Union to the west. Many of the communist countries followed his example, opening the door into freedom for their citizens.
Outcomes:Many easterners have endured change, hardship, upheaval and various negative developments . -
Collapse of Soviet Union
Explain: The dissolution of the Soviet Union was formally enacted on December 26, 1991, as a result of the declaration no. 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, acknowledging the independence of the former Soviet republics and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), although five of the signatories ratified it much later or not at all
Cause: Previously, from August to December, all the individual republics, including Russia itself, had seceded from the union. The week b
