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Unit 6: World Changes Since 1989 7-6.1 Summarize the political and social impact of the collapse/dissolution of the Soviet Union and subsequent changes to European borders, including those of Russia and the Independent Republics, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia; the breakup of Yugoslavia; the reunification of Germany; and the birth of the European Union (EU). 7-6.2 Compare features of nationalist and independence movements in different regions in the post–World War II period, including Mohandas Gandhi’s role in the nonviolence movement for India’s independence, the emergence of nationalist movements in African and Asian countries, and the collapse of the apartheid system in South Africa. 7-6.3 Explain the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, including the Persian Gulf War, the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 7-6.4 Compare the social, economic, and political opportunities for women in various nations and societies around the world, including those in developing and industrialized nations and within societies dominated by religions. 7-6.5 Explain the significance and impact of the information, technological, and communications revolutions, including the role of television, satellites, computers, and the Internet. 7-6.6 Summarize the dangers to the natural environment that are posed by population growth, urbanization, and industrialization, including global influences on the environment and the efforts by citizens and governments to protect the natural environment.
The Fall of the Soviet Union • In December of 1991, the Soviet Union officially collapsed and was dissolved. • In June 1991, the people of the Soviet Union chose Boris Yeltsin as the first directly elected president of the Russian Federation (Gorbachev was still the president of the Soviet Union). • In August 1991, communists who supported the old way of communism tried to overthrow Gorbachev’s government and failed. • After this, the Soviet Party lost all power.
All 15 Soviet republics declared independence and agreed to form the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as a loose federation of former Soviet states. • The formation of the CIS was the official end of the Soviet Union and Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991.
Russia • Boris Yeltsin adopted a plan known as shock therapy (a quick shift to capitalism). • By 1993, this plan led to high inflation (high prices) and other problems. • A small territory known as Chechnya also declared independence from Russia and this resulted in a war. • A cease-fire was declared in 1996, but fighting continued until the end of the 1990s. • In 1999, Vladimir Putin was elected President of Russia. He is still President today.
Czechoslovakia • In Czechoslovakia, the collapse of communism led to the split of the nation into two nations: the Czech Republic and Slovakia (1993). • Czechoslovakia had faced major challenges because the people had no rights under communist leadership. • Czechoslovakia was formed after WWI and was made up of two groups of people, the Czechs and the Slovaks. • The two groups could not get along with each other. • When communist rule collapsed in the country in 1989, the problems got worse between the two groups.
Elections were held in both 1990 and 1992 and it became more obvious that the Czechs and Slovaks couldn’t get along. • The government peacefully negotiated to dissolve the country into 2 nations in 1993.
Yugoslavia • Political differences, economic problems, and nationalism led to the breakup of Yugoslavia, a nation formed after WWI. • This breakup was not peaceful. • There were 6 republics in Yugoslavia: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro. • In 1945, Yugoslavia became communist under President Marshal Tito, who took away all rights.
When President Tito died in 1980, the communist government began to fall apart. • In 1990, the Yugoslav Communist Party split among the different ethnic groups and started allowing elections. • Communist police and the military started violently attacked the people that didn’t support the communist government. • Violence continued throughout the 1990s and the republics started to break away from Yugoslavia. • In Serbia and Montenegro, ethnic cleansing (genocide) took place under the leadership of Slobodan Milosevic.
Milosevic was arrested in 2001 and the United Nations recognized Serbia-Montenegro as a nation. • In 2006, they became 2 separate nations. • There was ethnic violence (different groups fighting) in Kosovo, Serbia later on.
Germany • In East Germany, people started becoming angry over economic problems and political rights. • In November 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down. • East and West Germany were reunited.
The European Union • During the Cold War, an economic alliance called the European Economic Community (EEC) formed. • The purpose of the EEC was to strengthen the economies of democratic nations in Europe by getting rid of trading barriers such as tariffs (taxes). • In 1993, the European Union (EU) replaced the EEC. • The European Union not only focuses on eliminating trade barriers, but also promoting democracies, foreign policy, and a common defense (military) policy. • The EU was able to give membership to Eastern European countries since the end of communism. • There are 27 members of the EU.
NAFTA • In 1994, Canada, Mexico, and the United States signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which created the largest free trade area.
Independence For India • After WWI, India started calling for independence. • India had 2 major religious groups: Hindus and Muslims (These groups could not get along.) • The Indian National Congress consisted of mainly Hindus while the Muslims had their own group called the Muslim League. • The Muslims feared that the Hindus would dominate the new government whenever independence was achieved. • Mohandas Gandhi was the leader of the independence movement and he used civil disobedience or nonviolence to achieve independence for India.
Mohandas Gandhi called for boycotts of British goods and encouraged Indians to make their own clothing rather than buying clothes from the British. • The British forced the Indians to buy salt only from the British, so Gandhi organized the Salt March. • The Salt March was when the Indians collected saltwater from the sea in order to make their own salt. • Gandhi also protested rule by fasting. • Gandhi’s nonviolent methods were effective because the boycotts hurt Britain’s economy.
In 1935, the British gave the Indians self-rule and after WWII ended, the British were ready to give India their independence. • India was expensive for Britain to run and Britain was poor after WWII. • Britain was worried about the problems with the Hindus and the Muslims so the British divided India into 2 nations: India and Pakistan. • India was created for the Hindus. • Pakistan was created for the Muslims.
Both nations received independence in 1947 and people began moving to their new countries. • Violence occurred between the 2 groups and around 1 million people were killed. • India and Pakistan also fought over a territory known as Kashmir because India controlled it but mostly Muslims lived there. • The United Nations enforced a cease-fire and gave India 2/3 of Kashmir and Pakistan 1/3. • The disagreement continues today.
Pakistan was originally split up because the nation of India was so large. • The government of Pakistan was located in West Pakistan. • East Pakistan felt ignored and declared independence in 1971, calling itself Bangladesh. • There was a short civil war between Pakistan and Bangladesh, but Bangladesh won with the help of India.
Independence for Southeast Asia • After WWII, countries in Southeast Asia became independent. • The Philippines gained independence from the United States. • Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaysia, and Singapore became independent from Britain. • Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) became independent from the Netherlands.
Independence for Africa • In Africa, just like in Asia, nationalist (independence movements) gained momentum after WWII. • Many African colonies wanted to free themselves from European rule and they had leaders who led their independence movements. • The first African nation to receive independence was Ghana in 1957. • The leader of Ghana’s independence movement was Kwame Nkrumah who organized boycotts and strikes like Gandhi in India.
Other nations used force to achieve independence. • Algeria’s people fought France in a violent war and won. • British settlers in Kenya did not want Kenya to receive their independence. • The leader of Kenya’s nationalist movement was Jomo Kenyatta who used guerilla warfare to fight the British settlers. • Kenyatta became Kenya’s first president after he was released from prison.
Angola won independence from Portugal. • The Congo had a civil war after receiving independence from Belgium. • Colonial rule had exploited (taken advantage) of the colonies resources and the Africans had not been trained on how to run their government. • Rival ethnicities could not get along and many countries had civil wars and dictatorships.
South Africa • South Africa gained independence from Britain in 1910, before both WWI and WWII. • Descendants of Europeans were the minority white population in South Africa. • Afraid of losing power, they created a system called apartheid, or the legal segregation of whites and blacks. • South Africa’s black majority was denied rights beginning in the mid 1930s. • Apartheid was official in 1948.
In 1959, homelands for black South Africans were created, but this forced the majority of the African people to live on a small section of land. • The African National Congress (ANC) formed in protest of Apartheid, but this group was illegal. • Anyone that spoke out against apartheid was put in prison, such as ANC leader Nelson Mandela. • Others were killed, such as Stephen Biko. • In 1989, a new president, F.W. DeKlerk was elected and he legalized the ANC and released Mandela from prison. • Apartheid was taken away and Mandela was elected president of South Africa in 1994.
Conflicts in the Middle East • Modern day conflicts in the Middle East began with the creation of Israel. • Another problem with this is that the Middle East owns and controls the world’s largest supply of oil and the United States is very dependent on this. • The United Nations has been involved in many of these conflicts and the United States has been involved because of our support of Israel.
The Persian Gulf War • The Persian Gulf War began when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. • Kuwait was an oil-rich nation. • Saddam Hussein was the dictator of Iraq and he ordered the invasion because he claimed that Kuwait was Iraq’s territory and that Kuwait’s overproduction of oil was hurting Iraq’s economy. • The United Nations demanded that Hussein remove troops from Kuwait and nations of the UN stopped trading with Iraq.
A coalition of 32 United Nations members (countries), led by the United States, took action. • The US sent troops in to Saudi Arabia to protect the oil fields from an Iraqi invasion. • The UN set a deadline of January 15, 1991 for Iraq to remove all troops from Kuwait. • Hussein refused and the coalition troops began Operation Desert Storm. • The United States and other UN members began attacking Iraqi troops using air raids and ground attacks.
Hussein launched missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia but the coalition forces surrounded Iraqi forces quickly. • Most of the Iraqi forces surrendered or fled. • US President George H. W. Bush declared a cease-fire in February 1991. • Kuwait gained its freedom, but Iraqi troops in Kuwait set Kuwait’s oil fields on fire as they left. • Iraq suffered destruction too, but Hussein stayed in power.
September 11, 2001 • On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by terrorists. • Members of a terrorist group known as Al-Qaeda planned and carried out these attacks. • Osama Bin Laden was the leader of Al-Qaeda. • This terrorist group only supports Muslim-based practices in the Middle East and demands that all Western ideas be removed from the Middle East. • Attacks had occurred in other nations before September 11th because of their connection to Israel.
On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorists who were living in the United States boarded four planes departing from Boston, Massachusetts. • Once in the air, the terrorists took control of the planes by using knives to force their way into the cockpit. • After killing the pilots, the terrorists took control of the planes because they had training in piloting an airplane. • The first two planes were flown to New York City. At 8:46 am, the first plane was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. • At 9:03 am, the second plane was flown into the South Tower.
Those within the buildings that were not killed on impact began trying to exit the 110 story buildings. • NYC police and firemen were trying to rescue survivors. • Over 2000 civilians died along with hundreds of rescue workers. • The area around the towers were also damaged because the towers collapsed. This area was called “Ground Zero.” • At 9:37 am, terrorists flew a plane into the Pentagon in Washington, DC where 125 workers were killed.
Four terrorists high jacked a fourth plane, but they didn’t fly the plane into a building. • Passengers used cell phones to call home and knew what happened with the other planes. • There was a struggle between the hijackers and the passengers and control of the plane was lost and it crashed into an empty field in Shanksville, PA. • Everyone on board died, but thankfully no one on the ground was killed due to the passengers heroic actions. • No one knows exactly where this plane was headed, but it is believed it was headed towards Washington, D.C.
War on Terrorism • In response to the September 11th attacks, President George W. Bush declared a global war on terrorism. • Bush announced that any terrorist organizations would be hunted by the US government and the US expected all other nations to cooperate. • Members of Al-Qaeda were the main targets. • In Afghanistan, the government was controlled by a military group known as the Taliban. • The Taliban supported Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. • Supposedly, Bin Laden was hiding in Afghanistan during the 9-11 attacks.
The US demanded that the Afghan government turn over or assist in the capture of Al-Qaeda members within its nation but the Taliban refused. • President Bush ordered an invasion of Afghanistan to begin searching for terrorists. • The Taliban was removed from power and the process of setting up a democracy began. • Hamid Karzai became the American-appointed president. • Elections were held in 2004. • Terrorist attacks from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have continued on American troops.
As part of the war on terrorism, the Bush administration began investigating terrorist connections in Iraq. • The US and Great Britain believed Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, had weapons of mass destruction and feared he might supply terrorists with these weapons. • Chemical and biological weapons had been used on Iran before and many had been destroyed during the Persian Gulf War. • The US asked for the United Nations to help out. • The United Nations sent in a team to investigate these claims and found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
The US asked the United Nations to use force against Iraq but the UN refused. • Because it considered Hussein a possible source of support/supplies to terrorists, the Bush Administration decided to use force and invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. • The US government fought supporters of Hussein and Hussein was captured on December 13, 2003. • An American-led government was put into place and elections were held in January 2005 with the goal of writing a constitution for Iraq. • Hussein was tried for the murder of Iraqi Shi’ites and was found guilty and hanged on December 30, 2006.
Fighting still continued against Iraqis who wanted to get Americans out of Iraq and who attacked the new Iraqi government. • The US never found weapons of mass destruction. • Fighting continued in Iraq until the process of removing all American troops began under the Obama administration in December 2011.
Women’s Rights • Women have gained more rights in the world beginning in the 20th century and continuing to the present-day. • Women played a major role in WWI by working in factories and making war materials while men were fighting. • Because of their importance on the home front, the women’s suffrage movement (women’s right to vote) became stronger and achieved success. • After WWI, the US and Britain gave women the right to vote.
Turkey also gave women the right to vote and hold political office. • By the 1920s, women in democratic and industrialized nations were entering new professions, such as journalism and medicine. • Women were more active in WWII, serving on the home front and in war theaters in the military and medical fields. • After the men returned, women stopped working as much throughout the 1950s.
