Global History Flashcards

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Toussaint L’Overture

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: Leader of the St. Domingue slave revolt 1791-1794. Himself a free black, his name “L’Ouverture” refers to his skill at finding openings in enemy lines. In 1793, the French ended slavery in St. Domingue, and in 1794 proclaimed blacks and whites equal. However, free blacks refused to cooperate with former slaves, creating a civil war. In 1800, Toussaint forced slaves to return to plantations to work for minimal profit. After Napoleon gained power in France, he decided to retake the colony and captured Toussaint who died in prison in 1803. However, the French ultimately lost because of thousands of deaths from yellow fever. In 1804, Haiti proclaimed itself independent.

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Opium War

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By the late 1700’s, the British imported massive amounts of tea from China, which they funded by selling Indian opium to China. Soon, Chinese purchased more opium than the British needed to cover their tea, forcing China to pay in silver. In 1800 China banned the opium trade, but British smugglers continued illegally. In 1838, a Chinese official burned the opium he captured, leading the traders to complain to England. The British sent a fleet in 1839 to force China to allow opium and defeated China in 1842. The Treaty of Nanjing legalized the opium trade and forced China to pay a fine, to allow British diplomats, and to open five ports. This placed Britain (and the West) on at least equal footing with China and showed superior Western technology and firepower.

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Artemisinin

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An anti-malarial drug that treats falciparum malaria. Developed by Chinese herbologists before the modern era (around 200 BC?), scientists discovered it in the leaves of the wormwood tree in 1972. Helped the campaign to eradicate malaria globally.

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Trotsky + Kahlo = Love

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Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), Bolsheveik Commisar of War, commanded the communist Bolsheveik forces during the Russian Civil War from 1918-1922. He ended democratic election of leaders within the military and instituted war communism by commandeering grain from peasants in order to feed his army. Under his rule, the secret police (Cheka) greatly expanded and set up concentration camps for dissenters. In Mexico, Diego Rivera, married to Frida Kahlo, used his paintings to glorify communism by painting Trotsky, Lenin, and Marx. When forced to flee from Stalin’s purges in the 1930’s, Trotsky stayed with Riviera and had an affair with Kahlo.

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Quaid-i-Azam M.A. Jinnaj (Jinnah)

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Founder of Pakistan. Studied abroad in imperial homeland (England) as a young man. Did not advocate independence, and resigned from Congress and broke with Ghandi in 1920, believing that Ghandi would separate Hindus and Muslims. In 1941, led revolts advocating for a separate Muslim state, which led to Pakistan’s creation in 1947.

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Iraq

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Created in 1920 as British mandate following World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Composed of a diverse conglomeration of ethnic and religious heritages: Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, and others. Fell under Saddam Hussein’s brutal rule in 1979, leading to a deadly war with Iran in 1980. Hussein used the strategy of division to rule effectively: he kept subgroups of society fighting with each other for advantages to consolidate his own power. Did not exist as a nation before its creation, so an example of a state that had no national history to create an identity.

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Aung San Suu Kyi

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Born in 1945, Kyi was elected as Burmese Prime Minister in 1990 and then placed under house arrest by military junta.Daughter of “the father of Burma” Aung San, who negotiated independence from Britain in 1947. Advocates for democracy: founded National League for Democracy 1988. Used Ghandi’s nonviolence as a role model.

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Matsuo Taseko

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Prosperous, educated Japanese peasant woman who helped spark the Meiji Revolution of 1868, which restored the emperor’s power and close Japan to foreign trade. Very traditionalist, and used her poetry to help define Japan as a nation with its own culture. As a nation-builder, she wanted Japan to return to its ancient, traditional identity. Shows an example of nation-building and of a traditionally disempowered individual (a peasant woman) who had a voice in determining the nation’s identity.

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Apartheid

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this practice of separation between white settlers and native Africans was instituted in many British colonies during the mid-1800’s. In addition to sheer racism, whites feared what they characterized as the dirty, unsanitary natives and the potential diseases, such as malaria, they carried. This system later became encoded by law in South Africa from 1948-1994 by creating white and black areas and preventing intermarriage and black voting rights. This is an example of a concept of the nation that does not include black people as full participants.

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Hirohito

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Young Japanese emperor who came to power in 1926 at only 25 years of age. Ruled until 1989. By the 1930s Emperor Hirohito and his advisors had rekindled emotional support for the imperial system and convinced the people that Japan deserved an extensive empire. Renewed military vigor was seen as key to Japan’s claims to racial superiority and territorial entitlement to the lands of people they considered “inferior”—like the Chinese. Started the Japanese part of WWII.

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Panama Canal

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canal located in Panama linking the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean Sea) to the Pacific Ocean. Project was headed by the U.S. after failed attempts by the French. Completed in the early 1990s with it opening in 1914. Almost 28,000 workers were estimated to have died due to various tropical diseases (malaria, yellow fever, etc.)/ accidents (Humanity’s Burden reference?) good for imperialism.

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Comintern

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Founded in March of 1919 by the Bolsheviks. Officially known as the “Third International” or the “Communist International,” its primary goal was to foster revolutionary support for Marxism across Europe and for the explicit purpose of preaching communism worldwide. When Stalin came to power, 1922.

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1918 ‘Spanish’ Flu

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1918-1919 influenza epidemic that left an estimated 100 million more dead (in comparison, only 15 million were killed in the first world war). Spread all over the world as a result of globalization (better methods of transportation, etc., and increased transmission due to soldiers in WWI carrying it all over the world). Flu received its nickname "Spanish flu" because Spain, a neutral country in WWI, had no special censorship for news against the disease and its consequences. Hence the most reliable news on the disease came from Spain, giving the false impression that Spain was the most—if not the only—affected zone

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ETA

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Basque nationalist/ separatist organization – unofficial militant arm of Basque nationalist parties in Spain. Deemed a terrorist organization – started in 1959 in opposition to the General Franco dictatorship in Spain after oppression of Basque peoples. Responsible for kidnappings, bombings, and assassinations in order to fight for independent Basque nation. NOT responsible for 2004 Madrid bombings.

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Roger Casement

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o Irish patriot, poet, revolutionary and nationalist. He was a British consul by profession, famous for his reports and activities against human rights abuses in the Congo and Peru, but better known for his dealings with Germany before Ireland's Easter Rising in 1916.
o He gained international renown for his Consular reports criticising the treatment of native workers in the Congo and Amazon. As a consequence of his reports Belgium notably overhauled its administration of the Congo in 1908.

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Ho Chi Minh

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Vietnamese Western educated native leader and founder of the Indochinese Communist Party – led popular movement to contest the people’s subjection by the French. French brutally crushed the peasant uprising led by Ho in 1930. President of Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945-1969) and Prime Minister from 1944-1955.

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U.S.-Mexican War

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1846-1848 - In 1848 the United States won a war with Mexico over rights to land in Mexico’s north, and as a result almost doubled its territory: Texas was officially annexed, and large portions of California and the southwest were annexed as well. Result of settlers continuing to push westward in the nineteenth century, seeking more land to profit from the global trade in raw materials, particularly cotton. They drove into Mexican territory in the continent’s southwest, where struggles for control of both trade and territory included sporadic warfare.

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Kyoto Protocol

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Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aimed at combating global warming. International environmental treaty with the goal of “achieving stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations”/ combat global warming. Initially adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. So far 187 states have signed and ratified the Kyoto protocol. U.S. has not signed treaty yet and neither has China or India.

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Indira Gandhi

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primes minister of India for three consecutive terms from 1966-1977 and a fourth term in 1980 and was assassinated in 1984. She was India’s first and to date the only female prime minister. She grew up in an intense political atmosphere. Was an important figure in the India Independence movement and was the first Prime Minister of independent India. She led the nation in a decisive victory in the war with Pakistan in 1971, leading to the creation of independent Bangladesh. She was assassinated in October due to her controversial actions to invade the golden temple of the sikhs.

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Saadi Yacef

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was one of the leaders of Algeria’s National Liberation Front during the country’s first war for independence (1954-1962). Joined FLN in the start of the war in 1954 and was one of the head leaders during the Battle of the Algiers however he was eventually captured. He was sentenced to death by General Paul Aussaresses however while in custody he betrayed the FLN. He gave the French army with vital information such as the locations of Ali La Pointe, a leading FLN commander. He was eventually pardoned. He helped produce the film “Battle of the Algiers” alongside Gillo Pontecorvo

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Ingrid Betancourt

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a French-Colombian politician was a former senator, anti-corruption activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. She was kidnapped in 2002 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, she was captured while campaigning for the Colombian presidency as a Green. She campaigned in areas that were dangerous regardless of warnings from the government, military and police. Her kidnapping received a lot of coverage because she had dual French citizenship. She was rescued in 2008 by former enemy who designed the plan.

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Hiroshima

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largest island of Japan. Became the first city in history to be destroyed by nuclear weapons when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 near the end of WWII. Killed around 80,000 people and by the end, with those injured and sick from radiation, it went up to 90,000-140,000.

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Wahhabism

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- a sect of Sunni Islam however it is argued where it belongs. is a reform movement that began 200 years ago to rid Islamic societies of cultural practices and interpretation that had been acquired over the centuries. The followers of Abdul Wahab (1703-1792) began as a movement to cleanse the Arab bedouin from the influence of Sufism. Wahhabis are the followers of Ibn 'Abd ul-Wahhab, who instituted a great reform in the religion of Islam in Arabia in the 18th century. One of the religious vitalization movements, counterpoint of the enlightenment.

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Cecil Rhodes

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an English born businessman who was a politican in South Africa. Founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today markts 40% of the worlds rough diamonds. Strong believe of colonialism and imperialism. He was the founder of the state Rhodesia (existed between 1965-1979). Rhodesia later became Zambia and Zimbabwe. Rhodes policies were instrumental in the development of British imperial policies in South Africa, such as the Hut tax.

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Suharto

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The second president of Indonesia, holding office from 1967-1998. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, Suharto served in various Japanese-organised Indonesian security forces. He joined the newly formed Indonesian army, during Indonesia's independence struggle. Following Indonesian independence, Suharto rose to the rank of Major General. An attempted coup on 30 September 1965 was countered by Suharto-led troops.[3] Suharto took control of the army, and the coup attempt was blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party. An army led anti-communist purge, killed over half a million people, and Suharto wrested power from Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno.

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Chico Mendes

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was a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist. He fought to stop the burning and logging of the Amazon Rainforest to clear land for cattle ranching, and founded a national union of rubber tappers in an attempt to preserve their profession and the rainforest that it relied upon. He was murdered in 1988 by ranchers opposed to his activism. the original tree hugger.