a period of colonial expansion—and its accompanying ideologies—by the European powers, the United States of America and the Empire of Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

a revolt of the sepoy troops in British India (1857–59), resulting in thetransfer of the administration of India from the East India Company tothe crown.

Founded in 1885, is celebrated as the world's oldest and largest democratic political party. Originally founded to promote economic reforms and to influence the policies of the British authority, rapidly became a major force behind the rebellion against British occupation. In 1920, began a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience, led by Mohandas Gandhi. This effort was a significant factor toward achieving independence from colonial rule. Officially represented all Indians, the majority of its Muslim members defected to the Muslim League in 1948, which led to the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. Since independence, has been the majority party in India for 48 of the past 60 years.

On July 8, 1853, commanding a squadron of two steamers and two sailing vessels, sailed into Tôkyô harbor aboard the frigate Susquehanna. On behalf of the U.S. government, forced Japan to enter into trade with the United States and demanded a treaty permitting trade and the opening of Japanese ports to U.S. merchant ships. This was the era when all Western powers were seeking to open new markets for their manufactured goods abroad, as well as new countries to supply raw materials for industry. It was clear that he could impose his demands by force. The Japanese had no navy with which to defend themselves, and thus they had to agree to the demands.

A turning point in Japanese history in 1868 when the last shogun was overthrown and the emperor assumed direct control over the nation. The  Period (1868–1912) was marked by Japan's opening to the West and the establishment of a strong centralized government.

a war between Great Britain and China that began in 1839 as a conflict over the opium trade and ended in 1842 with the Chinese cession of Hong Kong to the British, the opening of five Chinese ports to foreign merchants, and the grant of other commercial and diplomatic privileges in the Treaty of Nanking.

the result of China's humiliating defeat at the hands of the British in the Opium War. Britain took the island of Hong Kong, a very important trading port.

radical political and religious upheaval that was probably the most important event in China in the 19th century. It lasted for some 14 years (1850–64), ravaged 17 provinces, took an estimated 20 million lives, and irrevocably altered the Qing dynasty 

united a number of related tribes in what is now Natal Province, Republic of South Africa. He later extended his authority to parts of what are now the Transvaal, Cape of Good Hope Province, and the Orange Free State. Created a disciplined army and laid the groundwork for a Zulu state. In the last years of his life his power was unlimited, and he became a despot. Murdered by a group of conspirators.

either of two wars: the first when fought England in order to regain the independence they had given up to obtain British help against the Zulus (1880-1881); the second when the Orange Free State and Transvaal declared war on Britain (1899-1902)

British colonial financier and statesman in South Africa; made a fortune in gold and diamond mining; helped colonize the territory now known as Zimbabwe; he endowed annual fellowships for British Commonwealth and United States students to study at Oxford University (1853-1902)

often referred to in France as the War of 1870 (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871), was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the German states of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. The conflict was caused by Prussian ambitions to extend German unification. Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck planned to provoke a French attack in order to draw the southern German states—Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt—into an alliance with the North German Confederation dominated by Prussia.

a formal agreement or treaty between two or more nations to cooperate for specific purposes.

created  in December 1905. the operational plan for a designated attack on France once Russia, in response to international tension, had started to mobilise her forces near the German border.The execution led to Britain declaring war on Germany on August 4th, 1914.

 the longest single battle of World War One. The casualties  and the impact the battle had on the French Army was a primary reason for the British starting the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 in an effort to take German pressure off of the French. Started on February 21st 1916 and ended on December 16th in 1916. It was to make General Philippe Pétain a hero in France.

 announced by Germany on January 9th, 1917.  was to have a major impact on World War One as it was one of the main reasons why America joined the war. When the German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg announced Germany’s intention to use this his one major concern and fear was that it would provoke an American response – in this he was to be correct.

the peace settlement signed after World War One had ended in 1918 and in the shadow of the Russian Revolutionand other events in Russia. The treaty was signed at the vast Palace near Paris – hence its title – between Germany and the Allies. The three most important politicians there were David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson.

Sparked off by a peaceful protest held on January 22nd. This protest may well have been the turning point in the relationship the tsar, Nicholas II, enjoyed with his people. Led by a Russian Orthodox priest, Father Gapon, 150,000 people took to the cold and snow covered streets of St Petersburg to protest about their lifestyle. They were not intent on making any form of political protest in the sense of calling for the overthrow of the government or royal family. The petition they carried clearly shows that they wanted Nicholas to help them.

His real name was Vladimir Illych Ulyanov. He changed it while on the run from the secret police to avoid arrest. His importance to Russia’s history cannot be overstated; in November 1917, he established the first communist government when he overthrew the Provisional Government. Russia had the first communist government in the world.

He lead the Russian Communists to power in November 1917. Strictly this should read RussianBolsheviks as the party He had joined as a young man split in two in 1903. Those who left the party were few in number and became known as the Mensheviks. The majority stayed with him and they became known as the Bolsheviks which means majority in Russian.

It brought about the end of the war between Russia and Germany in 1918. The German were reminded of the harshness of it when they complained about the severity of theTreaty of Versailles signed in June 1919.

The English economist who had attended the peace conference but then left in protest of the treaty, was one of the most outspoken critics of the punitive agreement. In his The Economic Consequences of the Peace, published in December 1919, he predicted that the stiff war reparations and other harsh terms imposed on Germany by the treaty would lead to the financial collapse of the country, which in turn would have serious economic and political repercussions on Europe and the world.

Plan of 1924 was formulated to take Weimar Germany out of hyperinflationand to return Weimar’s economy to some form of stability. The Dawes Plan got its name as the man who headed the committee was an American called ____.

October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression (1929-39), the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time.

the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi state as well as other far-right groups. Usually characterized as a form of fascism that incorporates scientific racism and anti-Semitism, Nazism developed out of the influences of Pan-Germanism, the Völkisch German nationalist movement, and the anti-communist Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged during the Weimar Republic after German defeat in World War I.

the widespread atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army in and around Nanking (now called Nanjing), at that time the capital of China, after it fell to Japanese troops on 13 December 1937.

the ideology and policies, based on centralization, totalitarianism, and the pursuit of communism.

any rigid centralized authoritarian form of communism.

Public opinion in 1938 seemed reasonably in favour of Neville Chamberlain and what was later to be termed ____________ when he returned with “peace in our time” after the September 1938 Munich Agreement. Opinion polls appear to show that the majority of the nation was in support of the stance taken by Chamberlain.

A treaty made by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 that opened the way for both nations to invade Poland.

 the name given to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Russia on June 22nd 1941. It was the largest military attack of World War Two and was to have appalling consequences for the Russian people.

The attack by the Japanese on ___________,  took place on December 7th 1941. The attack  was called a “day of infamy” by President FD Roosevelt. It was to bring the United States of America into World War Two.

a pivotal policy statement issued on 14 August 1941, that, early in World War II, defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. The leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States drafted the work and all the Allies of World War II later confirmed it.

a country or area in which another country has power to affect developments although it has no formal authority.

held from July 16th, 1945 to August 2nd 1945. Considered to be the last of World War Two’s conferences. At Yalta and Tehran, the so-called ‘Big Three’ attended – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. At this conference, America was represented by Harry Truman, the Soviet Union still by Stalin and Britain, first by Winston Churchill and then by Clement Atlee, who defeated Churchill in the post-war British election in 1945 which took place during the actual conference. Churchill attended the conference up to July 24th, and Atlee, as Prime Minister of Britain, after this date until the close of the conference.

The issues that had to be discussed at the conference were many. However, by the time of the finish, America had still not used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima so Stalin, with a huge military presence in the east of Europe, could afford to be forceful and confident of getting what he wanted. All Truman would say at Potsdam was that America had a weapon of awesome power – but that meant little to a leader who had millions of soldiers stationed in eastern Europe.

a policy announced by US President on March 12th, 1947. It was a very simple warning clearly made to the USSR – though the country was not mentioned by name – that the USA would intervene to support any nation that was being threatened by a takeover by an armed minority.

It has to be assessed against the background of what had happened in Europe at the end of World War Two and in the immediate aftermath.

During the war conferences, Stalin had made it clear (as far as Roosevelt and Churchill were concerned) that he would allow free elections in the east European countries previously occupied by Nazi forces and that had been liberated by the Red Army in its drive to Berlin. To Roosevelt, his successor Truman and Churchill this seeming promise meant that anyone could stand for election, anyone over a certain age could freely vote and that voting would be done in secret – effectively a carbon copy of what the west took for granted when it came to elections. Stalin clearly had other ideas. He wanted to put what Churchill was to call an “Iron Curtain” around the USSR and that meant each eastern European country that was near to the Soviet border had to have a loyal communist government in power with leaders who would do what Stalin wished. Therefore, elections were never going to be fair. Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Rumania all ended up with communist governments and had leaders who looked to Moscow for advice as opposed to the people of the country they governed. The only oddity for Stalin was Yugoslavia led by Tito. He was communist but Tito was not prepared to simply see the Nazis replaced by the influence of Soviet communists.

Then in 1946 communists in Greece attempted a takeover. They were in the minority in the country but received moral support from the USSR in their efforts to overthrow the monarchy and actual material support from Yugoslavia.

Greece was in a highly sensitive position militarily and Truman, while not wanting to involve America in any military action, wanted to give the Greek government as much support as he could during the Greek Civil War. The USSR’s Black Sea Fleet was effectively bottled up in the Black Sea. It had to use the narrow waterway through Turkey – the Dardanelles – to get into the Mediterranean Sea. All its movements were easy to monitor – even submarines, as listening devices had been placed on the seabed that easily picked up the noise of a submarine’s engines. If the USSR could get an ally physically in the Mediterranean Sea, then such a hindrance would not exist as a naval base could be built in a Soviet-friendly state.

So it was not just about supporting the rights of a majority against the armed might of a minority, it also had a strategic bearing to it.

Truman stated that it would be “the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

Congress agreed to send $400 million in military and economic aid to support the government of Greece. There was a shared view that if Greece fell to the communists, Turkey would be next and that the Soviet Union was slowly creeping towards the oil fields of the Middle East. However, there was no support to send US military forces into Greece.

It was to set the tone for US foreign policy throughout the world post-March 1947. Greece and Turkey became members of NATO – a clear message to Moscow that an attack on either would be deemed by other members of NATO to be an attack on all of them.

(officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave $13 billion (approximately $130 billion in current dollar value as of August 2015) in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II.

     It was in operation for four years beginning in April 1947. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous again, and prevent the spread of communism.

[1] It required a lessening of interstate barriers, a dropping of many petty regulations constraining business, and encouraged an increase in productivity, labour union membership, as well as the adoption of modern business procedures.

[2] Aid was divided amongst the participant states roughly on a per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the major industrial powers, as the prevailing opinion was that their resuscitation was essential for general European revival. Somewhat more aid per capita was also directed towards the Allied nations, with less for those that had been part of the Axis or remained neutral. The largest recipient of  money was the United Kingdom (receiving about 26% of the total), followed by France (18%) and West Germany (11%). Some 18 European countries received Plan benefits.[3] Although offered participation, the Soviet Union refused Plan benefits, and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as East Germany and Poland. The United States provided similar aid programs in Asia, but they were not called  by this name.

The initiative is named after Secretary of State _____________.

Keeping the balance of military power between the forces of _____________ and those of the ______________, of West and East, was of great importance in keeping international peace and stability. While the spotlight was mainly on the two Superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, the European and Canadian forces within this organization, and all those nations within the ____________, are also important and cannot be ignored.

While the goal of Communism was to dominate and export its beliefs to the whole world, the Soviet Union maintained a policy of controlling the states of Eastern Europe, to act as a buffer against attack from the West

created in 1949. Was seen as being a viable military deterrent against the military might of the Soviet Union. In response to ______ admitting the membership of West Germany, the Soviet Union was to gather all its client states in Eastern Europe into the Warsaw Pact in May 1955. The heart of _______ beat around the military and financial muscle of the United States. However, because the post-war Soviet threat was perceived to be against Western Europe, the headquarters of _____ was based in Brussels, Belgium.

The original members were USA, UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, France, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Greece and Turkey joined in 1952.

The principal part of NATO membership states:

“The parties agree that an armed attack against one of more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against all of them. Consequently, they agree that if such an armed attack occurs, each of them in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence will assist the party or parties being attacked, individually and in concert with other parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”

the Soviet Union’s response to West Germany joining NATO and came into being in May 1955. Named after the meeting to create it was held in Warsaw, was based throughout the Soviet Bloc and troops in it were used in the ending of the 1968 Czech Revolt.

Officially the ‘Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance’, was obviously very much dominated by the Soviet Union. Soviet made tanks, aircraft and guns were used throughout the ________ and the military command was dominated by decisions made in Moscow.

Like NATO, it had a political Consultative Committee with a civilian Secretary-General. It also, like NATO, had a commander-in-chief who was the most senior military figure in it. Each member had to pledge to defend other members if they were attacked.

Whereas the military in NATO was primarily made up of professionals (except for the years when member nations had conscription), the Warsaw Pact very much depended on conscription, whereby young men and women had to serve in their respective country’s military. This reliance on enforcement almost certainly undermined the professional capability of the Warsaw Pact – though its overall military capability was never challenged by NATO as neither side ever fought the other. In the west, the Warsaw Pact was demonised as a massive military monster waiting its chance to attack Western Europe. While this served a useful propaganda purpose, figures acquired by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) tend to undermine this as the Warsaw Pact had fewer of everything when compared to NATO except fighter aircraft and battle tanks.

a circle of latitude that is 38 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. It formed the border between North and South Korea prior to the Korean War.

At this latitude the sun is visible for 14 hours, 48 minutes during the summer solstice and 9 hours, 32 minutes during the winter solstice.

son of a Swiss immigrant, was born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, on 14th September, 1913.

became a secret opponent of Guatemalan dictator, Jorge Ubico. In the 1930s Sam Zemurray aligned United Fruit Company closely with the government of President Jorge Ubico. The company received import duty and real estate tax exemptions from Ubico. He also gave them hundreds of square miles of land. United Fruit controlled more land than any other individual or group. It also owned the railway, the electric utilities, telegraph, and the country's only port at Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic coast.

in August 1953. The CIA armed, funded, and trained a force of 480 men led by Carlos Castillo Armas. The force invaded Guatemala on 18 June 1954, backed by a heavy campaign of psychological warfare, including bombings of Guatemala City and an anti-Árbenz radio station claiming to be genuine news. The invasion force fared poorly militarily, but the psychological warfare and the possibility of a U.S. invasion intimidated the Guatemalan army, which refused to fight. Árbenz resigned on 27 June, and following negotiations in San Salvador, Carlos Castillo Armas became President on 7 July 1954.

one of the few times that the ‘rules’ of the Cold War were nearly forgotten. Berlin, Korea, Hungary and Suez – the ‘rules’ had been followed. But here this broke down and the _____________ was the only time when ‘hot war’ could have broken out. 

the primary leader of India’s independence movement and also the architect of a form of non-violent civil disobedience that would influence the world.

a Vietnamese, Communist-led organization whose forces fought against the Japanese and especially against the French in Indochina: officially in existence 1941–51.

a staunchly anticommunist Vietnamese statesman who refused to ally with Ho Chi Minh after the Franco-Vietnamese War. With the support of the United States government, Diem led South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963, when he was assassinated alongside his brother in a military coup.

consolidated power in Saigon and sought to expel, imprison, or execute those who opposed his regime. With the support of the United States, he refused to hold countrywide elections in 1956 (a stipulation of the 1954 Geneva Accords), fearing--almost certainly correctly--that he would lose to Ho Chi Minh.

 a plan by the governments of South Vietnam and the United States during the Vietnam War to combat the communist insurgency by pacifying the countryside and reducing the influence of the communists among the rural population.

Saw the North Vietnamese change their tactics in their war against the SVA and America. It witnessed a huge conventional attack by the North. Every year on the last day of January, the Vietnamese pay tribute to their ancestors. The _____ New Year is a very important day for the Vietnamese and nearly all-normal day-to-day activities stop to allow those who can the opportunity to celebrate the lives of their ancestors.

In January 1968, the NLF had brought forward Tet by two days. On January 31st 70,000 NLF soldiers attacked over 100 targets, including the capital in the South, Saigon.

The Americans had been fighting classic guerrilla tactics since 1965. Though the US had faced a number of conventional attacks in late 1967, most US military thinking was still oriented around the concept of guerrilla warfare. Therefore the Tet Offensive took them by surprise, especially the sheer scale of it.

an Iranian politician. He was the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 until 1953, when his government was overthrown in a coup d'état orchestrated by the American Central Intelligence Agency and the British Secret Intelligence Service.

An author, administrator, lawyer, and prominent parliamentarian, his administration introduced a range of progressive social and political reforms such as social security, rent control, and land reforms. His government's most notable policy, however, was the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, which had been under British control since 1913 through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC / AIOC) (later British Petroleum and BP).

Many Iranians regard Mosaddegh as the leading champion of secular democracy and resistance to foreign domination in Iran's modern history. Mosaddegh was removed from power in a coup on 19 August 1953, organised and carried out by the CIA at the request of MI6, which chose Iranian General Fazlollah Zahedi to succeed Mosaddegh.[8]

While the coup is commonly referred to in the West as Operation Ajax[9] after its CIA cryptonym, in Iran it is referred to as the 28 Mordad 1332 coup, after its date on the Iranian calendar.[10] Mosaddegh was imprisoned for three years, then put under house arrest until his death and was buried in his own home so as to prevent a political furor.

the king of Iran (Shah of Iran) from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Islamic Revolution on 11 February 1979. He took the title Shāhanshāh ("Emperor" or "King of Kings") on 26 October 1967.

     He was the second and last monarch of the House of Pahlavi of the Iranian monarchy. He held several other titles, including that of Āryāmehr (Light of the Aryans) and Bozorg Arteshtārān (Head of the Warriors).

     He came to power during World War II after an Anglo-Soviet invasion forced the abdication of his father, Reza Shah. During his reign, the Iranian oil industry was briefly nationalized, under the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, until a US and UK-backed coup d'état deposed Mosaddegh and brought back foreign oil firms.  Iran marked the anniversary of 2,500 years of continuous monarchy since the founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great during his reign, at which time he also changed the benchmark of the Iranian calendar from the hegira to the beginning of the Persian Empire, measured from Cyrus the Great's coronation.  

     As ruler, he introduced the White Revolution, a series of economic, social and political reforms with the proclaimed intention of transforming Iran into a global power and modernizing the nation by nationalizing certain industries and granting women suffrage.

A secular Muslim, he gradually lost support from the Shi'a clergy of Iran as well as the working class, particularly due to his strong policy of modernization, secularization, conflict with the traditional class of merchants known as bazaari, relations with Israel, and corruption issues surrounding himself, his family, and the ruling elite. Various additional controversial policies were enacted, including the banning of the communist Tudeh Party, and a general suppression of political dissent by Iran's intelligence agency, SAVAK. According to official statistics, Iran had as many as 2,200 political prisoners in 1978, a number which multiplied rapidly as a result of the revolution.

     Several other factors contributed to strong opposition to the Shah among certain groups within Iran, the most notable of which were United States and UK support for his regime, clashes with Islamists and increased communist activity. By 1979, political unrest had transformed into a revolution which, on 17 January, forced him to leave Iran. Soon thereafter, the Iranian monarchy was formally abolished, and Iran was declared an Islamic republic led by Ruhollah Khomeini. Facing likely execution should he return to Iran, he died in exile in Egypt, whose President, Anwar Sadat, had granted him asylum. Due to his last status as the last de facto Shah of Iran, he is known even outside Iran as simply "the Shah".

an Iranian Shia Muslim religious leader, revolutionary, politician, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Following the revolution, he became the country's Supreme Leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei.