Chapter 29
The Contemporary Western World (since 1970)
The New Europe
1. The Soviet Union broke up into its fifteen constituent republics in December 1991. The new states included Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia,
Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
They are loosely joined in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Independence unleashed many of the people's frustrations which have
turned some states such as Georgia and Azerbaijan into war zones. In Russia, Chechnya became involved in a brutal war as it tried to secede
and create its own independent republic.
2. The unification of Germany in 1990 became a possibility when the Soviet Union declared it would no longer support the leaders of the East
German Communist Party following popular demonstrations opposing the communists.
3. Czechoslovakia peacefully divided itself into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993, when the Czechs and Slovaks could not
agree on the makeup of the new state.
4. Yugoslavia fell into violent civil war in 1991 (see Acetate 96, Map 29.2).
5. In 1988, demonstrations forced the military government in Poland to agree to free parliamentary elections. This was followed in December
1990 with the free election of a president, Lech Walesa, the leader of Solidarity.
6. The people of Hungary rejected communism in March 1990 with elections which committed the nation to democratic government and a free
market economy.
7. The iron rule of Nicolae Ceausecu and his wife in Romania was brought to an end in 1989 following his plan for rapid urbanization which
featured the bulldozing of entire villages.
8. Although Bulgaria experienced elections in 1991 which brought a new government coalition, the Socialist Party (the former Communists)
remains a potent political force.
9. Albania experienced the consequence of the 1989 upheavals when antigovernment demonstrations in 1990 led to promises of reform. In
March 1991 free elections were held though unrest still continues.
Questions:
1. Why did the breakup of the Soviet Union have an impact on the restructuring of Europe?
2. What is the consequence of the creation of several new nations for Europe, especially the former Soviet states?
The New Europe
 From Cold War to Post-Cold War: Toward a New World Order
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Détente
 Missile treaties
 Helsinki Agreements
 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 1979
 Olympic boycott by the United States, 1980
 Ronald Reagan’s “evil empire”
The End of the Cold War
 Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931)
 “New thinking”
 Autonomy for Communist regimes in Eastern Europe
 Gulf War
 Toward a New Western Order
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Revolutionary change in the Soviet Union, 1964-1982
 Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982)
 Brezhnev Doctrine –right to intervene if socialism
threatened
 Emphasis on heavy industry
 Agricultural problems
 Ruling system based on patronage
 Gorbachev Era
 Perestroika (restructuring)
 Glasnost
 Political reforms
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Call for a new Soviet parliament, 1988
 Congress of People’s Deputies elected 1989
1988-1990 nationalist movements erupt
 Lithuania declares independence, 1990; rejected by the
Congress
Gorbachev arrested, August 19, 1991; coup fails
Ukraine votes for independence, December 1991, others
follow
December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigns and turns power over
to Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia
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Eastern Europe: The Collapse of the Communist Order
 Poland
 Solidarity
 General Wojciech Jaruzelski outlaws Solidarity,
December 1981
 Free parliamentary elections, 1988
 President freely elected by the populace, April 1990
 Hungary
 Elections, March 1990
 Czechoslovakia
 Charter 77
 Communist government collapses, December 1989
 Czechoslovakia splits into the Czech Republic and
Slovakia, January 1, 1993
 Romania
 Nicolae Ceausescu (1918-1989)
 Bulldozing of villages
 Bulgaria
 Albania
The Lands of Former Yugoslavia
1. After World War II Yugoslavia was led by Marshal Tito (Josip Broz) who pulled together by force of personality the various ethnic groups of the
nation (see Acetate 79, Map 24.3B). His death in 1980 began a decade of instability that blossomed into full civil war. In 1990 non-Communists
won elections in the republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia leading to calls for a new federal structure for
Yugoslavia. Negotiations failed and in June 1991 Slovenia and Croatia declared independence. Serbia, determined to maintain a united
Yugoslavian state that it could dominate, moved against Croatia in September when Croatian Serbs demanded safeguards against
discrimination. Serbian forces, including irregulars, soon captured one-third of Croatia's territory.
2. Serbian nationalism was very dangerous because Slobodan Milosevic, leader of the Serbian Communist Party, rejected independence of the
republics without new borders to accommodate Serbian minorities who did not wish to live outside the boundaries of a Greater Serbian state.
Serbs constituted 11.6 percent of Croatia and 32 percent of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1981.
3. In 1992 Croatia and Serbia decided to divide Bosnia-Herzegovina. Muslims of Bosnia were a particular target as Serbia pursued a policy of
"ethnic cleansing." Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, became a war zone. The war has become less for territory and more of
religion and ethnicity. By mid-1993, Serbian forces had acquired seventy percent of Bosnia and by 1995 there were about 250,000 Bosnians
dead (mostly civilians) while two million were left homeless. NATO agreed to send 60,000 troops (20,000 American) to act as a peace keeping
force.
4. A formal peace treaty based upon the peace negotiations at Dayton, Ohio, was signed in Paris on December 14, 1995. The agreement split
Bosnia into a loose union of the Serb Republic (with 49 percent of land) and the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (with
51 percent of the land). A force of 60,000 troops from NATO has been assigned to monitor the frontier between the new political entities.
5. In 1999 the ethnic cleansing and destruction was repeated in Kosovo where a Kosovar rebellion had begun. NATO responded to atrocities
with a bombing campaign aimed at bringing down Milosevic. The bombing campaign ended in June 1999 with an agreement for NATO troops to
act as peace keepers (Russia also sent troops).
Questions:
1. How did the collapse of the Soviet Union contribute to the problems of the former Yugoslavia?
2. What is the purpose of "ethnic cleansing"?
The Lands of Former Yugoslavia
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Reunification of Germany
 Unrest due to economic problems
 Communist government falls, November 1989
 Economies of West and East Germany united, July 1, 1990
 Politically unified, October 2, 1990
Yugoslavia
 Death of Tito in 1980
 Divisions between Slovenes and Serbians
 Non-communist parties win elections in Slovenia,
Coatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia and call
for federalist structure, 1990
 Slbodan Milosevic rejects these efforts without new
border arrangements to accommodate Serb minorities
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After the Fall
 Virtually no experience with democratic systems
 Rapid conversion to market economies
Western Europe: The Winds of Change
 Economic recessions, 1973-1974 and 1979-1983
 Increase in the price of oil
 Unemployment
 Integration of economies –European Economic
Community
 Treaty on European Union (Maastricht Treaty)
 European Community became the European Union, 1994
 Decline of communist parties
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From West Germany to Germany
 Willy Brandt (1913-1992), 1969-1974
 Ostpolitik
 Rise of neo-Nazis
 Problems of union
Great Britain: Thatcher and Thatcherism
 Conservatives gain political power, 1979
 Political changes of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (b.
1925)
 Broke power of the labor unions
 Austerity to control inflation
 Hard line toward communism
 Rebuilds the military
 Falklands War, 1982
Anti-tax riots force Thatcher to resign, November
1990
Uncertainties in France
 François Mitterand (1916-1995) , 1981-1995
 Socialistic policies
 Unemployment
 Reforms
 Nationalization
 Economic weaknesses of the 1990s
Confusion in Italy
 Economic crisis, 1970s
 Political problems
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 United States: Domestic Turmoil
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Shift to the Right
 Richard Nixon (1913-1994) elected in 1968
 Visits China, 1972
 Ends Vietnam war, 1973
 Resignation, August 9, 1974
 Jimmy Carter (b. 1924), 1976-1980
 Stagflation – high inflation and unemployment
 Oil embargo, 1973
 53 hostages held by Iran
 Ronald Reagan (b. 1911), 1981-1989
 Reverses the welfare state
 Military buildup
 Supply-side economics
 George Bush (b. 1924), 1989-1993
 Economic downturn
 William Clinton elected 1992
 The Development of Canada
 New Directions and New Problems in Western Society
 Transformation in Women’s Lives
 Decline of the birthrate
 Women in the workforce
 Women’s Movement
 Abortion
 Women’s studies
 Ecology
 International women’s conferences
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The Growth of Terrorism
 Left and right wing terrorist groups
 Militant nationalism
 International terrorism
Guest Workers and Immigrants
 Need for labor in the 1950s and 1960s
 Unemployment rises in 1970s
 Non white foreigners
The Environment and the Green Movements
 Environmentalism
 Green parties
 The World of Western Culture
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Recent Trends in Art, Music, and Literature
 Abstractionism and Abstract Expressionism
 Pop Art
 Postmodern
 Serialism
 Theater of the Absurd
Philosophical Dilemma: Existentialism
 Reflects the anxieties of the twentieth century
 Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
 Albert Camus (1913-1960)
 Absence of God
 Hope in ones self
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Revival of Religion
 Karl Barth (1886-1968)
 Karl Rahner (1904-1984)
 Pope John XXIII, 1958-1963
 Pope John Paul II, 1978The New World of Science and Technology
 Military-Industrial Complex
 Space race
 Transistor
 Computers
 E.F. Schumacher (1911-1977), Small is Beautiful
Explosion of Popular Culture
 Support of the economic system
 Popular Culture and the Americanization of the World
 Motion pictures
 Television
 Popular music
 Experimentation in rock and role
 Growth of Mass Sports
 Olympics
 Popular Culture: Toward a New Globalism
 Toward a Global Civilization?
 Problems are global not just national
 Nongovernmental organizations
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