Study Cold War and Contemporary Europe

Topic: AP European History

cat: Superpowers and Bloc Politics
cat: Contemporary Western Democracies
cat: Rebuilding Europe
cat: Contextualizing Cold War & Contemporary Europe
cat: The Cold War
cat: Post‑war Nationalism & Ethnic Conflict
cat: Continuity & Change
cat: Fall of Communism
cat: Decolonization and EU Formation
cat: Migration & Immigration
cat: Technology, Globalization, Culture
cat: 20th‑Century Feminism
Cold War (1945-1991): A war of words, ideologies, and threats between the United States and the Soviet Union that was marked primarily by a political and economic, rather than military, struggle between the two nations.
Displaced Persons: Postwar refugees, including 13 million Germans, former Nazi prisoners and forced laborers, and orphaned children.
Truman Doctrine: 1947, President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology, mainly helped Greece and Turkey.
Truman Doctrine: 1947, President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology, mainly helped Greece and Turkey.
Marshall Plan (1947): American plan for providing economic aid to western Europe to help it rebuild.
Economic Miracle: Term contemporaries used to describe rapid economic growth, often based on the consumer sector, in post-World War II western Europe.
Christian Democrats: Center-right political parties that rose to power in western Europe after the Second World War.
Common Market (EEC): The European Economic Community, created by six western and central European countries in the West Bloc in 1957 as a part of a larger search for European unity.
Brezhnev Doctrine: Doctrine created by Leonid Brezhnev that held that the Soviet Union had the right to intervene in any East Bloc country when necessary to preserve Communist rule.
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): Military alliance created in 1949 made up of 12 non-Communist countries including the United States that support each other if attacked.
Warsaw Pact (1955): Soviet-backed military alliance of East Bloc Communist countries in Europe
Socialist Realism: Artistic movement that followed the dictates of Communist ideals, enforced by state control in the Soviet Union and East Bloc countries in the 1950s and 1960s.
Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971): Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964. He was a Communist Party official who emerged from the power struggle after Stalin's death in 1953 to lead the USSR. As Soviet premier, he notably renounced Stalin's brutality in 1956, the same year that he crushed a pro-Western uprising in Hungary. In 1958, he issued an ultimatum for Western evacuation People of Berlin, from which he backed down a year later. He defended Soviet-style economic planning in the Kitchen Debate with American Vice President Richard Nixon in 1959, and attempted to send missiles to Cuba in 1962 but backed down when confronted by John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
de-Stalinization: The liberalization of the post-Stalin Soviet Union led by reformer Nikita Khrushchev.
Decolonization: The postwar reversal of Europe's overseas expansion caused by the rising demand of the colonized peoples themselves, the declining power of European nations, and the freedoms promised by U.S. and Soviet ideals.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948): Revolutionary who led India to independence from Great Britain through passive resistance and civil disobedience based upon Henry David Thoreau's doctrines.
nonalignment: Policy of postcolonial governments to remain neutral in the Cold War and play both the United States and the Soviet Union for what they could get.
Neocolonialism: A postcolonial system that perpetuates Western economic exploitation in former colonial territories
Guest Worker Programs: Government-run programs in western Europe designed to recruit labor for the booming postwar economy.
Postcolonial Migration: The postwar movement of people from former colonies and the developing world into Europe.
Detente: The progressive relaxation of Cold War tensions that emerged in the early 1970s
Ostpolitik (1969-1974): German for Chancellor Willy Brandt's new "Eastern policy;" West Germany's attempt in the 1970s to easy diplomatic tensions with East Germany, exemplifying the policies of detente.
Pope John Paul II (1920-2005): This Polish Pope brought the world's attention to the solidarity movement of the Polish, calling for human rights. He became a hero of the Polish nation.
Second Vatican Council (1962-1965): A meeting of Catholic leaders convened from 1962 to 1965 that initiated the number of reforms, including the replacement of Latin with local languages in church services, designed to democratize the church and renew its appeal.
New Left: A 1960s counterculture movement that embraced updated forms of Marxism to challenge both Western capitalism and Soviet-style communism.
1968 Youth Revolts: The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against military and bureaucratic elites, who responded with an escalation of political repression.
Second Wave Feminism: Women's rights movement that revived in the 1960s with a different agenda than earlier women's suffrage movements; second-wave feminists demanded equal rights for women in employment and education, women's right to control their own bodies, and the end of patriarchal domination.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986): (1908-1986) Existentialist and feminist who has written on the psychology and social position of women.
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries): An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the production and sale of petroleum.
Stagflation: Term coined in the early 1980s to describe the combination of low growth and high inflation that led to a worldwide recession.
Postindustrial Society: A society that relies on high-tech and service-oriented jobs for economic growth rather than heavy industry and manufacturing jobs.
Neoliberalism: Philosophy of 1980s conservatives who argued for privatization of state-run industries and decreased government spending on social services.
Privatization: The sale of state-managed industries such as transportation and communication networks to private owners, a key policy of neoliberalism meant to control government spending, increase private profits, and foster economic growth, which was implemented in western Europe in response to the economic crisis of the 1970s.
Thatcherism: The economic policy of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Reduced state economic power and introduced free market and privatization with certain constraints. Deregulated the UK's market.
Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013): British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her "The 'Iron Lady'", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
Third Wave Feminism: Evolved around the late 1980s and into the 1990s; an extension of as well as a response to the shortcomings of the second wave. It became more inclusive of women of diverse ethnicities.
Rachel Carson (1907-1964): United States biologist remembered for her opposition to the use of pesticides that were hazardous to wildlife. The result was the book Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share of people.
Silent Spring (1962): Book written by Rachel Carson, a Marine biologist who warned of the misuse of pesticides and their negative affects on the environment. The book is credited with starting the modern environmental movement.
Green Party (Germany): Began as a movement of radical student groups in Western Germany. Developed into a political party concerned with the environment. Anticapitalist, blamed business and pollution. Avoided violence and mass demonstrations.
Developed Socialism: A term used by Communist leaders to describe the socialist accomplishments of their societies, such as nationalized industry, collective agriculture, and extensive social welfare programs.
Solidarity: Polish trade union created by Catholic Lech Walesa in 1980 to protest working conditions and political repression. It began the nationalist opposition to communist rule that led in 1989 to the fall of communism in eastern Europe.
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022): Head of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. His liberalization effort improved relations with the West, but he lost power after his reforms led to the collapse of Communist governments in eastern Europe.
Perestroika: that involved restructuring of the social and economic status quo in communist Russia towards a market based economy and society
Glasnost: A policy of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev which called for more openness with the nations of West, and a relaxing of restraints and censorship on Soviet citizenry.
Velvet Revolution (1989): The term given to the relatively peaceful overthrow of communism in Czechoslovakia; the label came to signify the collapse of the East Bloc in 1989 to 1990.
Vladimir Putin (1952 - present): Elected president of Russia in 2000, launched reforms aimed at boosting growth and budget revenues and keeping Russia on a strong economic track. Has waged a war against Ukraine 2022 and has faced charges of authoritarianism.
Yugoslavia: This country was created after WWI, uniting ethnicities that spoke similar Slavic languages.
Balkanization (Yugoslavia): Conflicts of nations such as ethnic Serbians, Croatians, etc trying to be independent; results in separation and dividing of states.
allowFeature: saq
allowFeature: dbq
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distribution: 2024, 13.1, 33.3, 25.2, 20.7, 7.7, 83266, 3.23, 71.6
weights:
type: AP Exam
summary: AP European History is a college-level course that examines the political, cultural, economic, and social developments in Europe from around 1450 to the present. Students explore major events and movements such as the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, Industrialization, the World Wars, and the Cold War. The course emphasizes historical thinking skills—like analyzing sources, making historical arguments, and understanding change over time. Through primary documents, essays, and class discussions, students gain a deeper understanding of how Europe shaped—and was shaped by—the modern world. It prepares students to think critically about the past and its influence on today's global issues.
category: Social Sciences
icon: <i class="fa-solid fa-earth-europe" style="color: #ffba24;"></i>