The Modern World: Wars, Cold War, and Globalization
Key events, terms, and threads from World War I through globalization and the unit's cumulative review.
Keyboard Shortcuts
💡 Pro tip: Use keyboard shortcuts for faster studying!
Study Smart Tips for The Modern World: Wars, Cold War, and Globalization
Master these concepts using proven study techniques that actually work:
Active Recall
Test yourself before flipping each card to strengthen memory retention
Spaced Repetition
Review difficult cards more frequently than easy ones
Multiple Sessions
Break study time into shorter, focused sessions
Explain Aloud
Verbalize answers to reinforce understanding
Questions Covered in This Set
10 cards to master
What does the acronym M.A.I.N. stand for as causes of World War I?
Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism — the deeper pressures behind WWI, sparked by the assassination in Sarajevo (1914).
What did the Treaty of Versailles (1919) do to Germany?
It assigned Germany blame for the war, imposed heavy reparations, and stripped away territory — humiliation that later helped fascism rise.
Why did fascism gain traction in the 1920s–30s?
Versailles humiliation plus the Great Depression (1929) created openings for leaders like Mussolini, Hitler, and Japanese militarists promising national rebirth through authoritarian rule and conquest.
What was the Holocaust?
The industrialized genocide during WWII of six million Jews, along with Roma, disabled people, and others, carried out by Nazi Germany.
What two institutions emerged after WWII to build guardrails?
The United Nations (1945) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
How did the US and USSR mostly fight the Cold War, and why?
Indirectly — through proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan), coups, an arms race, and a space race — because both had nuclear weapons.
What events ended the Cold War?
Soviet economic stagnation, Eastern European revolts, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
What happened when India won independence in 1947?
Gandhi's nonviolent mass campaigns helped end British rule, but partition into India and Pakistan displaced about 15 million people.
Why was independence often not the same as prosperity for new nations?
Arbitrary colonial borders, economies shaped for extraction, and Cold War meddling made transitions difficult.
What is the historian's balanced view of globalization since 1991?
Hold two truths at once: life expectancy, literacy, and incomes rose for billions, while climate change, pandemics, inequality, migration crises, and new wars grew more serious.
