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Glossary Terms
| Term (EN) | Definition | Exam Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Archduke Franz Ferdinand | Heir to Austro-Hungarian throne; assassinated in Sarajevo 28 Jun 1914 — immediate trigger of WWI | WWI causes 2/5-mark |
| War Guilt Clause | Article 231 of Treaty of Versailles — assigned sole responsibility for WWI to Germany | Versailles 5-mark |
| Reparations | Compensation payments imposed on defeated nations; Germany's 132 billion gold marks under Versailles | Versailles/WWII causes |
| Blitzkrieg | Germany's "lightning war" — rapid combined-arms offensive using tanks, aircraft, motorised infantry to overwhelm opponents | WWII tactics 2-mark |
| Holocaust | Nazi Germany's systematic murder of 6 million Jews and 5–6 million others in extermination camps 1941–45 | WWII impact 5/10-mark |
| Iron Curtain | Churchill's 1946 metaphor for the division of Europe into democratic West and communist East | Cold War origins 2/5-mark |
| Containment | George Kennan's strategy (1946–47) that the US should resist Soviet expansion wherever it occurred — cornerstone of Cold War policy | Cold War 5-mark |
| Truman Doctrine | March 1947 US policy committing support to free peoples resisting communist subjugation; first applied to Greece and Turkey | Cold War origins 2/5-mark |
| Marshall Plan | US $13 billion European Recovery Programme (1948–52) to rebuild Western European economies after WWII | Cold War/economic 5-mark |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization — US-led Western military alliance formed 4 April 1949; collective defence under Article 5 | Cold War blocs 2/5-mark |
| Warsaw Pact | Soviet-led Eastern military alliance formed 14 May 1955 as counter to NATO; dissolved 1991 | Cold War blocs 2/5-mark |
| MAD | Mutual Assured Destruction — nuclear deterrence doctrine where both superpowers maintained retaliatory capacity ensuring no "winning" nuclear war | Arms race 5/10-mark |
| Proxy War | Conflict where two rival powers support opposing sides without directly fighting each other; Cold War mechanism: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan | Cold War 5/10-mark |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | October 1962 superpower standoff over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba; closest Cold War came to nuclear war | Cold War crisis 5/10-mark |
| Non-Aligned Movement | Organisation of newly independent nations (Belgrade 1961) refusing alignment with either Cold War bloc; co-founded by Nehru, Tito, Nasser | NAM 5/10-mark |
| Panchsheel | Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference, equality, peaceful coexistence — signed India-China 1954 | NAM/India 5-mark |
| Détente | Easing of Cold War tensions in the 1970s; SALT I (1972), Nixon-China visit, Helsinki Accords (1975); collapsed after Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979) | Cold War 5/10-mark |
| Glasnost | Gorbachev's 1985–87 policy of openness — press freedom, political transparency, release of prisoners; part of the reforms that ended the Cold War | Cold War end 2/5-mark |
| Perestroika | Gorbachev's 1985–87 economic restructuring — decentralisation, limited markets, reduced state monopoly; weakened the Soviet system | Cold War end 2/5-mark |
| Nuremberg Trials | First international war crimes tribunal (1945–46); 24 Nazi leaders tried; established precedent of individual accountability for crimes against humanity | WWII legacy 5/10-mark |
| Appeasement | British-French policy of making concessions to Hitler (Rhineland 1936, Austria 1938, Munich 1938) to avoid war — ultimately failed | WWII causes 2/5-mark |
| D-Day (Operation Overlord) | 6 June 1944 Allied amphibious assault on Normandy beaches; largest ever; 156,000 troops on Day 1; opened Western Front | WWII turning points |
| SALT | Strategic Arms Limitation Talks; SALT I (1972) first agreement to cap nuclear arsenals; part of détente | Arms race/détente 5-mark |
| NPT | Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (signed 1968, in force 1970); 190+ signatories; India, Pakistan, Israel not signatories | Arms control 2/5-mark |
| Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact | Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (23 August 1939); secretly divided Eastern Europe; allowed Hitler to invade Poland without Soviet intervention | WWII immediate cause |