IB History

The catastrophic collapse in the value of the German mark in 1923, driven by the Ruhr occupation crisis, which destroyed the savings of much of the German middle class.

The joint invasion of Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel in October-November 1956 following Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal, ending in a political victory for Egypt under international and US-Soviet pressure.

Early legal measures taken by Castro's government banning racial discrimination in employment and public life, though without dismantling deeper structural inequalities.

A nationwide mobilisation in which thousands of young volunteers were sent to teach reading and writing in rural Cuba, reducing illiteracy from around 23.6 percent to around 3.9 percent within a year.

Mass protests by workers and students in Helwan and Cairo in February 1968, triggered by lenient sentences given to military officers blamed for Egypt's defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War.

A Cuban law requiring both spouses to share household and childcare duties equally, intended to promote gender equality within the family alongside women's expanding workforce participation.

Cuba's formal socialist constitution, adopted in 1976, which established the Communist Party as the leading force in society and formalised the structures of one-party rule.

A set of amendments to the Chinese constitution passed by the National People's Congress in March 2018. The most significant change removed the two-term limit on the presidency, allowing Xi Jinping to serve indefinitely. The amendments also enshrined "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" in the constitution, placing Xi alongside Mao Zedong as the only leaders to have their personal ideology written into the founding document during their lifetimes.

The revolutionary organization founded by Fidel Castro in 1955, named after the date of the failed Moncada Barracks attack. It led the guerrilla campaign against Batista from the Sierra Maestra mountains.

A group of Chinese communists trained in Moscow in the 1920s who returned to China with orthodox Soviet ideology. They held early CCP leadership positions but lost power to Mao after repeated strategic failures.

A supporter of the abolition (ending) of slavery and the extension of equal rights to formerly enslaved people.

An Italian electoral law passed in November 1923, named after Baron Giacomo Acerbo who proposed it. It changed Italy's electoral system to give the party or coalition winning at least 25% of the national vote two-thirds of all parliamentary seats. This "majority premium" guaranteed Mussolini's Fascist coalition would dominate parliament after the April 1924 elections, even if many votes were won through fraud and intimidation.

A system in which permanent public agencies use delegated authority and specialist knowledge to implement and enforce government policy.

The package of labour market and welfare reforms introduced by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder between 2003 and 2005. The reforms (including the Hartz IV changes) reduced the duration of unemployment benefits, introduced means-tested support for the long-term unemployed, deregulated part-time and temporary work, and reformed job centres. They were politically costly for Schroeder but contributed to a major fall in German unemployment over the following decade.

Agent Orange was a herbicide and defoliant used by the US military during the Vietnam War to destroy jungle cover and crops. It was sprayed over approximately 10% of South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 under Operation Ranch Hand. Agent Orange contained dioxin, a highly toxic chemical compound linked to cancer, birth defects, and other severe health conditions in both Vietnamese civilians and US veterans exposed to it.

Legislation passed in 1952 that limited land ownership to 200 feddans per person and redistributed excess land to landless peasants. It broke the power of the old landowning class and was central to Nasser's social reforms.

The successive stages of collectivisation in rural China between 1952 and 1958. The first stage (Mutual Aid Teams) involved shared tools and labour; the second (Lower APCs) partially pooled land ownership; the third (Higher APCs) fully pooled land into collective farms. By 1956, virtually all of China's rural population had been collectivised into Higher APCs. The APCs were then merged into the larger People's Communes during the Great Leap Forward in 1958.

A principle of non-violence rooted in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions. Gandhi made it central to the Indian independence movement, arguing that non-violence was not passive but required active courage. It meant refusing to cause harm to any living being, even in the face of provocation.

A territorial dispute between Finland and Sweden over the Aland Islands, an archipelago in the Baltic Sea between the two countries. Both Finland and Sweden claimed sovereignty; the Swedish-speaking islanders wanted union with Sweden. The League of Nations was asked to rule on the dispute, one of its earliest test cases. In 1921, the League awarded sovereignty to Finland but protected Swedish cultural rights and demilitarized the islands. Both parties accepted the ruling. The case was cited as an early success of the League, demonstrating that it could resolve disputes peacefully when great powers were not directly involved.

A mass organisation established by the CCP in 1949 to mobilise women in support of CCP policies and to promote women's rights within the framework of socialist construction. The Federation campaigned for implementation of the Marriage Law, ran literacy programs for women, and recruited women into the workforce. It served simultaneously as a vehicle for genuine women's empowerment and as a CCP-controlled organisation that constrained independent feminist activism.

A US foreign aid programme launched by President Kennedy in 1961, pledging $20 billion over ten years to promote economic development, social reform and democratic governance in Latin America. It aimed to reduce the appeal of communism by addressing poverty and inequality, but achieved limited results due to political conditions attached to aid and entrenched structural problems.

The formal participation of the United States in the First World War from April 1917, supported by military deployment, industrial mobilization, finance, shipping, and an expanded federal state.

Troops who attack land-based defences from a body of water. The D-Day landings at Normandy in June 1944 were the largest amphibious operation in history, involving 170,000 soldiers, 2,500 naval craft, and 4,000 landing craft.

The annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938, uniting the two countries in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.