Loading subject…
Autonomy
Freedom to govern independently without central oversight.
Cold War in Asia
Period of ideological rivalry after 1949, shaped by Communist China’s emergence.
Collectivisation
The policy of consolidating individual landholdings and labour into collective farms, implemented most notably by Stalin in the Soviet Union from 1929, often through coercion and force.
Collectivism
A business and social philosophy where the emphasis is on the collective (the company or work group) over the individual
Communism
Political system where the state controls the economy and promotes equality.
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) was a campaign launched by Mao Zedong to enforce communist ideology by removing perceived counter-revolutionaries and challenging traditional authority in China.
It caused widespread social upheaval, with students and youth groups (Red Guards) attacking intellectuals, destroying cultural heritage, and disrupting education and industry.
Détente
Détente was a period during the Cold War in the 1970s when the USA and USSR sought to reduce tensions and improve relations through diplomacy, arms control, and trade agreements.
It included initiatives such as the SALT treaties, increased cultural exchanges, and efforts to avoid direct military confrontation between the superpowers.
Détente
The easing of strained relations between nations through negotiation and diplomacy.
Factionalism
The division of a political movement, party, or government into competing groups or factions, each pursuing its own interests or ideology.
Five-Year Plans
Economic programs aimed at industrial and agricultural development through state-led planning.
Great Leap Forward
Campaign aimed at rapid modernization that instead caused severe famine and economic failure.
Infrastructure
The fundamental physical and organizational structures, such as transportation, communication, and energy systems, needed for a society’s economy to function effectively.
Land Reform
Government redistribution of agricultural land from large landowners to peasant farmers, often involving confiscation and political mobilisation of the rural population.
Little Red Book
Collection of Mao’s quotations used during the Cultural Revolution to promote ideological unity.
Lysenkoism
A pseudoscientific agricultural theory promoted by Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko, rejecting genetics in favour of environmental conditioning of crops, adopted in Maoist China with disastrous consequences for food production.
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a group of countries that chose not to formally align with either the United States or the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Nuclear parity
A situation in which two rival powers possess roughly equal nuclear arsenals in terms of quantity and destructive capability, meaning neither side holds a decisive strategic advantage.
Peaceful Coexistence
The Peaceful Coexistence policy, promoted by Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s, aimed for the USSR and USA to compete economically and ideologically without resorting to direct military conflict.
It encouraged diplomatic engagement, trade, and cultural exchanges while accepting the existence of capitalist and communist systems side by side.
People's Communes
Large-scale collective units introduced during the Great Leap Forward that merged agricultural cooperatives, combining farming, industry, education, and militia functions under a single administrative body.
Rapprochement
The re-establishment of friendly relations between two countries or groups that were formerly in conflict
Realpolitik
Political realism or practical politics, especially policy based on power rather than on ideals.
Red Guards
Youth groups mobilized by Mao to enforce revolutionary ideology and attack perceived enemies.
Revisionism
Term used by Mao to describe policies that weakened revolutionary ideology.
Third Front
A massive industrialisation programme launched in 1964 to relocate strategic industries to remote inland provinces of China, motivated by fears of foreign invasion and nuclear attack.