6:29 Decolonization
Latin America, Africa, and Asia Most former colonies still developing nations today Industrializing, experimental govts, coups Urban poor a volatile political force High infant mortality rates Women’s rights added to new constitutions, but limited in practice due to religious/social customs
Latin America After WWII authoritarian rulers held power in many LA nations Peron in Argentina, Vargas in Brazil, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela Liberation theology—combines Catholic beliefs with socialism Mexico signs North American Free Trade Agreement, aka NAFTA (1994) US outsources jobs to Mexico, imports drugs drug cartels—criminal organizations engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping, and execution- style killings
Latin America Women’s roles in LA changed slowly Ecuador, Brazil, Cuba grant women suffrage by 1932 Improvements in health care + cultural attitudes against methods of birth control population boom
Africa Exploitation of resources ethnic conflict gold, diamonds, oil Civil wars in Ghana, Algeria, South Africa Nelson Mandela (1994-1999)—South Africa’s first black leader Health crisis: AIDs-HIV, Ebola, infant mortality rate
Middle East UN creates Israel (1948) Palestine-Israeli conflict Palestinians supported by neighboring countries, Israel supported by NATO Camp David Accords (1979)—peace treaty between Israel and Egypt under Anwar Sadat Palestine Liberation Organization, aka PLO—led by Yasser Arafat, calls for independent nation of Palestine Fatah on the West Bank, Hamas at Gaza
Middle East Arab Spring (2011)—social media movement, overthrew govt of Egypt Iranian Revolution (1979)—est. a theocracy under Ayatollah Khomeini and sharia law Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)—Sunni Iraq vs. Shia Iran, stalemate Iranian nuclear program US sanctions, lifted under Obama (2016) Saddam Hussein (1979-2003)—dictator of Iraq, genocide against Kurds
Middle East War on Terror (2001—present)—US war to destroy terrorist networks Invasion of Afghanistan (2001)—US overthrows Taliban govt and leader bin Laden for 9/11 attacks Iraq War (2003)—no links between Hussein and al-Qaeda found, no weapons of mass destruction
India Assassination of Gandhi (1948), creation of Bangladesh (1971) Women leaders come to prominence through brothers, husbands Indira Gandhi, Corazon Aquino, Benazir Bhutto Emigration of refugees to metropoles— large cities in former empire nations
Cambodia Khmer Rouge—communist guerilla group under leader Pol Pot led a cultural revolution, attacked intellectuals and dissenters 2M dead, mass graves in killing fields Vietnam intervention constitutional monarchy in 1991