9.7 Flashcards
(43 cards)
Germany Restored
- after germany was united, chancellor helmut kohl’s party (christian democrats) won the election
- now that germany was united, they realized that they need a lot of money to re civilize eastern germany
- the government raised taxes which brought unemployment and severe discontent
- also the stasi (secret police) files were opened
- germans had to reduce their debt, the government threatened to cut back on the social benefits west germans had been accustomed to. this was the beginning of resentment
- then to take out their frustrations, helmut kohl lost in his elections
Post-thatcher Britain
- thatcher wanted to replace local property taxes with inflatable tax payable by every adult to an local authority.
- people got mad and thatcher’s popularity fell and she resigned
- tony blair (labour party) was elected
- he formed an international coalition against terrorism, but his popularity plummeted when he supported the US war in iraq
Tony Blair
-he formed an international coalition against terrorism, but his popularity plummeted when he supported the US war in iraq
France: an move to the right
- socialists party lost support, and they moved to the RIGHT
- the economy was horrible, there was unemployment, people were mad about foreign-born residents (from north africa )
- the prime minister advocated restrictions on all new immigration, but this caused a riot (muslims)
- the government’s promised to adopt measures to respond to these complaints, but didn’t really
Corruption in Italy
- many were disgusted with political corruption
- the voters gave control of the government to the center-left coalition that included communists
EU (european union)
- they had 15 members
- they were an economic union, not a political one
- they wanted to create a monetary union (maastricht treaty) and common currency (euro)
- they were an united internal market, thereby eliminated barriers to exchange of etc….
Maastricht treaty
-represented an attempt to create an true economic and monetary union of all EC members
Goals of EU
- they created a common agricultural policy (enable farmers to sell their goods on the world market)
- they provided aid to poor regions of EU
- they were less successful in setting common foreign policy goals and an uniform policy
- they did create an military force (peaceful conflict resolution)
- they created an full time presidential post and new voting system
Problems in the EU
- some opposed it because the official representatives of the EU are not democratically accountable to the people
- many europeans don’t see themselves as europeans, but remain committed to an national identity
EU: toward a united europe
- they wanted to incorporate the states of eastern and southeastern europe
- to make sure that the EU won’t become weak, EU members decided to focus on demonstrating a commitment both to market capitalism and to democracy (rule of law AND respect for minorities and human rights)
- they added 12 new members
The end of the Cold War
- gorbachev wanted to limit the arms and wanted to eliminate the nuclear weapons
- also in the 1989s and 1990s, the soviet union refused to help communists governments that had revolts, leading to the overthrow of communist regimes
- the unification of germany was another symbol of the end of the cold war
- the persian gulf war tested this new relationship (iraq invade kuwait and US crush them while soviets played a minor role)
- many people were optimistic, but many ideological rigides that were in check by the soviets were released and caused chaos (yugoslavia)
A Age of terrorism
- leftwing groups wanted to overthrow the system of capitalism
- right winged wanted to bring an authoritarian regime
- they stemmed from militant nationalist who wished to create separatist states
- international terrorism was big
- there was also state-sponsored terrorism
911
- international terrorism
- Al qaeda, run by osama bin laden
- he was under the protection of afghanistan’s fundamentalist islamic rulers known as the taliban
war in Afghanistan
bush led a war on terrorism (al qaeda)
- NATO and US bombed taliban centers and forces in afghanistan helped them
- they control most of the country
- an different government was created, but there were still problems since the taliban restarted their activity
War in Iraq
- Bush wanted to invade and remove the iraqi dictator
- this caused many arab leaders to become upset and fanned anti-american sentiment
- the iraqi army was defeated
- they wanted to create an iraqi government that could hold free elections and create an democracy
- but this was difficult between of differences between three major groups (shi’ite muslims, sunni muslims and ethnic kurds)
The west and Islam
- muslims didn’t like the west because…
- they supported the israelian in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- US were blamed for corruption of iranian society
- during the persian gulf war, US were stationed in saudi arabia where there were many sacred sites (affront to islam)
- US attacked iran (anti-american)
Transformation in Women’s lives
- population stopped growing, birth rate declined
- number of women in workforce rose and women were entering new employment areas
- however, women still receive lower wages and found fewer opportunities for advancement
Women’s movement
- women thought that they must transformation the fundamental conditions of their lives
- they formed “consciousness raising” groups
- they sought and gained a measure of control over their own bodies and insisted they had an right to both contraception and abortion
- women were involved in new issues
- they allied with the anti-nuclear movement and ecological movement
- they reached out throughout international conferences
Guest Workers
- there was a shortage of labor, which brought in foreign workers
- turks, eastern and southern europeans,, caribbean, indian, pakistani
- they had low wages and inferior social benefits
- there were tensions with local native populations
- they continued to stay and bring their families
- europeans passed legislations or took other measures to restrict new immigration
Immigrants
- there was an influx of refugees in the 1980s (especially to west germany)
- they seek asylum
- this made some people mad because they opposed making their countries idverse
- this was supported by right winged political parties
- the social services of countries were strained
- countries started to change their policies on immigrants (some religious (france))
varieties of religious life
- church attendance declined
- however fundamentalist churches grew
- fundamentalist wanted to maintain a strict traditional interpretation of the bible and christian faith
the growth of islam
islamic fundamentalism
-islam is growing in europe and US because of the migration of people from muslim countries
islamic fundamentalism
-return to traditional islamic values especially after the western ideas and practices corrupted their ideas
pope john Paul II
- originally karol wojtyla
- archbishop of krakow in POLAND
- reassert traditional catholic teachings
- he traveled around the world to help strengthen the church
- he believed in social justice
- helped remind people of the need to focus on spiritual concerns instead of materialism