Important Names

Question 1

Nigerian military ruler from 1976 to 1979 and two-time elected president from 1999-2007. He held respect for the rule of law while in power, advocated for the restoration of civilian rule, and created the Second Republic.

Answer 1

Olusegun Obasanjo

Question 2

Former military leader in Nigeria and current democratically elected leader of Nigeria since 2015. “Corrupt democracy is worse than no democracy”

Answer 2

Muhammedu Buhari

Question 3

oppressive Nigerian military dictator from 1993-1996 who came to power in a military coup. Violence as a means of public control.

Answer 3

Sani Abacha

Question 4

Military ruler of Nigeria from 1985-1993 who sought to establish the failed Third Republic. Implemented a neoliberal structural-adjustment program that made cuts in public spending and worsened life quality.

Answer 4

Ibrahim Babangida

Question 5

Noted Nigerian playwright and environmentalist that was executed in 1995 for his defense of the land and peoples of the Niger Delta by Abacha.

Answer 5

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Question 6

president of Nigeria from 2010-2015. His reelection angered many Nigerians, who viewed it as violation of the zoning system because a president from the north should have gotten two terms, and he is from the south.

Answer 6

Goodluck Jonathan

Question 7

Monarch of Iran from 1925-1941. Thought of as a British puppet dictator. He centralized the military and limited British and Soviet interference. He was interested in Westernization and state building.

Answer 7

Reza Khan/Rezah Shah Pahlavi

Question 8

Rezah Shah Pahlavi’s son, and the monarch of Iran from 1941-1979. He mostly supported his father’s policies and enacted the White Revolution in 1963 to modernize and Westernize Iran (privatization of enterprises, land reform, literacy)

Answer 8

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Question 9

Prime minister of Iran from 1951-1953, deposed in 1953 by operation ajax. Represented a republican party called the National Front, who were interested in reducing the power of the monarchy or eliminating it altogether. Worked towards modernization and national sovereignty

Answer 9

Mohammad Mosaddeq

Question 10

an ayatollah who openly opposed the shah and gained support and became a figurehead for criticism of Pahlavi. He became the first supreme leader because of his book outlining velayat-e faqih.

Answer 10

Ayatollah KhOmeini

Question 11

Iraq’s authoritarian leader who started the Iran-Iraq war.

Answer 11

Saddam Hussein

Question 12

supreme leader of Iran from 1989-current.

Answer 12

Ayatollah KhAmenei

Question 13

conservative president of Iran elected in 2005. Tried to improve relations with the West.

Answer 13

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Question 14

president of iran since 2013, promised to improve relations with the West and advance social reforms.

Answer 14

Hassan Rouhani

Question 15

Mexico’s president from 2012-2018. First president from the PRI to be elected since the fall of the PRI. He further opened Mexico’s economy, reformed the oil sector, and broke apart monopolies. He failed to improve transparency, empower the judiciary, and reduce corruption.

Answer 15

Enrique Peña Nieto

Question 16

Took power after Peña Nieto in 2018. He was a controversial, leftist president who created the party MORENA

Answer 16

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Question 17

Mexico’s first great caudillo, who dominated its politics for three decades during the nineteenth century

Answer 17

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

Question 18

Mexican dictator who ruled from 1876-1910. He was deposed by the Mexican revolution. He initially backed liberalist reforms, but then embraced conservative ideals of elitist support.

Answer 18

Porfirio Diaz

Question 19

Southern Mexican peasant leader of the revolution most associated with major land reform

Answer 19

Emiliano Zapata

Question 20

Northern Mexican peasant leader of the revolution who, together with Emiliano Zapata, advocated a more radical socioeconomic approach

Answer 20

Pancho Villa

Question 21

Mexico’s president from 2000-2006 and the first non-PRI president in more than seven decades

Answer 21

Vicente Fox

Question 22

One of the first democratically elected Mexican presidents. More pluralistic and competitive regime. Focused a lot on getting rid of drug cartels.

Answer 22

Felipe Calderon

Question 23

1934-1940. He advocated for economic nationalism and implemented land reform called for in the Constitution of 1917.
Strengthened the state by nationalizing the oil industry

Answer 23

President Lázaro Cárdenas

Question 24

Russian revolutionary who led the 1917 Russian revolution and headed the Soviet Union from 1917-1924

Answer 24

Lenin

Question 25

Succeeded Lenin as head of the soviet union until his death in 1953. Established totalitarian rule + mass famine ensued. His power was solidified with a cult of personality.

Answer 25

Stalin

Question 26

took office in 1953 after Stalin’s death. He tried to reform but was forced from his position by the Politburo.

Answer 26

Khrushchev

Question 27

After Krushchev. He supported the nomenklatura and rejected reform. Economic growth slowed and corruption was prominent.

Answer 27

Brezhnev

Question 28

became general security in 1985 with his reform ideas called glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring). Yeltsin led a coup d’etat against him, but it collapsed, but Gorbachev’s political authority was ruined and his party got banned, so it lowkey worked anyway.

Answer 28

Gorbachev

Question 29

president of russia from 1991-1999. He led a failed coup d’etat against Gorbachev and banned the Communist party, effectively destroying Gorbachev’s political base and the USSR. He named Putin president in 1999.

Answer 29

Yeltsin

Question 30

current president (dictator) of russia as of 2012, also president of russia from 1999-2008 and prime minister from 2008-2012.

Answer 30

Putin

Question 31

political activist who has been detained repeatedly for his opposition to Putin and United Russia

Answer 31

Alexei Navalny

Question 32

Oligarch arrested and imprisoned for his opposition to Putin

Answer 32

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Question 33

China’s current paramount leader serving simultaneously as the head of the party (congress of the communist party), head of state (people’s republic of china), and head of military (central military commission).

Answer 33

Xi Jiping

Question 34

Founder of the People's Republic of China and leader of the Chinese communist revolution, dominating politics in China from the start of the PRC until his death in 1979. He built an army for the revolution out of the peasant class.

Answer 34

Mao Zedong

Question 35

China’s paramount leader that came after Mao Zedong. He introduced “reform and opening” that grew the economy and boosted the wellbeing of the population. He also kept the authoritarian regime in place and maintained the one-party rule of the CCP

Answer 35

Deng Xiaoping

Question 36

leader of the Labour party 2015-2020. He is a left wing socialist who is loved by party loyalists but disliked by MPs in his own party.

Answer 36

Jeremy Corbin

Question 37

Scottish national party (SNP) leader who brought a lot of publicity and popular support to the party. He also launched the Brexit Party in 2019. Both of these capitalized on “Europhobia” or “Euroscepticism”

Answer 37

Nigel Farage

Question 38

conservative prime minister from 1979-1990. She was the first leader to experiment with neoliberal economic policies in an attempt to stem economic decline. Pledged to diminish government’s role in the economy. Lowered taxes, cut govt spending. Laissez-faire policies.

Answer 38

Margaret Thatcher

Question 39

Labor Party prime minister from 1997-2007. Sought to soften some of the harder edges of Thatcher’s neoliberalism through the Third Way, but still embraced her policies. Balanced popular progressive reforms with policies of devolution and continued limits on social expenditures

Answer 39

Tony Blair

Question 40

conservative prime minister from 2010-2016, resigned following Brexit, which he stood against. The conservatives formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, calling for fairness, freedom, and responsibility. Devolution of state sovereignty

Answer 40

David Cameron

Question 41

conservative prime minister who was instrumental in the UK’s departure from the EU. He was the “Brexiteer”

Answer 41

Boris Johnson