Regional and Global Groups and Organizations - AP World History: Modern

Despite the name of one of Britain's colonies being British Honduras, the nation that is now Honduras was never part of the British Empire. It was part of the Spanish Empire until its independence. British Honduras is actually what is known today as Belize.

Akbar the Great, whose name literally means Great, so Great the Great, was the third ruled of the Mughal empire and expanded it's influence over the majority o the Indian subcontinent and it' cultural importance well beyond the borders of India.

The League of Augsburg was formed in 1689 and consisted of several German states (the country of Germany did not yet exist), Sweden, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and Spain. These countries came together to form the League in order to combine their armies to oppose King Louis XIV of France, who had taken over the city of Strasbourg (a German region) in 1681. The League was determined to keep Louis out of the German and Netherlands regions, despite past concessions and territorial gains that Louis had received by invading these areas in the recent past. The members of the League resolved to make a final stand and stop Louis’s territorial incursions once and for all. Louis’s army and the League’s forces fought each in the Nine Years’ War (1689-1697), with Leopold I, the Hapsburg Emperor, extending support to the League during the final years. By 1697, the League was able to achieve a decisive victory and force Louis out of the Netherlands and the German region for good. These terms were finalized in the Peace of Ryswick, which formally ended the conflict and was especially focused on banning Louis from ever again attempting to invade any German territories.

The concept of a European Balance of Power first emerged in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War. Although it is worth noting it was reinforced by the Napoleonic Wars and was part of the cause for the Crimean War and for World War One. The European Balance of Power essentially states that in order to preserve peace and prosperity on the continent no one power can be allowed to grow more powerful than the other states. At various times France, Germany (and Prussia), Britain, Russia, Austria, and Spain have threatened to upset this balance.

During the 1860s and 1870s, the modern nations of Italy and Germany were established from a historical patchwork of polities, kingdoms, and states. Ethno-nationalism was a large factor in driving the creation of both of these states.

The Great Purge was a series of mass murders of people considered by Joseph Stalin to be threats to his power. The purges eliminated much of the leadership of the Communist Party, as well as many leading military figures. Nikolai Bukharin, a Politburo opponent of Stalin's prior to Stalin's rise to power, was executed in 1938. Mikhail Tukhachevsky was the Marshall General of the Soviet Army until his imprisonment and execution in 1937. Gregory Zinoviev was another member of the Politburo who was executed in 1936.

The Congress of Vienna was held in 1815, shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The purpose of the Congress of Vienna was to try and establish a post-war order in Europe that would preserve peace and address the issues of liberalism and republicanism raised by the French Revolution.

The Congress of Vienna was held in 1815, shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The primary goals of the Congress of Vienna were to restore the balance of power in Europe; and to limit the growth of nationalism and republicanism. The French Revolution was viewed as particularly troublesome by the conservative factions in attendance at the Congress of Vienna. The Bourbon monarchy was restored to the throne in France in one of many attempts to prevent the spread of republicanism and nationalism around the autocratic empires of Europe.

The following delegates were present at the Congress of Vienna: Prince Metternich, representing Austria; Tsar Alexander I, representing Russia; French foreign minister Charles Talleyrand; Prince Karl von Hardenberg, representing Prussia; and British foreign secretary Viscount Castlereagh.

The UN was formed as a result of WWII in an effort for international powers to cooperate and maintain international standards of peace and human rights, and to replace the ineffective League of Nations (which was founded after World War I). It was chartered in 1945. The Red Cross began in the late 19th century, NATO was formed in 1948 as a reaction to the growth of the USSR, and NAFTA was not negotiated until 1994.

Mao did not want China to be a satellite state under Moscow's tutelage; the Sino-Soviet split ensured Chinese independence.

Titoism was the Communist ideology named after Josip Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia, who broke away from Moscow's suzerainty, setting the example for Chinese independence, but not directly part of the process.

Watergate was a political scandal that resulted in President Richard Nixon leaving office. Nixon's administration opened relations with mainland China, but Watergate was an internal American issue that had nothing to do Chinese-Soviet relations.

The Great Leap Forward was a massive reorganizing of the Chinese economy that attempted to industrialize China. It had an effect on China's ability to be independent of the Soviet Union, but was more of an internal policy than external rebalancing of power.

The Cultural Revolution was a Maoist attempt at destroying Mao's perceived enemies within China; it was an internal Chinese policy and was not the process by which China attained independence from the Soviet Union.

Qatar has a ratio of men to women that is higher than 2-to-1. The number one reason for this is business—particularly, the oil industry that brings in migrant workers from all over, mostly male. Between 2011 and 2012, about 75% of the population consisted of migrants from other Middle Eastern countries.

The Federal Supreme Council is the United Arab Emirate's highest governing authority. The Federal Supreme Council deals mostly with foreign affairs, while each of the seven emirates deals with its own internal affairs individually. The UAE has a Constitution that is a little more than four decades old, but the distribution of powers between the federation and each emirate is not clearly defined.

The Federal Supreme Council can not only create but also impose laws. All three branches of government—judiciary, legislative, and executive—are headed by the Federal Supreme Council.

Saudi Arabia is an authoritarian, absolute monarchy. The king in Saudi Arabia is the source of all legislative, executive, and judicial power. He is the ultimate decision maker; the royal family is vested with power.

Political parties are outlawed due to the monarchy's control of government. The throne is not granted by election, but ascension (a prince becoming king).

The Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1922 after World War I, and Turkey was recognized as a republic a year later. The Ottomans are regarded as one of the great empires, arguably peaking in the 1400s with the capturing of the Byzantine empire's capital Constantinople. Turkey established a new Constitution in 1924 and several steps towards secularizing the country were taken.

The United Nations was created on June 26, 1945, in the aftermath of World War II. In its charter it was designed as a bulwark against further global conflict by creating a space of open dialogue between nations. In its founding there were 53 member nations and today that number has grown to 193. Additionally, within the United Nations there are six major components, the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the United Nations Trusteeship Council.

Although the Western Powers and Japan opposed the Bolsheviks during the Russian, one by one they decided to establish relations with the Soviet Union once the Bolshevik victory became clear. Some countries, such as Great Britain, hoped to improve trade with the Soviet Union, while others, such as Germany, established diplomatic relations because they shared mutual resentment of the victorious allies with the Soviet Union. Most countries established relations with the Soviet Union in the 1920s. The United States was an exception, since it did not recognize the Soviet government until 1933. The delay in recognition was partially due to the strong anti-communist movement in the United States, and partially due to Russia's relative unimportance to America as a trade partner.

Israel was reinstated in 1948, shortly after the end of World War II, especially after the need for an independent state for Jews was highlighted by the Holocaust.

Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points were issued in the wake of the First World War and were designed to ensure global peace and prosperity and prevent the outbreak of future global conflicts. His Fourteen Points included all of the aforementioned except the creation of the European Union, which was an idea that emerged in the wake of the atrocities of the Second World War.