5 Steps to a 5 AP World History, 2014-2015 Edition

KEY IDEA

h 237

CHAPTER

27 End of the Cold War and Nationalist Movements

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary:By the late 1980s, economic setbacks in the Soviet Union were

producing social unrest. Worldwide nationalist movements were weakening

the hold of communist regimes upon their people. The fall of the Berlin Wall

in 1989 precipitated the end of other communist governments, culminating

in the overthrow of communist governments in the Soviet Union. As former

Soviet republics declared their independence, democratic move ments

continued throughout the world, especially in Latin America and Africa.

The end of communism in the Soviet Union saw the emergence of a single

superpower: the United States.

Key Terms

Al-Qaeda* Persian Gulf War*

cartels* World Bank*

International Monetary Fund*

The Breakup of the Soviet Union

While Gorbachev was instituting reforms to save the Soviet Empire, the small nations of

Eastern Europe were steadily moving toward independence. In 1988, Poland inaugurated

a noncommunist government. In 1989, the people of Berlin dismantled the Berlin Wall; by

the end of 1990, the two Germanys were reunited. Czechoslovakia ended its communist

government in 1989; it later peacefully separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

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