Blog

The most influential figure relating to Latin American Populism was the Argentine President, [BLANK-1]. He came to power in 1946, buoyed by support from unions and his immensely popular, former-film star wife, Evita. In the economic atmosphere of the post-war world, his populist economic policies led to massive growth in Argentina. The government would buy agricultural crops from farmers and re-sell the crops globally. The profits would then be re-invested in industry and wage increases for workers. These policies performed very well in the immediate aftermath of WWII, as Europe’s agricultural industry was in shambles. Once the global agricultural economy recovered, this Argentine populist approach did not work and the economy began to stagnate. When the president’s popular wife died of cancer in 1952, many people became resentful of his rule. He was forced out of office and exiled by a military coup in 1955. The new government spent much of their efforts trying to erase his legacy, but he remained the most popular politician in the country. In 1973, the military junta recognized that their defamatory efforts had failed and the former president was invited back into the country. He won re-election three decades after he had first been elected and his new wife, Isabelita, ran as his vice-president. He died soon after taking office and his inexperienced wife became Argentina’s first female president.

Boris Yeltsin’s hand-picked successor as president of Russia (and current Russian President) was [BLANK-1]. This Russian president reversed many of the democratic reforms that had occurred in Russia under Yeltsin. Russia became increasingly illiberal, less democratic, and more authoritarian during his rule. He curtailed media freedoms and abolished any distinction between judicial and executive authority, consolidating power around himself and his closest advisers. He has continued to extend Russian power into places such as Ukraine, Georgia, Chechnya, and Crimea – proving to be the largest threat to national sovereignty in Europe since the fall of communism (and perhaps, since WWII). A former KGB agent, this Russian president excels in the use of misinformation and works to sow division among western democratic societies (such as with the use of Russian troll farms). His administration actively worked to interfere in multiple western elections (including the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and the 2016 British “Brexit” Election).

European powers continued to expand their colonial empires during and after World War I. Nationalists in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia were disappointed to find that their hopes for independent nations following WWI would not be supported by victorious European powers: France and Great Britain. Palestine in the Middle East was particularly affected. [BLANK-1], named for the British foreign secretary, was an official British policy statement issued in 1917 that supported the idea of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Against the wishes of the Muslim Palestinians, Britain supported the immigration of Jewish immigrants to Palestine in preparation for the creation of a Jewish homeland.

[BLANK-1] was a monarch who pushed for the division of Africa among Europeans at the Berlin Conference. He held private territory in the Free Congo, where his imperial agents used extreme violence to ensure that they could extract the most out of the local African labor force. As rubber became an important commodity, his territorial plantations gained the grim name the “red rubber colony” due to the amount of blood shed. In 1908, this monarch was forced to turn over his private territory to Belgium as a colony: the Belgian Congo.

[BLANK-1] was the architect of German unification. This German nationalist believed in a concept known as realpolitik – pragmatic politics of blood and iron. He orchestrated wars of expansion such as the Schleswig-Holstein War, Austro-Prussian War, and Franco-Prussian War in order to expand German territory (centered around the large state of Prussia). He used nationalism to support the authoritarian Prussian government and appealed directly to the people by creating a legislature with members of the lower house elected by universal male suffrage (thus allowing him to bypass the middle class). With victory against France in 1871, this aristocratic German minister cemented the unification of Germany.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s most serious military mistake was [BLANK-1] in 1812. Up to this point, his troops had gained a reputation for being nearly unbeatable in land battles – however, after this operation his army was reduced from 685,000 men to just 50,000 and the French government forced him into exile (temporarily, it turned out).

The Safavid Empire reached its height under the rule of [BLANK-1]. In addition to his support for art, culture, and trade, this Shi’a Muslim ruler was an adept military commander. He built a large army comprised of slaves and increased the use of gunpowder in the armed forces while frequently fighting the Ottoman Empire. During his reign, he moved the Safavid capital from Qazvin to Isfahan.

A new Catholic order, the Jesuits, was founded in the mid-sixteenth century by [BLANK-1] – a priest who emphasized that his order should devote themselves to education and missionary work abroad. In addition to strengthening the Catholic Church and providing well-run schools for the sons of European nobility and the poor, the Jesuits succeeded in carrying Christianity to South and Central America, India, Japan, Brazil, North America, and the Congo.

During the 1830s, a group of Russian conservative nationalists called [BLANK-1] began to promote the idea that Russia should develop socially and intellectually based on its traditional values and institutions rather than along western lines.

___ bonding is the attraction between polar molecules.