Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization (1900–Present)
AP World History: 54 practice questions with detailed explanations.
Unit Study Guide
Executive Summary
After 1945, two superpowers faced off without direct war while colonial empires dissolved into dozens of new nations — often caught in the superpower contest.
The Cold War
The US and USSR competed ideologically (capitalism vs communism), militarily (NATO vs Warsaw Pact, nuclear arsenals), and through proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan). The world divided into blocs, with a Non-Aligned Movement (Bandung, 1955) trying to stay out.
Decolonization
India and Pakistan (1947), Indonesia (1949), Ghana (1957), Algeria (1962), and dozens of African and Asian states won independence. Methods varied: negotiation (India), war (Algeria, Vietnam), and nonviolent protest (Gandhi). Partition and civil war often followed (India/Pakistan, Congo, Nigeria).
Communism spreads
China fell to the Communists (1949); Vietnam, Cuba, and others followed. Communist states promised development and equality, often through mass mobilization — with catastrophic episodes like China's Great Leap Forward famine.
New states, new challenges
New nations faced ethnic divisions (Rwanda's 1994 genocide), dependence on commodity exports, and pressure to choose sides. Some pursued nonalignment; others fell into dictatorship.
Exam traps
Decolonization was neither peaceful nor uniform — war and partition were common. The Cold War was fought through proxies, not direct US-Soviet combat. Gandhi's nonviolence was strategic and political, not passive. New nations' borders were colonial borders — the root of later ethnic conflict.