The End of the Cold War…But The Fight Remains

Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1992)• perestroika: “restructuring” of economic policy, as

shifts made to a market economy with free enterprise• glasnost: “opening” of government, allowing people

the ability to openly criticize government (free speech)• Gorbachev’s policies of reform led to increased

nationalism in satellite countries under Soviet control• 1991/1992: former Soviet republics voted for individual

independence (Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, etc.) = the formal end of Soviet Union & Cold War

• communist leadership worried about effect & planned a coup to force Gorbachev from power…instead Boris Yeltsin led resistance of coup & gained control of Soviet Union

• Yeltsin: 1st President of Russia…huge problems with the economy & organized crime!

Mikhail Gorbachev & Boris Yeltsin

Reunification of Germany

• November 9, 1989: the symbol of the “Iron Curtain,” the Berlin Wall fell, ending communism in East Germany

• October 3, 1990: East & West Germany reunified…with struggles to combine the formerly communist East with the established capitalist West

Czechoslovakia & Yugoslavia• 1989: communist government of Czechoslovakia collapsed• 1993: peaceful split between Czech Republic & Slovakia

• 1987: Slobodan Milosevic (ruler of Yugoslavia) refused ethnic groups to form their own states

• 1991: Slovenia & Croatia declared their independence, leading to a war with Serbia

• 1992: Bosnia-Herzegovina declared their independence, starting another war with Serbia– Bosnians are mostly Muslim…so Serbs began practicing

ethnic cleansing• 1995: peace treaty signed, making Slovenia, Croatia &

Bosnia-Herzegovina free from Serbia• 1998-1999: another Serbian war erupts with Kosovo…ending

with NATO bombings• Milosevic arrested & tried for crimes against humanity by

International Criminal Court…died in prison

Slobodan Milosevic & Wars in Yugoslavia

Social Trends• post-Cold War world has replaced the fight(s) against

communism with the fight(s) against terrorism:– IRA (Irish Republican Army) in the United Kingdom– the Basque movement (Catalonia) in Spain– the Tamils in Sri Lanka– Al Qaeda & the Taliban: September 11th, 2001

• debates over the ethics of science to manipulate nature (i.e. global warming, organic foods, nuclear pollution, etc.)

• art has come to focus on the abstract (Jackson Pollock) & popular culture (Andy Warhol)

• movies, television, music & the internet became the way to spread popular American culture around the world

• sports had become a vehicle for national pride (World Cup) & politics (Olympics)