Question | Answer |
Columbian Exchange | the moving of animals, plants, people, and diseases from the Old World (Europe/Africa) to the New World (Americas), and from the New World (Americas) to the Old World (Europe/Africa) |
Transatlantic Slave Trade | Europeans looked to West Africa for slave labor after diseases (such as smallpox) killed the indigenous population; forced to work in farming on plantations, haciendas (Spanish agricultural plantations), and gold/diamond mines in Brazil |
Cold War | period of time, from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, characterized by frequent military and diplomatic rows between the United States and U.S.S.R. |
Fulgencio Batista | dictator of Cuba prior to the 1959 Cuban Revolution |
Fidel Castro | led Cuban Revolution and took over as dictator of Cuba in 1959. Soviet Union helped Castro turn Cuba into a communist country. |
Raul Castro | became dictator of Cuba in 2008 |
John F. Kennedy | president of the United States at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis |
Nikita Khrushchev | leader of the Soviet Union at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis |
communist | an economic system wherein private ownership is largely forbidden and all industries and resources are under the control of the state |
coup | the act of overthrowing an existing governing authority |
Cuban Missile Crisis | 1962 Cold War event wherein the Soviet Union, with the agreement of the Castro regime, placed intermediate and medium-range ballistic missiles on the island of Cuba which were capable of striking the United States; |
Andean | geographic term for countries located along the Andes mountain range of South America |
BRICS | political science term used for the world’s five fastest-growing economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa |
cartel | a group which dominates the trade of a specific product or service |
emigrate | to relocate to a new country for the purpose of employment |
Latino | general term for those with Latin American ancestry from a Spanish-speaking country |
narco-terrorism | violent extremism associated with the illegal drug trade, particularly as relates to cocaine or heroin |
naturalization | the process by which a citizen of one country may become a legal citizen of another country |
rural | an area that is largely countryside; this is in contrast to an urban (i.e., city) area |
trafficking | the illegal smuggling of people or products (especially drugs or weapons) |
tariff | discourages trade by placing a tax on foreign goods |
embargo | economic policy which blocks all trade with a given nation, typically due to safety, humanitarian concerns and/or are enacted to sanction enemy nations |
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) | designed to promote free trade among the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with the purpose of increasing trade by doing aways with tariffs |
democracy | all citizens participate equally in government |
autocracy | One person participates in government |