Cold War & Decolonization
What this unit covers
The topics below follow the published World History course framework for Unit 8. This unit is worth 8–10% of the exam, so budget your time against that rather than against how long the unit takes to teach.
Lessons in this unit
- The Cold War: A Bipolar World14 min · 3 objectivesExplain the ideological and geopolitical origins of the Cold War · Analyze the strategies the superpowers used to compete without direct war · Assess how the Cold War played out through proxy conflicts globally
- Decolonization and New Nations14 min · 3 objectivesExplain the causes of decolonization after World War II · Compare violent and negotiated paths to independence · Analyze the challenges facing newly independent nations
- Non-Alignment and the End of the Cold War13 min · 3 objectivesExplain the goals of the Non-Aligned Movement in the Cold War world · Analyze the causes of the Soviet Union’s collapse · Assess how the end of the Cold War reshaped the global order
Every term in Unit 8
All 16 terms we publish for Cold War & Decolonization, with definitions. Reading them through is the fastest way to find the ones you cannot define — then drill those in cram mode until you can produce them without the prompt.
- Green Revolution
- High-yield seeds, fertilizer and irrigation that raised food production sharply in Mexico and India, at the cost of water use and input dependence.
- Cold War
- Ideological and geopolitical rivalry between the US and USSR, fought through proxy wars, arms and space races, and alliance systems.
- Containment and the Truman Doctrine
- US policy of resisting communist expansion wherever it appeared, beginning with aid to Greece and Turkey in 1947.
- Marshall Plan
- US aid rebuilding Western Europe, which revived trading partners and reduced communism's appeal.
- NATO and the Warsaw Pact
- Opposed collective-security alliances that formalized Europe's division and made local crises potentially global.
- Proxy wars
- Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Angola — superpower competition fought through local forces, with local costs.
- Non-Aligned Movement
- States led by India, Egypt, Indonesia and Yugoslavia refusing either bloc, asserting a third path for newly independent nations.
- Indian independence and partition
- Gandhi's nonviolent campaign ended British rule in 1947; partition into India and Pakistan displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands.
- Gandhi and satyagraha
- Nonviolent resistance as a deliberate strategy that made repression politically costly for the occupier. Adopted by movements worldwide.
- Chinese Communist Revolution
- Mao's victory in 1949 after civil war, followed by land redistribution, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
- Great Leap Forward
- Forced collectivization and backyard industry that produced famine killing tens of millions — ideology overriding agricultural reality.
- Cultural Revolution
- Mao's mobilization of youth against party and intellectual authority, closing schools and destroying cultural heritage.
- African decolonization
- Independence across the continent from the late 1950s, mostly negotiated but violently contested in Algeria and Kenya.
- Apartheid and its end
- South African legal racial separation from 1948, ended by internal resistance and international sanctions with Mandela's release in 1990.
- Iranian Revolution (1979)
- Replaced a Western-aligned monarchy with an Islamic republic, showing that opposition to superpower influence need not be secular or leftist.
- Collapse of the Soviet Union
- Economic stagnation, Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika, and nationalist movements ended the USSR in 1991.
What examiners penalize here
- For the Soviet collapse, marshal *multiple* causes: economic stagnation, the arms-race burden, the Afghanistan war, Eastern European pressure, and Gorbachev’s reforms (glasnost and perestroika) that backfired. Layering several factors makes a stronger causation argument than naming just one.
Practice World History
Our practice bank is drawn from across the whole course rather than filtered to one unit, which is closer to how the exam asks anyway — it will not tell you which unit a question is testing.
Questions about this unit
How much of the AP World History: Modern exam is Unit 8?
Unit 8, Cold War & Decolonization, is worth 8–10% of the World History multiple-choice section according to the published course framework. Across all 9 units that makes it a middling share, roughly what an even split across units would give.
What topics are covered in World History Unit 8?
Cold War & Decolonization covers Cold War, Decolonization, New nations and Non-alignment. We publish 16 terms with definitions for this unit, all of them on this page.
How should I study World History Unit 8?
Read the 3 lessons below first — about 40 minutes — then drill the 16 terms in cram mode until you can produce each definition from memory rather than just recognize it. Recognition is what makes a unit feel finished when it is not. Finish with practice questions and read the explanation for every one you get right by elimination as well as the ones you miss.
All 9 units of AP World History: Modern
Unit names, topics and exam weights follow the published College Board course framework for AP World History: Modern. AP® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which does not endorse this site.