Aaland Islands
Some 6,500 islands in the Gulf of Bothnia, between Finland and Sweden. They were part of Sweden until 1809, when, together with Finland, they were annexed by Russia. After the collapse of the Russian ...
Abyssinian War
1935–6.Conflict between Abyssinia and Italy. Mussolini used a border incident in December 1934 at Walwal as a pretext for pursuing his aim of imperial expansion in north Africa. The Italians invaded ...
Afghanistan
Still a battleground between the Taliban and government and NATO forces.Afghanistan is a largely mountainous country: more than half the territory is above 2,000 metres. Its central highlands are the ...
African-American troops
Variously called negro, coloured, and black, the history of African-American soldiers is that of US race relations in general. Even after the abolition of formal discrimination by colour, advancement ...
Aid policy
Provision by Australia of foreign aid to developing countries is largely a post‐1945 phenomenon. Foreign aid falls under the purview of the minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, assisted by ...
alliance
N. a union or association formed for mutual benefit, especially between countries or organizations: a defensive alliance between Australia and New Zealand | divisions within the alliance.
American Peace Society
A pacifist group founded in 1828 that was the first nationally based secular peace organization in American history. Based in Boston, the society organized peace conferences and published a ...
Andrew Carnegie
(1835–1919)British-born US industrialist and philanthropist who used his personal fortune, derived largely from the steel industry, to finance a variety of charitable institutions.Carnegie was born ...
appeasement
A policy of giving in to hostile demands of another nation to avoid war, primarily associated with British and increasingly also with French foreign policy between the two World Wars. From 1933 to ...
Arab Legion
Originally founded in 1921 as a police force for the British League of Nations Mandate of Transjordan, it contained a force of 1,000 volunteers under the command of Colonel Frederick Peake. In the ...
arms race
A competition between nations for superiority in the development and accumulation of weapons, especially between the U.S. and the former USSR during the Cold War.
arms transfer
The transfer of weapons, ammunition, and other military goods from one entity to another (usually between governments), either with or without payment or other reimbursement.
Arthur Henderson
(1863–1935).Labour politician. Brought up on Tyneside and apprenticed as an ironfounder, Henderson, then a fervent Gladstonian Liberal, moved slowly to the view that the political future of the ...
Assembly of First Nations
Founded between 1980 and 1982 as part of the swirl of events surrounding the push by the federal government to patriate Canada's constitution, the afn is a recent manifestation of ...
Balfour Declaration
(2 November 1917)A declaration by Britain in favour of a Jewish national home in Palestine. It took the form of a letter from Lord Balfour (British Foreign Secretary) to Lord Rothschild, a prominent ...
Baltic States
(1934)A mutual defence pact between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Soon after World War I there were negotiations for an alliance between all the countries which had recently broken away from the ...
battle for the Mediterranean
War spread to the Mediterranean basin on 10 June 1940 when Italy declared war on the UK and France (see Maps 2 and 68). Mussolini, who nursed a jealousy of ...
Benito Mussolini
(1883–1945) Italian Fascist statesman, Prime Minister (1922–43); known as Il Duce ('the leader'). He founded the Italian Fascist Party in 1919. He annexed Abyssinia in 1936 and entered World War ...
British Empire
At its apogee, around 1920, the British empire was the largest ever known, reputed to cover a quarter of the world's land area, and a fifth of its population. Like all mighty oaks, this one had a ...
