Right-wing politicsRight-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property or tradition. Hierarchy and inequality may be seen as natural results of traditional social differences or competition in market economies. Right-wing politics are considered the counterpart to left-wing politics, and the left–right political spectrum is one of the most widely accepted political spectrums.
Martial law in PolandMartial law in Poland (Stan wojenny w Polsce) existed between 13 December 1981 and . The government of the Polish People's Republic drastically restricted everyday life by introducing martial law and a military junta in an attempt to counter political opposition, in particular the Solidarity movement. Since the late 1970s, communist Poland had been in a deep economic recession. Edward Gierek, First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), had obtained a series of large loans from foreign creditors to achieve better economic output, but they instead resulted in a domestic crisis.
Political spectrumA political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions political compass and political map are used to refer to the political spectrum as well, especially to popular two-dimensional models of it.
Handover of Hong KongThe handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. Hong Kong was established as a special administrative region of China (SAR) for 50 years, maintaining its own economic and governing systems from those of mainland China during this time, although influence from the central government in Beijing increased after the passing of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020.
AppeasementAppeasement, in an international context, is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the British governments of Prime Ministers Ramsay MacDonald (in office 1929–1935), Stanley Baldwin (in office 1935–1937) and (most notably) Neville Chamberlain (in office 1937–1940) towards Nazi Germany (from 1933) and Fascist Italy (from 1922) between 1935 and 1939.
Polish People's RepublicThe Polish People's Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL), or simply Poland (Polska), was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern-day Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million near the end of its existence, it was the second most-populous communist and Eastern Bloc country in Europe. A unitary state with a Marxist–Leninist government, it was also one of the main signatories of the Warsaw Pact alliance.
Communist Party of SpainThe Communist Party of Spain (Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a communist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving as government ministers in the Spanish government, in the roles of Minister of Labour and Social Economy and Minister of Consumer Affairs respectively. The PCE was founded by 1921, after a split in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español; PSOE).
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacreThe Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June, 1989. On the night of 3 June, after weeks of attempts to resolve the conflict peacefully, including negotiations from both sides, the Chinese government declared martial law, and deployed troops to occupy the Square in what is often referred to as the Tiananmen Square massacre.
The Black Book of CommunismThe Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a 1997 book by Stéphane Courtois, Andrzej Paczkowski, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Margolin, and several other European academics documenting a history of political repression by communist states, including genocides, extrajudicial executions, deportations, and deaths in labor camps and artificially created famines. The book was originally published in France as Le Livre noir du communisme: Crimes, terreur, répression by Éditions Robert Laffont.
Joseph McCarthyJoseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion. He alleged that numerous communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere.