The Boxer Rebellion began in China in 1899. Unlike the earlier Taiping Rebellion, the goal of the Boxer Rebellion was to rid China of foreign influence, particularly the influence of Christianity. The rebels were eventually defeated by the combined efforts of the Chinese government and the overwhelming military force of the European powers.

The Duma was created in Russia in 1906 in response to Bloody Sunday, the Russian Revolution and the rise of the soviets. The Duma was, for a time, the Russian legislative body. It was overthrown in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then reinstated as the lower legislative body of the Russian Federation in 1993, following the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Indian National Congress was founded in the late nineteenth century and soon grew to be the largest and most influential organization campaigning for Indian independence. The Muslim League was founded in 1906 and worked alongside the Indian National Congress in pursuit of independence. The stated goal of the Muslim League was to ensure the political and social rights of Muslims during the transition from British rule.

Prior to the Iranian Revolution, Iran was a country in the midst of a decades long modernization movement. However, the Iranian Revolution ushered Ayatollah Khomeini into power and he instituted a government based on strict adherence to Islamic law.

Indian independence was achieved in 1947 and immediately after the country was divided into a Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan - a division that is named the Great Partition. It was a period of great instability and devastating sectarian violence as many millions of people migrated thousands of miles. Bangladesh became an independent country in 1971. It had originally been a part of Pakistan, known as East Pakistan.

The Great Leap Forward was an economic policy of the Communist Party of China under Mao. Its primary goals were to transform China from a largely agrarian society to a modern socialist state through immediate industrialization and the collectivization of resources. Many modern historians believe that the Great Leap Forward led to widespread famine and the death of tens of millions of people in China.

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 ushered a communist regime, led by Fidel Castro, into power in Cuba. This negatively impacted Cold War relations between the United States and the Soviet Union because it meant the existence of a militarized communist state less than one hundred miles off of the American mainland.

Reza Shah pursued a policy of secularization rather than one of imposing religion on the population.

The term “intifada” refers to a series of violent uprisings of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. The first “intifada” is also the most famous one, it took place from 1987 to 1993. Relations between Israel and Palestine have oscillated in intensity over the years, but have always been contentious and intermittently violent ever since the creation of Israel in the wake of the Second World War.

Muammar al-Gaddafi came to power in a coup d’etat in 1969 and ruled Libya until he was deposed in the Libyan Civil War of 2011. During Gaddafi’s reign Libya embraced a sort of proto-socialism.