The Long March was instrumental in the rise to power of Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. It took place during the Chinese Civil War between the communists and the nationalists. At the time, the nationalists were winning, and the communists undertook the Long March to escape the forces of the nationalist army. The march led to Mao's coronation as the undisputed head of the communist forces and inspired thousands of young men to join the communist cause.

The re-militarization of the Rhineland was significant because it represented a German violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which established a demilitarized Rhineland to protect France from German invasion. After this incident Hitler realized that the war weariness of the other major European powers would allow him to act without fear of repercussion. In 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in what is known as the Anschluss.

The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) was primarily fought for control of the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. It ended in victory for the Japanese and their continued expansion into mainland Asia.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was an agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany not to attack one another. It was signed in 1939 and lasted until Nazi Germany invaded Soviet occupied Poland in 1941, thus violating the pact. The agreement also included secret provisions to divide Poland and much of Eastern Europe between the two major powers.

The Ottoman government’s stated reason for carrying out the Armenian Genocide was fear that the Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire were loyal to the Russians. This was a time of precipitous decline and great insecurity for the Ottoman Empire, which lived under constant fear of Russian invasion.

The Mujahideen were Afghan resistance fighters who organized the Afghan defense forces during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. Many countries provided aid to the Mujahideen including Pakistan, the United States, and China. Much of the support and weaponry given to the Mujahideen during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan has since been used on the army of the United States of America during the American occupation of Afghanistan.

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait took place in 1990 and led to the involvement of the United States and the outbreak of the Gulf War.

At the end of the Second World War Korea was split into two occupied territories - a communist north occupied by the Soviet Union and a capitalist south occupied by the United States of America. This ultimately led to the outbreak of war in 1950. The war ended in a stalemate and the nation of Korea continues to be divided along the thirty-eighth parallel between communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea.

The three most intense phases of the Cold War (the phases when open warfare or nuclear confrontation seemed most plausible) are probably the aftermath of World War Two and the Korean War; the early 1960s and the Cuban Missile Crisis; and the 1980s. For much of the 1970s there were talks of arms reductions and a cautious detente was being reached; however, in the latter half of the 1970s these trends started to reverse as tensions increased between the two superpowers. This was primarily the result of the Vietnam War, improving relations between the United States and China, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The dates of the Korean War are: June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953. The Korean War was between North and South Korea but had great international intervention. The United Nations, particularly the United States, fought for the South while China and the Soviet Union fought with the North. Though the causes are complex, it arose from tensions caused by WWII and the Cold War.