Glossary — C

Glossary terms beginning with C.

Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty: An agreement signed in 1990 by members of the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO--q.v.) to establish parity in conventional weapons between the two organizations from the Atlantic to the Urals. Included a strict system of inspections and information exchange. In 1995 Russia requested exemptions for forces stationed in the Caucasus region, and substantial changes were negotiated by the thirty signatory nations in 1997.
córdoba (C$): Nicaraguan monetary unit from 1912 to 1988. Relatively stable for most of that period, the córdoba’s value plummeted in 1985. By mid-1988 the official rate was US$1 = C$20,000 (US$1 = C$60,000 on the black market), and the córdoba was replaced by the new córdoba (C$n; q.v.) at a rate of 1,000 córdobas to 1 new córdoba.
coronelismo: Derives from the honorary title of colonel (coronel; pl., coroneis) in the National Guard that was customarily conferred on a locally dominant political boss, usually a substantial landowner or local justice of the peace. The term eventually became applied to local strongmen or political bosses, especially in rural areas and particularly in poorer Northeastern states. Coronelismo thus was a classic boss system under which control of patronage and minor funds was centralized in the coronel, who would dispense favors in return for political loyalty.; Source: Library of Congress
corporatism: A political doctrine primarily of Iberian roots, which emphasizes organic, hierarchical politics and analogies with the corporeal body and blood lines.
corporatist: An hierarchical conception of society that assigns to elites the guiding roles of maintaining social harmony and identifying the general will of the nation.
corporatist, corporatism: A political system in which various groups (for instance, the military, labor, and peasants) are organized into official constituencies. The various constituencies influence government policy and are supported by government patronage.
corregidor: The official, usually a white or cholo, in postindependence Bolivia charged with administering local Indian affairs.; Source: Library of Congress
corregidores de indios: Magistrates or chief officers, usually a white or cholo (q.v.), in preindependence Peru charged with administering local native American affairs in corregimientos (q.v.).
corregimientos: Colonial administrative districts that later became intendencias (intendancies or provinces) and Catholic dioceses or parishes.
corvee: Number of days each week that the serf was required to work for his lord.
Cossacks: Originally peasants (primarily Ukrainian and Russian) who fled from bondage to the lower Dnepr and Don river regions to settle in the frontier areas separating fifteenth-century Muscovy, Poland, and the lands occupied by the Tatars. They later organized themselves into military formations to resist Tatar raids. Renowned as horsemen, they were absorbed into the army of the Russian Empire (q.v.) by the late eighteenth century. In the early 1990s, there were attempts to reestablish a Cossack military tradition in Ukraine.; Source: Library of Congress
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon): Also abbreviated CEMA and CMEA, the organization was established in 1949 to promote economic cooperation among socialist bloc countries and is headquartered in Moscow. Its members as of 1989 included the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, Mongolia, Romania, and Vietnam. Mongolia, the first non-European member, joined Comecon in 1962 and has traditionally been a supplier of raw materials to the Soviet Union.
Council of Europe: Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe is an organization overseeing intergovernmental cooperation in designated areas such as environmental planning, finance, sports, crime, migration, and legal matters. In 1995 the council had thirty-five members.
county (xian): Rural administrative unit below the provincial level.
coupon: Generic term for bank-issued national currency certificates of Georgia, introduced in early 1993. After introduction, value declined rapidly; in October 1993, the exchange rate was approximately 42,000 coupons per US$1.
CPP.: Convention People’s Party (was in power from 1957-1966).
CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union): Since 1952 the official name of the communist party in the Soviet Union (q.v.). After the August coup d’état (q.v.), in which the party played a prominent role, Russian president Boris N. Yeltsin banned the party in Russia and ordered its property turned over to the government. The Communist Party of Belarus was banned in Belarus in August 1991, as was the Communist Party of Moldova in Moldova.; Source: Library of Congress
Creole: In Belize a term used for an English-speaking person of African or mixed African and European ancestry.; Source: Library of Congress
crony: A term used to describe an individual who was able to exploit connections with former President Marcos to gain wealth and economic position.
crore: In Bangladesh, as elsewhere in South Asia, large numerical units are usually expressed in crores; a crore is 10 million.; Source: Library of Congress
crown colony: A system of British colonial administration under which Britain retained control over defense, foreign affairs, internal security, and various administrative and budget matters. Crown colonies were governed internally by a British-appointed governor and a locally elected assembly. Prior to the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica in 1865, crown colony government was limited to Trinidad and St. Lucia. In 1871 in Belize and in 1928 in Guyana, the representative assemblies were dissolved, and the colonies were governed directly by the Colonial Office in London and by a British-appointed governor who was assisted by a local council, most of whose members were appointed by the governor. In time, however, an increasing number of officials were locally elected rather than appointed. Following the report of the Moyne Commission in 1938, the crown colony system was modified to make local councils even more representative and to give local officials more administrative responsibility. Nevertheless, defense, foreign affairs, and internal security remained the prerogatives of the crown.; Source: Library of Congress
crown land(s): The equivalent of federal public lands in the United States. The crown lands were for the most part secured as state succession or as inheritance from the king of Kandy.
cruzado: On February 28, 1986, the Brazilian cruzado, equal to 1,000 cruzeiros, was introduced, and the Cruzado Plan to fight inflation was announced. The new cruzado (cruzado novo), equal to 1,000 old cruzados, was introduced on January 15, 1989.; Source: Library of Congress
cruzeiro (Cr$): The old national currency, consisting of 100 centavos, which replaced the mil-reis on November 1, 1942. The cruzeiro novo was created on February 8, 1967, to replace the cruzeiro. After August 1968, the cruzeiro novo was adjusted by small amounts at frequent intervals, often every week or two. On May 15, 1970, the currency reverted to the cruzeiro, which remained in effect until 1986 when it was replaced by the cruzado (q.v.). The cruzeiro was reinstituted on March 16, 1990.; Source: Library of Congress
cruzeiro real (CR$): On August 1, 1993, the cruzeiro real, equal to 1,000 cruzeiros, was introduced, as the national currency. It was replaced on July 1, 1994, by the real (q.v.).; Source: Library of Congress
cult of personality: A term coined by Nikita Khrushchev at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956 to describe the rule of Joseph Stalin, during which the Soviet people were compelled to deify the dictator. Other communist leaders, particularly Albania’s Enver Hoxha, followed Stalin’s example and established a cult of personality around themselves.; Source: Library of Congress
Cultural Revolution: A slogan introduced by Mao Zedong in 1940, noted again by Liu Shaoqi in 1958, and used more frequently in connection with leftist attacks on the ""cultural front"" in late 1965 and early 1966. The expression was used to denote the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a political campaign officially inaugurated in August 1966 to rekindle revolutionary fervor of the masses outside formal party organizations. The Cultural Revolution decade (1966-76) can be divided into three periods: 1966-69, from the militant Red Guard (q.v.) phase to the Ninth National Party Congress; 1969- 71, the period of the zenith and demise of Lin Biao; and 1971-76, the period of Mao’s declining health and the ascendancy of the Gang of Four (q.v.). At the August 1977 Eleventh National Party Congress, the Cultural Revolution was declared officially to have ended with the arrest in October 1976 of the Gang of Four.
current account: Current account balance is the difference between (a) exports of goods and services as well as inflows of unrequited transfers but exclusive of foreign aid and (b) imports of goods and services as well as all unrequited transfers to the rest of the world.; Source: Library of Congress
Cyrenaica: Largest of Libya’s three historic regions, occupying the eastern half of the country. Name derived from the ancient Greek city-state, Cyrene; in Arabic known as Barqu.
Cyrillic: An alphabet based on Greek characters that was created in the ninth century for translating Eastern Orthodox religious texts into Old Church Slavonic (q.v.). Named for Cyril, the leader of the first religious mission from Byzantium to the Slavic people, the alphabet is used in Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. The Central Asian republics, Moldova, and Azerbaijan used a modified Cyrillic alphabet in the Soviet period.
Cyrillic alphabet: An alphabet, based on Greek characters, that was created in the ninth century to serve as a medium for writing Orthodox texts translated from Greek into Old Church Slavonic (q.v.). Named for Cyril, the leader of the first religious mission from Constantinople to the Slavic peoples, Cyrillic is used by modern Russian, Belarusian, ""Moldavian"" (q.v.), and several other languages, both Slavic and non-Slavic.; Source: Library of Congress
Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (CSFR): official name of the former Czechoslovakia, adopted in December 1990 to recognize the two ethnic components of that country. (Czechoslovakia was still used as the short form designation after that date.) In January 1993, divided into two independent states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which retained some economic and security ties.