How Did The Potsdam Conference Dbq

There were a number of agreements and provisions that largely contributed to the beginning of the Cold War produced at both the Potsdam and Yalta conference, one of which was the divisions and implementation of Germany into four zones of occupation which was agreed upon at the Potsdam conference in 1945. The West sector would be under the control of three major allies – Britain, France and the USA – while the Eastern sector would be under USSR rule. Furthermore the capital of Berlin would be further split into for zones (Source A), split in the same manner as the entirety of Germany. Although Germany and Berlin was divided, it was agreed that regardless of this split, Germany would function as a single economic unit (Source E). The implementation

Shops were generally empty and shortages widespread and tax income was non-existent without a functioning currency. The Soviets were against the idea of reform and blocked a joint solution. Regardless of their objection, the Western powers introduced the Deutsche Mark, which instantaneously reformed and positively affected the economy and businesses in the western sectors. In response, the USSR attempted to cut off the Western sectors of Berlin from their occupation zones in an effort to force the resignation of western control of Berlin, or alternatively integrate Soviet policies within their sectors. The Berlin Blockade resulting in a number of responses by the Western sectors, including the Berlin Airlift, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. The close proximity of the superpowers as well as the failure of adherence to an agreement formed in the Potsdam conference resulted in increased tensions and one of the first direct conflicts (Source G), in this case economic warfare, between the USSR and the USA which ignited the beginning of the Cold

It was the Soviet’s European expansion that was a direct result from certain agreements decided at the Yalta conference that allowed them to achieve such a high percentage of European control. At the end of WWII, the Yalta Conference allocated Poland to the Soviet Union (Source C) on the condition the Soviets allowed Poland to hold free elections. They instead imposed a communist government on Poland (Source I). The Soviets felt that they needed to control Poland as a buffer zone to protect them against invasions from the west. To the US and Britain, the Soviets’ actions in Poland showed that they wanted to expand their power and to dominate everything around them. This made the Western Allies very suspicious of the communists. The USSR participated on further European expansion, and this control can be regarded as one of the most influential factors to the beginning of the Cold War as the USA felt that this expansion co-ordinated with the USSR’s attempted expansion of Communism around the world. The Americans felt threatened as they suspected that the Soviets were going to try to impose communist systems on all the countries that they possibly could, making the