The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states) and powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others). Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine (a U.S. foreign policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism) was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term
control the production of goods or services. People decide where they live and work. The Cold War began in Europe after World War II. Both these superpower were competing to spreads their ideology to all over the world. The Soviet Union won control of Eastern Europe. It controlled half of Germany and half of Germany’s capital, Berlin. The United States, Britain, and France controlled western Germany and West Berlin. In June 1948, the Soviet Union blocked roads and railroads that led to West Berlin. The
Another major product of the Warsaw Pact was the “New Course” system that replaced the old Stalin-influenced COMNIFORM and revolutionized the internal eastern bloc relations. For the remainder of the essay, multiple different situations are addressed in other Eastern non-Soviet European nations and the effects that Khrushchev’s “New Course” policy had are examined. With this scope of investigation, secondary sources were the primary means of information as
pattern of NATO. The USSR retaliated this mover by forming a Communist Defence Pact better known as the Warsaw Pact. It aimed at countering the assault of imperialism and capitalism. This divided the whole world into two groups the American bloc and the Soviet bloc. This polarisation deepened and strengthened Cold
Upon the end of World War II, the Yalta Conference essentially aided in the division of Europe into an Eastern and Western Block. Countries which were invaded by Nazi Germany were to have their original governments reinstalled and allowed free elections. However, the United States and the United Kingdom remained influential in the west while the Soviet Union maintained control in the east. Due to influences, Western Europe remained a free and democratic area while the east, under Soviet pressure
When the government built this wall, it only thought about its own needs and not about the citizens’ needs. Government role was and it is to help to the citizens and not otherwise .The main purpose of this wall was simply to keep western people and eastern communists apart and to make the people of East Germany “blind”. This purpose had nothing to do with improving the life of the citizens. Therefore the wall was
control over Eastern Europe. Prior to 1990, the Berlin Wall created the divide between the East Bloc and the West Bloc. It was built around West Berlin to stop East Germans fleeing the Communist State. The wall was also viewed as a protective shell around East Berlin while the west presented it as a prison wall.The whole of Communist Europe was swept by revolution in 1989, one by one, all the Communist states were overthrown by democracy, and by 1990, this great divide brought the Eastern European countries
The cold war was a political, economy and military confrontation between the capitalist bloc (led by the US and NATO) and the communist bloc (led by the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact) after World War II (WWII) during 1947-1991. Nazi Germany was defeated in World War II (WWII), the entire country was separately occupied by Western Allies and the Soviet army. The testimony protagonist of the primary document is Erika Riemann, who was be sentenced as a political prisoner 8 years and 16 days while she
country from the start of the Potstam meeting where that Berlin, the capital of Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation where the Allies (France, Britain and America) would occupy the Western Zones and the Soviets would occupy the Eastern zones. Whilst Russia’s aim was to cripple Germany, the other allies wanted to build it up into a strong country. It was due to this plan of Russia’s to cripple Germany that the Berlin blockade and airlift occurred. After Western Germany began to flourish
Once the war ended, Germany was temporarily divided into four different sectors for England, France, USA and the USSR. By 1946, when the Soviets were in control of Eastern Europe, an “Iron Curtain” consolidated the division of Europe into a West bloc that incorporated the western democracies, including the United States, and an Eastern bloc with the Soviets. Yet in 1949 Germany witnessed another division with the creation of West and East Germany, which put an end to any dialogue in favor of a reunified
motivations of Stalin and the Soviets its important to understand the events leading up to the Cold War and two “spheres of influence” that controlled world power at this time and would eventually lead to conflict. In analyzing Stalins policies in Eastern and Central Europe from 1944 to 1953 I will focus on three main areas in addressing this question: First, the two spheres of influence and how they came to power. Second, highlight communist ideologies that motivated Stalin in gaining
Berlin air lift 1948 After world war II, Germany was dived into for parts. Those four pats were divided among Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union each governing their own part. As hatred began to grow between the Soviet Union and the West, Stalin decided to create a separate communist state that included Berlin. To maintain that, Stalin surrounded the western half of Berlin and that caused the Berlin airlift, created by Truman. In 1949, Stalin had removed the blockade
the groundwork for high tensions between the Soviet Union and the West for the next one hundred years. When Joseph Stalin came into power, he enormously elevated these tensions through his take over of Eastern Europe, which the West saw as an attempt to spread Communism. Indeed, by 1949 all Eastern European governments, except that of Yugoslavia, were run by hard-line Stalinist regimes, causing a great amount of fear in the Capitalist world as they saw Communism as threatening every aspect of their
The cold war was marked by the existence of political and economic enmity between U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1945 to 1991. From the primary sources we discussed in class, it is clear that the rivalry between these two super powers was because of political and economic competition. The competition was between the communist of the Soviet Union together with its allies and the democratic capitalism of U.S. together with its allies. In addition, the rise of the cold war between 1945 and 1991 was as
Capitalism would dominate the world’s governments’ following World War II. While Soviet Russia did not attempt to spread its ideological beliefs around the world as the U.S. did, it rather was trying to create a stable Communist bloc that was confined to the borders of Asia and Eastern Europe. At the same time, the United States anxiously feared Communism, because our political leaders saw it as a threat to Capitalisms’ open market and free trade policies. Furthermore, the US wrongly viewed independence
The Cold War created a bipolar world of opposing ideals and influences, and Kennedy helped to motivate a paradigm shift in European mentality. The actions that his speech set in motion helped to pull down the Soviet bloc, and start an eventual geopolitical revolution that allowed the dismantling of previous, more primitive ideals (such as those of the League of Nations), and remind the world that change could still occur. Even in the current day, events such as the
end of the Second World War after 1945, were a period of bipolarity that was met with the cold war: a struggle in both military and political efforts between the western bloc (the United States and its allies) and the eastern bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw pact). The cold war came to an end as the soviet bloc collapsed leaving Russia to stand on its own and with less power, thus giving the United States of America its supremacy as the only superpower
The Truman Doctrine On March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman changed the course of United States foreign policy when he addressed a joint session of Congress to ask for aid for Greece and Turkey. Truman and his advisors made this decision to protect democracy around the world and stop the spread of Soviet influence and communism. This became known as the Truman Doctrine and was the start of the Cold War. Prior to this speech that changed foreign policy, Americans were averse to giving foreign
Arthur Schlesinger Jr, states that ‘the Cold War in its original form was a presumably mortal antagonism, in the wake of the Second World War, between two rigidly hostile blocs (1967, 22).’ The quote embodies the power struggle that was played out between America and the Soviets during the post war era. Historians and theorists have been drawing from ideologies and different international world orders to help gain an accurate understanding of the origins of the Cold War. In a bipolar world, as described
The Yalta conference and the Potsdam conference were two sessions or meetings held during the Second World War., These conferences were held for The Big Three to manage their differences and come to several agreements among themselves. The Big Three included the United States (USA), Great Britain and the Soviet Union (USSR/Russia). The Big Three – also referred to as The Grand Alliance – were always known to be enemies and weren’t fond of each other, although had one thing in common and that was