Unit 14

• Consequences of the Second World War:

  • About 45 million soldiers and civilian people dead
  • Vast areas of cultivated land, cities, and industrial centers damaged by bombing and sabotage
  • Millions of refugees forced to leave their homes due to changes in Europe's frontiers
  • Millions of people homeless, unemployed, or suffering from severe injuries
  • Governments faced vast problems to rebuild their economies
  • Disagreements between Western Allies and Soviets over the future of Germany and Eastern Europe
  • Britain and France weakened, had to start dismantling their colonial empires
  • USA and USSR became new superpowers, leading to the Cold War
  • Stronger United Nations Organization established to replace the League of Nations
  • Nazi leaders brought to trial at Nuremberg as war criminals
  • Germany occupied by Allies and divided into four zones
  • New inventions during the war had a significant impact on international relations and the Cold War
• Timeline of the beginnings of the Cold War in Europe:

  • Feb. 1945: Yalta Conference - Big Three agreed to divide Germany and Berlin into four occupation zones, continue war against Japan, and set up the UNO
  • July 1945: Potsdam Conference - Truman succeeded Roosevelt, started a tougher policy towards Stalin
  • Aug. 1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki - USA exploded first atomic bomb, leading to the Cold War
  • March 1946: Churchill mentioned the term 'Iron Curtain' to describe Russia's control of Eastern Europe
  • March 1947: Truman Doctrine emphasized differences between communism and democracy
  • June 1947: Marshall Aid aimed to put Western Europe back on its feet, condemned by Stalin as 'dollar diplomacy'
• Factors that led to the outbreak of the Cold War:

  • Hostility towards Russian Communism since the Russian Revolution of 1917
  • No further need for the 'Grand Alliance' after defeating Germany and Japan
  • Differences between Capitalism and Communism in way of life
  • Truman's 'hard-line' approach to Stalin intensified the Cold War
  • Invention of the atomic bomb by America led to an arms race with the USSR
  • Stalin's domination of Eastern Europe convinced the West of Soviet ambition to spread Communism globally
• The Berlin Blockade, 1948-1949:

  • USSR responded to Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan with the formation of the Communist International (Cominform)
  • Soviets tightened control on Czechoslovakia, leading to strengthening of West Germany against communism
  • Berlin blockade in June 1948 isolated West Berlin, countered by the Berlin airlift
  • Western powers declared West Germany a sovereign federal republic in April 1949
  • Formation of NATO by US, Canada, and Western European nations to coordinate defence against Soviet attack
  • Soviets abandoned the Berlin blockade in May 1949, leading to the permanent division of Germany and Europe during the Cold War
• The Berlin Wall, 1961:

  • Built in 1961 by East Germany to stop the flight of East Germans to the West
  • Symbol of the Cold War between democratic West and communist East
  • East Germans fled due to limited access to West German media and lower standard of living
  • East German soldiers surrounded West Berlin with barbed wire, replaced by a concrete wall
  • Wall was 4 meters high and 166 km long, with tank traps and ditches along it
  • Between 1961 and 1989, few East Germans managed to escape to West
• The Berlin Wall was built by the East German government, with tank traps and ditches along it
• Between 1961 and 1989, some East Germans managed to escape to West Berlin, but around 80 people died trying to cross the border
• In the summer of 1989, the Berlin Wall lost its purpose when Hungary allowed East Germans to pass through Hungary on their way to Austria and West Germany
• The East German regime collapsed, and in 1990 East Germany was united with West Germany as one nation, the Federal Republic of Germany
• The Berlin Wall is now commemorated by a few remaining sections and by a museum and shop near the site of the most famous crossing point, Checkpoint Charlie
• President Batista seized power in Cuba in 1952, but Fidel Castro gained popular support and took over in 1959
• In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred when the US discovered Soviet-supplied missile installations in Cuba
• After negotiations, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba, but US-Cuban relations remained hostile
• The crisis was resolved with the removal of missiles from Cuba and Turkey, narrowly avoiding World War III
• Opposition to Castro's regime continued, and with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, aid and trade subsidies to Cuba were ended
• Summits between the Superpowers in the 1950s and 1960s aimed to address issues like the division of Vietnam and the future of Germany
• In the 1970s, events led to a reduction in tension between the superpowers and the resumption of talks to slow down the arms race
• Events that led to a reduction in tension and the resumption of talks between superpowers in the early 1970s:

  • Building of the Berlin Wall
  • Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961
  • Decline in the Soviet economy
  • Large trade deficit by the USA
  • China’s economic and military strength
  • Continuation of the Arms and Space Race
• Key Disarmament and Arms Control Agreements:

  • Nuclear Test Ban Agreement (1963)
  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968)
  • Salt I (Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty)
  • Salt II (1979)
• Arms Limitation and Reduction under Mikhail Gorbachev:

  • USSR spending 17% of GDP on defense in 1985
  • Seeking to reduce military aid to Eastern Europe
  • Improving economic exports and imports from Western Europe and the USA
  • Reykjavik Summit (1986) agreement to eliminate medium-range missiles from Europe over 10 years
• Essay Questions:

  1. Difficulties faced by Western Powers in dealing with the German problem after 1945

  2. Soviet Union's policy towards Eastern Europe between 1945 and 1950

  3. Chief developments in Europe and the world during the Cold War between 1945 and 1962

  4. Role of the United States of America in the Cold War post-World War II

  5. Impact of the end of the Cold War on the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe

  6. Formation and significance of NATO during the Cold War