unit 8: Cold War

• European powers exhausted their resources fighting World War II and could not stop their colonies' independence movements
• Colonies that gained independence

  • India
  • Africa
• The war time spend brought another economic collapse to many countries that fought World War II
• United Nations

  New international body formed after World War II, meant to discuss world problems and develop solutions
• General Assembly of the United Nations


  • Has representatives from all member nations, each representative has one vote
• Security Council of the United Nations


  • 15 member nations, 5 are permanent (US, Russia, France, Great Britain, and China)
• Germany is officially split into 4 different sectors controlled by the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union
• The problem was that the Soviet Union was a Communist country
• Eastern Europe would be left to the Soviet Union's control, spreading Communism, while Western Europe would be left to spread democracy
• Berlin would also be broken apart into 4 sectors
• Nuremberg Trials


  Trials held to punish those responsible for crimes against humanity
• The Nuremberg Trials were held in Germany, Italy, and Japan
• Some people were imprisoned while others were given the death penalty in the Nuremberg Trials
• The Nuremberg Trials showed the world that even leaders can be held accountable for their actions during war
• Two Superpowers came out of World War II: the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR)
• Iron Curtain


  Imaginary line that separated Eastern and Western Europe, with democratic states to the West and communist states to the East
• Stalin promised free elections for their sector of Germany/Eastern Europe but supported pro-communist governments
• The Allies supported democracies in the West, while the Soviet Union supported communism in the East
• West Germany


  • Germany's army was disbanded, Nazi Party outlawed, Nuremberg Trials held
  • Western Germans created a Federal Constitution, with the help of the Allies, to restore a democratic government
  • Asylum was implemented to prevent persecution for political reasons
• Communism


  All means of production are owned in common, rather than by individuals
• The Soviet Union wanted to drive out the United States, Great Britain, and France from Berlin
• In 1948, the Soviet Union made the Berlin Wall to starve out the Allies
• The Allies would air drop supplies to their sectors to ensure Western Berlin survived - the Berlin Airlift
• Containment Policies

  The United States wanted to stop the spread of communism with any means necessary, but did not go after places that already had communism
• Truman Doctrine

  Offered political, military, and economic support to countries like Greece and Turkey to resist communism
• Marshall Plan

  Billions of dollars offered to nations that were trying to rebuild themselves after war-torn economies
• The Western Allies took their sectors and merged them together, but this was not their idea to keep Germany separated
• The Soviets closed off all the highways and railroads in attempts to weaken the Berlin sector
• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)


  The United States pledged to defend Western Europe with its nuclear weapons, excluding Eastern Europe/the Soviet Union
• Warsaw Pact


  The Soviet Union's response to NATO, essentially the same thing but with different countries
• The Soviet Union kept a tight grip in Eastern Europe even after Stalin's death in 1953, putting down revolts and reforms with violence
• Poland was able to make some reforms and keep them, but was still under Soviet Union control
• The Hungarian revolt in 1956 ended one-party rule and got rid of the USSR, but the USSR responded by sending in troops and killing thousands of people
• The invasion of Czechoslovakia, where their government eased censorship and planned for a new constitution, also resulted in the USSR sending in troops and killing thousands of people
• It became clear that the Soviet Union would use any force to keep communism and their leadership in Eastern Europe
• Tension between the superpower nations caused the United States and the Soviet Union to start arming themselves, each making more powerful weapons than the other
• The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik into space first in 1957, while the United States established NASA to improve their space technology
• The United States and the Soviet Union never formally fought each other, but fought through surrogates/representative states (Proxy Wars) in East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America
• Truman Doctrine

  Containment - limiting communism to areas already under Soviet Union with military aid
• Marshall Plan


  Giving money to strengthen democratic governments