History Paper 2

• Grand Alliance


  Uneasy agreement between polar opposites only united in the goal of removing the Nazis
• Conferences to decide how the alliance would work together and what would happen after the war

  1. Tehran conference in 1943

  2. Yalta conference in 1945

  3. Potsdam conference in 1945
• Goals of the alliance members

  • USA wanted Stalin's support to defeat Japan
  • USSR wanted a second front in Western Europe
  • Britain wanted support in defeating Nazism and defending its empire
• USA and Britain agreed to invade Western Europe in 1944


  This would ease pressure on the USSR who were being invaded by the Nazis
• USSR agreed to support the USA in defeating Japan


  After the Nazis were defeated
• Germany's fate after the war

  • Germany to be split into four zones, each controlled by the USA, Britain, France and USSR
  • Berlin to be split into four zones
  • Nazis to be prosecuted
  • United Nations set up to police disputes between nations
• Stalin wanted Poland to act as a buffer zone


  To prevent future invasion from Germany
• On 7th May 1945, the Nazis surrendered and the war was over
• Roosevelt died and was replaced by Truman


  Truman disliked and distrusted Stalin
• Potsdam conference in 1945

  1. Finalise the future of Germany and Europe

  2. Truman approached the conference aggressively

  3. USA dropped atomic bomb on Nagasaki during the conference
• United Nations


  • Any country allowed to join
  • Five permanent members (Britain, France, USA, USSR, China) had veto power
• Denazification of Germany


  1. Nazi party banned

  2. Evidence of Nazis removed

  3. Nazi leaders tried as war criminals
• Germany's size and reparations

  • Germany reduced in size slightly
  • Germany and Berlin split into four zones
  • USSR assigned to the least wealthy northeast zone
  • Germany to pay reparations in equipment, materials and money
• Stalin wanted to share occupation of Japan


  Truman refused
• USSR started to back out of promises of free elections in Soviet-occupied nations
• Ideologies of the East and West were opposed, each feared the other's influence
• Superpower relations and the Cold War

  1941-1991
• In February 1947, Britain informed the USA that they could no longer afford to keep troops in Greece and Turkey
• Truman Doctrine


  Belief that the USA would have to get involved in Europe to prevent Stalin from spreading communism
• Truman gave a speech outlining his concerns for Europe

  12th of March 1947
• Truman's concerns


  • Europe was destroyed, there was unemployment, poverty and hopelessness everywhere
  • Many Eastern European countries had been forced to take a communist government
• Domino effect


  The idea that when one nation fell to communism, others would follow
• Truman believed that the USA should stop the spread of Communism through a policy of containment
• Marshall Plan


  $17 billion in aid to help rebuild Europe and prevent the spread of communism
• Largest beneficiaries of the Marshall Plan

  • Britain ($3.1 billion)
  • France ($2.7 billion)
  • Greece ($376 million)
• To receive Marshall Plan aid, countries had to commit to trading with the USA and allow a review of their finances
• The Marshall Plan was successful in supporting Greece in defeating the Communists and confirming the USA's commitment to containing communism
• The Marshall Plan


  Deepened the rivalry between the USA and the USSR and confirmed a split between communist and non-communist Europe
• Stalin's response: Comecon


  Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, set up to provide an alternative to the Marshall Plan and strengthen trade links between communist countries
• Cominform


  Communist Information Bureau, responsible for organizing all the Communist parties in Europe and removing opposition to Soviet control in communist-led countries
• Tensions between Tito of Yugoslavia and Stalin led to Yugoslavia being expelled from Cominform in 1948
• Comecon aimed to provide financial aid in line with communist principles to prevent Soviet-led countries joining the Marshall Plan
• The consequences of the two countries' plans were a dramatically increased tension between the two sides, with Western Europe united under the USA's policy of containment and the East united under Soviet control
• The USSR occupied 9 countries and sought to influence 2 more to create a buffer zone in Eastern Europe
• The USSR used 'salami tactics' to take over Eastern European countries - dealing with each country one slice at a time
• Salami tactics


  • Fixing elections
  • Removing opponents
• The USA and Truman saw the USSR's actions as a betrayal of the Yalta agreements and politically motivated expansion
• Countries in the USSR's buffer zone (PREACH)

  • Poland
  • Romania
  • East Germany
  • Albania
  • Czechoslovakia
  • Hungary
• Poland


  1. Soviets waited for Warsaw uprising to be put down

  2. Soviets moved in to occupy

  3. First elected government contained London Poles

  4. Second election in 1947 - London Poles forced to flee, communists formed government
• Romania


  1. Red Army took control in 1944

  2. Intimidation used to influence 1945 elections

  3. Communist-led coalition government

  4. 1947 election - communists returned with full control