Origin of the Cold War Essay

The tensions begin to mount after Germany and Berlin were divided among the victorious countries of the Allies and three major power blocs formed. The countries that had been newly formed in the

WWII ended on September 2, 1945 when the Axis powers surrendered to the Allied powers. After WWII, the Allied powers held the Potsdam Conference to determine Germany 's future. This commenced in July and August, 1945, and during this conference Germany was temporarily divided into four quadrants. However the Soviet Union was weary about integrating their quadrant with the others because of the capitalist/democratic government it would have to adopt. This created tension between the Soviet Union and the United States because of their difference in political concepts.This forced the Potsdam Conference to be the last time the Allied powers ever met together as a whole unit because of the Cold War. The Cold War

Hypocritical thing Stalin pointed out about the US was that US officials demanded democratic elections in Eastern Europe while supporting Dictatorships in Latin America.The Allies split up Germany, Soviet Union would make it a puppet communist government on the eastern section, while Britain, France, and US unified occupation zones.

The Second World War put two major sides against one another, the Axis and the Allies. These two groups of nations in alliances with one another fought for control over Europe, with Germany and its allies quickly gaining the upper hand. Soon, the Axis powers had conquered most of Europe, including the entirety France, and were focusing all their effort on Russia in the East. With the Germans gaining ground as the Russian forces weakened, the Allies needed to create a two front war to prevent the fall of Russia. There was then a turning point as the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies, beginning the end of Axis domination in Europe. The first major goal of the Allies was regaining control of Western Europe, which came on

As the relationship between the Soviet Union and the other three Allied powers quickly disintegrated, the cooperative atmosphere of the occupation of Germany turned competitive and aggressive. Although an eventual reunification of Germany had been intended, the new relationship between the Allied powers turned Germany into West versus East, democracy versus Communism.

The Cold War changed the world by dividing Germany because the Soviet Union thought that it was getting too large. This caused the powers in Europe to become unbalanced. France, America, England and Russia all had parts of Germany that were put temporarily under the Soviet Union’s control. There was a catch, according to the treaty proposals to the council were only put into effect if there was

The end of World War II saw two opposing superpowers emerging in the form of the United States of America and the Soviet Union. After dealing with Nazi Germany, these two superpowers sought to spread their individual influence throughout the world and thus the Cold War began. The Cold War wasn 't a direct War but a series of proxy wars and decades of intimidation, propaganda and espionage. Germany was occupied after the war and the Soviet Union controlled the area surrounding Berlin but not the city itself. There were already tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western allies because they felt threatened by each other and feared a new war could develop. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at this time declared that an iron curtain has descended across Europe. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin didn 't like the idea of West Germany regaining any former power so in 1948 the Soviets blockaded the Western sections of Berlin to force the other allies to give them control of the whole city. In turn, the Western allies just airlifted supplies into the city. In 1949 NATO was formed to strengthen the Western allies and Germany became divided into East and West as was Berlin itself. Stalin wanted to be in control of the countries on Russia 's borders to ensure security and because of this the Soviet Union claimed the states it had invaded during the war and established communist regimes within them. Stalin then set up secret police squads within these new regimes with orders to

Lastly, in 1948, the Soviets blockaded Western access routes to Berlin. Truman then sent airlifts to Berlin. The airlifts where of food and fuel to break the blockade. This blockade standoff did not finish until the Soviets called off their blockade with return of conference of the future of Germany. Dual containment division was accepted by the United States and Western Europe allies. This would help Western Europe to anchor the postwar European economy under U.S. occupation and surveillance leading to fuel recovery and would let France with many other countries know that Germany was contained with western alliance. The division of Germany caused the division of Germany. (Document

Democratic change in the countries of Central Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union allowed the citizens of the GDR stand up for their rights. The overthrow of the regime of Socialist Union Party, perhaps the most repressive system in the entire Soviet bloc, led the opening of borders and the destruction of the Berlin Wall, which for decades divided Germany and become a symbol of cold war. The next step was the unification of Germany, which took place with consent of world powers, and difficult to integrate backward post-communist eastern part of the rich and developed west of the country.

At the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam Conference, both powers could not agree on how to treat Germany and how to handle Europe in the post-war world. While Stalin wanted to cripple Germany through reparations and some states with soviet-influenced governments to be a “buffer” against Germany such as Poland, the USA with Britain’s support wanted to help Germany recover and protect democracy. While these conferences were taking place, Soviet armies were “freeing” countries from German control but after the Potsdam Conference, it became clear that those armies would not be leaving any time soon. This aspect made the United States fear communist expansion throughout Eastern Europe and put it in a defensive and distrusted

The origins of the Cold War remind me of my kids and them fighting over the last cookie in the cookie jar. The USA and Russia were allies during World War II, but the end of the war the divide had begun. Now the question is how did they get here? What led them to this point that would almost spiral into direct conflict and could have destroyed the earth a few times over (in class statement). It wasn't simply because of different government systems, it was deeper than that. Much like that cookie that my kids fight over. this disagreement was mostly due to distrust and long held questions of the others motives. Russia wanted acceptance on a global level and the USA was slow to give it to them. So the origins of what grew into the largest and

In late 1949, West Germany became the “German Federal Republic,” and East Germany became the “German Democratic Republic.” The battle lines were now drawn. The Allies would form NATO, and promise protection to their members should any of them be attacked. The USSR, with its allies, formed the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet Council of Mutual Assistance was held in 1949, and would lead to the integration of the new Soviet hegemony. Berlin was, in fact, a microcosm of the larger division of Germany. The proximity of the two sides of this new conflict, coupled with the advent of wider spread nuclear weapons, would lead to fear of a war unlike any had ever

This essentially led to the division of Europe becoming Western and Eastern Europe. Before the Cold War Europe was a much unified country.

The economy of Europe was crippled after the war and one of the first actions taken by the Eastern powers was the Marshall Plan. The countries that participated were given a startup fund and were brought into the United States’ economical orbit helping them get back up on their feet. Germany for instance was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing leaving businesses and homes in pieces. They had to build from the ground up but with the help of the US and other nations. After the combination of the 3 Western Allies zones they created a single new currency the Deutsche Mark. The Soviets feared that this would crucially devalue their already hyperinflated Reichsmarks that were used in the east. This crippled the Soviets hold on Berlin as well as Germany.

The Soviet Union and the United States, after World War II, began a military competition. The Soviet Union, after the end of World War II, wished to expand the buffer zone between itself and the Western world. In addition to the original Polish territory, the USSR