The Division Of Germany And Europe

An “iron curtain” of Communism spread over Eastern Europe as the post-World War II world tried to re-build Germany and Easter Europe. As the dictator Joseph Stalin sealed off the Eastern Bloc, the rest of Europe began to re-build under a democratic rule. This re-building continued and the USSR continued to keep their “totalitarian” hold on the East. As the Cold War continued the battle that was being fought soon became the battle between the two world super powers. This led to many conflicts and continued up until finally in 1989 the Berlin Wall was taken down reuniting Western and Eastern Germany and bringing down the “iron curtain“ that shaded the East from freedom.

The expansion during the Wilhelmine period in Germany and the sociopolitical factors of that time helped start a war that more than Germany alone were responsible for starting. This war, that started in 1914, came to be known the Great War and was later known as World War I. This war was a defining moment in German and world history as a whole. Although Germany was not solely responsible for starting the war, there were certain actions that Germany did to help lead to World War I.

Changes were happening all over Europe between World War I and World War II, and the book Europe in the Era of Two World Wars highlights a lot of them. Volker Berghahn, the author, discusses how violence escalated all across Europe during this time frame. The book digs into the desires and upsets of countries like Germany, Britain, France, and Russia, during war times more than others I have read do. Economies of each country and the escalading violence are the main focuses of the book. In the following review of Berghahn’s work, Europe in the Era of Two World Wars, I will highlight why the author is qualified to write the book, and survey the strengths and weakness of the information he provided.

The epoch that the cartoon was drawn in was defined by the emergence of a central force in geopolitics: The nation-state. The force of nationalism, neither benevolent

Over the last century, Germany has been solely held responsible for the outbreak of World War One in popular culture and by historians. Although German military expansion helped push Europe to war, it would be a biased explanation for a conflict that had intertwined many other nations and ideals. In reality, many other cultural and socio-political factors, both within and outside Imperial Germany, made contributions in starting the First World War.

There is a difference seen between Americans and Germans in the way politics are viewed. Considering the rough past with political leaders that Germany has endured, they have a reason to view it differently. This could also be attributed to building up a country that has lost everything. Germany is a country that has seen many trials and tribulations, to get to where they are. Therefore, they have many different tendencies than other countries. For Germans, they have a sense of verbindlich that is related to politics on a large scale.

Changes in Germany during the 1700s was greatly influenced by Great Britain, which had gone through its Agricultural Revolution and Industrial Revolution in an amazingly short time. Germans worked toward industrialization, like other countries in Europe, but Germany did not reach an Industrial Revolution by 1800 due to a lack of an increase in food to feed the growing population, being reliant on other countries for resources and market, and a government that wasn’t hands-free nor pro-business. Even though Germany had a large population that grew during the 18th century, there was no significant increase in food production to feed the growing populace. A country must go through an Agricultural Revolution, and produce sufficient crop yields to be able to feed the population. There is no point in the population increasing if there isn’t enough food to feed the people.

rich soils, good fishing waters, wild animals that could be domesticated, and plentiful wood for building, & mineral fuels and ores made industrialization possible.

Most people in Germany supported the emperor’s idea of “civil peace”. The other people who disagreed were forced to agree whether they like the idea or not. In August 1, 1914, German Emperor Wilhelm II gave a speech at the royal palace in Berlin filled with a crowd of 40,000 people. Wilhelm II desired to unite the country by telling his people that “all that matters now is that we Germans stand together like brothers” (Doc 1). The speech that he conveyed rallied up the Germans to hope for the unification of their country by standing up together as brothers to help unite Germany. Wilhelm II’s view of a “civil peace” was supported by an abundant amount of civilians.

“He who wants the world to remain as it is doesn't want it to remain at all” - Unknown. The East Germans did not want West Germany to excel.(simple) They had meny disagreements leading up to the building of the wall.(simple)

In the late 1800’s, The Unification of Germany was a major historical event. Germany used to go by the name Prussia but later on in history it changed. Otto Von Bismarck transformed Germany from what it used to be,a loose depended confederation of separate states into an independent powerful empire. Nationalism was essential in those unifications. Bismarck used a sense of national pride, particularly against foreign powers, to unite their respective states. He made certain alliances and used other strategies to do this, including leading Prussia into several wars. Defeating France and Austria was the main focus in order to establish his dream of unification. Successful in the Franco Prussian War and Austro Prussian War helped unite northern

Many countries were involved in WWI, Germany being one of them. It is arguable whether Germany is responsible for the outbreak of war or rather the responsibility of individual countries such as Britain, Russia, France, Austria-Hungary and the Balkans collectively. However, Germany should be blamed to the full extent of starting WW1 due to the reasons that Germany had unconditional support for Austria, Germany 's war plans were planned to cause more conflict and Germany 's mobilization schedule.

As people continued to leave East Berlin, the Soviet Union needed a plan to keep people from fleeing to the west. So, on August 13, 1961 the Berlin Wall was built and cut off all forms of transportation between the two sides. Families were separated, people lost their jobs, and many people even died trying get to the other side of the wall. It was originally built using barbed wire fencing until they upgraded it to concrete. But, on November 9, 1989 the wall was torn down and reunited Europe. People climbed up on the wall and were tearing it down piece by piece and eventually people were able to freely walk between the East and the

“The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood”—Otto von Bismarck. This excerpt from Otto von Bismarck’s famous Blood and Iron Speech is perhaps the most telling introduction to the politics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Germany, as well as the world. Bismarck made this speech in front of the Landtag’s Budget Committee in 1862 in order to persuade the committee to make necessary increases to Prussian military spending; which would allow then Prussian Foreign Minister Bismarck to conduct the military reforms necessary to wage the Franco-Prussian War and thus unify Germany. However, today it is clear that the theme of blood and iron did not

By 1945 nearly all of Eastern Europe including Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary was under Soviet control. In Fulton, Missouri on 5 March 1946 the British prime minister Winston Churchill gave his famous 'Iron Curtain' speech, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent..."[1] This meant that Europe was divided into two: a Soviet controlled East, and a 'free West'. Churchill wanted and Anglo-American alliance but American President Harry S Truman did not support this as he and most Americans hoped that America and Russia would still co-operate as they had during the war. Churchill's speech