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Summary Bricks vwo 3 history chapter 4
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History summary H44.1 The aftermath of World War II
Yalta Conference: the meeting of US President Roosevelt, the British Prime Minister Churchill and
Soviet leader Stalin in February 1945, where they discussed Europe’s post-war reorganisation
satellite state: a state that is officially independent but is under heavy political, economic and military
control of another country
Iron Curtain: political, military and ideological barrier created by the Soviet Union to block itself and
its satellite states from open contact with the West and North America
Truman Doctrine: USA policy to stop Soviet expansion during the Cold War by supporting countries
threatened by the Soviet Union
Cold War: state of political and military tension after World War II between the West (the USA and its
NATO allies) and the East (the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies)
Marshall Plan: American aid programme to help rebuild European economies after World War II
Berlin Blockade: the blocking of all traffic to West Berlin by Stalin from 24th June 1948 to 12th May
1949
NATO: abbreviation of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; military alliance established in 1949
Berlin Wall: barrier (1961-1989) constructed by East Germany, that completely cut off West Berlin
from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin
Consequences for Germany
After the war, the Allied Powers (USA, Soviet Union, UK) agreed to help Europe repair the
damage to infrastructure and get its economy back on track
When it became clear that Hitler would lose the war, the leaders of the three Great Powers
met in February 1945, at the Yalta conference to talk about how to organise the world when
the war ended.
Stalin, US President Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister Churchill agreed that they
would divide and control Germany in four occupation zones
they also decided to establish democracies in all the liberated European countries ( including
those liberated by Stalin ) by holding free elections
When the war was over, the Allied leaders carried out the division of Germany
The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
Before World War II, there was distrust between the USA and the Soviet Union.
During the war this distrust had been buried
at the end of the war, hostilities between the old enemies were renewed, especially when
Stalin refused to allow free elections as he had promised
Instead, Stalin persisted in occupying the countries turning them into Soviet satellite states.
Both World War I and II were fought for a large part on Russian territory and the Russians
had suffered huge losses
In Stalin’s view, his country needed these satellite states as a buffer against new European
attacks
The Allied Powers were unable to drive out the Soviets from Eastern European countries, the
so-called Eastern Bloc
The result was a division of Europe between East and West
Many Eastern Europeans fled to Western Europe and to stop this continuing, the Soviet
Union fortified the Eastern Bloc border with barbed wire and watchtowers
This border barrier was part of the Iron Curtain
, The United States and Western Europe
The USA wanted to prevent more countries falling into communist hands, so in 1947, the
American President Truman announced a new foreign policy: the so-called Truman Doctrine
the USA would give economic and military support to countries or peoples threatened by
Soviet forces or communism
It was seen as the start of the cold war
A few months later, the American Secretary of State, George Marshall, devised a plan to help
Europe
Marshall saw that poverty was a pathway to communism, it was decided that the USA would
stimulate the economies of Western Europe
the so-called Marshall Plan , became operative in 1948, when the USA donated twelve billion
dollars to Western Europe
Marshall Aid boosted Western Europe’s economy and also increased cooperation between
Western European countries
Marshall offered the same help to Stalin, but he refused and even forbade his Eastern Europe
satellite states from accepting Marshall Aid
East vs West
In 1948, it was decided to unite the American, British and French occupation zones in
Germany
They did the same in Berlin -> West Berlin became a capitalist island inside the Soviet zone.
Stalin tried to take over West Berlin by blocking all traffic, preventing food and supplies of
entering West Berlin
The USA started an airlift: for 300 days, thousands of airplanes flew to West Berlin and
landed food and fuel supplies there
Eventually the Berlin blockade was lifted
Because of this crisis, the USA and Western Europe formed the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO )
The members of this Euro-American alliance agreed to support each other if one of them was
attacked by another country
The Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, a similar military alliance of the Soviet Union and
the Eastern Bloc countries.
Two German states
By 1949, the Allied forces in the occupation zones of West Germany had gradually given back
control to its inhabitants
On 23rd May 1949, West Germany became a republic (Federal Republic of Germany) with
the city of Bonn as its capital
As a response, the Soviet Union decided to turn occupied Eastern Germany into a satellite
state
On 7th October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was established,
with East Berlin as its capital
West Germany had a free market economy and became a strong economic country
East Germany had a communist planned economy, which was very inefficient
Construction of the Berlin wall
Even though the occupation zones of Berlin had borders, people could cross them, to work in
a different zone for instance
Many East Germans fled to the West
East Germany lost 2.6 million of its inhabitants between 1949 and 1961
To end this depopulation, the East German government gave the order to build a wall
between East and West Berlin during the night of 13th August 1961
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