Pearson Edexcel International GCSE (9–1) History: Paper 1 Depth Studies
"Fall of the Grand Alliance" - your ultimate guide to the era's most dramatic power struggles. These notes cover key events like the Potsdam Conference and Churchill’s 'Iron Curtain' speech, offering snappy summaries and insider info on the USA, USSR, and GB’s tense relations. Perfect for GCSE ...
Key Words:
Grand Alliance - USA, USSR, & GB aligned to defeat Nazi Germany
Bufferzone - zone of countries surrounding the bigger country (eg. Russia) for
protection
Sphere of Influence - area where one country has a strong say in what happened
USA - United States of America
USSR - Soviet Russia
GB - Great Britain
Good to know:
➔ By 1945, it was clear that the military strength of the USSR and the USA
made them world superpowers.
➔ USA had developed the atomic bomb, USSR was quickly starting it’s own
research & replicated the bomb by 1949
What most concerned the USA by 1945?
➔ Communist theory: communists wanted communism to spread globally
➔ USA feared communism infiltrating their capitalist society
➔ Wanted to start their own economy
➔ Felt too close to Europe due to the war, wanted separation to grow as a
country
What most concerned the USSR by 1945?
➔ Reparations from the war
◆ Stalin had lost many people and money in war, he wanted
reparations from Germany
➔ More land/protection via bufferzone
Potsdam Conference - July 1945
➔ Leaders: Stalin (USSR), Truman (USA) & Churchill (GB)
➔ Now that the war was over, the alliance started to fall apart.
◆ President Truman was strongly against communism and (unlike
Roosevelt before him), he did not get along with Stalin
◆ Truman delighted in telling Stalin about the USA’s newly developed
atomic bomb
◆ Stalin seemed calm, it actually worried him
◆ Truman wanted the USSR to feel threatened as the USA was worried
about the 2mil. Soviet troops still in Eastern Europe
◆ The Soviets had the biggest army in the world & after the war, Stalin
continued to expand the size of the army.
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