IEB Grade 12 history notes on the creation of spheres of influence in the Cold War. This topic is part of Paper 1 for 2020. It includes the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan as well as Communist expansion into Europe
- This led to the USSR pulling out of WW1 and created tension amongst the Allies
- The Bolsheviks implemented communism which was a threat to capitalism
- The Allies supported the White Army which fought the Bolshevik’s Red Army
Tensions between the USA and the USSR increased in the 1930s
- America values individual freedom and Stalin’s purges went against their ideology (West
mistrust heightened)
- West did not support Stalin’s arrest and execution of critics (West mistrust heightened)
- East signed the "Non-aggression Pact" (23 August 1939) with Germany after the Allies left
the USSR to fight Germany by themselves (East mistrust heightened)
- The Eastern Bloc saw West to be appeasing Hitler and directing Nazi aggression to the East
(East mistrust heightened)
- USSR excluded from the Munich Conference (1938) which involved Hitler wanting parts of
Czechoslovakia (East mistrust heightened)
Tensions were still high during WW2
- East and West were allies of convenience – both opposed Hitler (ie: common enemy)
- West only opened a second front in the Normandy Landings in 1944 (left brunt of fighting to
USSR)
- The USA kept the atomic weapons technology a secret
- USSR was found to have secretly massacred prisoners of war ("an act of genocide")
Yalta Conference: “Protocol of Proceedings” (4 – 11 February 1945 in Crimea, Russia)
- Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin discussed what would happen with Germany after they
surrendered (division of Germany, alteration of Polish borders, Nuremberg Trials)
- Creation of the United Nations
- Commission created to discuss reparations (Russia wanted compensation to weaken
Germany and prevent another war, USA felt Russian demands were too high)
- Soviets to withdraw from occupied territory but Eastern Europe to become a “sphere of
Soviet influence”
Potsdam Conference: 17 July – 2 August 1945 (Potsdam, East Germany)
- Atlee (Churchill lost British elections), Truman (Roosevelt had died) and Stalin formalised the
division of Germany and Berlin
- Decided that war reparations were to be extracted from their own zones (Soviet – mainly
raw materials, West – industrialised goods)
- Truman was aggressive, he was anti-communist and knew that USA had atomic capabilities
(it was dropped 4 days later – Stalin was not warned)
- Germany was to be disarmed and demilitarised and jointly ruled under the Allied Control
Council – treated as a single economic unit
, Tensions remained after WW2 with regards to the division of Germany and problems developed
- The Allied Control Council failed – each country could veto one another and no decisions
were made
- Accusations from both sides that they were not following the agreements of the Potsdam
Conference
- Conflicting economic ideologies (capitalism vs communism, democracy vs dictatorship) led
to more tension
- Each zone had different goods, East – raw materials, West – industrial goods
- West wanted economic recovery so created a bizone (USA and UK)
- East had slow economic recovery as they were extracting reparations and had collectivised
agriculture and nationalised industry
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