Causes of World War II
● Treaty of Versailles (1919): Harsh conditions imposed on Germany, leading to economic hardship and
resentment. Rise of revanchism in Germany and unite Germany.
● Rise of Totalitarian Regimes: Dictators like Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, and
militaristic leaders in Japan pursued expansionist policies. Autoritarian states are more aggressive than
democracies
● Expansionism and Aggression: Germany's invasion of Poland (1939), Italy's invasion of Ethiopia,
and Japan's expansion in Asia.
● Appeasement: Western democracies, especially Britain and France, initially allowed Germany to
annex territories, hoping to avoid conflict.
● Failure of the League of Nations: The League was ineffective in preventing aggression or enforcing
international laws.
Quiz on Japan
https://forms.gle/CdxmUNnCHfHH99VD6
The Cold War 1945-
1991
Explain why the peace following World War II
was problematic. How did it create issues for
the Allies? How did the situation worsen in the
late 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s with
focus on Germany and Korea?
Two sides of Cold War
• NATO – North • Warsaw Pact – pro
Atlantic Treaty Soviet countries –
Organization USSR, and all
• USA, France, Great countries controlled
Britain, West by the USSR.
Germany • COMMUNISM
• CAPITALISM
Causes to The Cold War
What they believed in (Ideology)
Aims
Resentment about history
Events
Causes to The Cold War
1. What they believed ('Ideologies')
● The Soviet Union was a Communist country, which 3. Resentment about History
was ruled by a dictator and put the needs of the ● The Soviet Union could not forget that in 1918
state ahead of personal human rights. Britain and the USA had tried to destroy the
● The USA was a capitalist democracy which valued Russian Revolution.
freedom and feared Communism. ● Britain and the USA could not forget that Stalin
It was not just that the two ideologies were conflicting - they had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany
were militant and expansionist. They both believed that the in 1939.
alternative ideology was a threat to their own way of life, and
that the only way for the world to be happy was for their These resentments were part of the underlying ideological
particular ideology to take over the world. This mixture of gulf between the two sides, but they also provided
ideological fear and aggression meant that in both America and
weapons in the propaganda war which both sides waged
Russia, their beliefs invaded and affected their foreign policies.
against each other.
2. Aims
● Stalin wanted huge reparations from Germany,
and a ‘buffer’ of friendly states to protect the 4. Events
USSR from being invaded again. Against this background of underlying differences in
● Britain and the USA wanted to protect democracy, ideologies, and aims, and historical resentments,
and help Germany to recover. They were worried there were a series of events which bit-by-bit broke
that large areas of eastern Europe were falling down the alliance and turned the allies of the war
under Soviet control. into enemies.
This meant that the 'Big Three' found it difficult to get
agreement at the Conferences (Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam) Neither side trusted the other. Because they were so
which outlined the principles of the post-war peace. different, each side saw each event differently, and
believed they were in the right ... and that the other side
And it proved impossible to get agreement on the details at was in the wrong. So every action they took made them
the Conference of Ministers - set up after the war to agree the hate each other more:
post-war settlement - and the Conference eventually broke
down altogether:
YALTA (in the USSR)
Date: Feb 1945
Present: Churchill,
Roosevelt and Stalin
Yalta, February 1945
● The meeting was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn
Europe, especially focusing on German reparations and post-war occupation as well as
Poland.
● Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three, preceded by the
Tehran Conference in 1943 and followed by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945.
● Each leader had an agenda for the Yalta Conference: Roosevelt wanted Soviet support
in the U.S. Pacific War against Japan and Soviet participation in the UN; Churchill
pressed for free elections and democratic governments in Eastern and Central Europe
(specifically Poland); and Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in
Eastern and Central Europe.
● Stalin pledged to permit free elections in Poland, “because the Russians had greatly sinned
against Poland.”
● It was decided that Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification and be
split into four occupied zones: Soviet, British, French, and American zones.
Iron Curtain –
A term used by
Winston
Churchill
to describe the
separating of
Those
communist
lands of East
Europe from
the
West.
POTSDAM (Germany)
Date: July 1945
Present: Churchill,
Truman and Stalin
Potsdam, July 1945
By the time of the Conference, Stalin's troops controlled the Baltic States. ... Truman informed Stalin at the
start of the Conference that USA had successfully tested an atomic bomb, leading to increased suspicion
and tension.
Some Historians believe that the Potsdam conference in July 1945 was less successful than Yalta in
February 1945, due to the tensions built from the large amounts of disagreements over post-war
Europe and the actions of Stalin after the Yalta conference and Truman's over confidence during the
event.
Very little was agreed at Potsdam. The three leaders at that time had many disagreements:
● They disagreed over what to do about Germany.
● They disagreed over Soviet policy in eastern Europe. Truman was unhappy of Russian intentions.
● Stalin wanted to cripple Germany, Truman did not want to repeat the mistakes of Versailles.
● They disagreed over reparations. Once again Stalin wanted to cripple Germany, and Truman wanted to avoid
another war.
● Truman was angry because Stalin had arrested non-communist leaders in Poland.
● Truman dropped the atomic bomb so that Japan would surrender before Russian troops could go into Japan.
America had the bomb in July 1945, but Truman did not tell Stalin about it. When he saw how he had been
tricked, Stalin was furious.
Slicing salami
By 1948, the Soviet Union
had established
communist regimes in all
of the territories that they
had “liberated” during
World War Two.
The Hungarian Communist
Rakosi described this
process as “Salami
Tactics” because Stalin
sliced away opposition bit
by bit.
Key question for US
and its NATO allies:
HOW FAR WILL
STALIN GO?
(Legacy of the Russian
Revolution - spread the
revolution)
Fulton Speech 1946 Churchill
meets with Truman “Iron
Curtain”
The "Iron Curtain" reference:
"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent."
The division of Europe:
"Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague,
Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia... All these famous cities and the populations around them lie in
what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, to control by Moscow."
The warning about Soviet actions:
"The Communist parties... have been raised to power by the U.S.S.R. and the Soviet Union is using these parties
to gain control of the countries in which they operate."
Truman Doctrine - 1947
The Truman Doctrine in
March 1947 promised
that the USA “would
support free peoples
who are resisting”
communism.
This led to containment –
policy of containing
communism where it is.
Domino Theory
Communism spreads like a disease
Marshall Plan - 1947
USA’s plan to send food, blankets,
fuel to Europe to help them. AND to
keep them from turning communist.
Europe poor = Attracted by communism
US fear of communism..
Solution = “Make Europe great again”
But not everyone agreed on this plan and it wasn’t
signed until...
Czechoslovakia 1948
At first, the American Congress did not want to give the money for Marshall Aid. But then, in February 1948, the
Communists took power in Czechoslovakia, followed on 10 March by the suspicious suicide of the popular minister
Jan Masaryk.
Congress was scared, and voted for Marshall Aid on 31 March 1948.
Source F ►
This cartoon of 18 June 1947 by EH Shepard for the British
magazine Punch shows Truman and Stalin as
two taxi-drivers trying to get customers.
The 'customers' are labelled 'Turkey', 'Hungary', 'Bulgaria', 'Austria'.
Cominform 1947 and Comecon
1949
● The Soviet Union hated Marshall aid. Stalin
forbade Communist countries to ask for money.
● Members of Cominform/Comecon belonged to
the communist parties of France, Hungary, Italy,
Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union
and Yugoslavia.
● The main intention of the Cominform was to
coordinate actions of the communist parties
under Soviet direction. Ideological purpose
● Comecon was set up for economic development
and to balance The Marshall Plan.
I
1948 Berlin Blockade led to
Berlin Airlift
After the failure of
the promise of
Korean
independence by
the Allied nations,
on June 25, 1950,
communist North
Korean troops
invaded South
Korea.
Debate on the start of The Cold War
5 min long
What perspectives are
there?
What are the
arguments?
Korean War
Summary
Podcast: Origins to The Cold War
16 min long
Listen and take notes.
And History Extra.
51 min -
Everything you need to
know about the Cold wa
r.
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