1 - Origins: 1945 - 1947 Flashcards
Where and when was the first conference?
Tehran, November 1943
Where and when was the second conference?
Yalta, February 1945
Where and when was the third conference?
Potsdam, July - August 1945
What were the two main agreements made at the Tehran conference in November 1943?
1 - USA and Britain would open a ‘second front’ and attack Germany from Western Europe
2 - Stalin would declare war on Japan
What were the three consequences of the Yalta conference, February 1945?
1 - Decide the future of Germany: 4 zones of occupation, $20 billion in reparations
2 - Form United Nations: peaceful discussions to avoid war. 16 Soviet states represented as USSR
3 - Future of Eastern Europe: all liberated countries should have free elections, eg Poland could choose their government.
What were the three consequences of the Yalta conference, February 1945?
1 - Decide the future of Germany: 4 zones of occupation, $20 billion in reparations
2 - Form United Nations: peaceful discussions to avoid war. 16 Soviet states represented as USSR
3 - Future of Eastern Europe: all liberated countries should have free elections, eg Poland could choose their government. USSR gained land from Poland, Poland gained land from Germany.
What was the impact of the Yalta conference on the Cold War?
1 - Decide on the future of Germany: STRAIN RELATIONS as Allies do not trust each other not to try and influence Germany.
2 - Form a United Nation: TENSE RELATIONSHIP as the West believed that the USSR were trying to control the UN by demanding 17 votes.
3 - Future of Eastern Europe: CALM RELATIONS as West were satisfied that USSR are not going to try to force countries to be communist.
What were the three consequences of the Potsdam conference, August 1945?
1 - Confirm the future of Germany: borders for each zone of occupation. Agreed that the economy would be run as a whole.
2 - Division of Berlin: Berlin divided into four zones of occupation. Berlin was in the Soviet zone.
3 - Change reparations: Truman refused to charge Germany $20 billion because he wanted to rebuild the economy. Each country could take reparations from their own zone.
What was the impact of the Potsdam conference of August 1945 on the Cold War?
1 - Confirm future of Germany: TENSE RELATIONS as division in Germany shows that Allies don’t trust each other. STILL COMPROMISE as they plan to reunite Germany.
2 - Division of Berlin: TENSE RELATIONS as USA does not trust USSR to run the capital city. USA can use Berlin as a base to spy from.
3 - Change reparations: TENSE RELATIONSHIP as the USSR believed that the USA wanted Germany to be strong so that it could attack the USSR in the future.
Three details of the atomic bomb being dropped.
1 - it happened in August 1945
2 - the USA bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
3 - the bombs killed around 120,000 Japanese civilians
What was the impact of the dropping of the atomic bombs on the Cold War?
Truman used the bomb to pressure Stalin into allowing Eastern European countries to have more freedom, but it made Stalin more determined to make the borders of the USSR more secure. The Soviet atomic bomb was developed four years later in August 1949.
What was the Long Telegram?
A telegram from Kennan, the US ambassador to the USSR, to the American government, claiming that Stalin wanted to destroy capitalism. However, he also said that if the USA shows strong resistance the USSR would back down.
What was the Novikov Telegram?
A telegram from Novikov, the Soviet ambassador to the USA, claiming that the USA intended to use their huge military to dominate the world and that the American people no longer wanted to cooperate with the USSR.
What was the impact of the two telegrams on the Cold War?
They worsened the already strained relationship between the USA and the USSR. Each side was now highly suspicious of the other, and feared potential conflict in the future. The telegrams heightened Cold War tensions.
When was Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech?
March 1949
