cold war: 1945

Question 1

explain the Yalta conference: 9 October 1945
(Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt)

Answer 1

-the ‘big three’ meet to sort out what would happen to Europe after war
-problems immediately arose about control of eastern Europe
-Stalin agreed to principle of ‘free elections’ in eastern Europe
-agreed that Germany was to be divided into four sections- each owned by Britain, France, the USA, and the USSR

Question 2

explain the Potsdam conference
(Stalin, Attlee, and Truman)

Answer 2

-the ‘big three’ changed: Roosevelt dead, replaced with Truman; Churchill lost election so replaced with Attlee
-Stalin didn’t feel respected by Truman, who attempted to intimidate Stalin with new of the successful atomic bomb test in the USA
-conference ended hastily so Truman could employ his new weapon

Question 3

bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 6 August and 9 August 1945

Answer 3

-“Little Boy” bomb dropped on Hiroshima (6 August 1945), capacity of 12,500 tons of TNT, killed 70,000 people within 2 seconds
-“Fat Man” bomb dropped on Nagasaki (9 August 1945), capacity of 25,000 tons of TNT, killed 50,000 within 2 seconds
-Japan unconditionally surrender on 14 August

Question 4

division of Germany

Answer 4

-Germany and Berlin divided unequally, USSR getting greater share than the other powers
-western powers determined that Berlin would still be divided also (meaning there was a ‘pocket of capitalism’ within the USSR-controlled east Germany)
-Berlin soon became the stage on which the cold war would be fought

Question 5

gradual takeover of eastern Europe

Answer 5

-Poland (1947): a coalition government took power in 1945, but communists forced non-communist leaders into exile
-Czechoslovakia (1945-48): last country to fall to communism in Eastern Europe in 1948, at elections that year, only communists allowed to stand and a communist government was duly elected
-East Germany (1949): Russians turned their zone of Germany into the German Democratic republic in 1949