Cold War Unit 1 - Reasons for the Cold War 1920s-1945

Question 1

The Grand Alliance

Answer 1

1941-1945 alliance between UK (Churchill), USA (FDR) and USSR (Stalin) to fight off Hitler’s Germany

Question 2

Cold War conflict

Answer 2

• Not military conflict
• Superpowers used propaganda, spying and threat of war
• Build up of conventional armies and nuclear weapon arsenals

Question 3

Differing ideologies

Answer 3

• USSR believed in communism
• USA and UK believed in capitalism
• Both feared the spread of the other’s belief

Question 4

Features of communism

Answer 4

• Single-party rule
• Classless society - everyone equal
• All property owned by state - no individual ownership
• Rights of all workers more important that individual rights

Question 5

Features of capitalism

Answer 5

• Free elections with a choice of parties to vote for
• Some can have more power than others
• Private ownership and competition between businesses
• Individual freedoms valued but limited by majority opinion

Question 6

Russian revolution & its effect on relations

Answer 6

• October 1917
• Russian civili war between bolsheviks/communists and empire supporters
• Russia pulled out of WW1 - allies mad
• Allies helped trying to take down bolsheviks
• Bolsheviks still won and made Russia communist in 1922
• Communists knew west was opposed

Question 7

Nazi-Soviet Pact

Answer 7

• Pact between Hitler and Stalin in August 1939 that agreed to split Poland
• Later broken in June 1941 when hitler invaded the USSR

Question 8

Second front delaying

Answer 8

• Second front opened in 1944
• Done to take pressure off the USSR
• Staline believed delay was deliberate so US and UK could make USSR and Germany weak

Question 9

Tehran conference

Answer 9

• November 1943
• First meeting of the Grand alliance
• Agreement for USA and UK to open up second front on Germany
• Agreement for Stalin to declare war against Japan and help USA after Europe war was over
• No agreement on splitting of Germany
• Agreement to lay grounds for future creation of United Nations

Question 10

Yalta conference

Answer 10

• February 1945
• Done to discuss end of WW2 and post WW2
• Agreement to split Germany in four zones - UK, USA, USSR, France
• Agree to make Germany pay $20B in reparations - half go to USSR
• Nazi part to be banned and war criminals persecuted
• United Nations to be set up - first meeting April 25th 1945
• Stalin wanted all 16 Soviet republics in UN, only allowed 2 others than Russia
• Stalin agreed to help fight Japan 3 months after end in Europe
• Stalin agreed to free elections in Eastern Europe
• Issue of what to do with Poland

Question 11

Potsdam conference

Answer 11

• July-August 1945
• Roosevelt replaced by Truman due to death
• Churchill lost voting to Clement Attlee
• Germany surrender in May 1945
• USA had developed atomic bomb
• Truman wanted to get tough with Stalin
• Attlee wanted talks to be quick to focus on domestic issues
• Agree to split Germany held
• Agreement to split Berlin in four zones as well
• Agreement to take reparations from each zone to not economically cripple Germany
• No agreement on Eastern Europe
• Truman objected to Poland arrangements - wanted to see less communist influence

Question 12

Stalin’s buffer zone

Answer 12

Stalin wanted a buffer zone of communist sympathizers between USSR and Germany