History of IR (dates)

Question 1

1947

Answer 1

The confrontation became visible (as during the war the superpowers still needed each other)

Question 2

From 1945

Answer 2

the nuclear age that changed the common thinking on war and peace

(until 1949 the USA was the only country in the world that had an atomic bomb. This contributed to its status as a global superpower. In 1949, the USSR tested its first atomic bomb and was acknowledged as the second superpower)

Question 3

5 March 1946

Answer 3

British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, condemned the Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe in his famous Iron Curtain speech.

Question 4

July–August 1945

Answer 4

The Potsdam Conference

Question 5

September 1945 – May 1946

Answer 5

several meetings of the foreign ministers and their deputies happened (in a framework of the Potsdam Conference)

Question 6

August 1945

Answer 6

the Potsdam Agreement was signed by the USA, the UK, and the Soviet Union

The Allied Control Council with absolute power over Germany was founded

Question 7

March 1947

Answer 7

the last important meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Moscow. It was the last try to find a compromise solution to the German situation with the Soviets: it did not work and the policy of no return was adopted

Question 8

July–October 1946

Answer 8

Paris peace conference

Question 9

10th February 1947

Answer 9

The Paris Peace Treaty was signed

Question 10

1955

Answer 10

the Austrian State Treaty was signed in 1955 which can be considered as a peace treaty with Austria

Question 11

1951

Answer 11

US-Japan peace treaty was signed and it was a reason for the upcoming alliance.

The Soviet Union never had a peace treaty with Japan, therefore today’s Russia doesn’t have a peace treaty with Japan.

Question 12

1947–1953

Answer 12

The Classical Cold War period, a stage in which the opposition was expressed in the most aggressive ways, especially in the propaganda of both sides.

Question 13

1947

Answer 13

Marshall Plan (official name is “European Recovery Program”) is an economic aid package for Western Europe (including West Germany) by the US.

It was secretly proposed by the Secretary of State George Marshall

Question 14

September 1947

Answer 14

As a reaction to the Marshall Plan, the Soviet Union created Cominform (to ensure ideological unity)

Question 15

January 1949

Answer 15

As a reaction to the Marshall Plan, the Soviet Union created Comecon (to coordinate the economic development of the Eastern European countries)

• Both of the organizations were used as instruments of control of participating countries.

Question 16

June 1948 – May 1949

Answer 16

The First Berlin crisis (the Berlin Blockade)

Question 17

June 24 1948

Answer 17

Soviet Union shut down communication between western parts of Germany and West Berlin.

Before the crisis there were free routes between the two parts of the country (ground, water, railway plus 3 air corridors)

Question 18

By 1948

Answer 18

hopes for a German peace treaty faded away and Stalin’s original hope to drive out the western military forces from West Berlin by keeping up the blockade failed.

Question 19

May 4 1949

Answer 19

the agreement on the situation of Berlin was signed and the Soviet Union ended the blockade

Question 20

May 23 1949

Answer 20

the Federal Republic of Germany with a capital in Bonn was established (West Germany)

Question 21

October 1 1949

Answer 21

the German Democratic Republic with a capital in East Berlin was established (East Germany)

Question 22

1950–1953

Answer 22

The Korean War (the first military conflict of the Cold War).

Question 23

1947

Answer 23

the UN adopted a resolution about the withdrawal of the occupation troops from Korea, where they set the goal of the unification of the Korean peninsula by negotiations between the two sides.

Question 24

July 27 1953

Answer 24

officially the Korean War lasted until July 27 1953 when the armistice agreement was signed and the border was secured by a demilitarized zone

Question 25

1953–1956

Answer 25

the first détente period

Question 26

April 1950

Answer 26

NSC 68 (United States Objectives and Programs for National Security) was presented to President Truman.

It was one of the most important American policy statements of the Cold War about the militarization of the Cold War.

Question 27

1953

Answer 27

new leaders on both sides came to power. Eisenhower in the USA and Khrushchev in the Soviet Union.

Question 28

1958-1961

Answer 28

A Real Cold War crisis is characterized by being between the two main blocs and is a real clash of interests between the East and the West.

2nd Berlin Crisis - which was mainly triggered by the refugee crisis in the German Democratic Republic, where between 1949 and 1961 around 3 million people emigrated to West Berlin from the GDR, being a majority skilled workers and intellectuals.

Question 29

1961

Answer 29

an invasion attempt by Cuban exiles, (covertly financed and directed by the United States) that was aimed at overthrowing Fidel Castro’s communist government, known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Question 30

October 1962

Answer 30

Cuban Missile Crisis

Question 31

1964–1975

Answer 31

The Vietnam War

Question 32

1959

Answer 32

A nationwide dynamic insurgency begins between northern communist Vietnam and southern democratic Vietnam (backed by the US).