Key names and terms to know from the start Flashcards
1.Superpowers
A country is a Superpower when it has military, political, economical and cultural influence over other countries in the world.
2.Cold War
A Cold War is a war between two countries/sides when there is no direct fighting involved. There is competition through other means, such as technology (weaponry) and how much influence a particular political system has.
3.Arms Race
This was the name given to the race for better weapons that developed between the USA and the USSR from 1949 onwards, when the US used the atomic bomb against Japan to end WW2. This alarmed the USSR and they began to compete with weapons of their own. The competition escalated.
4.Satellite States
1955
= Warsaw Pact
This is the name given to what countries in Eastern Europe became after WW2. Countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria all were ensured to have governments that were Communist and friendly to the USSR.
5.Economic Aid
The USA and then the USSR began using money to influence the political system of European countries after 1948.
6.The crisis over Berlin
1949
= NATO
Berlin (and Germany) was divided into four zones at the end of WW2 by the Superpowers. Tension grew between the Superpowers over the long-term future of the city and the country, and led to, first, the USSR trying to force the influence of the USA out through a blockade in the west and then the USSR building a wall around East Berlin in 1961.
7.The crisis over Cuba
In 1959 there was a change in the government of Cuba. A man named Fidel Castro took over running the country and took control of land that the USA owned in the region. In 1961 The USA failed with an attempt to replace him as leader. A consequence of this, was that Cuba became closer allies with the USSR and in October 1962, the USSR were discovered to be placing nuclear missiles on the island.
8.Detente
Detente is a French word that literally means the “easing of tensions”
In the 1970s, due to the Cuban Missile crisis and problems within their own countries, the Superpowers of the USA and the USSR made a series of agreements that sought to ease tensions in their relationship. These agreements were abandoned at the end of the decade, when the USSR invaded Afghanistan. This event ended Detente and began, in the 1980s, a “second” Cold War.
9.Ronald Reagan
He was a particularly important and aggressive American President, who was elected in 1980 to “stand up” to the USSR. He put pressure on the USSR in a number of ways, such as by building a substantial amount of new nuclear weapons. After 1985, he became more of a “talker” with the USSR due to the man who would become the last leader of the USSR
10.Mikhail Gorbachev
The last leader of the USSR. He was very different from the leaders who came before him. He introduced small bits of capitalism to the USSR and made the government more open. His freedoms spread to the satellite states. The USSR ended as a country in 1991 and Russia became its own country.
