The Origins of the Cold War Flashcards
What was the Cold War?
- A state of prolonged hostility between the USSR and the West
- From 1945 - 1991
- That stopped short of direct war
What was the Cold War Characterised by?
- Threats
- Propaganda
- Proxy wars
- Military + economic competition
What was the result of the Russian Revolution in 1917?
- Russian Revolution in 1917 led to first socialist state being established
- West viewed this with fear as seemed to represent a threat to capitalism, liberal democracy + freedom
What were the main causes of the Cold War?
- Ideological differences
- Personalities
- Disagreements at wartime conferences
- Actions during WW2
What is communism characterised by?
- One party state
- Elections are contested between members of Communist Party (only legal party)
- Freedoms restricted: censorship, secret police
- State-controlled economy > production follows government plans + sold at fixed prices
What is liberal democracy characterised by?
- Multi-party free elections
- Freedom > press, speech, individual rights
- Characterised by private enterprise + competition
- Businesses owned by individuals, not state
- Government has minimal interference
- Free market determines quantity + cost of goods produced
Why did the Grand Alliance collapse?
- Alliance between UK, US + USSR was a ‘marriage of convenience’
- Churchill respected but didn’t trust Stalin
- Roosevelt was a realist who was more concerned with winning war against Hitler
- Cracks between Allies emerged during conferences that took place during the war
What happened at Moscow conference in 1944?
- Post war spheres of influence discussed
- Churchill + Stalin informally carved up Eastern Europe, but was opposed by US
- Perhaps why Stalin sought more forceful ways of protecting his borders
Why did Stalin initially agree to join the IMF and World Bank at Bretton Woods?
Stalin initially agreed to join the IMF and World Bank with the promise of a loan
Why did Stalin end up not joining the IMF and World Bank?
- US imposed conditions, such as opening up of Eastern European + USSR markets to
USA - USSR refused as this was seen as giving US power to determine diplomatic + internal politics in those countries through economic levers
What was decided about Germany at the Yalta conference in 1945?
- Division of Germany into zones of occupation
- Trail of Nazi war criminals
- USSR was keen Germany should not re-emerge as military threat
What was decided about the Polish government at the Yalta conference in 1945?
- Pledged to hold free elections in Poland
- Churchill wanted exiled Polish government to take power
- But Stalin sought influence over Poland because Russia had been invaded via Poland 3 times in 20th Century
What was decided about USSR at the Yalta conference in 1945?
- USSR would join the war against Japan
- USSR would join the UN
At Potsdam (1945) why did US want an entirely new government?
- US wanted an entirely new government in Poland as they felt the elections there had not been ‘free’
- Despite Stalin’s offer to include more exiled Poles in the Lublin based government
At Potsdam (1945) why were the US unhappy with the spread of the Red Army across eastern Europe?
- The US were unhappy with the spread of the Red Army across eastern Europe
- And the influence this afforded Stalin over the governments there
