The

Cold War
Friday 26 February 2021 11:31

What was the Cold War?

• Following World War II the USA & Soviet Union became known as the Superpowers.
• They were the Superpowers because they were the most powerful countries in the world.
• A bitter rivalry developed between these two countries, which lasted for 50 years.
• Despite this rivalry, the superpowers never went to war, as a result this conflict was called the
cold war.

What Causes the Cold War
The Cold war developed because the USA & Soviet Union had contrasting ideas (ideologies) on
how a country should be run
America
• Free elections
• Democratic
• Capitalist
• Wealthy people do well • Personal freedom
• Freedom of the media
Soviet Union
• Dictatorship
• Communist
• Everybody treated equally
• Weak economic base
• Society controlled by the NKVD (secret police)
• Total censorship

The Iron Curtain

• When the Soviet Union defeated the Nazis in Eastern Europe they imposed pro-Russian,
Communist Govts in eastern European countries.
• These included, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania & Bulgaria.
• Stalin said this was necessary to prevent invasion from the West.
• America thought the Soviet Union wanted to take over the rest of Europe.

Germany
• The first real conflict between the Soviet Union & the USA after WWII emerged over the
question of Germany.
• The Soviet Union wanted to keep Germany weak.
• The USA wanted to make Germany wealthy so the German people would have no need to fight
a future war.
• After WWII Germany was divided into 4 occupation zones, occupied by, the USA, USSR, Britain
& France.
• In 1948 the USA wanted to unite the occupations zones to make Germany strong,