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Superpower relations & the cold war - Coggle Diagram
Superpower relations & the cold war
The grand alliance
Britain Russia Soviet Union
Aim was to defeat Nazi Germany
Agreements about nazi germany
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Germany would have its army banned - something called demilitarisation.
Germany would be forced to pay reparations (payments to the victors after a war). Stalin thought that Germany should pay $20bn in reparations. However, it was agreed that no monetary reparations would be paid - instead, the Alliance would each run parts of Germany.
t Yalta, the superpowers agreed on the Declaration of Liberated Europe. This was designed to aid the people who the Grand Alliance had liberated from Nazi control.
The Ideological Differences Between the Superpowers
Truman and the usa
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Truman became president of the USA after Roosevelt’s death.
He was less sympathetic towards the communist dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
Roosevelt had held the alliance together and after his death. Truman’s approach was more hard-line.
Stalin and the soviet union
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Stalin was distrustful of Truman, who demanded lots of things at Potsdam.
He was angry that, before the conference, Truman had successfully tested the atomic bomb without consulting him.
However, Stalin was already aware of the progress the USA was making.
Churchill and Britain
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Churchill believed that a defeated Germany should be rebuilt.
But Stalin wanted to weaken Germany as much as possible through reparations.
Churchill also suspected that Soviet troops would not leave the Eastern European countries that they had liberated.
Britain’s economy had been severely impacted by the war, and it could not act against the Soviet Union on its own.
The Truman doctrine
The Domino effect
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In 1947, when Truman gave the speech, communist parties, supported by the Soviet Union had control of Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria already had communist governments in 1947.
President Truman was scared that other countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East would fall to Communism.
Truman was scared of something called a ‘domino effect’. As more nations got communist governments, they would then support communist revolutions in nearby countries funding populist uprisings.
"I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way."
Iron curtain speech
Winston Churchill, no longer Prime Minister, gave a significant speech in March 1946 in Fulton, USA.
He argued that ‘an iron curtain has descended across the continent of Europe’. This iron curtain speech described the USSR's behaviour in Eastern Europe.
East-west boundaries
comecon
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Comecon was Stalin's answer to the Marshall Plan.
Comecon gave countries financial aid and encouraged them to trade with the USSR.
Any nation that joined the Comecon was banned from accepting any money from the Americans under the Marshall Plan.
The Soviet Union's satellite states - Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and East Germany all joined Comecon.
Nato
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NATO is a military alliance that is still in place today. It was founded in 1949 and united the USA, France and Great Britain under a new military alliance with the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Canada.
NATO is based on the idea of 'collective security'. Collective security means that if 1 nation is attacked, all the others will fight on its behalf.
In 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) became a member of NATO.
Cominform
.
NATO is a military alliance that is still in place today. It was founded in 1949 and united the USA, France and Great Britain under a new military alliance with the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Canada.
NATO is based on the idea of 'collective security'. Collective security means that if 1 nation is attacked, all the others will fight on its behalf.
In 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) became a member of NATO.