![]() Stalin’s desire to dominate eastern Europe as a buffer zone against attacks from the West was understandable, given the history of European wars and the tremendous sacrifices of blood and treasure by the Soviets during the war that had just ended. and the “West”.ĭespite promised democratic elections, by 1949 the Soviets had set up one-party communist states mirroring their own in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. After the war’s end, Eastern Europe and Asia would both be areas of contention between the U.S.S.R. Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan three months after the German surrender. In exchange, Roosevelt and Churchill essentially agreed to accept the Soviet military occupation of eastern Europe. The Allies were interested in winning the Second World War, but were all aware that they were not natural allies in the long run. Roosevelt and Churchill urged Stalin to join them in defeating Germany’s final Axis partner. Stalin had signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Japan in 1941 which both sides had maintained during the conflict. World War II in Europe was nearly over when Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met at Yalta in February 1945, but the war in the Pacific was still unresolved. Occupation zone borders in Germany, and the four zones of Berlin, 1947. and the Soviet Union, which would not be fought directly between the two superpowers, but rather through proxy wars in the developing world over most of the next five decades. It would turn out that this would be the beginning of the Cold War between the U.S. ![]() In exchange, Roosevelt and Churchill essentially agreed to the Soviet military occupation of Eastern Europe. Stalin had signed a Non-Aggression Pact with the Japanese in 1941, which both sides maintained during the conflict at Yalta, he pledged to declare war on Japan three months after the German surrender. This fact weighed heavily on the British and Americans, who were hoping for Soviet help in defeating Japan. World War Two in Europe was nearly over when Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met at Y alta in February 1945, but the war in the Pacific was still ongoing. Interestingly, both accused their antagonist of being an empire.Įuropean military alliances during the Cold War One side said it was protecting the world from the threat of totalitarian communist imperialism and the other said it was protecting the world from imperialist capitalism. Defending like-minded governments against a different political or economic philosophy. Creating a buffer-zone to protect the homeland. The Soviets and the Americans justified their actions in a variety of ways. To a great extent, the Cold War was a struggle by each superpower to extend its sphere of influence and block the other from doing the same. Instead, the superpowers supported or intervened in the conflicts of nations in their spheres of influence. launched attacks on the territories of the other. ![]() A defining element of the Cold War was that it did not become a hot war. When we think of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, we typically imagine the thousands of nuclear missiles each nation pointed toward the other and of a clash of ideologies as communism and capitalism battled for world supremacy.
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