10.1: the aftermath of WW2 - TEXT -

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 3

AGE 10. The Time of Television and Computers

10.1: The aftermath of World War 2

and the beginning of the Cold War

What is this lesson about?

After a devastating war, the Allied Powers agreed to help Europe repair the damage to infrastructure and get its economy back on track. 

However, different political views resulted in a divided Europe. How could this happen?

Tensions in the post-war period between the USA and the Soviet Union led to the Cold War. This divided Europe into two parts: the democratic Western countries (including West Germany) and the Eastern Bloc countries: East Germany and the Soviet satellite states. The free market economy of Western Europe prospered with the Marshal Plan aid, while the communist economy in Eastern Europe failed to promote prosperity.

Word Duty

Yalta Conference: the meeting of US President Roosevelt, the British Prime Minister Churchill and Soviet leader Stalin in February 1945, where they discussed Europe’s post-war reorganisation

satellite state: a state that is officially independent but is under heavy political, economic and military control of another country

Iron Curtain: political, military and ideological barrier created by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West

Truman Doctrine: USA policy to stop Soviet expansion during the Cold War by supporting countries threatened by the Soviet Union

Cold War: state of political and military tension after World War II between the West (the USA and its NATO allies) and the East (the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies)

Marshall Plan: American aid programme to help rebuild European economies after World War II

Berlin Blockade: the blocking of all traffic to West Berlin by Stalin from 24th June 1948 to 12th May 1949

NATO: abbreviation of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; military alliance established in 1949

Warsaw Pact: military alliance of the USSR and its satellite states

Berlin Wall: barrier (1961-1989) constructed by East Germany, that completely cut off West Berlin 

from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin

KEY WORDS

people in this lesson

Roosevelt

president

USA

Churchill

prime minister

UK

Stalin

Leader

USSR

Truman

president

USA

Important dates in this lesson:

1945:  Yalta Conference (Feb)

           Roosevelt dies and is succeeded by president Truman (Apr)

           VE-Day (May)

1947:  Truman announces Truman Doctrine

1948:  Marshall Plan

           Berlin Blockade

           forming of NATO

           forming of Warsaw Pact

1949:  forming of Western Germany (FRG)

           forming of Eastern Germany (GDR)

           first Soviet atomic bomb tested

1961:  construction Berlin Wall

What you can explain / do after this lesson?

Use these questions as a guideline to create your own summary

1. How was post-war Germany divided amongst the Allies?
2. Why and how did Stalin turn Eastern European countries into satellite states?
3. How did the USA try to prevent the spread of communism in Europe?
4. Why and when were NATO and the Warsaw Pact created?
5. How did Germany become two different states? (and what were the main differences?)
6. Why was the Berlin Wall created?

Consequences for Germany

When it became clear that Hitler would lose the war, the leaders of the three Great Powers met in February 1945, in Yalta, to talk about how to organise the world when the war ended. At this Yalta Conference, Stalin, US President Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister Churchill agreed that they would divide and control post- war Germany in four occupation zones. Among other things, they decided also to establish democracies in all the liberated European countries – including those liberated by Stalin - by holding free elections. When the war was over, the Allied leaders carried out the division of Germany and of Berlin.

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

Before World War II, there was distrust between the USA and the Soviet Union. During the war, whilst fighting a mutual enemy, this distrust had been buried. But at the end of the war, hostilities between the old enemies were renewed, especially when Stalin refused to allow free elections in the Eastern European countries, as he had promised at the Yalta conference. Instead, Stalin persisted in occupying the countries his Red Army had liberated, turning them into Soviet satellite states.

A satellite state is officially independent but is under full political, economic and military control of another country. Both World War I and II were fought for a large part on Russian territory and the Russians had suffered huge losses. In Stalin’s view, his country needed these satellite states as a buffer against new European attacks. 

although liberated by the Soviets, the new Yugoslav peresident Tito was able to break his country free from Stalin's control in 1948.

The Allied Powers were unable to wage war to drive out the Soviets from Eastern European countries, the so-called Eastern Bloc. The result was a division of Europe between East and West. Many Eastern Europeans fled to Western Europe and to stop this continuing, the Soviet Union fortified the Eastern Bloc border with barbed wire and watchtowers. This border barrier was part of the Iron Curtain: the political, military and ideological barrier that the Soviet Union established, to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the democratic countries of Western Europe and North America.

Red is eastern and blue is western. Little error in the map

The United States and Western Europe

The USA wanted to prevent more countries falling into communist hands, so in 1947, the American President Truman announced a new foreign policy: the so-called Truman Doctrine. With this policy, the USA would give economic and military support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communism. Historians see the speech in which Truman announces his doctrine as the start of the Cold War.

A few months later, the American Secretary of State, George Marshall, devised a plan to help Europe. Marshall saw that poverty was a pathway to communism, so to cut off this danger, it was decided that the USA would stimulate the economies of Western Europe. This plan, the so-called Marshall Plan, became operative in 1948, when the USA donated twelve billion dollars to Western Europe. Marshall Aid boosted Western Europe’s economy and also increased cooperation between Western European countries. Marshall offered the same help to Stalin, but he refused and even forbade his Eastern Europe satellite states from accepting Marshall Aid.

One of a number of posters created by the US government, to sell the Marshall Plan in Europe, 1950.

A: Berlin in 1948

B: Germany in 1948

Map A

Map B

East vs West

In 1948, it was decided to unite the American, British and French occupation zones in Germany. They did the same in Berlin, so West Berlin became a capitalist island inside the Soviet zone. Stalin tried to take over West Berlin by blocking all traffic, preventing food and supplies of entering West Berlin. The USA responded to this Berlin Blockade by starting an airlift: over the next three hundred days, thousands of Allied airplanes flew to West Berlin and landed food and fuel supplies there. Eventually the blockade was lifted. Because of this crisis, the USA and Western Europe formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The members of this Euro-American alliance agreed to support each other if one of them was attacked by another country. The Soviet Union responded by creating the Warsaw Pact, a similar military alliance of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries.

West Berlin children cheering an American airplane bringing supplies as part of the Berlin airlift operation

Two German States

By 1949, the Allied forces in the occupation zones of West Germany had gradually given back control to its inhabitants. On 23rd May 1949, West Germany became the Federal Republic of Germany - or simply: West Germany - with the city of Bonn as its capital. As a response, the Soviet Union decided to turn occupied Eastern Germany into a satellite state. On 7th October 1949, the German Democratic Republic - or East Germany - was established, with East Berlin as its capital. The differences between East and West Germany became increasingly marked: West Germany had a free market economy and became a strong economic country, while East Germany had a communist planned economy, which was very inefficient. Side by side, these two nations offered a perfect way to compare the two major economic systems in the world.

West Germany: Bundes Republic Deutschland (BRD)

East Germany: Deutsche Democratische Republic (DDR)

Construction of the Berlin Wall

In East Germany, the Berlin Wall was called: The Anti-Fascist Protective Wall. This implied that the East German authorities considered the Western world as equal to fascists.

Even though the occupation zones of Berlin had borders, people could cross them, to work in a different zone for instance. Many East Germans saw this as a hole in the Iron Curtain and fled to the West. In this way, East Germany lost 2.6 million of its inhabitants between 1949 and 1961. To end this depopulation, the East German government gave the order to build a wall between East and West Berlin during the night of 13th August 1961. The Berlin Wall had an enormous impact on the lives of many Berliners: people lost their jobs or were separated from their families.

source A

The brother of the deceased is standing with his family on a ladder in West Berlin and, in this way, takes part in the funeral. The widow, who lives in East Berlin, has chosen a plot near the control strip. Dated 31st May 1963.

'On what became known as "Barbed Wire Sunday", some awoke to find themselves suddenly trapped in the Soviet sectors, seperated overnight from family, friends and loved ones who happened to live on the other side of the Wall.'

source B

 Article in the Sydney Morning Herald. Date unknown.

That's it. All clear?

Write down one question about something in this lesson that you still don't fully understand.
Just a writing down the number of a difficult question will not suffice. You must clearly formulate WHAT you do not understand.

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