Begining Of Cold War

Cold War The partitioning of the wold 1950 -1991

Time line featuring key events leading to the begining of the Cold War 1945-1950

The end of the war and the Big Question…. What should allies do about Germany?

Yalta Conference of February 1945 At this point of the war, it was clear that Germany was loosing the European War. Hence, the Allied leaders met at Yalta, Ukraine to plan what would happen to Europe after Germany’s defeat.

Agreements of the Yalta Conference - Stalin would enter the war against Japan once Germany had surrendered. - Germany would be divided into four zones: American, French, British and Soviet. - Berlin itself –the German captial- would also be divided into four zones itself.

• Hunt down and punish war criminals who were responsible for the genocide • Liberated countries from German occupation would hold free elections • USA, USSR and Great Britain would join the United Nations Organization to help keep peace after the war

Special agreements for the Soviet Union They had suffered terribly in the war Over 20 million soviet people died during the conflict. Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt agreed that eastern Europe should be seen as a “Soviet Sphere of influence”

Disagreement: POLAND

May 1945

American troops enter Berlin from the West As Russian troops move in from the East. The Allies had won! But once their enemy was defeated… their alliance seemed unsustainable

This war is not as in the past; whoever occupies a territory also imposes on it his own social system. Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army has power to do so. It cannot be ohterwise.

Stalin speaking, soon after the end of the Second World War, about the take over of eastern Europe

So many things changed in only five months…

Stalinist expanssion over Eastern Europe Stalin achieved domination of eastern Europe. By 1946 Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania all had Communist governments loyal to Stalin.

…The Iron Curtain… The border between Soviet controlled countries and the West was described by Churchill as an IRON Curtain… The name stuck

The end of wartime friendship The distrust between the USA and the USSR was soon so great that leaders were talking in public about the threat of war between the two countries. Insted of running down arms expenditure after the war, the two sides actually increased their stock of weapons.