the potsdam conference 1945 - key events

what 5 events happened between the yalta and potsdam conference

• Roosevelt had died and was replaced by Harry S. Truman

  • Truman adopted a tougher approach to Stalin

• Churchill had been replaced by Clement Attlee following a general election

• Germany had surrendered in May 1945

• The USA had developed a new, devastating weapon - the atomic bomb

• The United Nations had been established, with 51 members

what was the aim of the potsdam conference?

finalise agreements on post war Europe

what was the aim of the USA in the potsdam conference?

what was the aim of the UK in the potsdam conference?

what was the aim of the USA in the potsdam conference?

what were the 4 main agreements made at the potsdam conference?

what was the main point in disagreements in the potsdam conference? go into detail

reparations - hadn’t agreed on the amount

• The USSR wanted Germany to have to pay

  extremely large reparations whilst America wanted Germany to be rebuilt.

• A compromise was finally reached that each ally would take reparations from the sector of Germany which it was in control of.

• This was far less than what Stalin had wanted as the part of Germany that the USSR controlled was poorer than that of the Western Allies and had considerably less industry.

• As a result, the Western Allies agreed that the USSR could have a quarter of the industrial equipment from the Western zones but that this would have to be paid for with East German raw materials such as coal.

What were some issues made apparent at the end of the Potsdam conference? What did this mean for future relations?

• Stalin wanted control of Eastern Europe to ensure the security of the Soviet Union. In his view, getting control of Eastern Europe was a reasonable defensive measure.

• But Truman believed that Stalin was trying to spread

  communism and looked upon Stalin’s ambitions as examples of communist aggression.

• In the years 1945–46, this basic disagreement and mutual suspicion turned the wartime alliance into peacetime hostility.