Tehran, Yalta & Postdam

What was the Grand Alliance?

Alliance formed by the USA, USSR, and UK to defeat the Nazis, led by Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill.

When was the Grand Alliance formed?

formed in 1941

When/what was the Tehran Conference?

Meeting of the Big Three in Nov 1943

What was the outcome of the Tehran conference?

• USA & UK agreed to open a 'second front' in Western Europe

• to establish an international body

• Germany would have to surrender unconditionally

When/what was the Yalta Conference?

Meeting in Feb 1945 where agreements were made

What was the outcome of the Yalta conference?

• Germany would be split into four zones

• Germany would pay $20 billion in reparations

• United Nations formed

• Poland’s borders would return to their position in 1921

• Disagreement about Poland and free elections (USA & USSR)

When did Germay surrneder?

May 1945

What/when was Potsdam Conference?

Conference in August 1945 with Truman, Attlee, and Stalin,

What were the agreements made at the Postdam Conference?

• Agreed to run Germany’s economy as a whole

• Berlin is also divided into 4 zones

• each country allowed to take reperations from its own zone

• USSR was allowed to take a quarter of the industrial equipment from other zones

What were the differences between the superpowers and attitudes of Stalin, Truman and Churchill? 

• Britain & USA were capitalist democracies but USSR was a communist dictatorship.  

• Churchill was from an aristocratic family and believed in the British Empire

• Stalin ruled USSR since 1920s and was convinced that the West wanted to destroy communism

• Truman was much more suspicious of the USSR than Roosevelt had been

Second Front

Agreement to launch an attack on Germany in Western Europe during WWII, known as D-Day.

United Nations

International body established to settle disputes through discussion, founded in 25 April 1945.

Reparations

Payments made by Germany after WWII, with agreements at Yalta for $20 billion, half to the USSR.

Red Army

Soviet army that 'liberated' Eastern Europe from the Nazis and remained in the region post-WWII.

Communist Government

Form of government desired by the USSR in Eastern Europe, leading to disagreements with the USA.

Capitalist Democracies

Political systems of the USA and Britain, contrasting with the communist dictatorship in the USSR.

How did the atomic bomb affect Truman and Stalin?

The USA having the atomic bomb made Truman more confident at Potsdam, while Stalin became more determined to create a communist buffer zone in Eastern Europe.

Why did Western European countries move closer to the USA after 1945?

Many Western European countries felt safer under American protection because of the USA’s military strength and atomic bomb.

How did the USSR create satellite states in Eastern Europe?

Voters were intimidated into supporting communists and opposition politicians were imprisoned, removed, or forced to flee.

What happened in Hungary between 1947 and 1949?

Voters were intimidated into voting communist in 1947, and by 1949 Hungary became a one-party communist state.

What happened in Poland’s 1947 elections?

Although elections were supposedly free, pro-democracy politicians were imprisoned or forced to flee.

What happened during the 1948 coup in Czechoslovakia?

Communists staged a coup, forcing out Benes and replacing him with the pro-Soviet communist Klement Gottwald.

Why did Soviet control of Eastern Europe increase Cold War tensions?

The USA believed the USSR was aggressively spreading communism across Europe.