WWII to Cold War

Cold War: Mikhail Gorbachev

• In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union.
• The nation was suffering from stagnation and losing a war in Afghanistan.
• To preserve Communism, Gorbachev introduced reforms.
  • Glasnost: Greater freedom of expression; dissidents were freed from Soviet prisons.
  • Perestroika ("restructuring"): Limited economic reforms that allowed small private businesses and gave factory managers greater control over production.
• Foreign Policy:
  • Gorbachev withdrew troops from Afghanistan.
  • He held summit talks with the U.S.

Cold War: Collapse of the Soviet Union

• Gorbachev's reforms unexpectedly led to the demise of the Soviet Union.
• Elections:
  • In 1989-1990, he allowed free elections in Eastern Europe, and Communists lost.
• Ethnic Nationalism:
  • Various Soviet ethnic groups began demanding independence.
• Coup of August 1991:
  • Hardliners tried to seize power, but the coup collapsed, and the Communist Party was discredited.
• Breakup:
  • In 1991, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus broke away and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States.
  • Others soon followed.

World War II (1939-1945)

• Worldwide war between the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan) and Allies (Britain, U.S., Soviet Union).
• Causes:
  • The League of Nations was too weak to keep peace.
  • Britain's Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler at the Munich Conference, giving him part of Czechoslovakia, but failed to avoid war.
  • Hitler-Stalin Pact: This non-aggression pact (1939) led to the Nazi conquest of Poland.
  • German and Japanese aggression: Japan attacked China (1937) and Pearl Harbor (1941); Germany invaded Russia (1941).

Effects of World War II

• Holocaust: Six million Jews died in concentration camps, plus six million others.
• Atom bomb: The U.S. dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, ending the war.
• Dictatorships defeated: Germany, Italy, and Japan lost the war.
  • Germany was occupied and divided; Japan was occupied by the U.S. military.
• Nuremberg Trials: Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes and genocide.
• United Nations: A new world peace organization was created to include all nations in an attempt to bring about world peace.

Rise of Fascism

• Political system developed in Italy, Germany, Spain, and other nations following World War I.
• Characteristics:
  • Extreme nationalism: Belief that a country should unite behind national leaders; glorified violence, racism.
  • Devotion to a party leader: Condemned democracy as feeble; an all-powerful leader would embody national ideals.
• Instituted in the 1930s in Germany under Adolf Hitler and in Italy under Benito Mussolini.

Rise of Nazism

• Adolf Hitler became leader of the Nazi Party in Germany; he condemned the Weimar Republic and spoke out against the harsh treatment of Germany in the Versailles Treaty.
• In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that Germans were a superior race, and Jews were accused of being a major cause of Germany's problems (anti-Semitism).
• Nazis seized power in 1933, eliminated all political rivals, restricted Jews, rebuilt the military, and used public projects to stimulate the economy.
• Inflicted terror with the Gestapo (secret police).

Cold War: Marshall Plan/Truman Doctrine

• In 1947, the Truman administration took two important steps to counter its wartime ally, the Soviet Union, that had now turned adversarial.
• Marshall Plan: Billions of dollars in aid were given to Western European countries to rebuild their economies in order to prevent any future Communist revolutions.
• Truman Doctrine: When communist rebels arose in Greece and Turkey, Truman announced that the United States would support and provide aid to all free peoples resisting Communism (policy known as containment) and sent military aid.

Cold War: Cuban Revolution (1959)

• Fidel Castro: He toppled the Cuban dictator and formed a Communist state that was supported by the Soviet Union.
• Bay of Pigs: Cuban exiles supported by the U.S. failed to incite an anti-Castro rebellion in Cuba.
• Cuban Missile Crisis: In 1962, an American spy plane discovered Soviet missiles being secretly placed in Cuba.
  • President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba and threatened to invade Cuba. The world was on the brink of a nuclear war.
  • Russian leader Khrushchev agreed to withdraw Soviet missiles in exchange for a "pledge" that the United States would not invade Cuba.