Unit 9 - Cold War and Contemporary Europe

Cold War

Yalta and Potsdam (1945)

  • germany divided into occupation zones

  • free elections in Eastern Europe (stalin refuses)

  • Soviets enter war against Japan

  • Create world peace organization (United Nations at conference in San Francisco)

Ideological Struggle

  • Spread of Communism vs. Containment (of communism)

  • Stalin - Buffer zone is essential to soviet survival

    • buffer zone around capitalist nations

  • soviet expansion to the east and south reduces global anxiety

  • Truman Doctrine (1947) - US aids Greece and Turkey to prevent Soviet influence in the Balkans

The Marshall Plan - a turning point

  • provided broad economic support to European states on the sole condition that they work tg for mutual benefit

  • Soviet Union invited by rejects offer

  • Soviet Union forbade eastern European and Baltic countries from participating

            before and after the plan

  • before

    • economic uncertainty = political uncertainty

    • devestation from WWII

    • infrastructure and trade depressed

    • WWI had approached the peace in a punitive manner

  • after

    • economic stability

    • US influence (political adn economic systems)

    • Cold War conflict (who received the aid and who rejected it)

    • Lessons learned from WWI

    • Economic recovery leads to economic cooperation

  • Soviet Domination of Eastern Europe

    • 1947 - Stalin calls the Communist Information Bureau

      • sole purpose was to spread communism throughout the globe

    • 1948 - Soviets took control of Czechoslovakia and other European states

    • Stalinist policies

      • one-party systems

      • close military cooperation

      • collectivization of agriculture

      • communist party controlled education

      • attacks on churches

  • Post-war division in Germany

    • Cold War tensions

    • soviets claim the right to industrial equipment in all occupied zones (US resists)

    • Berlin Blockade

      • disagreements over a constitution in Western Germany

      • soviets seal off Berlin (which was controlled by all 4 powers)

      • Allies dropped off supplies to Berlin

      • conflict led to formal partitionof Germany in 1949

    • Berlin Airlift

      • tons of supplies dropped off to people living in Berlin

  • NATO vs Warsaw Pact

    • Nato - 1949 - the core agreement btwn nations to confirm retaliation on any belligerents who attacked a member nation

    • Warsaw Pact - 1955 - countries of Eastern Europe and Soviet Union formed an alliance to counter NATO

Collapse of the Soviet Union

  • cold war cost more than $11 trillion

  • No Nato tank fired a shot

  • a massie insugency led by workers, dissident intellectuals, advocates for naitonal self-determination (decolonization), and reformers contributed to the collapse

Khrushchev’s reforms:

  • Stalin dies in 1953

  • Nikita Khrushchev distanced himself from the previous egime thru de-Stalinization

  • Khrushchev was still concerned with surpassing the US but failed economic reforms failed to close the gap

  • failed foreign blunders (Cuba) led to his downfall in 1964

1956 - Secret Speech

  • At the 20th Congress of the Communist party, Khrushchev denounced Stalin and his crimes against society

  • Stalinist supporters are slowly removed from government

  • the speech altered Communist parties now that they had more autonomy

Brezhnev and Soviet Facade

  • Uprisings in Poland and Hugary (1956) led to calls for reform within Eastern Europe

  • 1968 - newly elected and reform minded governmennt came to power

    • people of Czechoslovakia poured into the streets during the Prague Spring and demanded a liberalizatiojn of government policies

  • Soviet troops ended Czech hopes for a more liberal government and crushed the uprising

    • Brezhnev Doctrine - stated that once a country became socialist, it was the duty of the Soviet Union to intervene if that country’s socialism was threatened

      • no experimentation relating to the army or industry

      • perceived political power, nuclear might, and Olympic glory

      • diffused tensions by negotiating with the U.S. (SALT agreement)

  • Gorbachev’s 5-year plan

    • openness - greater freedom of expression

    • restructuring - decentralization of Soviet economy (market reforms)

    • renunciating of the Brezhnev Doctrine

    • reform of the KGB (secret service)

    • Reform of the Communist Party

  • Destruction of the Berlin Wall

    • november 9 1989

    • German Democratic Republic disintegrated

    • East Germany became incorporated into the wealthy and powerful Federal Republic of Germany

    • represented the unification of the communist germany and western germany

Russia after berlin wall came down

  • 12 republics form Commonwealth of Independent States

  • Boris Yeltsin defeated the old guard and passed a new constitution

  • Yeltsin sponsored his handpicked successor (Vladimir Putin)

  • Putin is rebuilding Russia, cracking down on dissent, and promoting the regime through State media

Post-War Society

  • Baby-boom - significant increase in population in Europe

  • Keynesian economics and growth of the welfare state

    • push back by conservatives in the 1970s -80s advocated for supply-side economics

    • advocated for an active role of government in stabilizing the economy

  • Neoliberalism - promoted the idea of limited government intervention in the economy

  • Consumerism represents post-war prosperity

  • Mass Marketing campaign targeted specific demographics and used sexuality to sell products

  • Technology and Industry

    • medical advances

    • antibiotics cured deadly diseases

    • globalization - threat of global pandemics

    • nuclear power replaces traditional fossil fuels

2nd wave of feminism

  • Roe v Wade

  • Equal Pay Act of 1963

  • contraceptive pill

Youth and Sexuality

  • Generational Gap became more pronounced

    • young people rebelled against traditional values (sex, drugs, protest, rockn roll)

    • sexual evolution continued as abortion and access to the pill were mde more accessible

    • Gay relationships decriminalized as the culture became more accepting

    • student revolts (began in the US)

      • protested gaginst war in Vietnam (antimilitarist)

      • students questioned middle-class values and traditional sexual mores and family life

countries used the same currency (euro) after wwii to avoid tarriffs and debt

Rejection of Modernism:

  • loss of faith in progress

Defining the “Welfare State”

Causes:

  • Devastation of WWII

  • Social unrest and inequality

  • Keynesian Economics

  • Labour Movements and Trade Unions

  • Geopolitical competition (Cold War)

Structures:

  • Universal Healthcare (progressive taxation)

  • Social insurance programs

  • Housing and social policies

  • Inclusive social policies

Belgium, the Netherlands and  Luxembourg were the first to establish themselves as an economic unit

Known as “Benelux” – the 3 countries removed customs and erected external tariff barriers

  • Context:  European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC, 1952) and the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC, 1948) provided a pathway to to the EEC

  • In 1957, the same six members created the European Economic Community (EEC)

  • It was the beginning of what became known as the Common Market

  • Note: Great Britain was reluctant from the start   to join the EEC – they finally relented in 1973

  • The European Community (EC) was created in 1967 by merging the 3 transnational European bodies (see below)

    • European Coal and Steel (1952)

    • European Economic Community (Treaty of Rome, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands)

    • European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)

  • The EU was established in 1991 in Maastricht, Netherlands.  12 EC nations

    would work towards a common currency (euro) that would eventually replace national currencies

    • Treaty of Maastricht

  • OPEC founded in 1960 by Venezula, Saudi, Kuwait, Iran and Iraq

    • for natural resources (oil)

    • oil crisis in 1970s

      • led to an inc in international oil prices

      • energy crisis

    • highlighted how every country is now interdependent