Why did the Cold War begin?
The breakdown of the Grand
Alliance
The Grand Alliance (1941)
Before the Cold War, America and the
USSR worked together in 1941 to defeat
the Nazis
Joined together out of convenience
(capitalists-US and communists-USSR)
to try defeat Hitler
Hitler had been defeated in 1945 and
the relationship between Roosevelt and
Stalin brought tension and unease
between both powerful people
Between 1943-45 the leaders of the grand
alliance (Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin)
met at 3 international conferences:
TEHRAN, YALTA and POTSDAM
The TEHRAN conference (1943)
Aim- to make plans for the
reconstruction of Europe
following the second world war
At the conference the powers agreed that the
USSR should have a 'sphere of influence' in
eastern Europe (communism poor area) in
which communism would be respected and dominant
And western Europe would be
a place where there would be a
'sphere of influence' for Britain
and the US where capitalism
would be dominant
However, the big 3 did not agree on Germany's future:
Stalin believed: Germany should be
punished by starting ww2 and pay
reparations as a fine for starting it,
which ensures Germany will not be
a threat in the future
Roosevelt and Churchill believed: Germany should be rebuilt
because after the first world war due to the treaty of Versailles
Germany had economic problems which they were frustrated
about and lead to the rise of Hitler in the first place. They thought
that a 'prosperous Germany' lead to a peaceful Europe
The YALTA conference (1945)
There was many decisions made at
this conference, this was:
1. Stalins troops
(Russian) would help
America defeat Japan
after Hitler
2. Roosevelt and
Churchill agreed to let a
communist government
run in Poland
3. Establishment (set up) of the
'United Nations' an organisation
which is committed to maintain
world peace
4.They also repeat about
the USSR having a 'sphere
of influence' in eastern
Europe
The POTSDAM conference (1945)
The final conference of the Grand alliance
The allies agreed to ban the
Nazi party and prosecute
surviving Nazis as war criminals
The decided to reduce
the side f Germany to
one quarted
They also decided to divide Germany
temporarily into 4 zones allocated to
Britain, France, America and the USSR
Signs of tension
They all fought for
democracy, however they all
had different opinions what
democracy actually meant
Stalin believed a democratic
government was: a communist
government because communists only
truly represented the working class
people
Roosevelt believed democracy
was a number of political
parties who would compete to
win the peoples support (in
free elections)
The success of the TEHREN
and YALTA conferences were
based largely on Stalin's
relationship with Roosevelt
However 2 months after the
YALTA conference, FDR died
and Harry S Truman came to
power less willing to co-operate
with Stalin
This rose tensions to the final conference
between Stalin and Truman (POTSDAM)