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HI 112

HI 112. Raffael Scheck 7. The Start of the Cold War. Background. Neither side initially wanted a confrontation. The division of Germany and Europe was no foregone conclusion

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HI 112

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  1. HI 112 Raffael Scheck 7

  2. The Start of the Cold War

  3. Background • Neither side initially wanted a confrontation. The division of Germany and Europe was no foregone conclusion • But the differences between the Soviet Union and the western victors were irreconcilable from the start (democracy, capitalism)

  4. Initial Understandings • American forces will withdraw by 1947 • Soviet Union moderates its policies so as not to endanger American withdrawal and because it believes French and Italian Communists will take power • U.S., Soviet Union, Britain, and France take occupation zones in Germany and Austria but agree to a common administration of both countries • Soviets hint that they will respect democracy and the exiled prewar governments in Eastern Europe • Delineation of zones of influence

  5. The Understandings Unravel (1945-48) • Incompatibility of Soviet interests (security, economy) with democracy in Eastern Europe • Soviet frustration with their share of Germany • Fallout over the Civil War in Greece • Truman Doctrine, 1947 • Soviets oust all non-communist members of governments in Eastern Europe and manipulate elections • Marshall Plan 1948

  6. What to Do With Germany? • Soviet Union annexes a part of East Prussia and insists on a “move” of Poland to the west. Consequence: deportation of 10 million Germans • Potsdam Conference, July-August 1945: commitment to a democratic, demilitarized, and denazified Germany administered by the four powers • Problems with the ex-territoriality of the western sectors of Berlin • The West consolidates its sectors in response to economic problems • Soviet reaction: The Berlin Blockade 1948-49 • Foundation of two German states, 1949

  7. Germany in 1945

  8. The Big Three at the Potsdam Conference (1945)

  9. The Berlin Blockade

  10. Divided Europe

  11. Conclusions • An “Iron Curtain” runs through Europe and cuts through Germany and Berlin • Democracy and close ties to the United States prevail in most of Western Europe • Stalinist puppet regimes are firmly in power in most of Eastern Europe • Europe becomes a “battleground” of the Cold War - from subject to object of world history • Both halves of Europe begin to unite - with close military and economic ties to their respective superpower ally

  12. Western Europe During the Cold War

  13. The Integration of Western Europe • Motivated by Marshall Plan and desire to overcome old divisions • Pooling of coal and steel resources: the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC, 1951) • Defense cooperation (NATO) • The Treaty of Rome, 1957. Creation of a European Economic Community (EEC), but vision of a union in all aspects • Franco-German reconciliation as the motor of European integration • The enlargement of the EEC/EC

  14. Robert Schuman

  15. The European Coal and Steel Community

  16. De Gaulle and Adenauer

  17. The Treaty of Rome 1957

  18. The Flag of the European Community/European Union

  19. NATO Members (1949-2004)

  20. Milestones Of Western European Integration During the Cold War • 1948 Marshall Plan • 1949 NATO • 1951 European Coal and Steel Community, ECSC (It, Fr, West Germany, Benelux countries) • 1957 European Economic Community (Treaty of Rome) • 1973 Accession of Great Britain, Ireland, and Denmark to the EEC (now renamed European Community, EC) • 1981 Accession of Greece to the EC • 1986 Accession of Spain and Portugal to the EC

  21. Decolonization • Background: frustration of non-European states with the Versailles peace order • Growing independence movements in the European colonies; Marxist ideology and democratic principles • World War II shakes up the colonies and weakens ties to Europe • Peaceful dissolution of most of the British Empire 1945-60 • Less peaceful dissolution of the French Empire (conflicts in Vietnam and Algeria) 1950-62

  22. Indian Independence (1946)

  23. French Defeat in Dien Bien Phu (1954)

  24. The Algerian War, 1954-1962

  25. Eastern Europe During the Cold War

  26. What Was Similar in East and West? • Recovery and reconstruction, albeit on a much lower level in the East • Lasting peace • Strong international cooperation, albeit forced, not voluntary (COMECON; Warsaw Pact) • Promise of access to consumer goods - although much less successful in the East

  27. What Was Different in the East? • Total state control over the economy • Full employment but low productivity • Control of education and careers • Social security and universal medicare, but at very low quality • Exploitation by the Soviet Union • Industrialization, but ailing agriculture • Consumer sector remains a great source of frustration due to shortages and low-quality products (examples: refrigerators, bananas, radios, Trabant) • Repression; secret police; censorship

  28. The Trabant

  29. Phase I: Reconstruction 1945-1953 • Rebuilding of destroyed areas • Beginnings of land reform in Eastern Europe (collectivization of agriculture; forced industrialization) • Tight political control under Stalin • Military-industrial achievements (nuclear power)

  30. Phase II: Post-Stalinism 1953-64 • Destalinization: Attack on Stalin Cult but not on the flaws of the system • Stalin’s death sends false signals to fellow communist countries (GDR, Hungary) • Khrushev emerges as successor by 1956 • Berlin crisis 1961 • Cuban missile crisis

  31. East Berlin, 1953

  32. Phase III: Stagnation 1964-85 • Brezhnev; rule of the apparatchiks: premium on loyalty of party bureaucrats rather than performance • Intensified corruption and mismanagement • Economic crisis worsens but is kept largely secret • Repression of Prague Spring, 1968 • Arms race with U.S. • Invasion of Afghanistan, 1979

  33. Phase IV: Acknowledgment of Crisis 1985-89 • Gorbachev • Perestroika: restructuring of the economy toward liberalization of trade and services • Glasnost: transparency in political discourse • Confrontation with the Stalinist past • Yet: reforms are hesitant and exacerbate the crisis. Vision of becoming a wealthy welfare state like Sweden is ludicrous

  34. Anti-Soviet Uprisings

  35. The Revolutions of 1989

  36. The 1980s: A Decade of Stress in the Communist Countries • Economic crisis • Astronomic debt to the West • Demand for democratization and peaceful reform • Defensive Communist parties • The Solidarity movement in Poland under Lech Walesa - repressed in 1981 but still vital in 1988

  37. The East German Problem • Comparison to the West; widespread desire to leave • Trabi treck through Hungary and Austria, summer 1989 • Mass protests in Leipzig (Monday Demonstrations): “we are the people” • Conservative Communist Regime. Gloomy 40th anniversary celebration in October 1989

  38. The Specter of Tiananmen Square • Massacre in Beijing on 4 June 1989: People’s Liberation Army crushes pro-democracy protest by students • Signal for Eastern Europe?

  39. The Collapse of the Soviet Bloc • Polish government opens “round table” meetings with Solidarity - 1988 • Hungarian communists dismantle iron curtain with Austria - Summer 1989 • Opening of the German Wall, 9 November 1989 • Peaceful revolutions except in Romania

  40. Summary • Eastern European communist regimes, pressed hard by economic crisis, sooner or later make concessions to vast popular movements for reform. They give up their power monopoly peacefully and concede democratization • Decisive: the Soviet Union no longer takes an interest in keeping up bloody repression. Eastern European Reform Communists take advantage of the new latitude

  41. Europe Since the 1990s

  42. The Reunification of Germany • From “we are the people” to “we are ONE people” • Currency reform 1:1 - July 1990 • Rush to German unity - 3 October 1990 • Economic and social collapse in the East

  43. The Allied Foreign Ministers Agree to German Unification

  44. Mercedes Embraces Trabi

  45. The Dissolution of the Soviet Union • Glasnost and economic crisis strengthen centrifugal tendencies • Attempted Putsch to reinstate hard-line communism, August 1991 • Russian President Yeltsin as key figure • Dissolution of Soviet Union for the sake of a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), November 1991

  46. Russia After 1991

  47. Widening and Deepening the EU • Treaty of Maastricht, 1992/1996 • Introduction of the Euro, 2002 • Europe of the 25 (2004) • Critique and Achievement

  48. The European Union Today

  49. A Bitter Tune: National Hatreds Revived • The violent dissolution of Yugoslavia, 1992-98 • Demand for national self-determination and democracy • Serb minorities in Croatia and Bosnia - cicil war 1992-95 • Albanian-Serb tensions in Kosovo. NATO intervention 1999

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