...Berlin is Impact on European History The city of Berlin is central to twentieth century European History. It has been the grounds for many historic events that have shaped the way things are in Europe today both for good and bad reasons. Berlin played a significant role in European history though the sequence of events from 1945 to the late 1990`s that were end of World War Two, through the rise and fall of the Berlin wall, and the birth of the Eurozone. The events covered during this time all interlinked with each other and where the cause for what Europe looks like today. At the end of World War two the USA, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union gathered together to see how Europe should be divided after the war. After it was all divided it came out that the Soviet Union should get most of the countries that Nazi Germany controlled, which were the eastern part of Europe. The division gave East Germany to the capitalist states, and West Germany to the socialist, with Berlin also divided into the two sides. Berlin was on the western side claimed by the USSR, but the city was divided into east and west just like the country had. This division of the capital happened pretty much over night and many were separated from their families and friends. The USSR built the Berlin Wall that would separate all contact with the east side. This forced a Socialist way of living that in the long run created many conflicts of Socialism against Capitalism. The Berlin Wall was eventually torn...
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...countries such as Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Russia, the people and their governments were in constant struggle. These struggles eventually lead to a falling out in the communist governments, and the citizens won their victory. Because the people's needs were not met by the government, corruption in government and poor leadership, and the views on countries' economies were different, the communist regimes in Eastern Europe eventually collapsed. Communism was first developed by Karl Marx in the 19th Century; it is the theory of a society in which people take only what they need and give only what they can. Communism started out as a decent cause, but it evolved into a violent revolution in which the government controlled the people only through force. Communism took away people’s freedom in their separate economies, which caused anger to ripple through the people. Strikes were led by angry mobs, and by 1991, all communist regimes had completely collapsed in Eastern Europe. After years of revolt and protest, the official communist government positions had lost all popular support by the people and the Iron Curtain was dismantled, allowing Eastern Europe to become communist-free. In many countries, the people’s needs were rarely met by the government. For example, the government in communist Russia, or the Soviet Union, took agricultural workers crops, and in return, the government would distribute a “satisfactory” amount of the crops back to all the people in order...
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...Julian Zille History Essay – collapse of the Berlin Wall 5/15/2016 ------------------------------------------------- The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was undoubtably the most important event in Europe that signified the end of USSR's autocratic control of Eastern Europe, and certainly marked the climax of revolutionary changes in Eastern Europe. Resistance to the Soviet Government's reign over its Eastern-European satellite states had increased dramatically after Gorbachev's transition into power and the end of the Cold War, until the 'coup de grace' which was the fall of the Wall signified what was to be the end of the USSR's communist control over Eastern Europe. Events across Eastern Europe, such as the formation of Solidarity in Poland, the dismantling of the Iron Curtain and mass demonstrations across Eastern Europe had all lead up to the final and most significant event of resistance in Europe: the fall of the Berlin Wall. After the end of the Cold War, the USSR along with its satellite states was going down a negative spiral: its resources were drained by the arms race with the USA and by the USSR's involvement in the war in Afghanistan, agricultural production and public services were poor and the people were consequently demoralized. These flaws in the USSR had parallel effects to its satellite states in Eastern Europe. The people in the USSR and Eastern Europe were increasingly frustrated and critical of the communist government in place. This frustration...
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...The Cold War Overview * Arms Race * Communism * Glossary and Terms * Space RaceMajor Events * Berlin Airlift * Suez Crisis * Red Scare * Berlin Wall * Bay of Pigs * Cuban Missile Crisis * Collapse of the Soviet UnionWars * Korean War * Vietnam War * Chinese Civil War * Yom Kippur War * Soviet Afghanistan War | People of the Cold War Western Leaders * Harry Truman (US) * Dwight Eisenhower (US) * John F. Kennedy (US) * Lyndon B. Johnson (US) * Richard Nixon (US) * Ronald Reagan (US) * Margaret Thatcher (UK)Communist Leaders * Joseph Stalin (USSR) * Leonid Brezhnev (USSR) * Mikhail Gorbachev (USSR) * Mao Zedong (China) * Fidel Castro (Cuba) | http://www.ducksters.com/history/cold_war/summary.php The Cold War Communism Communism is a type of government and philosophy. Its goal is to form a society where everything is shared equally. All people are treated equally and there is little private ownership. In a communist government, the government owns and controls most everything including property, means of production, education, transportation, and agriculture. History of Communism Karl Marx is considered the Father of Communism. Marx was a German philosopher and economist who wrote about his ideas in a book called the Communist Manifesto in 1848. His communist theories have also become known as Marxism. Marx described ten important aspects of a communist government: * No private property * A single central bank...
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...To what extent was the fall of the Berlin Wall a result rather than a cause of the end of the Cold war? The dismantling of the Berlin Wall in Nov 1989 was one of the most symbolic acts of the Cold War. It was a symbol of the changes that had swept through Europe in 1989 and of the end of the divisions that had marked the essential character of the CW: the ideological split between capitalism and communism. In 1989, the DDR was 4o years old and the East German leadership was prepared to celerbraite its anniversary. At what should have been an event to consolidate the country, the tide was turning against the regime. Gorbachevs reforms had important consequences for the existence of E germany as a separate country. The DDR was a product of Cold War tensions, which had prevented the unification of Germany after WW2. Without these tensions there seemed little reason for Germany to remain divided. Honecker recognized that the DDR could still have a reason to exist if it remained socialist and therefore different from W Germany. Honecker was not in favour of any reform, but the E german population could not be isolated from events in the rest of euope. Large numbers of East Germans had fled from the counrty via Hungary during the summer of 1989, but even more serious for the government were those who were staying put. Gorbys reforms of communism in the Usr had encouraged many E Germanys to push for change. Political groups were formed with huge crowds of demonstrators shouting...
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...Once the proud capital of Germany Berlin was divided by a barrier that was patrolled day and night by armed soldiers and guard dogs. On August 13, 1961 shortly after midnight police and soldiers in the Communist controlled Berlin moved quickly to set up barriers. Berliners woke to find their city divided into east and west sectors. A communist nation led by the Soviet Union was in control of East Berlin. While West Berlin was controlled by a democratic nation led by the United States (Epler, 1992). The Berlin Wall known as Berliner Mauer in German (Rosenberg, 2016). It was a symbol of the Cold War. Trying to cross the Wall meant risking one’s life. One side of the Wall people were free to do all the normal things. While the other side of the wall people’s freedom was being taken away. Imagine that your best friend lives a mile away. You have been pals since first grade. You do everything together: school, soccer games, sleepovers. One day, men come and put up a barbed-wire fence between your house and your buddy’s house. Later, they replace it with a very long, very tall concrete wall. Each slab weighs 6,000 pounds, and many of them are topped with sharp wire. When they finish, you stare at the giant wall that has split your home town in two. On your side the wall is ugly but not too scary. On the other side, rattling tanks, soldiers with machine guns and growling dogs keep people from trying to cross the barrier. The wall stands 12 feet high. Your friend...
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...Living in West Berlin vs East Berlin: Thesis Paper The Berlin Wall was built in the August of 1961, when the East German soldiers constructed more than thirty miles of a barbed wire barrier through the center of Berlin, Germany. The citizens of East Berlin not allowed to pass into the Western side. Soon, concrete would take the place of this barbed wire. (Taylor, 458) East German authorities thought that this wall would protect their citizens from the influence of the capitalist system that was occurring in the west. In the west of the world, the Berlin Wall was just like a symbol of communist oppression. The Berlin wall was the biggest boundary separating two worlds; the totalitarian...
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...During the Berlin Crisis Introduction On November 10, 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave a speech at a Soviet-Polish meeting in Moscow that would ultimately culminate into one of the most profound crises of the Cold War. The Soviet leader accused the Western Powers of violating the 1945 Potsdam Agreement and sabotaging the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and recommended that the Federal Republic abandon, “the hope that we shall cease to support the German Democratic Republic.” (Address by Premier, 1958). Soon after, Khrushchev delivered a speech giving an ultimatum to the allies and gave them six months to demilitarize West Berlin. The Allies' subsequent refusal and the resulting tension put both the U.S.S.R. and the United States in a particularly dangerous situation. Although it is unlikely that full-out thermonuclear war would have resulted from the Berlin Crisis, there was a very real threat of a limited nuclear strike or conventional warfare to both of the superpowers until the tension over Berlin was assuaged. Although November 1958 marked the official beginning of the crisis, Berlin had been a source of contention between the US and the Soviets from the initial division of Germany after WWII (Tine, 2005). The three territorial zones in Western Germany, controlled by France, Britain, and the US, contrasted greatly with the Soviet-controlled East, which upheld socialism. Berlin itself was divided in a similar fashion. However, when the Soviets severed the...
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...How Did John F. Kennedy Deal With Cuba? Leslie Doughty Professor Nettles Augusta POL 300 July 29, 2013 Strayer University John F. Kennedy was the first American president born in the 20th century. The Cold War and the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union were vital international issues throughout his political career. His inaugural address stressed the contest between the free world and the communist world, and he pledged that the American people would "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, and oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty." (Roskin, 2010). Cold War rhetoric dominated the 1960 presidential campaign. Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon both pledged to strengthen American military forces and promised a tough stance against the Soviet Union and international communism. Kennedy warned of the Soviet's growing arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles and pledged to revitalize American nuclear forces. He also criticized the Eisenhower administration for permitting the establishment of a pro-Soviet government in Cuba. (Roskin, 2010). Before his inauguration, JFK was briefed on a plan drafted during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that support from the Cuban people and perhaps even elements of the Cuban military would lead to the overthrow of Castro and the...
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...the Berlin Wall where he stated “Mister Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!” That was his challenge to the Soviet leader. Like presidents before him present Reagan had established a doctrine to eradicate the Soviet influence on the world. Ronald Reagan was not the first to propose a doctrine to fight the Soviet nation. In fact, he was just following in the footsteps of his predecessors. The Reagan doctrine was similar to of Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon and Carter in that they all wanted containment of the Soviet Union, but were as they used a more defensive method Reagan deployed a more Offensive style to dealing communist-controlled countries. Reagan laid out his interpretation of his doctrine at his State of the Union Address on February 6, 1985. "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth . . . Support for freedom fighters is self-defense." He went on to explain how he thought that Truman’s version of containment, originally designed to halt Stalin in Europe was now obsolete. President Reagan’s doctrine facilitated the use of US involvement in places like Angola where the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) fought against the Soviet and Cuban backed Angolan government. US involvement was also present in Afghanistan when in December 1979 the USSR invaded. At the request of the Afghan Government the Soviet army...
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...European political climate was totally changed with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. While Germany got reunited and the central and eastern European countries turning into democracies, the EU member countries were negotiating on what later became the Maastricht treaty. After the fall of the Berlin wall, everyone expected that a large number of the central and eastern European countries would apply for EU membership that lead to a big revision of the EU system including the institutions. Several western European countries outside the EC became nervous if that they did not soon were to become a member of the community, they would end up in the same block as the new countries missing out on the advantages that the EU provided. The EU received applications from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Switzerland and also from Malta and Cyprus in the beginning of the 1990s. Before any of these countries were accepted in the union, the treaty of Maastricht was implemented, which meant that the common defence and security policies were an element the new countries had to accept as well. The EU that they were about to become a member of had changed since their application was handed in. Sweden, Finland and Austria became members in 1995, but Norway turned down the referendum for the second time and Switzerland feared the same result as in Norway and froze their application. Why EU wants enlargement Until the 1990s the European Union at this time known as the European Community, was considered...
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...weapons are so central to the history of the Cold War that it can be difficult to disentangle the two. Did nuclear weapons cause the Cold War? Did they contribute to its escalation? Did they help to keep the Cold War “cold?” We should ask also how the Cold War shaped the development of atomic energy. Was the nuclear arms race a product of Cold War tension rather than its cause? The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War The nuclear age began before the Cold War. During World War II, three countries decided to build the atomic bomb: Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Britain put its own work aside and joined the Manhattan Project as a junior partner in 1943. The Soviet effort was small before August 1945. The British and American projects were driven by the fear of a German atomic bomb, but Germany decided in 1942 not to make a serious effort to build the bomb. In an extraordinary display of scientific and industrial might, the United States made two bombs ready for use by August 1945. Germany was defeated by then, but President Truman decided to use the bomb against Japan. The decision to use the atomic bomb has been a matter of intense controversy. Did Truman decide to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order, as he claimed, to end the war with Japan without further loss of American lives? Or did he drop the bombs in order to intimidate the Soviet Union, without really needing them to bring the war to an 2 end? His primary purpose was surely to force...
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...Unit 1: The Seeds of Conflict, 1917-1944 The differences between capitalism and communism Capitalism advocated private enterprise, land owned by individuals with minimum government interference. Liberal democracy was a political system where each person has freedom to vote, to elect, of speech and of worship. Communism advocated state-owned property, an economy where all industries and agriculture were owned by the government on behalf of the people. A one-party state was a political system with one political party to represent the people. In the USSR, all political parties other than the Communist Party were banned and elections were contested between individuals of this party. The tensions that existed between the USSR and the USA in the 1920s and 30s Communism was viewed as an unstable force that threatened social and political order and Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, was to represent this. Allied countries Britain, France, USA and Japan had sent help to Bolshevik enemies during the Civil War therefore there were some hostile feelings towards them even after the war. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918) was a result of Russia withdrawing from the war, leading to a feeling of betrayal amongst the allies who were left to fight Germany alone. Communist groups in Spain and France grew in strength in the 1930s in response to the hardships of the Great Depression which placed strains on the USA. Britain’s appeasement policy towards Germany under Hitler’s...
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...and been through numerous of changes and wars. The U.S. has seen presidents come and go that has either helped us or have hurt us in some way or another. In this paper I will try to explain some of those events. People wonder why historical things happen and why it is important to learn about them. Although we do not have an exact answer down to an exact science, we have come to notice that past events have or may have happened has an impact on future events. Ever since the 1950’s all the way through 1990’s, numerous events have happened. Many of those events were social, economic and political related. Almost of all of these events throughout the 1950’s through the 1990’s have impacted how our world is today. Throughout the past five decades and all the historical events that have taken place has had some kind of effect on the way our world is today and future events that has yet to happen. The Korean War – 1950’s During the 1950’s significant social, economic and political events had occurred. The biggest events that happen during this time were the Korean War. The Korean War began on the early morning of June 25, 1950 and ended on July 27, 1953. The two major parties of this war were North Korea and South Korea. The Korean War started because South Korea refused to hold elections based on the wants and demands of North Korea. In the early morning hours of June 25, 1950, is when North Korea started invading South...
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...more dangerous place to live in. Over the last 50 years, virtually all the instruments of national power have been brought to bear in an effort to solve the security dilemma presented by the North Korean regime. The detonation on October 8th suggests these previous strategies were not nearly effective enough. A nuclear armed North Korea presents a grave danger that should force us to reexamine our policy. This paper focuses on the economic instrument, examines how it has been utilized over the last 15 years in both the Clinton and Bush administrations, and offers some thoughts on a desired endstate of North Korean economic integration. The Context--the Fall of Communism The fall of the Berlin wall was a watershed event in man’s political, social, and economic evolution. For almost five decades, two superpowers squared off in relative peace under the frightening specter of mutually assured destruction. The policy of the United States was containment. If the US could only hold the Soviet Union at bay long enough, the Soviets would crumble from within. The Cold War was David E. Sanger, “North Koreans Say They Tested Nuclear Device,” New York...
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