...perhiperhies – imperial overstretch hleading to fall * J.R. steally – asked – ‘how can the same nation pursure two diff lines of policy, total different in nature and still hope to maintain power in both’ * This is pre- historiogrpahy * Br, fr etc, empire in Africa – Br emp = apex after taking india * WW2 saw the revitilising of emprires – Br emp became more liberal * The 48th parallel = movie depiciting a variety of cultures in the emoire * As post war imperial power shifted – br and fr believed they could retain influence through harnessing material *& political influence – Ie. Br welfare act * This countries wished for a thierd force in international politics * What was clear = EU countries had to change the nature of their empires ; however de-colonisaltion would take a lot longer to happen – 60 yrs in Africa * The Br voter could both have their imperial cake and eat at home too * Wh y did empires unravl so quickly if they had been revitilised after WW2? * Looking at reich ; 100yrs – only lasted 12 yrs, Mussolini Italy, permament powerbase = collapsed, Japan and imperialist aims = collapsed too ; Br emperial hold = collapsed * WW2 events that led to fall of emp ; Political ideology of allies ; they fought for self determination & againsts facism This gave nationalists ability to declare independence = communications would be anti – imperial by nature * Another key factor = demise of European prestige – George...
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...Although factors such as ideology differences and traditional power rivalry played a part in the development of the Cold War in the years 1945-53, superpower misjudgments account largely to this as well. As Source 7 suggests, mistrust between the US and the Soviet created a vicious cycle which could not be broken after 1945. It states that the US "misread" the Soviet security policy in eastern Europe and saw it as "Soviet expansionism". This, in turn, led the Soviets to misjudge the US policies as "aggressive capitalist expansionism". During the years after WW2, Stalin enforced policies to ensure national security, by establishing a 'buffer' zone. As the USSR had already been invaded twice before through these countries, it can be said that Stalin was only trying to ensure national security. However, US misread the situation as Soviet "expansionism", which in turn led the Soviets to misjudge the US policies as "dollar imperialism", showing that these misjudgments were creating a vicious cycle which could not be broken. Source 8 also supports this view as it suggests that the road to Cold War was "strewn with miscalculations". However, in face value, Source 8 blames the Soviet Union for being responsible. It states that Stalin "overreacted" to any threat in Germany and Eastern Europe and goes on to add that he "triggered" the Berlin Blockade Crisis as well. The Source only describes Stalin's reactions to the situation, thus failing blaming the USSR and failing to bring the...
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...giving the impression that it was the errors of Stalin that contributed most. In addition to these two factors, conflicting ideologies also played a small role in provoking the Cold War, as shown in source 8. Despite this, it was fundamentally the economic and national interests of the USA that was mainly to blame for the start of the Cold War in 1945 and its development through to 1949. Europe was destroyed physically and economically after the Second World War. America saw this as a chance to become a world hegemony, as well as economically advancing the nation - source 9 proves this, saying, “The liberal capitalist US economy needed ever-increasing trade and investment opportunities”, as well as “The Marshall Plan was designed to implant an informal American Empire in Europe”. This shows that the USA not only used Europe’s fragile situation after WW2 to prosper itself, but more importantly increase its world influence, aiming to produce some sort of Empire of its own. For this to happen, the USA became hostile towards its rival superpower, the USSR. This point is supported by Source 8 by quoting “the illusion of being all powerful, fostered by American economic strength”, suggesting that the US government blindly influenced Europe, ignoring the Soviet sphere of influence. Supporting the evidence in sources 8 and 9 are the key events of the...
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...“The real cause of the Cold War between the two superpowers after 1945 was due to ideology differences between the two sides” Ideology differences were a major factor in causing the Cold War, however, many other issues did have a part to play. For example, Stalin’s paranoia in the insurance of the protection of the USSR and Truman’s need to stamp out communism led to the creation of COMINFORM and COMECON by Stalin and the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan by Truman in 1947. Both countries did not trust each other and disagreed over many things. The big disagreements surfaced from ideology differences. The two countries could not have been more different! America was a Democratic country, where the government was chosen by free democratic elections; whereas, Russia was a Communist state, where it has a one-party dictatorship. The USSR did have elections, but only communist candidates participated. In America business and property where privately owned; this meant that any profit making was encouraged to benefit one self and therefore the economy. There was a clear divide in the country’s wealth. In the USSR profit making was still encouraged, however all money went into the state; there was a general class of living with very few cases of poverty. The Americans were glad to be free from the government while the US Constitution made everyone equal. Communists were tightly controlled with their rights being valued as less important than the state. Both countries believed that...
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...The Iron Curtain The iron curtain was the name given to the Cold War confrontation in 1945-1989 which was between the two superpowers USA and the Soviet Union. A direct military confrontation between the two superpowers did not exist, but bitter economic, diplomatic and ideological struggles formed the basis of the confrontation. As far back as 1917 the Soviet Union was established when following outright hostility in Russia, the Communists took power, and the capitalist countries of the West declared ideological war. Between 1918 and 1920, the US intervened in the Soviet Union with about 10 000 soldiers and refused to accept the new state until recognition in 1993. During WW2, the two countries fought together against Germany, but as early as 1944, the first cracks were revealed. The Allies, led by the United States under Roosevelt failed to make agreements with the Soviet Union, who had nevertheless borne the brunt of the war, Post-war order was already becoming established in Europe. The Soviet Union sought in their interpretation of the 'Yalta Conference' to assert their legitimate security interests without consulting its allies. While US President Roosevelt had co-operated with the Soviet Union, his successor Truman, a strict anti-Soviet, put American an anti-Communist cause against the now soviet, Truman based his confidence on American economic superiority and, since 1945, on her nuclear monopoly. Truman`s concept was a free, united Europe and a free world under American...
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...Communism isn't sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.” That is an excellent quote to show how communism was viewed. Many countries did not like the idea of communism state and that started the Cold War. After WW2 the US and Great Britain had an alliance that occurred during the war. The Soviet Union was a communist state. They also wanted to make all the countries that the Red Army helped during the war become communist states as well. The United States and Great Britain did not want this and wanted all of Europe to have a democracy and market economy. This war took place all over Europe and parts of Asia. One of the parts that the war bordered was Germany. The Americans though enemies in WW2 allied with Germany in the war because the German army did not have any power against either country alone. The Soviet army and the American army fought on Germany’s border. In a War time new article produced by famous journalist Hal Boyle, it is written that though the border was dangerous, but the Black Market prevailed through it. According to Boyle, the border had a “No Man’s Land” for one to two kilometers on either side that was filled with Russian guards or American trained German soldiers...
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...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 ‘we are stayin’. honecker seemed paralysed by events. He was seriously...
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...Some of Canada’s involvement isn’t as important as these three major contributions to the events of the Cold War. What exactly did Canada do to be involved in the Cold War and what would have happened if Canada wasn’t involved? To start off, After the events of WW2 leading into the 50s, there was a tension between two opposing superpowers (U.S.A and Russia). This lead into the creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The idea of NATO was to help prevent another conflict to erupt and cause long term effects, to dispute was of handling issues on a national and international level, and to help each other with things like military among other things. The Soviets were becoming tense during this time due to the opposing superpower gaining more support from more and more countries (including Canada) but the idea of the Warsaw pact was set into stone after NATO was adding West Germany into the organization and would allow them to remilitarize which Russia saw as a threat. Why did they see this as a threat? The Soviets and U.S.A mistrusted each other and thought they would use their...
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...How far was the USSR responsible for the outbreak of the Cold War 1945-1949? To a certain extent, the USSR’s responsibility of the Cold War cannot be underestimated as their policies following the Second World War may have been seen as aggressive by USA. The forceful take-over of Eastern Europe through the Red Army occupations, especially in distinctive cases such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, can be seen as being far from the “liberation” over which the two war-time allies had agreed, while the rigging of elections did not conform to the Yalta agreement of the organisation of free ones. Stalin responded to the Americans’ policies of containment by creating his own agencies, therefore creating even more hostility between the two superpowers, while also refusing the existence of anything but Soviet puppet states in Eastern Europe. However, the event which cemented the outbreak of the Cold War was Stalin imposing the Berlin Blockade, taking direct action towards weakening the Americans’ position. One may see that Stalin’s blockade resulted in the official creation of two separate German states, one of the most significant events of the Cold War. On the other hand, revisionists point out that the USSR was taking defensive measures to protect itself from anything that could have caused as much damage as the Second World War, while the Americans, who were superior economically, adopted provocative policies. They challenged the patience of the Russians by hiding crucial events from...
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...Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions of radioactive elements such as uranium and plutonium to generate nuclear energy. The energy generates heat to boil water which then causes the steam turbines to rotate and generate electricity inside a nuclear power plant. The United States is the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy, accounting for 30% of the world’s nuclear generation electricity. The US currently has 100 nuclear reactors in operation, producing 800 million kilowatt hour of electricity in 2015. Since the early 1990s, the United States is currently the only superpower country in the world due to their economy, military, and political influence. The United States relies on nuclear power for over the past three-quarters of...
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...LAIKIPIA UNIVERSITY (MAIN CAMPUS) FACAULTY: Humanities and developmental studies. DEPARTMENT: Public Affair and Environmental studies. COURSE TITLE: Technology, War and Peace. COURSE CODE: PEED 413 INSTRUCTOR: MR FREDRICK ODONDE PRESENTER: SALLY NTURANGI MBIYAIYU TASK: Discuss the technological advancement after WW2 and its implication on world peace and security. Submission Date: 5th march, 2015 INTRODUCTION The science of fifties gave as the most awful weapon ever developed. While the ultimate aim of any research was to find better ways of destroying the enemy during the World Wars, post-war lots of inventions were just as effective at improving lives. Military scientific research and technology advancement during World War 2 and post-war period brought advances that directly affected the daily lives of people across the globe, in medicine and electronics cutting across to deadly weapons as H-bombs. Innovation that came to fruition in the fifties offered mankind tremendous benefit improving life in all spheres of life. These inventions however did contribute to both positively and negatively. The atomic bomb race put humanity at stake since the world could be wiped within a day if any war could escalate which could be catalyzed by sophisticated modes of transport and means of communication like telephones and computers. On the other hand, life standard improved as military research led to invention of many electronics....
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...To what extent were rival ideologies responsible for the breakdown of the relationship between the two superpowers between 1945 and 1949? It was the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan that really split Europe and made the concept of an Iron Curtain permanent during 1947/8. It was the final breakdown of the Allied cooperation over Germany that led to tensions and permanent divisions in the centre of Europe in 1948/9 as witnessed by the Berlin blockade and Allied airlift. It was the explosion of the Soviet atom bomb and American membership of NATO that created a bi-polar nuclear world during and after 1949. rival ideologies Under President Woodrow Wilson the US had committed itself to liberal internationalism, which promoted democracy and the free enterprise system, while the communist emphasis was upon a world wide class revolution to bring about the socialist future. These conflicting views were less important in the 1920s and 1930s because the Soviet Union was a weak military power and the main threat seemed to come from the right wing ideology of Fascism. However the defeat of these powers by 1945 reopened the ideological sense of difference between the Americans and Russians. hard line anti-Russian views became more influential in Washington by 1945 and George Kennan’s famous “Long Telegram” in 1946 also reinforced the idea that the communists were ideologically hostile to US interests and needed to be contained. Although...
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...The Cold War During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies, fighting against Germany and Japan. During World War II, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill needed Stalin and the Soviet forces to help defeat Germany. When the “Big Three” met at the Yalta conference in Crimea, Soviet Union, in February 1945, Roosevelt was convinced that he still needed the support of Stalin to defeat the Japanese, because the United States had not yet tested the atomic bomb. The American Truman Doctrine of containment was meant to keep a lid on Soviet military adventurism that might spark a Third World War and a nuclear exchange. Despite revisionist historians trying to read all kinds of sinister subtext into our actions from 1945 to 1991 this simple objective was the only really important thing to the US during the Cold War. Everything else is smoke and mirrors. The primary threat was an unstable world that would descend back into WW III and a nuclear confrontation. The American policy called the Truman Doctrine of containment was not some hysterical fear that the Communists were going to invade America. The fear was that one of their little military adventures would get out of hand and blow up into a worldwide military confrontation that would end in a nuclear exchange. The policy was intended to keep a lid on small and/or regional wars and confrontations and keep them small and regional. Americans were in fear that maybe...
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...During the years 1945-1948, the development of the Cold war seemed to have been catalysed by various factors. The Second World War created a power vacuum in Europe into which the USA and the USSR were both drawn; large areas of Europe were left without meaningful government or administration. Subsequently much of Europe was left devastated and was in desperate need of reconstruction. The USA and the USSR were to provide the inspiration for alternative methods of recovering Europe, the USA aimed to invest billions into Europe hopefully mending the economy and to prevent the temptation of communism which seemed very attractive to those countries whose economy were in ruins. Moreover by doing this, the American economy also benefitted as countries who accepted the financial aid would have to open up there economy to American capitalist interests. On the other hand the Soviets were looking to expand Soviet territory and create a sphere of influence, whether this was to create a buffer zone for the USSR or to spread communism, it developed the Cold War as America felt threatened. Many historians have differing views on the matter which is evident in sources 7, 8 and 9, all of which feature modern historians posing some very different arguments. Some historians, as stated in the question believe that the expansion of the Cold War within 1945-48 was due to Soviet Expansionism whereas others believed it was because of USA’s economic interests. Either way, it seems most likely that both...
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...The United States has become the dominant force in international relations. It is argued that the United States’ military act as the world’s police. What are two real-life international incidents where the States have used military action abroad? What are two factors that propelled America into a dominant military and diplomatic force after World War II? What are the key differences in American foreign policy before and after World War II? What are the main reasons in the changes of pre- and post-war policy occurred? In what manner does the justifications used for America’s overseas involvement during World War II still play a role in United States military action abroad? What example can be provided of such justifications in action? In what fundamental ways in which the rise of the United States to a world superpower has shaped the country’s responses to domestic spending, Fourth Amendment protections, and Americans’ choice of leaders in Congress and the White House on the home front? These previous topics covers the manner of America’s shift of power occurred and the consequences that the United States faces as a result of this elevated status. What are two real-life international incidents where the States have used military action abroad? In 2011, the United States aided in NATO’s successful intervention in Libya. According to the website of foreign affairs, the United States facilitated the intervention, took its led in cutting off funding to Libya as well as freezing...
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