Cold War Politics and Beyond
Chapter – 7
Table of Contents
- International politics changed dramatically after Second World War; Europe’s dominance diminished.
- Before the war, European states like Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, and Netherlands controlled world events.
- The war devastated Europe politically and economically, leading to its decline as a center of power.
- US and Soviet Union emerged as the two most powerful nations after the war.
- US entered the war in 1942, providing support to the Allied Powers; remained unaffected by the war and became a superpower.
- With a strong economy, industrial base, and military strength, the US became the first nuclear power, using nuclear weapons in 1945.
- Soviet Union was severely affected by the war but overcame it to become a superpower.
- Despite Hitler’s attack in 1941, the Soviet Union was vast, and the damage was mostly limited to European territories.
- Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union focused on heavy industries, strengthening its military power and becoming an industrialized state.
- By 1949, the Soviet Union became the second nuclear power, after the US, securing its superpower status.
- Europe’s weakness and the division of Germany also helped the Soviet Union’s rise to superpower status.
- The war led to the emergence of two superpowers: the US and the Soviet Union, both possessing nuclear weapons.
- Their rivalry after the war led to the Cold War, lasting for over four decades.
ORIGIN OF THE COLD WAR
- US and Soviet Union disagreed over the reconstruction of Europe after Second World War.
- US President Harry S. Truman proposed a $400 million assistance to Greece and Turkey, aiming to contain communism in West Europe through the Truman Doctrine.
- Truman Doctrine initially focused on Greece and Turkey, then expanded to other West European nations.
- Marshall Plan (proposed by George Marshall) was a direct economic diplomacy to bring West Europe under American influence.
- Soviet Union feared the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, seeing them as US attempts to make West Europe a satellite.
- In response, the Soviet Union offered huge aid to Eastern Europe to bring them into the Soviet fold.
- Germany was divided into four zones (under French, British, American, and Soviet occupation), eventually splitting into West Germany and East Germany.
- Europe became divided into two blocs: the East bloc (Soviet-controlled) and the West bloc (US-controlled), leading to the East–West Divide.
- Both superpowers exerted economic and political influence over their blocs to prevent the other from gaining a foothold, giving rise to the Cold War.
- Ideological differences fueled rivalry: Soviet Union followed Marxist socialism, while the US followed liberal democratic principles.
- The US feared the spread of socialism by the Soviets, while the Soviets feared the US’s economic aid as a strategy to expand liberal democracy.
- The Soviets labeled the US as a ‘neocolonial power’, while the US described the Soviets as ‘social imperialists’.
- The Cold War was not a real war, but a psychological and ideological conflict between the superpowers.
- Every action by one superpower was met with a similar or stronger response from the other.
- The Cold War (1945–1990) did not escalate into a real war but created a bipolar world with two superpowers.
- The Balance of Power system ended, and international politics became bipolar, controlled by the US and Soviet Union.