1945-1953. After WW2, Europe was unofficially split into two spheres of influence, an American one and a Soviet one The Americans and Soviets still.

1945-1953

After WW2, Europe was unofficially split into two spheres of influence, an American one and a Soviet one

The Americans and Soviets still got along after the war

They worked together to divide Germany

They worked together to prosecute German war criminals during the Nuremburg Trials

They worked together to create the United Nations (UN).

The USA, UK, France, USSR and China all got permanent seats on the security council

US President Harry Truman would not appease Stalin’s plans, which led to tension

“I am not a member of the KKK”

Igor Guouzenko, a Russian decoder at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa is called back to the USSR in September 1945

He does not want to return and runs away with Soviet documents

He asks for help from the RCMP, the Secretary of Justice and the Prime Minister’s office, but is ignored

Soviet KGB agents try to kill him The Foreign ministry and RCMP decide to

give him protection Canada finds out there is a Soviet spy ring

in their country, this shocks the public

Soviet-American relations continued to deteriorate between 1945-1948

In 1948, the Soviets tried to cut off American access to their zone in west Berlin

The Americans airlifted supplies to their section and the Soviets gave up

In 1961, the Soviets built a wall to stop East Germans from travelling to West Germany

The Cold War is the name for the rivalry between the USA and USSR between 1948-1991

They never fought each other directly, but rather by proxy war

It was an ideological war between capitalism and communism

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a military alliance, formed in 1949 between Canada, USA and western European countries such as the UK, France, West Germany, and Italy

The USSR turned the states of Eastern Europe: Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Albania and Bulgaria into satellites They formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955

Korea, a former Japanese colony, was split in two following WW2 A communist northern half and a

capitalist southern half In 1950, North Korea decided to

reunify Korea South Korea was saved by the

“UN” aka USA The USA pushed North Korea to

the Chinese border, this made newly communist China feel threatened so they joined the war in support of South Korea

The Chinese nearly defeated the “UN” but fighting stalemated at the original border at the 38th parallel

Canada sent 26,000 troops to Korea

Stalin dies 1953

In 1949, the Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong defeated the Chaing Kai-shek’s Nationalists

They declared the People’s Republic of China

In 1959, Mao launched the “Great Leap Forward”

Ironically, this turned out to be the biggest de-industrialization since the fall of the Roman Empire in 473

The Great Leap caused what is thought to be the biggest famines in human history

This was caused by collectivization and the creation of “back yard” industry Used Lamarckian biology

Between 20-43 million died

By 1966, Mao had a firmly established cult of personality. He was seen as a god

Mao calls on the brainwashed youth of China to form “Red Guards” and attack anything “old”

An attempt to establish a communist utopia He creates different factions of youth, who

fight each other, creating a sort of civil war The youth go out of control, Mao has to get

the army to disband the Red Guards 16 million Chinese youths are sent to the

countryside for “reeducation” Mao died in 1976, ending the Cultural

Revolution