GCSE MODERN WORLD HISTORY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 1945-1955 ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR INTERACTIVE WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR STARTING THE COLD WAR?

GCSE MODERN WORLD HISTORY

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 1945-1955

ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR

INTERACTIVEWHO WAS TO BLAME FOR STARTING THE

COLD WAR?

History InteractiveKey Stage 4 History

ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR INTERACTIVE

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6

GCSE Modern World History The Origins Of The Cold

War

The USA The USSR

CommunistCapitalist

Democracy

Strongest country after

the warWanted to contain

communism

Dictatorship

Lost 20 million people

in the warWanted to

create buffer states

F D Roosevelt TrumanAmerican President

Joseph StalinSovietLeader

Two superpowers developed after the Second World War, the

USA and the USSR. A superpower is a very powerful country. Both America and the Soviet Union believed that their system was the best and did all they could to spread their ideas and way of life around the world.

SOVIET UNION SOVIET UNION EXPANSIONEXPANSION

20

USSR

The EastCommunist countries

The WestCapitalistcountries

Poland

Czechoslovakia

HungaryRomania

Bulgaria

Albania

Yugoslavia

East Germany

Czechoslovakia1948

A coalition government was set up and led by the non-communist Benes. Soon,

non-communists were arrested. In 1948,

communist workers went on strike, the non-communist

minister Masaryk committed suicide and Gottwald took over the

government.

Hungary 1947

The non-communists won

the 1945 elections. However, the

communist leader, Rakosi, took control of the

secret police and executed and arrested his

opponents. By 1948, Rakosi had

complete control of Hungary.

Poland1947

At Yalta, Stalin had promised to set up a joint communist/non-

communist government but then he invited 16 non-communist

leaders to Moscow and arrested them. Thousands of non-

communists were arrested, and the communists won the 1947

election.

Romania 1947

In the 1945 elections, a

communist-led coalition was

elected to power. The communists

gradually took over and in 1947 they

abolished the monarchy.

East Germany 1945

East Germany was in the Soviet zone

of Germany. In 1949, they set up a

communist-controlled state

called the German Democratic Republic.

Albania1945

The communists immediately took

power.

Bulgaria1945

In the 1945 elections, a

communist-led coalition was

elected, but the communists

executed the non-communists.

GCSE Modern World History The Origins Of The Cold

War

BerlinOver the next four years all of Eastern Europe came under Soviet control. Communists took over in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania straight away. In Poland and Czechoslovakia they shared power for a while and then non-communists were thrown out. Czechoslovakia fell to the communists in 1948. Only Tito, in Yugoslavia, managed to keep a communist government free from Stalin's control.So how did these countries turn communist?

Stalin said that expansion into Eastern Europe was

to create a group of buffer states to provide

protection for the Soviet Union from any future

invasion. America saw it as the part of Stalin's plans to take over the

whole of Europe. This led to more fear and tension.

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In 1946, Churchill at Fulton, Missouri said:“It is my duty, however, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe.”

What was the Iron Curtain?The Iron Curtain was the name given to the border between the Communist East and the Democratic West Europe. The name came from a speech made by Winston Churchill in 1946. He was very worried about Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe.

Winston Churchill

GCSE Modern World History The Origins Of The Cold

War

Western

Europe

Eastern

Europe

Poland

Czechoslovakia

Hungary Romania

USSRThe

Soviet Union