Download 45-50`s - Blue Valley Schools

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Aftermath of World War II
-Approx. 72 million dead worldwide
-Approx. 42 million civilians
-Approx. 25 million military (8.5 million in WWI)
-Approx. 38 million in Europe
-More than 22 million in the USSR
-Approx. 418,000 Americans
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Trials for War Crimes
-Nuremberg Trials in Nuremberg, Germany
-177 Germans and Austrians on trial
-142 found guilty; many Nazi leaders
received death sentences.
From now on,
leaders will be
held responsible
for actions during
war!
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
War Crimes
Trial in
Japan
General
Hideki
Tojo
•Japan will be occupied
by the United States from
1945 – 1952
•The U.S. writes the new
Japanese constitution, including
Article 9 (Japan can only have a military force
for self-defense).
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Oct. 1945: A New and Improved League of Nations:
The United Nations
The Soviet Union
(Now Russia),
France, China,
Great Britain,
and the U.S.
have permanent
seats on the
security Council
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
The United States and the Soviet Union will
emerge as the two superpowers of the second half
of the 20th century.
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
The Bi-Polarization of Europe:
The Beginning of the Cold War
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
Stalin distrustful of the West. He has two goals
In Eastern Europe:
1) Spread communism
2) Create a buffer zone of friendly
govts. as a defense against Germany,
which invaded Russia in WWI and WWII.
Stalin: “Whoever occupies a territory also imposes
his own social system.”
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
-By 1948, the Soviet Red
Army and local communists
in Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania and
Bulgaria had destroyed
political rivals and even
assassinated democratic
leaders.
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
1946: While visiting Westminster
College in Fulton, MO, former
Prime Minister Winston Churchill
gives his famous “Iron Curtain”
speech.
“A shadow has fallen
upon the scenes so
lately lighted by Allied
victory… From Stettin
in the Baltic to Trieste
in the Adriatic, an
iron curtain has
descended across the
Continent.”
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
– Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947
• Civil war in Greece and Turkey
• Money to countries threatened by communist
expansion
• Policy of Containment: limiting communism
to areas already under Soviet control.
– Marshall Plan, June 1947
• $13 billion for the economic recovery of wartorn Europe
• Soviet view, “capitalist imperialism”
• Russia dismantled and moved to the Soviet
Union 380 German factories before
transferring control to the Western powers
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
The Marshall Plan
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
The Division of Germany
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
The Division of Germany
-Germany was divided
into four occupation
zones: American,
British, French, and
Soviet.
-The city of Berlin was
also divided into four
zones: the Americans,
British and French
have West Berlin, the
Soviets have East Berlin.
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
The Berlin Airlift
•1948: Stalin tries to force
the Allies out of
West Berlin by sealing off
every railroad and
highway.
•The Allies respond to the
blockade with a roundthe-clock airlift for more than
one year, dropping food and
other supplies to the people
of West Berlin.
•Stalin eventually ends the
blockade.
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
Germany Divided
-May 1949: The Federal Republic of Germany
("West Germany") is created from the zones occupied
by France, the United States and United Kingdom.
-October 1949: The German Democratic Republic
(“East Germany”) is created in the zone occupied by
the Soviet Union.
-East Berlin becomes the
capital of East Germany.
West Berlin is part
of West Germany?!?!?
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
Military Alliances
•1949: The U.S., Canada, nine Western European
countries form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
NATO.
•1955: The Soviet Union and seven satellite nations
(dependent states) form rival Warsaw Pact.
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Origins of the Cold War
The Arms Race
•1949: Soviet Union successfully tests atomic bomb.
The U.S. no longer has a technological advantage.
Leads to four decades of developing new, more
deadly nuclear and conventional weapons.
•Theory of Deterrence: the deployment of strong
weapons is essential to threaten the enemy in order
to prevent the use of the very same weapons.
•This is a military strategy in which a full-scale use
of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides
would effectively result in the destruction of both
the attacker and the defender.
Mutual assured destruction (MAD)
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
U.S. and USSR/Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles
1945-2006
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
The De-Colonization of European Powers
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Changes Around the World
•1947: India wins independence
from Great Britain due to
pressure created by Mohandas
Gandhi… Pakistan created as
Muslim homeland.
•1948: The nation of Israel is
created within Palestine in part
because of post-World War II
sympathy for Jews.
•1949: Chinese Communists
led by Mao Zedong
defeat Nationalists led by
Chiang Kai-shek.
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Changes Around the World
•After WWII, France tries to
regain control of French Indochina
(Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)
•Communist Ho Chi Minh leads
Vietnamese independence fight
against French.
•1954: Vietnam
divided into
communist North
and democratic
South.
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
The Soviet Union in the 1950s
•1953: Death of Joseph Stalin,
Nikita Khrushchev emerges as
leader of Soviet Union.
•1956: Imre Nagy gains power
in Hungary; pulls Hungary out
of Warsaw Pact, Khrushchev
sends tanks to crush rebellion…
Nagy executed.
•1957: Soviets launch Sputnik,
first artificial satellite into orbit,
starting space race between
USSR and U.S.
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Communism in Cuba
•1958 – 59: Fidel Castro and
communist rebels win
revolution in Cuba… Soviets
now have ally just 90 miles
away from U.S.
The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s
Western Europe Economic Development
•1957: France, West Germany, Belgium, Italy
the Netherlands, and Luxembourg form the
European Community (EC) to expand free
trade.