AP Euro Unit 18 (The Deepening of the European Crisis)

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

A certain degree of intellectual freedom was now permitted—in 1962, he allowed the publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a grim portrayal of the horrors of the gulags.

Britain pulls out of Greece and Turkey

A civil war in Greece created another arena for confrontation between the superpowers. In 1946, the Communist People's Liberation Army and the anti-Communist forces supported by the British were fighting each other for control of Greece. But continued postwar economic problems caused the British to withdraw from the active role they had been playing in both Greece and Turkey

Evacuation of Dunkirk

A heroic rescue effort ensued with hundreds of ships and civilian boats ferrying troops from Dunkirk to Britain. The British succeeded in evacuating an army of 330,000 Allied (mostly British) troops that would fight another day.

Khrushchev's 20th Congress Speech

A new collective leadership succeeded Stalin until Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the chief Soviet policymaker. Khrushchev had been responsible for ending the system of gulags, a regular feature of Soviet life under Stalin. At the 20th Congress of the Communist Party in 1956, Khrushchev condemned Stalin for his "administrative violence, mass repression, and terror." Once in power, Khrushchev took steps to undo some of the worst features of Stalin's repressive regime.

Korean War

A system of military alliances spread to the rest of the world after the United States became involved in the Korean War in 1950. Korea had been liberated from the Japanese in 1945, but was soon divided into two parts. The land north of the 38th parallel became the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and was supported by the Soviet Union. The Republic of Korea (South Korea) received aid from the United States. On June 25, 1950, with the approval of Joseph Stalin, North Korean troops invaded South Korea. The Americans, seeing this as yet another example of Communist aggression and expansion, gained the support of the United Nations and intervened by sending American troops to turn back the invasion. By September, United Nations (mostly American and South Koreans) under the command of General Douglas MacArthur marched northward across the 38th parallel with the aim of unifying Korea under a single non-Communist government. But when American troops crossed into Chinese territory, Mao Tsetung sent Chinese forces into the fray and forced MacArthur's troops to retreat back to South Korea. Believing that the Chinese were simply the puppets of Moscow, American policymakers created an image of communism as a monolithic force directed by the Soviet Union. When two more years of fighting failed to produce a conclusive victory, an armistice was finally signed in 1953. The 38th parallel remained the boundary line between North and South Korea. To many Americans, the policy of containing communism had succeeded in Asia, just as it had earlier in Europe, despite the cost of losing more than 50,000 men in the war. The Korean experience seemed to confirm American fears of Communist expansion and reinforced American determination to contain Soviet power.

Operation Torch/Allied Invasion of Italy

After the Axis forces had surrendered in Tunisia on May 13, 1943, the Allies had crossed the Mediterranean and carried the war to Italy, an area that Winston Churchill called the "soft underbelly of Europe" (Operation Torch). After taking Sicily, Allied troops began the invasion of mainland Italy in September 1943. In the meantime, the Italian people turned on Mussolini, overthrew his regime, and arrested him; a new Italian government offered a full surrender to the Allies almost immediately. Yet Mussolini was liberated the Germans in a daring raid and then set up as the head of a puppet German state in northern Italy, while German troops moved in and occupied the northern half of the country. The new defensive lines established by the Germans in the hills south of Rome were so effective that the Allied advance up the Italian peninsula was a painstaking affair accompanied by massive casualties. Rome did not fall to the Allies until June 4, 1944—by that time, the Italian war had assumed a secondary role anyway as the Allies opened their long-awaited "second front" in western Europe two days later.

Battle of the Bulge

After the breakout, Allied troops moved south and east and liberated Paris by the end of August. Supply problems as well as a last-minute, desperate (and unsuccessful) offensive by German troops at the Battle of the Bulge slowed the Allied advance. Nevertheless, by March 1945, Allied armies had crossed the Rhine River and advanced further into Germany. At the end of April, Allied forces in northern Germany moved toward the Elbe River where they finally linked up with the Soviets.

"West German miracle"

Although many people concerned about a revival of German militarism, condemned this proposal, Cold War tensions were decisive. West Germany rearmed in 1955 and became a member of NATO. Adenauer's chancellorship is largely associated with the resurrection of the West German economy, often referred to as the "economic miracle." It was largely guided by the minister of finance, Ludwig Erhard. Although West Germany had only 75% of the population and 52% of the territory of prewar Germany, by 1955, the West German GNP exceeded that of prewar Germany.

Moscow Conference

Although overruled at Teheran, Churchill met with Stalin in Moscow in October 1944 and was able to pin him down to a more specific determination of postwar "spheres of influence". The agreement between Churchill and Stalin, written on a scrap of paper, assigned the various Allies a certain percentage of political influence in a given area on the basis of past historical roles. The Soviet Union received 90% influence in Romania and 75% in Bulgaria, whereas Britain obtained 90% influence in Greece. Eastern European countries that had a strong tradition of Western European ties, such as Yugoslavia and Hungary, were divided "50-50". Churchill lamented how callous this division of sovereign countries might seem from a distance—he remarked to Stalin: "Might it not be thought rather cynical if it seemed we had disposed of these issues, so fateful to millions of people, in such an offhand manner? Let us burn the paper." Stalin, not worried about what others might think, simply replied, "No, you keep it."

End of French Colonialism

Although some colonial powers willingly relinquished their control, others, especially the French, had to be driven out by national wars of liberation. Decolonization was a difficult and even bitter process, but it created a new world as the non-Western states ended the long held ascendancy of the Western nations. The French effort to remain in Indochina led to a bloody struggle with the Vietminh, Vietnamese nationalist guerrillas, led by Ho Chi Minh, the Communist and nationalist leader of the Vietnamese. After their defeat in 1954, the French granted independence to Laos and Cambodia, and Vietnam was temporarily divided in anticipation of elections in 1956 that would decide its fate. But the elections were never held and the division of Vietnam by Communists and pro-Western regimes eventually led to the Vietnam War.

French Economy under de Gaulle

Although the cost of the nuclear program increased the defense budget, de Gaulle did not neglect the French economy. Economic decision making was centralized, a reflection of the overall centralization undertaken by the Gaullist government. Between 1958 and 1968, the French GNP increased by 5.5% annually, faster than the US economy was growing. By the end of de Gaulle's era, France was major industrial producer and exporter, particularly in such areas as automobiles and armaments. Nevertheless, problems remained. France failed to build the hospitals, houses, and schools that it needed. Moreover, the expansion of traditional industries, such as coal, steel, railroads, which had all been nationalized (put under government ownership), led to large government deficits. The cost of living increased faster than in the rest of Europe. Increased dissatisfaction with the inability of de Gaulle's government to deal with these problems soon led to more violent action.

Creation of West and East Germany

Although the foreign ministers of the four occupying powers (United States, Soviet Union, Britain, and France) kept meeting in an attempt to arrive at a final peace treaty with Germany, they moved further and further apart. At the same time, the British, French, and Americans gradually began to merge their zones economically and, by February 1948, were making plans for the unification of these three Western sections of Germany and the formal creation of a West German federal government.

Invasion of Poland

Armored columns of Panzer divisions (a Panzer division was a strike force of about 300 tanks and accompanying force and supplies), supported by the Luftwaffe shredded quickly through Polish lines and encircled the overwhelmed Polish troops. Regular infantry units then moved in to hold the newly conquered territory. While the Nazis were pushing into Poland's western borders, the Soviets invaded the eastern borders on September 17. Within four weeks, Poland had surrendered. On September 28, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union officially divided Poland between them.

Vyacheslav Molotov

As the war slowly receded into the past, the reality of conflicting ideologies had reappeared. Many in the West interpreted Soviet policy as part of a worldwide Communist conspiracy. The Soviets, for their part, viewed Western, and especially American, policy as nothing less than global capitalist expansionism, or as Lenin would have described it, nothing less than economic imperialism. Vyacheslav Molotov, the Russian Foreign Minister, referred to the Americans as "insatiable imperialists" and "war-mongering groups of adventurers".

Communism in Eastern Europe

At the end of World War II, Soviet military forces had occupied all of Eastern Europe and the Balkans (except Yugoslavia, Greece, and Albania). All of the occupied states came to be part of the Soviet sphere of influence, and after 1945, experienced similar political developments. Coalitions of all political parties (except Fascists or right wing parties) were formed to run the government, but within a year or two, the Communist parties in these countries had assumed the lion's share of power. The next step was the creation of single-party Communist governments. Between 1945 and 1947, Communist governments became firmly entrenched in East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and Hungary. In Czechoslovakia, which had a strong tradition of democratic institutions, the Communists did not achieve their goals until 1948 with the strong arm tactics of Klement Gottwald.

Walter Ulbricht

At the same time, the German Communist Party was reestablished under the control of Walter Ulbricht and was soon in charge of the political reconstruction of the Soviet zone in eastern Germany.

Suez Crisis

At the same time, with the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union, Britain's ability to play the role of a world power declined substantially—as was evident in the Suez Crisis. On July 26, 1956, Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser, the leader of Egypt, nationalized the Suez Canal, an act strongly condemned by the British as a threat to their "vital" interests. On October 29, British, French, and Israeli forces attacked Egypt. Strong American opposition forced the British to accept a United Nations cease-fire resolution and withdraw their troops. The Suez debacle made it clear that Britain was no longer a world power.

Nazi Invasion of the Balkans

At this point, Hitler pursued the possibility of a Mediterranean strategy, which involved capturing Egypt and the Suez Canal and closing the Mediterranean to British ships, thereby shutting off Britain's supply of oil from the Middle East. Hitler's commitment to the Mediterranean was never wholehearted, however. His initial plan was to let Mussolini and the Italians take charge of the region and to secure the Balkan and Mediterranean flanks and defeat the British in North Africa, but this strategy barely got into its opening stages when the British demolished the Italian army in Egypt. Although Hitler afterwards sent German troops into North Africa, his primary concern was still in his planned invasion of Soviet Russia. Already at the end of July 1940, Hitler had told his army leaders to begin preparations of the invasion of the Soviet Union. Although he had no desire for a two-front war, Hitler became convinced that Britain was remaining in the war only because it expected Soviet support. If the Soviet Union were smashed, Britain's last hope would be eliminated. Moreover, Hitler had convinced himself that the Soviet Union, with its "Jewish-Bolshevik" leadership and pitiful army, could be defeated quickly and decisively. Although the invasion of the Soviet Union was scheduled for spring 1941, the attack was delayed because of problems in the Balkans—again, Mussolini and the Italians caused major headaches for Hitler. Hitler had already obtained the political cooperation of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece in October 1940, however, exposed Hitler's southern flank to British air bases in Greece and Turkey. To secure his Balkan flank, German troops seized both Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941. Now reassured, Hitler turned to the east and invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, in the belief that the Soviets could still be decisively defeated before winter set in.

the Nazis also targeted

Because the Nazis also considered the Gypsies of Europe (like the Jews) a race containing alien blood, they were systematically rounded up for extermination. About 40% of Europe's one million Gypsies were killed in the death camps. The leading elements of the "subhuman" Slavic peoples—the clergy, intelligentsia, civil leaders, judges, and lawyers—were arrested and deliberately killed. Probably an additional four million of Poles, Ukrainians, and Byelorussians lost their lives as slave laborers for Nazi Germany, and at least three to four million Soviet prisoners of war were killed in captivity. The Nazis also singled out homosexuals for persecution and thousands lost their lives in the Concentration Camps.

Germany post WWII

Besides denazification and the partition of Germany (and Berlin) into four occupied zones, the Allied powers had agreed on little else with regard to the conquered nation. Even denazification proceeded differently in the various zones of occupation. The Americans and British proceeded methodically—the British had tried two million cases by 1948—whereas the Soviet (and French) went after major Nazi criminals and allowed lesser officials to go free. The Soviets, hardest hit by the war, took reparations from Germany in the form of loot and plunder. The technology starved Soviets dismantled and removed to the Soviet Union 380 factories from the western half of Berlin before transferring it to the Western Powers. By the summer of 1946, 200 chemical, paper, and textile factories in the Soviet Eastern half of Berlin had likewise been shipped to the Soviet Union.

Eastern states post Stalin's death

Between 1948 and Stalin's death in 1953, the Eastern European satellite states followed a policy of Stalinization. They instituted Soviet-type five year plans with emphasis on heavy industry rather than consumer goods. They began to collectivize agriculture. They eliminated all non-Communist political parties and established the institutes of repression—secret police and military forces. But communism—a foreign product—had not developed deep roots amongst the peoples of Eastern Europe. After Stalin's death, many Eastern European states began to pursue a new, more nationalistically oriented course, as the new Soviet leaders, including Khrushchev, interfered less in the internal affairs of their satellites. But in the late 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union also made clear, particularly in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, that it would not allow its Eastern European satellites to become independent of Soviet control.

George Kennan/Policy of Containment

But American fears of Soviet aims caused the United States to play an increasingly important role in European affairs. In an important article in Foreign Affairs in 1947, George Kennan, a well-known American diplomat that worked in the US Embassy in Moscow for a time and had an extensive knowledge of Soviet affairs, advocated a policy of "Containment" against further aggressive Soviet moves. This meant not an active war, but doing whatever was necessary to stop the future spread of Communism.

consumer society

Buying on installment plans, workers were able to imitate the middle class by buying such products as TVs, washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and stereos. But the most visible symbol of mass consumerism was the car, which before World War II, were reserved mostly for the upper classes.

Yalta Conference

By the time of the conference in Yalta in southern Ukraine in February 1945, the defeat of Germany was a foregone conclusion. The Western powers, which had earlier believed that the Soviets were in a weak position, were now faced with the reality of 11 million Red Army soldiers taking possession of Eastern and much of central Europe. Stalin was still operating under the notion of "spheres of influence". He was deeply suspicious of the Western Powers and desired a buffer to protect the Soviet Union from possible future Western aggression. At the same time, however, Stalin was eager to obtain economically important resources and strategic military positions. FDR, by this time, was moving away from the notion of spheres of influence to the ideal of self-determination of these European nations. FDR stood for a pledge to assist liberated European nations in the creation of "democratic institutions of their own choice." Liberated countries were to hold free elections to determine their political systems. At Yalta, Roosevelt sought Soviet military help against Japan. The atomic bomb was not yet assured, and American military planners feared the possible loss of as many as one million men in amphibious assaults on the Japanese home islands. FDR therefore agreed to Stalin's price for military assistance against Japan: possession of Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands (groups of large islands between Russia and Japan in the North Pacific), as well as two warm water ports and railroad rights in Manchuria (northern China). Another major concern for FDR at Yalta was the creation of a United Nations. Roosevelt hoped to ensure the participation of the Big Three powers in a postwar international organization that would correct the errors of the pathetic League of Nations. After a number of compromises, both Churchill and Stalin agreed to join Roosevelt's United Nations, and set the first meeting for San Francisco in April 1945. The Issues of Germany and Eastern Europe at Yalta were treated less decisively. The Big Three affirmed that Germany must surrender unconditionally a created four occupation zones for the postwar aftermath. Churchill, over the objections of both the Soviets and the US, fought hard for the creation of a French occupation zone carved out of the British and American zones. German reparations were set at $20 billion. A compromise was also worked out in regards to Poland. It was agreed that a provisional government would be established with members of both the Lublin Poles, who were Polish Communists living in exile in Moscow, and the London Poles, who were non-Communists exiled in Britain. Stalin also agreed to the free elections in the future to determine a new government for Poland. But the issue of free elections in Eastern Europe caused a serious rift between the Soviets and the Americans. The principle was that Eastern European governments would be freely elected, but they were also supposed to be pro-Soviet. As Churchill expressed it: "The Poles will have their future in their own hands, with the single limitation that they must honestly follow in harmony with their allies a policy friendly to Russia." This attempt to reconcile two irreconcilable goals was doomed to failure from the outset, as soon became evident at the next conference of the Big Three.

British "welfare state"

Continuing economic problems brought the Conservatives back into power from 1951 to 1964. Although they favored private enterprise, the Conservatives accepted the welfare state and even extended it when they undertook an ambitious construction program to improve British housing. Although the British economy had recovered from the war, it had done so at a slower rate than other European countries. Moreover, the slow rate of recovery masked a long-term economic decline caused by a variety of factors. The demands of British trade unions for wages that rose faster than productivity were certainly a problem in the late 1950s and 1960s. The unwillingness of the British to invest in modern industrial machinery and to adopt new methods also did not help. Underlying the immediate problems, however, was a deeper issue. As a result of World War II, Britain had lost much of its prewar revenues from abroad but was left with a burden of debt from its many international commitments.

Decolonization of Africa

Decolonization in Africa south of the Sahara took place less turbulently, Ghana proclaimed its independence in 1957 and by 1960, almost all French and British possessions in Africa had gained their freedom. In 1960, the Belgians freed the Congo (the modern Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire). The Portuguese held on stubbornly, but were also driven out of Africa (Angola and Mozambique) by 1975. Nevertheless, continuing European economic presence in sub-Saharan Africa led radicals to accuse Europeans of "neocolonial" attitudes. Although expectations ran high in the new states, they soon found themselves beset with problems of extreme poverty and antagonistic tribal groups that felt little loyalty to the new nations. These states come to be known collectively as "Third World" (the First World consisted of the advanced Industrial countries—Japan, Western Europe, and North America; Second World comprised the USSR and its puppets). Their status as "backward" nations led many Third World countries to modernize by pursuing Western technology and industrialization. In many instances, this has basically meant that these peoples have had to adjust to the continuing imposition of Western institutions and values upon their societies.

After the death of Stalin

Despite the continued escalation of the Cold War, hopes for a new era of peaceful coexistence also appeared. Certainly, the death of Stalin in 1953 caused some people in the West to think that the new Soviet leadership might be more flexible in its policies. But this optimism seemed premature. A summit conference at Geneva in 1955 between Eisenhower and Nikolai Bulganin, then leader of the Soviet government, produced no real benefits. A year later, all talk of rapprochement between East and West temporarily ceased when the Soviet Union used its armed forces to crush Hungary's attempt to assert its independence from Soviet control. A crisis over Berlin also added to the tension in the late 1950s.

Soviet Bloc in Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe was the first area of disagreement. The United States and Great Britain had championed self-determination and democratic freedom for the liberated nations of Eastern Europe. Stalin, however, fearful that the Eastern European nations would return to traditional anti-Soviet attitudes if they were permitted free elections, opposed the West's plans. Having liberated Eastern Europe from the Nazis, the Red Army proceeded to install pro-Soviet governing regimes in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. These pro-Soviet governments satisfied Stalin's desire for a buffer zone against the West, but the local populations and their sympathizers in the West saw the regimes as an extension of a Stalinist Empire.

downfall of Khrushchev

Economically, Khrushchev tried to place more emphasis on light industry and consumer goods. Likewise, he encouraged the decentralization of agriculture by allowing more local decision making with less interference from Moscow. Khrushchev's attempts to increase agricultural output by growing corn and cultivating vast lands east of the Ural Mountains proved less successful and damaged his reputation within his party. These failures, combined with increased military spending, wounded the Soviet economy. Khrushchev's personality also did not endear him to the higher Soviet officials, who frowned at his tendency to crack jokes and play the clown. Nor were the higher members of the party bureaucracy pleased with Khrushchev tried to curb their privileges. Foreign policy caused additional damage to Khrushchev's reputation among his colleagues. His rash plan to place missiles in Cuba was the final straw. While he was away on vacation in 1964, a special meeting of the Soviet Politburo voted him out of office (because of "deteriorating health") and forced him into retirement. Although a group of leaders succeeded him, real power came into the hands of Leonid Brezhnev, the "trusted supporter" of Khrushchev who had engineered his downfall.

Maginot line

Expecting another war of attrition and economic blockade, Britain and France refused to go on the offensive. Between 1930 and 1935, France had built a series of concrete and steel fortifications armed with heavy artillery known as the Maginot Line along its Rhineland border with Germany. France was now quite happy to remain in its defensive shell. After winter of waiting (called the "Phony War" or "Sitzkrieg"), Hitler resumed the war on April 9, 1940.

J. Robert Oppenheimer/Manhattan Project

Fearful of German attempts to create a superbomb through the use of uranium, the American government pursued a dual strategy. While sabotaging German efforts, the United States and Britain recruited scientists, including many who had fled from Germany to develop an atomic bomb. Working under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer at a secret laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Allied scientists built and tested the first atomic bomb by the summer of 1945. A new era in warfare was about to begin. The American government's fear of losing catastrophic losses in an invasion of the Japanese main islands led them to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed three days later by another on Nagasaki.

Allied/Soviet Invasion of Germany

German forces were soundly defeated by the Soviets in the Battle of Kursk (July 1943) south of Moscow, the war's greatest tank battle. The Germans lost 18 of their best Panzer divisions and thousands of their new Tigers. Soviet forces now began a relentless advance westward. The Soviets had reoccupied Ukraine by the end of 1943 and lifted the siege of Leningrad and moved into the Baltic States by the beginning of 1944. Advancing along a northern front, Soviet troops occupied Warsaw in January 1945 and entered Berlin in April. Meanwhile, Soviet troops swept along a southern front through Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Operation Sea Lion/Battle of Britain

German military commanders' planned invasion of Britain, Operation Sea Lion, called for a massive amphibious assault of the southern English coast in what could be best described as a marine Blitzkrieg. But Hitler believed that this amphibious invasion of Britain would only be possible if Germany gained control of the air. At the beginning of August 1940, the Luftwaffe launched a major offensive against British air and naval bases, harbors, communication centers, and war industries. The British fought back doggedly, supported by an effective radar system that gave them early warning of German attacks, introduced by British scientists earlier that year. Moreover, the ULTRA intelligence operation, which had broken German military codes, gave the British Royal Air Force (RAF) information about the specific targets of German air attacks. Nevertheless, the RAF suffered critical losses by the end of August and looked to be on the verge of defeat. Then, Britain was saved by a change in strategy by Hitler himself. In September, in retaliation for a massive RAF attack on Berlin's civilian population, Hitler ordered a shift from military targets to massive bombings of cities to break British morale. The British rebuilt their air strength quickly and were soon inflicting major losses on Luftwaffe bombers. By the end of September, 1940, Germany had lost the Battle of Britain, and Operation Sea Lion had to be postponed.

incendiary bombs

Germans especially feared the incendiary bombs that created firestorms that swept destructive paths through the cities. Four raids on Hamburg in August 1943 created temperatures of 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, obliterated half of the city's buildings, and burned to death 50,000 civilians. Even more horrifying was the ferocious bombing of Dresden in February 1945, which created a firestorm that killed 100,000 inhabitants and refugees trying to flee the oncoming Soviets. Even some Allied leaders began to criticize what they saw as the unnecessary terror bombing of German cities.

Reinhard Heydrich/Einsatzgruppen

Heinrich Himmler and the SS organization closely shared Hitler's racial ideology. The SS was given responsibility for what the Nazis called their Final Solution to the Jewish problem, that is, the annihilation of the Jewish people. Reinhard Heydrich, head of the SS's Security Service, was given administrative responsibility for the Final Solution. After the defeat of Poland in 1939, Heydrich ordered the special strike forces (Einsatzgruppen) that he had created to round up all Polish Jews and concentrate them in ghettos established in major Polish cities. In June 1941, the Einsatzgruppen were given new responsibilities as mobile killing units. These SS death squads followed the regular army's initial advance into the Soviet Union. Their job was to round up Jews in their villages and execute and bury them in mass graves, often giant pits dug by the victims themselves before they were shot. Such regular killings created morale problems among the SS executioners.

Operation Barbarossa

Hitler's plan to invade the Soviet Union

European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)

In 1951, France, West Germany, the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), and Italy formed the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). Its purpose was to create a common market for coal and steel products among the six nations by eliminating tariffs and other trade barriers. The success of the ECSC encouraged its members to proceed further, and in 1957, they created the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM)

Wladyslaw Gomulka

In 1956, after the circulation of Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin, protests—especially amongst the workers—erupted in Poland. In response, the Polish Communist Party adopted a series of reforms in October 1956 and elected Wladyslaw Gomulka as first secretary. Gomulka declared that Poland had the right to follow its own socialist path. Fearful of Soviet armed response, however, the Poles were forced to compromise. Poland pledged to remain loyal to the Warsaw Pact and the Soviets agreed to allow Poland to follow its own path to Communism. The Catholic Church, an extremely important institution to most Poles, was also permitted to administer to its own affairs.

Cuban Missile Crisis

In 1959, Communist revolutionary Fidel Castro had overthrown the American supported dictator of Cuba Fulgencio Batista and established a Soviet supported totalitarian regime. In 1961, an American supported attempt (the Bay of Pigs incident) to overthrow Castro's regime ended in utter failure. The next year, in 1962, the Soviet Union decided to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. The United States was not prepared to allow nuclear weapons to be within such close striking distance of the American mainland, even though it had placed nuclear weapons in Turkey in 1955 within easy range of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev was quick to point out that "your rockets are in Turkey. You are worried by Cuba...because it is 90 miles from the American coast. But Turkey is next to us." When American intelligence discovered that a Soviet fleet carrying missiles was heading to Cuba, President John F. Kennedy decided to blockade Cuba and prevent the fleet from reaching its destination. This approach to the problem had the benefit of delaying confrontation and giving each side time to find a peaceful solution. Khrushchev agreed to turn back the fleet if Kennedy pledged not to invade Cuba. In a conciliatory letter to Kennedy, Khrushchev wrote, "We and you ought not to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied. And a moment may come when that knot will be tied too tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it. Let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this." The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world frighteningly close to nuclear war. The intense feeling that the world might have been annihilated in a few days had profound influence on both sides. A hotline communications system between Moscow and Washington was installed in 1963 to expedite rapid communications between the two superpowers in a time of crisis. In the same year, the two powers agreed to ban nuclear tests in the atmosphere, a step that at least served to lessen the tensions between the two nations.

US and decolonization

In Asia, the United States initiated the process of decolonization in 1946 when it granted independence to the Philippines.

Weapons/Arms "Race"

In August 1957, the Soviet Union had launched its first Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and, shortly after, Sputnik I, the first space satellite. Fueled partisan political debate, fears of a missile gap between the United States and the Soviet Union seized the American public.

Deaths of Mussolini and Hitler

In January 1945, Adolf Hitler had moved into a bunker 55 feet under Berlin to direct the final stages of the war. In his final political testament, Hitler, consistent to the end in his rabid anti-Semitism, blamed the Jews for the war. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, two days after Mussolini had been killed by Italian partisan forces. On May 7, 1945, German commanders surrendered—the war in Europe was over.

Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech

In March 1946, in a speech in Fulton, Missouri, the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared that "an iron curtain" had "descended across the continent", dividing Germany and Europe into two hostile camps. Stalin branded Churchill's speech as a "call to war with the Soviet Union". Only months after the world's most devastating conflict had ended, the world seemed once again bitterly divided.

Student Riots Paris, 1968

In May 1968, a series of student protests, followed by a general strike of the labor unions, shook the government. Although de Gaulle managed to restore order, the events of May 1968 had seriously undermined the French people's respect for their arrogant and authoritative president. Tired and discouraged, de Gaulle resigned from office in April 1969 and died within a year.

Battle of El Alamein

In North Africa, British forces under General Bernard Montgomery had stopped Rommel's troops at El Alamein in the summer of 1942 and then forced them back across the desert. In November 1942, British and American forces invaded French North Africa and forced the German and Italian troops to surrender in May 1943. By that time, new detection devices had enabled the Allies to destroy increasing numbers of German submarines in the shipping war in the Atlantic

Marshall Tito

In Yugoslavia, Josip Broz, known as Tito, leader of the Communist resistance movement, seemed to be a loyal Stalinist. After the war, however, he moved toward the establishment of an independent Communist state in Yugoslavia. Stalin hoped to take control of Yugoslavia, just as he had done in other Easter European countries, but Tito refused to capitulate to Stalin's demands and gained the support of the people by portraying the struggle as one of Yugoslav national freedom. The Yugoslavs claimed their system was much closer to the Marxist-Leninist ideal of Communism, not the totalitarian brutality of Stalin's system.

Arab Independence

In the Middle East and North Africa, Arab nationalism was a powerful factor in ending colonial empires. Some Arab states had already become independent before the end of World War II. Now they were joined by other free Arab states, but not without considerable bloodshed and complications. When the British left Palestine in 1947, the United Nations voted to create both an Arab state and a Jewish state. When the Arabs attempted to destroy the new Israeli state, Israel's victories secured its existence. But the problem of Palestinian refugees, supported by existing Arab states, created an Arab-Israeli conflict that has lasted to this day.

National Health Care Act

In the area of social welfare, the new government enacted the National Insurance Act and the National Health Service Act in 1946. The insurance act established a comprehensive social security program and nationalized medical insurance, thereby enabling the state to subsidize the unemployed, the sick, and the aged. The health act created a system of socialized medicine that required doctors and dentists to work with state hospitals, although private practices could be maintained. This measure was especially costly for the state, but within a few years 90% of the medical profession was participating. The British welfare state became the norm for most European states after the war. However, the cost of building a welfare state at home forced the British to reduce expenses abroad. This meant the dismantling of the British Empire and the reduction of military aid to such countries as Greece and Turkey. Not a belief in the morality in self-determination, but rather economic necessity brought an end to the British Empire.

Central Treaty Organization (CENTO)

In the mid-1950s, the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower adopted a policy of massive retaliation, which advocated the full use of American nuclear bombs to counteract even a Soviet ground attack in Europe. Moreover, American military alliances were extended around the world. The Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Britain, and the United States was intended to prevent the Soviet Union from expanding at the expense of its southern neighbors.

European Economic Community (EEC)

In the same year, these six nations signed the Rome Treaty, which created the European Economic Community (EEC), also known as the Common Market. The EEC eliminated customs barriers for the six member nations and created a large free-trade area protected from the rest of the world by a common external tariff. By promoting free trade, the EEC also encouraged cooperation and standardization in many aspects of the six nations' economies. All the member nations benefited economically. By the decade of the 1960s, the EEC nations had become a major trading power.

Final Solution

Instead, the Nazis opted for the systematic annihilation of the European Jewish population in specifically built death camps. Jews from countries occupied (or sympathetic to) by Germany would be rounded up, packed like cattle into freight trains, and shipped to Poland, where six extermination centers were built for this purpose. The largest and most infamous was Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Nazis used Zyklon B gas (hydrogen cyanide) in large chambers designed to look like showers to facilitate the cooperation of huge numbers of victims. After gassing, the corpses would be burned in specifically built crematoriums.

economy of italy

Italy, too, experienced an economic miracle after the war, although it was far less publicized than Germany's. In 1945, Italy's industrial production was only 20% of prewar levels, and agricultural output was 50%. The Marshall Plan helped to stabilize the postwar Italian economy. Especially during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Italy made rapid strides in economic growth. The production of electrical appliances, luxury cars (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati), and office machinery made the most significant leap. As in other Western welfare states, the Italian economy combined private enterprise with government management, particularly of heavy industry. The major economic problem continued to be the backwardness of southern Italy, a region that possessed 36% of the total population, yet only 25% of the national income. In the 1960s, millions of Italians from the south migrated to the more prosperous north.

Konrad Adenhauer

Konrad Adenauer, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who served as chancellor from 1949 to 1963, became the "founding hero" of the Federal Republic. Adenauer sought respect for Germany by cooperating with the United States and the other Western nations. He was especially desirous of reconciliation with France—Germany's longtime enemy. Adenauer resigned in 1963, after 14 years of firmly guiding West Germany through its postwar recovery. Basically conservative, Adenauer had wanted to grand experimentation at home or abroad; he was content to give Germany time to regain its equilibrium. Ludwig Erhard succeeded Adenauer and largely continued his policies. But an economic downturn in the mid-1960s opened the door to the rise of the Social Democrats, and in 1969, they became the leading party.

communism in italy

Like pre-Fascist governments, post-war Italian political coalitions, dominated by the Christian Democrats, were famous for their instability and short lives. Although the Italian Communist Party was one of Italy's three largest parties, it was always excluded from these coalitions, which seemed only to exist to outnumber the Communists. The Communists did, however, manage to gain power in a number of provinces and municipalities in the 1960s. The Christian Democrats were able to maintain control by keeping the support of the upper and middle classes and the southern peasantry.

Nikita Khrushchev

Most importantly, Khrushchev extended the process of destalinization by reducing the powers of the KGB, freeing a number of political prisoners, and closing some of the Siberian prison camps. Nevertheless, when Khrushchev's revelations about Stalin at the 20th Congress created turmoil in Communist ranks everywhere and encouraged a spirit of rebellion in Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe, there was a reaction.

Berlin Wall

Nikita Khrushchev, the new leader of the Soviet Union, attempted to take advantage of the American frenzy over missiles to solve the problem of West Berlin. West Berlin had remained a "Western island" of prosperity in the midst of the relatively poverty-stricken East Germany. Many East Germans also managed to leave East Germany by fleeing through West Berlin. In November 1958, Khrushchev announced that, unless the West remove Berlin to the East Germans. Unwilling to accept an ultimatum that would have abandoned West Berlin to the Communists, Eisenhower and the West stood firm and Khrushchev eventually backed down. In 1961, the East German government built a wall separating West Berlin from East Berlin, and the Berlin issue faded.

Vichy France

On June 5, 1940, the Germans launched another offensive into southern France. Five days later, Mussolini, believing that the war was over and eager to grab some of the spoils, declared war on France and invaded from the south. Dazed by the speed of the German offensive, the French were never able to mount an adequate resistance and surrendered to the Nazis on June 22, 1940. German armies occupied the northern 3/5ths of France, while the French hero of Verdun in World War I, Marshal Philippe Petain, established an authoritarian regime over the remainder, known as Vichy France. Being that Paris was in the Nazi occupied zone, the French "capital" was moved to Vichy, a city in central France.

Battle of Stalingrad

On the Eastern Front, the turning point of the war occurred at Stalingrad. After the capture of the Crimea, Hitler's generals wanted him to move southeast to concentrate on the Caucasus, which was the center of the Soviet oil supply; instead, Hitler decided instead to strike at Stalin's namesake city, Stalingrad (Volgograd). Between November 1942 and February 1943, German troops were stopped, then encircled, and finally forced to surrender on February 2, 1943—the Battle of Stalingrad still remains the most horrifying battle in human history. The entire German Sixth Army of 300,000 men was lost, on top of the million plus of Russian civilians in Stalingrad. By February 1943, German forces in the Soviet Union were back to their positions of June 1942 at the beginning of the invasion. By the spring of 1943, even Hitler knew that the Germans would not defeat the Soviet Union.

Nazi Invasion of the West

One month later, on May 10, the Germans launched their attack on the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. The main assault through Luxembourg and the Ardennes Forest was completely unexpected by the French and British forces. German Panzer Divisions broke through the weak French defensive positions there, outflanking the Maginot Line, and raced across northern France. The maneuver split the Allied armies and trapped French troops and the entire British army on the beaches of Dunkirk, a French port on the English Channel.

Truman Doctrine

President Truman, alarmed by British weakness and the possibility of Soviet expansion into the eastern Mediterranean, responded with the Truman Doctrine. According to the President, "It must be the policy of the United Sates to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." This statement was made to the US Congress in March 1947 when Truman requested $400 million in economic and military aid for Greece and Turkey. The Truman Doctrine said in essence that the United States would provide money that claimed they were threatened by Communist expansion. If the Soviets were not stopped in Greece, the Truman argument ran, then the United States would have to face the spread of communism throughout the free world.

Vacations and Holidays

Rising incomes, combined with shorter working hours, created an even greater market for mass leisure activities. Another visible symbol of mass leisure was the growth of mass tourism. Before World War II, mostly the upper and middle classes travelled for pleasure. After the war, the combination of more vacation time, increased prosperity, and the flexibility provided by package tours with their lower rates and low-budget rooms enabled millions to expand their travel possibilities.

Algerian Independence

Since Algeria was home to two million French settlers, however, France chose to retain its dominion there. But a group of Algerian nationalists organized the National Liberation Front (FLN) and in 1954, initiated a guerrilla war to liberate their homeland. The French people became so divided over this war that the French President, Charles de Gaulle, accepted the inevitable and granted Algerian independence in 1962.

Operation Overlord/D Day

Since the autumn of 1943, the Allies had been planning a cross-channel invasion of France from Britain. A series of Allied deceptions managed to trick the Germans into believing that the invasion would come on the flat plains of northern France. Instead, the Allies, now under the unified command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, landed five assault divisions on the Normandy beaches on June 6 in history's greatest naval invasion (Operation Overlord). An initially indecisive German response enabled the Allied forces to establish a beachhead. Within three months, they had landed two million men and a half a million vehicles that pushed inland and broke through German defensive lines.

Teheran Conference

Stalin, FDR, and Churchill, the leaders of the Big Three of the Grand Alliance, met at Teheran (capital of Iran) in November 1943 to decide the future course of the war. Their major tactical decision concerned the final assault on Germany. Churchill had wanted British and American forces to follow up their North African and Italian campaigns by an indirect attack on Germany through the Balkans. Although an extremely difficult route, this would give the Western allies a better position in postwar central Europe. Stalin and Roosevelt, however, overruled Churchill and argued successfully for an American-British invasion of the Continent through France, which they scheduled for the spring of 1944. The acceptance of this plan had important consequences—it meant that Soviet and British-American forces would meet in a defeated Germany along a north-south dividing line and that most likely, Eastern Europe would be liberated by Soviet forces. The Allies also agreed to a partition of postwar Germany, but differences over questions like the frontiers of Poland were carefully set aside. Roosevelt was pleased with the accord with Stalin—yet Churchill was much more suspicious of Soviet goals.

Allied Bombing in Germany

The British failed to learn from their own experience, however, and soon proceeded to bomb German cities. Churchill and his advisers believed that destroying German communities would break German morale and bring victory. In May 1942, Cologne became the first German city to be subjected to an attack by 1,000 bombers. With the entry of the Americans into the war, the bombing strategy changed. American planes flew daytime missions aimed at the precision bombing of transportation facilities and war industries, while the British Bomber Command continued nighttime "saturation" bombing of all German cities with populations over 100,000. Bombing raids added an element of terror to circumstances already made difficult by growing shortages of food, clothing, and fuel. Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that Allied bombing sapped the morale of the German people. Instead, Germans, whether pro-Nazi or anti-Nazi, fought on stubbornly, often driven by the raw sense of survival. The bombings, however, were effective in its widespread destruction on infrastructure, transportation systems, and most importantly fuel supplies, which caused a halt to the Nazi war machine.

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)

The Eastern European states soon followed suit. In 1949, they had already formed the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) for economic cooperation.

Richard von Weizsacker

The German president Richard von Weizsacker was especially eloquent in reminding Germans of their responsibility "for the unspeakable sorrow that occurred in the name of Germany."

Potsdam Conference

The Grand Alliance had been one of necessity in which disagreements had been subordinated to the concerns of the war. The Allied Powers' only common goal was the defeat of Nazi Germany—once this aim was accomplished, the many differences that troubled East-West relations came to the surface. Each side committed acts that the other viewed as unbecoming of "Allies." From the perspective of the Soviets, The United States' termination of Lend-Lease aid before the war was over and its failure to respond to the Soviet request for a $6 billion loan for reconstruction exposed the Western desire to keep the Soviet state weak. On the American side, the Soviet Union's failure to fulfill its Yalta pledge on the "Declaration on Liberated Europe" as applied to Eastern Europe set a dangerous precedent. This was evident in Romania. One month later, the Soviets sabotaged the Polish agreement by arresting the London Poles and their sympathizers and placing the Soviet-backed Lublin Poles in power. To the Americans, the Soviets seemed to be asserting control of Eastern European countries under puppet Communist regimes.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in April 1949 when Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal signed a treaty with the United States and Canada. All the powers agreed to provide mutual assistance if any one of them was attacked. A few years later, West Germany, Greece, and Turkey joined NATO.

Seeds of the Cold War at Potsdam

The Potsdam Conference of 1945 thus began under a cloud of mistrust. Making matters worse, FDR died in April 12 and had been succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman, who was much less willing to compromise than his predecessor. During the actual proceedings of the conference, Truman was pulled aside by aides and told that the atomic bomb had been tested successfully and was operational. This knowledge resulted in Truman's stiffened resolve against the Soviets and a new coldness in the relations between the Soviets and Americans. At Potsdam, Truman demanded free elections throughout Eastern Europe. Stalin responded: "A freely elected government in any of these East European countries would be anti-Soviet, and that, we cannot allow." After a bitterly fought and devastating war for the Russians, Stalin sought absolute military security. To him, it could only be gained by the presence of Communist states in Eastern Europe. Free elections might result in governments hostile to the Soviets. The Soviets did not view their actions as dangerous expansionism, but as legitimate security maneuvers.

"Mutual Deterrence"

The Soviet Union also detonated its first atomic bomb in 1949, and all too soon, both powers were involved in an escalating arms race that resulted in the construction of ever more destructive nuclear weapons like the Hydrogen Bomb. Soon, the search for security took the form of mutual deterrence or the belief that an arsenal of nuclear weapons prevented war by assuring that even if one nation launched its nuclear weapons in a preemptive first strike, the other nation would still be able to respond and devastate the attacker. Therefore, the assumption was that neither side would risk using the massive arsenals that had been assembled.

Berlin Blockade

The Soviets responded with a blockade of West Berlin that allowed neither trucks nor trains to enter the three Western zones of Berlin. The Soviets hoped to secure economic control of all Berlin and force the Western powers to halt the creation of a separate West German state. The Western powers were faced with a dilemma. Direct military confrontation seemed dangerous and no one wished to risk World War III. Therefore, an attempt to break through the blockade with tanks and trucks was ruled out. But how could the 2.5 million people in the three Western zones of Berlin be kept alive, when the whole city was inside the Soviet zone? The solution was the Berlin Airlift, which, at its peak, 13,000 tons of supplies were flown to Berlin daily. The Soviets, also not wanting war, did not interfere and finally lifted the blockade in May 1949. The blockade of Berlin had severely increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union and brought the separation of Germany into two states. The West German Federal Republic was formally created in September 1949 and a month later, a separate German Democratic Republic was established in East Germany. Berlin remained a divided city and the source of much contention between East and West.

Vichy government

The Vichy government under Petain was essentially a Nazi puppet state, and a French government-in-exile under General Charles de Gaulle took up residence in London. Germany was now in control of western and central Europe, but Britain still had not been defeated.

Algerian issue

The army's unwillingness to accept anything but complete victory in Algeria led some French army officers to instigate a revolt against their own government and open the door to the possibility of civil war in France. The panic-stricken leaders of the Fourth Republic offered to let de Gaulle take over the government and revise the constitution. In 1958, de Gaulle immediately drafted a new constitution for the Fifth Republic that greatly enhanced the power of the president, who now had the right to choose the prime minister, dissolve parliament, and supervise both defense and foreign policy. De Gaulle had always believed in strong leadership, and the new Fifth Republic was by no means a democratic system. As the new president, de Gaulle sought to return France to the position of a great power. He believed that playing a pivotal role in the Cold War might enhance France's stature. For that reason, he pulled France out of the NATO high command. He increased French prestige among the Third World countries by consenting to Algerian independence despite strenuous opposition from the army. With an eye toward achieving the status of a world power, de Gaulle invested heavily in the nuclear arms race. France exploded its first nuclear bomb in 1960. Despite his successes, de Gaulle did not really achieve his ambitious goals of world power. Although his successors maintained that France was the "third nuclear power" after the United States and the Soviet Union, in truth, France was too small for such global ambitions.

Org. of European Economic Cooperation (OEEC)

The destructiveness of two world wars caused many thoughtful Europeans to consider the need for some form of European unity. National feeling was still too powerful, however, for European nations to give up their political sovereignty. Consequently, the desire for unity was forced to focus primarily on the economic arena, not the political. The Marshall Plan had called for European economic cooperation. To provide a framework for this American aid, European nations created the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), which served primarily to encourage European trade. By 1950, European had perceived the need for further cooperative effort beyond the limited goals of the OEEC.

Prague Spring

The developments in Poland and Hungary in 1956 did not generate similar revolts in Czechoslovakia. One of the "Little Stalins", Antonin Novotny, placed in power by Stalin himself in 1952, remained firmly in control. By the late 1960s, however, Novotny had alienated many members of the Communist Party and was particularly resented by Czechoslovakia's writers, namely the playwright Vaclav Havel. A writers' rebellion late in 1967, in fact, led to Novotny's resignation. In January 1968, Alexander Dubcek was chosen as Communist Party leader in Czechoslovakia and soon introduced a number of reforms, including freedom of speech and press, freedom to travel abroad, and a relaxation of secret police activities. Dubcek hoped to create "communism with a human face." A period of euphoria erupted that came to be known as the "Prague Spring." It proved to be short-lived. This euphoria had led many to call for more far-reaching reforms, including neutrality and withdrawal from the Soviet bloc (and Warsaw Pact). To prevent this "spring" fever, the Red Army invaded Czechoslovakia in August of 1968 and crushed the reform movement. Gustav Husak, a committed nonreformist, replaced Dubcek, crushed his reforms, and maintained the old order until the end of 1987.

Imre Nagy/Hungarian Revolt

The developments in Poland in 1956 inspired national Communists in Hungary to seek the same kinds of reforms and "independence". Intense debates eventually resulted in the ouster of the ruling Stalinist (Matyas Rakosi) and the selection of Imre Nagy as the new Hungarian leader. Internal dissent, however, was not directed simply against the Soviets, but against communism in general, which was viewed as a creation of the Soviets, not the Hungarians. The Stalinist secret police had also bred much terror and hatred. This dissatisfaction, combined with economic difficulties, created a situation ripe for revolt. In order to quell the rising rebellion, Nagy declared Hungary a free nation on November 1, 1956. He promised free elections and the mood of the country made it clear that this could mean the end of Communist rule in Hungary. But Khrushchev was in no position at home to allow a member of the Communist flock to leave. Just three days after Nagy's declaration, the Red Army attacked the capital city of Budapest. The Soviets reestablished control over the country and Janos Kadar, a reform-minded cabinet minister, replaced Nagy and worked with the Soviets to squash the revolt. By collaborating with the Soviet invaders, Kadar was able to save many of Nagy's economic reforms.

Allied Powers

The entry of the United States into the war created a coalition (Grand Alliance) that ultimately defeated the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) in 1945. Nevertheless, the three major Allies, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, had to overcome mutual suspicions before they could operate as an effective alliance. Two factors aided that process. First, Hitler's declaration of war on the United States made it easier for Americans to accept the British and Soviet contention that the defeat of Germany should be the first priority of the United States (not Japan). For that reason, the United States increased its "Lend-Lease" policies and sent massive amounts of trucks, planes, and other weapons to the British and Soviets. Also important to the Alliance was the tacit agreement of the three chief Allies to stress military operations while ignoring their own political differences and larger strategies concerning postwar settlements. At the beginning of 1943, the Allies agreed to fight until the Axis Powers surrendered.

Luftwaffe Bombing in Britain

The first sustained use of civilian bombing contradicted Douhet's theory. Beginning in early September 1940, the German Luftwaffe subjected London and many other British cities and towns to nightly air raids, making the Blitz (as the British public called the German air raids) a national experience. Londoners took the first heavy blows and set the standard for the rest of the British population in determined resistance. But London morale was helped by the fact that the German raids were widely scattered over a very large city. Smaller communities were more directly affected by the devastation. In November 1940, for example, the Luftwaffe destroyed almost the entire city center of Coventry, killing thousands. The destruction of smaller cities like Coventry did produce morale problems as wild rumors of heavy casualties spread quickly in these communities—nevertheless, British resolve was restored.

End of British Colonialism

The greatest colonial empire builder, Great Britain, no longer had the energy or wealth to maintain its colonial empire after the war and quickly sought to let its colonies go. Given the combination of circumstances, a rush of decolonization swept throughout the world. Between 1947 and 1962, virtually every colony achieved independence and attained statehood. Britain soon followed suit with its oldest and largest nonwhite possession—India. The conflict between India's Hindu and Muslim populations was solved by forming two states, a mostly Hindu India and a predominately Muslim Pakistan in 1947. In 1948, Britain granted independence to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Burma (Myanmar)

Presidency of Charles de Gaulle

The history of France for nearly a quarter of a century after the war was dominated by one man—Charles de Gaulle—who possessed an unshakable faith that he had a historical mission to reestablish the greatness of the French nation. During the war, de Gaulle had assumed leadership of some resistance groups and played an important role in ensuring the establishment of a French provisional government after the war. The creation of the Fourth Republic, with a return to a parliamentary system based on parties that de Gaulle considered weak, led him to withdraw from politics. Eventually, he formed the "French Popular Movement", a decidedly right wing organization. It blamed the parties for France's political mess and called for an even stronger presidency, a goal that de Gaulle finally achieved in 1958. The fragile political stability of the Fourth Republic had been badly shaken by the Algerian Crisis. The French army had suffered defeat in Indochina in 1954 to Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communists and was determined to resist Algerian demands for independence. But a strong antiwar movement among French intellectuals and church leaders led to bitter divisions within France.

Invasion of the USSR & the US enters the war

The massive attack stretched out along an 1800 mile front. German troops advanced rapidly, capturing two million Soviet soldiers, which were promptly sent to labor and concentration camps. By November 1941, one German army group had swept through Ukraine, while a second was besieging Leningrad (St. Petersburg); a third approached within 25 miles of Moscow, the Soviet capital. An early winter and unexpected Soviet resistance (and Scorched Earth), however, brought a halt to the German advance. For the first time in the war, German armies had been stopped. Then, on December 7, 1941, more bad news for Hitler—his Axis ally Japan had just attacked Pearl Harbor, an American naval base in Hawaii. The United States had just entered the war. Stalin concluded that the Japanese would not strike at the eastern frontiers of the Soviet Union (near Manchuria/Northern China) and transferred millions of soldiers to the Moscow front. A counterattack in late December 1941 by a Soviet army supposedly exhausted by Nazi victories brought an ominous end to 1941 for the Germans. By that time, another of Hitler's decisions—the declaration of war on the United States—had probably made his defeat inevitable and turned another European conflict into a global war.

Alcide de Gasperi

The monarchy was abolished when 54% of Italian voters rejected the royal House of Savoy, and in June 1946, Italy became a democratic republic. In the first postwar elections held in April 1948, the Christian Democrats, still allied with the Catholic Church, emerged as the leading political party. Alcide de Gasperi served as prime minister from 1948 to 1953, an unusually long span of time for an Italian government.

Clement Atlee

The new Labour government proceeded to enact the reforms that created a modern welfare state. Clement Atlee, the new Prime Minister, was a pragmatic reformer and certainly not the leftist revolutionary that Churchill had warned against in his election campaign.

Marshall Plan

The proclamation of the Truman Doctrine was soon followed in June 1947 by the European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan, named after Truman's first Secretary of State General George C. Marshall. Intended to rebuild prosperity and stability, this program included $13 billion for the economic recovery of war-torn Europe. Underlying it was the belief that Communist aggression fed off economic turmoil. From the Soviet perspective, the Marshall Plan was nothing less than capitalist imperialism, a thinly veiled attempt to buy the support of the smaller European countries, which in return, would be expected to submit to economic exploitation by the United States. The Marshall Plan did not intend to shut out either the Soviet Union or its Eastern European satellite states, but they refused to participate. The Soviets, however, were in no position to compete financially with the United States and could do little to counter the Marshall Plan.

General Giulio Douhet's Theory

The public outcry in reaction to the bombing of civilian populations would be an effective way to coerce governments into making peace.

the new European Society

The structure of European society was altered after 1945. Especially noticeable were the changes in the middle class. Such traditional middle class groups as businesspeople and professionals in law, medicine, and the universities were greatly expanded by a new group of managers and technicians, as large companies and government agencies employed increasing numbers of "white collar" supervisory and administrative personnel. Whether in Eastern or Western Europe, the new managers and experts were very much alike. Everywhere their positions depended upon specialized knowledge acquired from some form of higher education. Changes also occurred among the traditional lower classes. Especially noticeable was the dramatic shift of people from rural to urban areas. The number of people in agriculture decline dramatically. Nor did the size of the industrial labor force expand. Thereafter, the number of industrial workers began to dwindle as the number of "white collar" service employees increased. At the same time, a substantial increase in their real wages enabled the working classes to aspire to the consumption patterns of the middle class, leading to what many historians call the "consumer society".

Atomic Bombs

The war in Asia continued. Beginning in 1943, American forces had gone on the offensive and advanced their way, slowly at times, across the Pacific in a strategy known as Island Hopping. American forces took an increasing toll of enemy resources, especially at sea and in the air. When President Harry Truman (FDR had died on April 12, 1945) and his advisers had become convinced that American troops might suffer heavy casualties in the Japanese homeland, they made the decision to drop the newly developed atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese surrendered unconditionally on August 14. World War II, in which 17 million soldiers died in battle and another 18 million civilians died from the horrors of war, was finally over.

Warsaw Pact

Then in 1955, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union organized a formal military alliance in the Warsaw Pact. Once again, Europe was tragically divided hostile alliance systems.

Political Parties, West Germany

Three major parties came forth: the Social Democrats (SPD), the Christian Democrats (CDU), and the Free Democrats (FDP). Over the next three years, the occupation forces gradually let the political parties to play greater roles in their zones. As a result of the pressures of the Cold War, the unification of the three Western zones into the West German Federal Republic became a reality in 1949.

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)

To stem Soviet aggression in the East, the United States, Britain, France, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). By the mid-1950s, the United States found itself allied militarily with 42 states around the world.

Stalin's suppression

To sustain the war effort against the Germans, Stalin had fostered super-patriotism among all Soviets, but found that contact with Western ways during the war had shaken many people's belief in the superiority of the Soviet system. Returning Soviet soldiers brought back stories of the prosperity of the West, and the obvious disparity between the Western and Soviet systems led to a "crisis of faith" for many young Communists. Partly for this reason, Stalin imprisoned many soldiers (some of which served in Nazi Concentration Camps) to gulags (Soviet Concentration Camps). When World War II ended in 1945, Stalin had been in power for more than 15 years. During that time, he had removed all opposition to his rule and remained the undisputed master of the Soviet Union. Other leading members of the Communist Party were completely obedient to his will. Increasingly distrustful of competitors, Stalin exercised sole authority and pitted his subordinates against one another. Stalin's morbid suspicions fueled the constantly increasing repression that was a characteristic of his regime. In 1946, the government decreed that all literary and scientific works must conform to the political needs of the state. Along with this anti-intellectual campaign came political terror. A new series of purges seem imminent in 1953 when a number of Jewish doctors were implicated in a bogus plot to kill high-level party officials. Only Stalin's death on March 5, 1953 prevented more bloodletting.

War in North Africa & Erwin Rommel

Until the fall of 1942, it appeared that the Germans might still prevail on the battlefield. Reinforcements in North Africa enabled the Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel (the Desert Fox) to break through the British defenses in Egypt and advance toward Alexandria.

Blitzkrieg

Using Blitzkrieg, or "lightning war", Hitler stunned Europe with the speed and efficiency of the German attack.

James F. Byrnes

When the American Secretary of State (and South Carolinian) James F. Byrnes proposed 25 year disarmament of Germany, the Soviet Union rejected it. In the West, many saw this as proof of Stalin's plans to expand into central Europe and create a Communist East German state. When Byrnes responded by announcing that American troops would be needed in Europe for an indefinite time and made moves that foreshadowed the creation of an independent West Germany, the Soviets saw this as a direct threat to Soviet security in Europe.

Stalin's Economic Policy

World War II devastated the Soviet Union. To create a new industrial base, Stalin returned to the method that he had used in the 1930s—the acquisition of development capital from Soviet labor. Working hard for little pay, poor housing, and precious few consumer goods, Soviet laborers were expected to produce goods for export with little in return for themselves. The loss of millions of men in the war meant that much of this tremendous workload fell upon Soviet women. Almost 40% of heavy manual labor was performed by women. Economic recovery in the Soviet Union was nothing less than spectacular. By 1947, Russian industrial production had attained prewar levels; three years later, it had surpassed them by 40%. New power plants, canals, and giant factories were built, and new industries and oil fields were established in Siberia and Soviet central Asia. Stalin's newly announced five-year plan of 1946 reached its goals in less than five years. Although Stalin's economic policy was successful in promoting growth in heavy industry, primarily for the benefit of the military, consumer goods were scarce. While the development of thermonuclear weapons in 1953, MIG fighter planes from 1950 to 1953, and the first space satellite (Sputnik) in 1957 elevated the Soviet state's reputation as a world power abroad, the Soviet people were shortchanged domestically. Heavy industry grew at a rate three times that of personal consumption. Moreover, the housing shortage was acute.

"Angel of Death", Dr. Josef Mengele

he performed medical experiments on jewish people

Petra Groza

the soviets engineered a coup and installed a new government under the Communist Petra Groza, called the "Little Stalin" in Romania which violated the "declaration on liberated Europe" which was established at Yalta

European Atomic Energy Commission (EURATOM)

they created the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) to further European research on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Nazi Invasion of Scandinavia

with another Blitzkrieg, Hitler went to war against Denmark and Norway because a lot of Germans lived in Denmark and Norway