Cold War (1945-1953)

By martumore

  • Yalta Conference

    Britain, US and USSR agreed on key issues which would shape the post-war world:
    - Arrangements for post-war Germany
    - Poland's borders and establishment of provisional government
    - Creation of the United Nations
    - The Declaration on Liberated Europe

  • US President Harry Truman

    Roosevelt died and was replaced by Harry Truman

  • End of the Second World War in Europe

  • First Atomic bomb testing

    The atomic bomb was tested successfully in New Mexico in the US.

  • Potsdam Conference

    Churchill, Stalin and Truman met at Potsdam just outside Berlin.
    (July - August 1945)

  • Clement Attlee as British Prime Minister

    Churchill was replaced by Clement Attlee as British Prime Minister.
  • Period: to

    Atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August killing half the population and three days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 40,000 people.

  • End of the Second World War in Japan

  • The Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers

  • Period: to

    The Formation of the Soviet bloc

    Poland: Communist-dominated electoral bloc won January 1946 elections
    Romania: Communists in control by March 1946
    Bulgaria: Enemies of Communist Party liquidated
    Yugoslavia: Communist Party dominant under Tito
    Hungary and Czechoslovakia: By December 1947 these countries had ceased to be a 'bridge' to the west
    Finland: Remained neutral (not under communist control)
  • Period: to

    US policy in Japan

    The US transformed much of Japan's government and economy during the occupation into a liberal capitalist democracy.

  • Churchill Iron Curtain

    "From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste, in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent"
    It was the "official" declaration of the Cold War and the bipolar division

  • The Truman Doctrine

    Reasons: Britain unable to defend eastern Mediterranean and Yugoslavs assisting Greek Communists
    Doctrine: Truman offered US support to countries resisting Communist subversion and stressed the need to improve economic conditions in Europe

  • Cominform is established by the USSR

    The Communist Information Bureau was established in September 1947 to promote ideological unity among the communist parties in Europe. All Soviet bloc communist parties joined as did the French and Italian parties. Its main task was to complete the Sovietization of the Soviet satellite states and to combat "Titoism"

  • The Marshall Plan

    Offer of aid package, funds to be distributed by supranational organization. It was accepted by western European states but rejected by USSR.

  • Decision to create West Germany (second London Conference)

  • The Yugoslav-Soviet split

    Stalin broke the ally-ship with Tito and thus splitting Yugoslavia from the Soviet bloc.

  • The Brussels Pact

    The Brussels Pact was signed by Belgium, Britain, France, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. The Pact promised that each of the signatory states would defend the other Pact members against any aggressor whatsoever.
  • Period: to

    The Berlin Blockade

    The USSR cuts the supplies to West Berlin, rail and road links to the west as well as the supply of electricity which came from East Berlin, were cut.
  • Period: to

    The Berlin Airlift

    Western Allies decided to supply West Berlin with goods transported by aircraft. The airlift would follow routes or corridors that the Soviet Union had granted allies in 1945.

  • COMECON Foundation

    The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) was founded in 1949 by the USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania and joined in 1950 by the GDR.

  • Cominform and the Peace Movement

    In November 1949, Cominform was given the task of mobilizing a Soviet backed peace movement as Stalin hopes that this would lead to a backlash against NATO and Adenauer's government in the FRG.
    In 1949, the World Committee for the Partisians for Peace was created to organize the Peace Movement.

  • The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

    The North Atlantic Treaty was signed on 4 April 1949 for an initial period of twenty years. It included Canada, the US, the Brussels Pact Powers, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy and Portugal and it came into force in August 1949.

  • Establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)

    The West German constitution was approved in the spring of 1949 by the three Wester allies and elections for the new parliament took place in August. This still gave Britain, France and the US the final say on West German foreign policy, security questions, exports and many other matters

  • USSR successfully tested an atomic bomb

  • The Chinese Revolution

    The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) drove the Chinese Nationalists with whom they had been fighting a civil war, from mainland China to Taiwan. Now China was a Communist state, and a new ally to the USSR.

  • Establishment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR)

    Due to the creation of the FRG, Stalin concluded that German unity was no longer possible and the establishment of the East German state, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was needed to prevent easter Germany from uniting with the FRG.

  • The Sino-Soviet Pact (PRC and USSR)

    Mao visited Moscow to celebrate Stalin's seventieth birthday and also negotiated the Sino-Soviet Pact.
    The Pact committed both states to:
    - co-operate in terms of defence in the case of attack by Japan or its ally (US)
    - conclude a peace treaty with Japan which would not be hostile to the interests of either state
    - not conclude any hostile agreement with another power aimed at the other member of the Pact
    - consult closely on matters of mutual interest

  • Outbreak of the Korean War

    The Soviets increased the flow of weapons to the DPRK / North Korea and military advisors were sent in disguise so as not arouse US suspicions. By June 1950 North Korea possessed a decisive superiority over the South in terms of military strength and it began its attack on South Korea on 25 June.

  • PCR's intervention in the Korean War

    PCR intervened in the Korean War to help North Korea.

  • The Pleven Plan

    The French Prime Minister proposed the formation of the European Defence Community (EDC); known as the Pleven Plan. its purpose was to create an European army under supranational control with a European Minister of Defence responsible to a European Assembly which would be appointed by the participating governments.

  • The Spofford Compromise / Pleven Plan

    As the first Pleven Plan was unworkable militarily, the deputy US representative on NATO's Atlantic Council (Charles Spofford) suggested that certain practical steps to strengthen defences in western Europe should be taken immediately.

  • Treaty of Peace with Japan

  • European Defence Community Treaty

  • Eisenhower is elected as US President

  • Stalin's death

  • Stalin offers the possibility of a neutral united Germany

    In March 1952, in a note to Western allies, he made a far-reaching proposal for free elections in Germany supervised by a commission of the four former occupying powers. The unified Germany would be neutral, not able to join the EDC or NATO. The US and its allies rejected the offer as they believed that a neutral Germany would fall into the Soviet sphere of influence.

  • Korean Armistice

    Both sides agreed an armistice which recognized the 38th parallel as a temporary dividing line between North Korea and South Korea, this division has remained the frontier ever since.