World War II Aftermath: Europe’s Transformation & Cold War
**The Impact of War**
When the Second World War finished, Europe was destroyed, and the population decimated, both materially and morally. Two new powers, the United States and the USSR, relegated Europe to the background. The demographic balance of the war was around 50 million dead. Physical destruction was significant and affected cities, media, and industrial installations. Looting continued in the cities. The military practices of burning crops and forests and the destruction of industries led to a drastic reduction in agricultural and industrial production. In return, those countries that had been left out of the conflict became suppliers and experienced strong economic growth. The war left a profound moral impact. Border changes and expulsions of ethnic minorities led to a high number of forced population movements. Human rights had been systematically violated, and violence and cruelty had been installed in Europe for six long years.
**The Peace Conferences**
The big three allies (Britain, the USA, and the USSR) met for the first time at the conference in Tehran, attended by Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. There, they took the first joint military action to hasten the end of a war that was considered already won. The second major conference of the big three took place in the city of Yalta, where they decided on the elimination of the Nazi regime in Germany, the division of Germany and Austria into four occupation zones, and a similar division of the cities of Berlin and Vienna.
The Potsdam Conference
The third peace conference was held in Potsdam. The new players (Atlee, Truman, and Stalin) agreed on various aspects relating to Germany. In Potsdam, discrepancies were evident between Americans and Soviets, who accused each other of using the warlike triumph to extend their influence and hegemony. The distrust between Russians and Americans led to the suspension of aid from the US to the USSR, which extended its rule over Eastern Europe. Finally, in the Paris Conference, peace treaties were made with other allies of Germany. The treaty with Austria was not signed until 1995, and the country was intervened by the allies until this year.
**The Creation of the UN**
The UN was founded at the San Francisco Conference to replace the League of Nations. The new organization had 46 founding states, and its objective was the maintenance of international peace and security and cooperation among nations. At the UN, all member states are represented in the General Assembly, and to make a decision requires a two-thirds majority. There is also a Security Council where the five permanent members have veto power over decisions of the Assembly (Britain, France, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China).
**The Deterioration of Relations Between the Allies**
After the Second World War, a great antagonism between Western countries and the Soviet Union was evident. The Yalta and Potsdam conferences had divided Europe into two spheres of influence. The British and Americans mistrusted the domination of the Soviets, who were exercising it in the areas liberated by the Red Army, and the Soviet Union felt threatened by the United States, which possessed the atomic bomb. The discrepancies consisted not only of territorial or military reasons but mainly ideological, as they represented two opposing models of political, social, and economic organization. To secure control of their areas, the US forced the Communists to expel coalition governments in some countries of their area of influence. For its part, the Soviet Union enabled the Communist Party to take control of power exclusively in the countries under its influence. In the states occupied by the Soviet army, they pushed forward the formation of so-called people’s democracies, establishing a Communist system modeled on the Soviet one.
**The Rupture: The Iron Curtain**
The final break between the two blocs was held in 1947 when the US President outlined the Truman Doctrine. It denounced the creation of communist regimes in the countries occupied by the Red Army and proposed American intervention to stop the communist threat in Europe. This increased the number of US soldiers and bases in Europe and proposed the Marshall Plan, economic aid to boost the reconstruction of the old continent. Thus, a lowered risk of expansion of communism. Most Western countries accepted US aid, which was rejected by the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In return, the USSR proposed the Jdanov report, denouncing the US action as a domain via Europe. The USSR said it was willing to help countries that did not want to submit to American influence and power the foundation of the Cominform, which brought together Communist countries. The world was divided into two blocks by a deep gap that Churchill called the Iron Curtain. Each power organized a military bloc of allies. The US allies created NATO, and in 1955, the Soviet Union and its allies formed the Warsaw Pact.
**The Partition of Germany into Two States**
The first stage of confrontation between the two blocks took place in Germany. After the war, this country had been divided into four zones occupied by the British, French, Americans, and Soviets. In 1948, the three Western allies decided to unite their territories and establish a German federal state. In response, the USSR ordered the blockade of the city of Berlin, also divided into four zones and located in the Soviet zone. It ordered the closure of borders, and the western sector of the city was isolated. The United States responded with the creation of an airlift to supply the city. The crisis accelerated the division of Germany into two states: the Federal Republic of Germany, which fell within the Western bloc, and the Democratic Republic of Germany, under Soviet influence. Berlin, in turn, was divided into two zones.