NANO-ck

Mise-à-jour le 25 March 2024, 13 minutes de lecture

Chapter 4 : The End of World War II and the emergence of the Cold War 1944-1950

Summary :

• I. Post-War New World Order
• II. Emergence of a bi-polar World - Superpower Rivalry

I. Post-War New World Order

• A. War Legacy
• B. War Time Conference
• C. War Trials

A. War Legacy

Human cost

Economic cost

• Britain was bankrupted

Effect on International Relations

• Problems in international relations
• Peacemaking wasn’t successful
• No formal peace conference after WWII
• Russia took over territories, the americans were fearful of the soviet because no freedom, soviets were afraid of the USA because of capitalism
• Japan was no longer an importer power
• China had resumed to civil war (until 1949 where Mao claimed victory)
• The USA were transformed
• The government with Roosevelt became a big government with economic control
• Some people say that in the USA the economic control moved from wall street to pennsylvania avenue (the White House)

B. War Time Conference

Bretton Woods (July 1944)

The Americans wanted to organize a postwar metting of capitalist economies to create stability in the economy.

Objective :

• Create stability in the economy
• Part of what caused the war was the economic instability
• The idea that if you can cooperate and keep stability, you can enter peace

Effects :

• Fixed currencies to the US Dollar, and the dollar was pegged to Gold ($35/ounce), to preserve stability
  • The gold garanteed the value of the dollar
  • The US organizes that, with the US leading the dollar
  • The US have the military power (atomic bomb), but also the economic power as it sets rule to the rest of the world with the US dollar leading
• IMF : International Monetary Fund
  • International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or, World Bank
  • Once again, the US control the world
  • Lends money to states with serious economic issues
    • Makes sure those states don’t go bankrupt, to keep stability
  • Contributes for countries to develop, so that they can also be more active in globalisation
• ITO : International Trade Organisation
  • To become GATT in 1947, then WTO in 1995
  • GATT : Global Agreements on Trade and Transactions
  • WTO : World Trade Organisation

Yalta (Feb 3-11 1945)

• We are on soviet controlled territory
• To discuss the future of Europe
• Stalin arrived at the conference thinking that he was given a free hand on eastern Europe
• Germany would be divided into 4 zones :
  • French
  • British
  • US
  • Russia
• The division wasn’t supposed to be permanent
• They didn’t want to do a “Traité de Versailles”
• Poland took lands in ancient Germany and the URSS took lands in ancient Poland (right hand side)
• The conference didn’t went so well
  • Conflict USA VS URSS started
  • Microphones in all rooms
• Staline signed a paper to recognize the revolution in China
• They were discussing about an organization to be policemen (United Nations)
  • The league of nation wasn’t really concrete/affective

San Francisco Conference (April 1945)

Potsdam (July 17 - Auh 1st 1945)

• Truman wasn’t included in Roosevelt’s policies
• The only one who went was Stalin
• More tensions
• Mangattan project => he warned the soviets about the bomb
• Denazification => Nuremberg trials
• Ultimatum calling for Japan’s unconditional surrender or “face prompt and utter destruction”

C. War Trials

Nuremberg

• Undamaged by the war
• Aug 1945 - London Charter
• 1945-49
• Trial of the major workers 45-46
• 12 condamnations to death

Tokyo Trials

• Highly criticised as they were highly lead by the americans
• New process of international law
• Criticized because the USA did all the work
• Same 3 crimes that the Nuremberg
• 1000 pople executed, 900 life-emprisonment

II. Emergence of a bi-polar World - Superpower Rivalry

• A. USA Immediate Post-War International Power
• B. Why a change in Balance of Power, post war ?
• C. Superpower Rivalry
• D. The Cold War
• E. The Cold War continued to spread

A. USA Immediate Post-War International Power

• Superpower rivalry : USA vs URSS
• The USA were the only country to have the atomic bomb

Bretton Woods 1944

• Fixed currencies to the US Dollar, and the dollar was pegged to Gold ($35/ounce), to preserve stability
  • The gold garanteed the value of the dollar
  • The US organizes that, with the US leading the dollar
  • The US have the military power (atomic bomb), but also the economic power as it sets rule to the rest of the world with the US dollar leading
• International Monetary Fund
  • International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or, World Bank
  • Once again, the US control the world
  • Lends money to states with serious economic issues
    • Makes sure those states don’t go bankrupt, to keep stability
  • Contributes for countries to develop, so that they can also be more active in globalisation
• ITO : International Trade Organisation
  • To become GATT in 1947, then WTO in 1995
  • GATT : Global Agreements on Trade and Transactions
  • WTO : World Trade Organisation
• Created institutions to keep stability in the world
  • World Bank
  • IMF (International Monetary Fund)

International Monetary Fund

• The US Voting Share is 16.51%
• Need 85% of the votes to change the rules
• The US has a veto power, no decision could be made by the IMF without the US agreeing

The United Nations

• 1941 : The Atlantic Charter
  • Roosevelt and Churchill
  • The idea of a new international organization
• 1944 : a tentative charter of the UN was established at Dumbarton Oaks
  • USSR, USA, UK, China
  • China was a founding member, but was not a permanent member of the security council
  • China is a permanent member of the security council
• 1945 : San Francisco Act
  • The UN were officially created
• UN Top 10 contributors !!! UNVERIFIED
  • USA : 22%
  • Japan : 9.68%
  • Germany : 6.39%
  • France : 6.31%
  • UK : 5.18%
  • China : 3.93%
  • Italy : 3.64%
  • Russia : 3.53%
  • Canada : 2.98%
  • Spain : 2.97%

B. Why a change in Balance of Power, post war ?

The United States is the strongest military power in the world

• They have the atomic bomb
• Biggest budget
• Largest air force in the world
  • 12M people in the air force
• Largest navy in the world
• The United States are out of isolationism
• Started to become the leading power in the world diplomatically

C. Superpower Rivalry

• Different ideology
  • They fundamentally believe in different systems
• Presence for years (since the russian revolution)
  • Resurface after WWII
• The Americans wanted open door economy, trade, etc…
  • The russians didn’t appreciate
• The Americans wanted to spread democracy

D. The Cold War

The Cold War began where it had left off in 1941, with profound distrust of Soviet motives, and an ideological divide every bit as deep as that between liberalism and Nazism.

From Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won, 2006

The Bolshoi Speech (Feb 1946)

• Stalin’s speech
• The soviets were not going to be friendly with the USA
• World capitalism proceeds through crisi and the catastrophes of war
• The Russians are determined to destroy the Americans
• This speech war the greatest threat the US had ever faced
• The Soviets can be beaten and this can be done without going to war
  • The US had to educate the public against communism, make them fear communism

The Long Telegram (Feb 1946)

• George Kennan
• In the US embassy in Moscow, he was the ambassador
• He sent a telegram to the US government

Winston Churchill’s Fulton Speech (March 1946)

• From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent
• The soviets were trying to take over the world

The Truman Doctrine (1947)

• The USA would support any country that was threatened by communism
• The USA would support any country that was threatened by a totalitarian regime
• The United States would support Greece and Turkey with political, economic and military aid to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere
• Before that, the British were helping but they couldn’t anymore since the war
• The US would help any country threatened by communism
• The soviets are seing the Americans as expansionist predators

The Marshall Plan (1947)

• Officially know as the European Recovery Program
• A plan that was annonced by General George Marshall, who was the American secretary of state
• Plan to offer reconstruction aid to all countries who would want it in Europe
• The US would be willing to issue loans to give technical assistance to help Europe recover economically
• But Stalin didn’t want to owe anything to the US so he refused the plan

1947-48 : Stalin take-over of Eastern Europe

• Eastern Europe was taken over by the Soviet Union
• Eastern Europe fell to the soviet influence
• Tcheko-Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia

National Security Act (1947)

• WWII demonstrated that the United States needed a stronger security system
• Reorganization of the US military
• Established an official department of defense
  • Would organize the navy, the army, the air force
• The US created the CIA
  • Central Intelligence Agency
  • To gather information about the soviet union
  • To establish a network of spies, to have strategies

E. The Cold War continued to spread

Berlin Crisis (1948-49)

• Berlin was divided into 4 zones
  • French
  • British
  • US
  • Russia
• The British and the Americans merged their zones
  • France joined soon after
  • There was now only 2 zones, the east and the west
• West Berlin was a capitalist city

The Berlin Blockade (June 1948 - May 1949)

• The soviets wanted to take over Berlin
• They cut off all the roads, railways, etc… to Berlin
• The Soviets controlled all the Eastern Germany, and Berlin was in this place
• Even the West Berlin was surrounded by the Soviets
• The US and the British had to fly in supplies to West Berlin
• West Berlin would be dependant on these planes
• They had to ration electricity (4h/day)
• The soviets were hoping that the US would give up
• At the peak of the Airlift, we had a plane landing every 3 minutes
• It lasted 11 months
• Berlin AirLift
  • 277,000 flights
  • 2.3M tons of supplies
  • 101 fatalities
• The soviets gave up
• The US and the British won
• The first time since 1945 that war has become a real possibility
• Significant impact on the development of the cold war
• Led to a long term division of Germany
• May 1949 : The west declared West Germany the Federal Republic of Germany
• October 1949 : The soviets declared East Germany the German Democratic Republic
  • Lasted until 1990
• August 1949 : The soviets tested their first atomic bomb
  • The US no longer had a monopoly on the atomic bomb
  • The US were no longer the only ones with the power to destroy the world
  • The US had to develop a new strategy
    
    Led to the creation of NATO
• April 1949 : The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
• The US, Canada, and 10 European countries
• An attack on one member would be considered an attack on all members
• West Germany became part of NATO in 1954
• 1955 : The Warsaw Pact