After WW2, the world was divided between the capitalist Western bloc led by the US and the communist Eastern bloc led by the USSR. The two superpowers engaged in a Cold War involving proxy conflicts and an arms race. Key events included the division of Germany and Berlin, formation of opposing alliances like NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and confrontations such as the Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the world close to nuclear war.

1. The world after WW2.
The cold war (1945-1991).

2. The consequences of WW2
• Roughly 50 to 65
million people lost their
lives during the war,
most of them civilians.
• About 70 million
people were wounded.
• The USSR suffered the
highest number of
casualties (29 million
deaths).
• Infrastructures such as
bridges, factories,
ports, railways etc were
greatly destroyed.

3. A new world order
• Fascism had been defeated, and it was only
prevalent in Spain.
• Two superpowers emerged: the USSR and the
United States. The latter, a democracy; the USSR,
a communist regime.
• Some borders were altered:
- the USSR occupied areas in Western Poland,
and also Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
- However, Poland incorporated some areas of
Germany in the West.
- Korea was divided in two: the North of
communist influence, and the South of American
influence.

4. What to do with Germany?
• Before the end of WW2, a number of conferences
took place to decide the post-war situation of
Germany and Eastern Europe.
• In the Yalta conference (February 1945),
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin decided the
partition of Germany into four military zones:
British, French, Soviet and American.
• The city of Berlin would also be divided into four
military zones.
• In Yalta, the powers also decided the boundaries
of Poland and Germany.

5. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin in Yalta

6. At the Potsdam
conference (July-August
1945) Attlee (the new
British Prime Minister),
Stalin and Truman (the
new President of the US):
- confirmed the
division of Germany and
Berlin in four military
zones.
- agreed that
Germany should be
demilitarised.
- agreed that Nazi
war criminals should be
punished.

7. The Nuremberg trials
• For the first time, an
international military
tribunal judged some
of the most
important nazi
criminals for war
crimes against
humanity.
• Some were declared
innocent, others
guilty. Ten were
executed.

8. The creation of the United
Nations
• The allies also decided the creation of the
United Nations, which replaced the League of
Nations.
• The headquarters are in New York.
• Its objective is to mantain peace in the world
(sending troops is an option to reach that
goal), and the defence of human rights.
• The main decissions could be vetoed by China,
the United States, France, the USSR and the
UK.

9. The cold war

10. What was the cold war?
• It was a period of permanent tension between
the USSR and the United States, (two countries
with different political and economic regimes)
that lasted from 1947 until 1991.
The capitalist bloc led by
the US supported a free
market, capitalism and
freedom.
The communist bloc led
by the USSR supported a
dictatorial state directed
by a communist party, and
planned economy.

11. • However, both blocs possessed nuclear
weapons, so a direct war between the US and
the USSR never took place.
• The US and the USSR tried to control large
areas of the world ideologically. In Europe:
- most of the Eastern countries in Europe
were under the direct control of the USSR, and
communist dictatorships were established
(Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland,
Bulgaria, etc.).
- The Western countries (France, the UK,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, etc.)
became Parliamentary democracies.

12. • The French, British and American military zones of
Germany became a united country: the Federal
Republic of Germany.
• However, the Soviet military zone became a different
country: the German Democratic Republic.
Federal Republic of
Germany
German Democratic
republic

13. • Berlin remained divided in two: East Berlin
(communist) and West Berlin.
• In August 1961, a wall was built by the communist
in Berlin dividing the two sectors. It was not
possible to cross the wall, and East Berlin stayed
isolated.

14. The military alliances
• In 1949, NATO was
created by the Western
countries to support
themselves in case any
of its members suffered
an attack by the
communist bloc.
• In 1955, the Warsaw
pact was signed
between the USSR and
its allies in Europe.
The communist bloc isolated itself
from the rest of the world, divided by
the Iron curtain (el telón de acero)

15. The arms race• Each bloc competed with the
other to produce large number
of weapons, especially nuclear
weapons.
• The goal was to overcome the
other bloc, and be ready for a
nuclear war between the two
superpowers.

16. During the cold war, moments of great tension occurred:
a) The Cuban missile crisis:
- In 1962, the USSR planned to set up nuclear
missiles in Cuba (a communist country at the time).
- President John Fitzgerald Kennedy threatened the
Soviet Union with using nuclear weapons if the USSR did
not give up their plan.
- Finally, Nikita Kruschev (the Soviet Prime Minister)
agreed to withdraw from his original plan.

17. b) The Korean war.
- In 1950, comunist North Korea invaded the South.
- The United States sent troops to help South Korea,
and finally the US invaded the North, also threatening
communist China.
- The United Nations intervened, and the borders
were restablished to the original lines.

18. c) The Vietnam war
- France had to leave Vietnam in 1954 after
being defeated by the Vietnam nationalists.
- The country was divided in two: North
Vietnam (communist) and South Vietnam.
- A communist guerrilla (the Vietcong) was
created in the South so that the right-wing
government of South Vietnam would disappear.
- The United States supported the South, but
the Vietcong guerrillas made the Americans suffer
great losses. The USSR supported the North and the
Vietcong.
- Finally, the US had to leave the war as it was
impossible for them to defeat the guerrillas in the
jungle.