The document summarizes key aspects of decolonization and the Cold War between Western nations led by the United States and Eastern nations led by the Soviet Union. It describes how European colonial empires declined after World War 2 amid rising nationalism. It then outlines the emergence of the US and USSR as superpowers after the war and how they competed globally through opposing ideologies, proxy conflicts, and tensions over areas like Berlin, Korea, and Cuba that divided the world into capitalist and communist spheres of influence. The document concludes by discussing nuclear weapons proliferation and arms control efforts during the Cold War before the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

1. By Tahere
Qurani

2. Decolonisation
Decolonization is essentially any process where one state is
moving from being a colony within a formal empire to national
independence. By 1900, nearly the entire continent of Africa,
parts of South America, and most of Southeast Asia and the
South Pacific were considered territories or colonies owned by
countries like Great Britain, France, or Germany.
After WWII, national self-determination became an objective for
some countries and international organizations . the French and
British came under serious pressure to eliminate their influence
upon the Middle Eastern states, especially from the United
States and the United Nations.The demise of imperialism
reflected the decreasing importance of Europe as the arbiter of
world affairs

4. The British Empire

5. British empire - 1920

7. French colonial empire
Indo-China was occupied by France in the nineteenth
century and became part of the French Empire. The area
occupied covered the modern countries of Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia.
France was defeated by Germany in 1940 and occupied.
This encouraged anti-colonialism.
in Indo-China .The French want to re-conquer Indo-China
and prove that France was still a great power and relatively
successful in the south, but unsuccessful in the north.
The French appealed to the USA for help. At first President
Truman did not want them to rebuild their empire. But with
the growing threat from communism and the outbreak of the
Korean War, Truman changed his mind. In all he sent $ 3
billion, but no US forces.

8. Portuguese Empire
Portuguese Empire was the first modern Empire to be
established.The Portuguese created colonies for
numerous reasons - to trade for spices, gold,
agricultural products and other resources, to create
more markets for Portuguese goods, to spread
Catholicism, and to "civilize" the natives of these distant
places. Portugal's colonies brought great wealth to this
small country. The empire gradually declined because
Portugal and the colonies themselves started fighting
against it and also Portugal did not have enough
people or resources to maintain so many overseas
territories.

10. A cold war is defined as a situation of tence
relation and fierce competition between US
and USSR.There is no direct confrontation as
in an all-out war.
When the war ended in 1945, these two
countries emerged as world super powers ,
while imperialism withered, other forms of
domination or hegemony took shape.most
notably with Soviet hegemony in Eastern
Europe, and American hegemony in Central
America.

11. The superpower divided Europe into two,Eastern Europe was led
by communist USSR while democratic USA controlled western
Europe cold war. In many way the confrontation between the USA
and USSR was a clash between their opposing ideologies.
The United States naturally wanted Europe to be rebuilt along
Democratic-Capitalist lines, while the Soviet Union, being a
communist country, wanted Europe to be rebuilt along Marxist
lines.
USA democracy: people choose their government by voting for
the leader they want. And leader can belong to any party.
USSR communism: communist party rules the people. Only party
member can be in th government.v this government is condidered
a one party.
USA and USSR had more power to spread their ideologies
around after they became superpowers at the end of word war II

12. The first major confrontation of the cold war took
place over Berlin in 1948.
The Berlin Wall was a wall that was erected to
separate East and West Germany. The purpose of
this was for East Germany to prevent mass
defections to West Germany. The Berlin Wall
separated the capitalist and communist sections
of Berlin, marking the barrier between US and
USSR. Thus, the Berlin Wall was a chilling symbol
of the Iron Curtain that divided all of Europe
between communism and democracy

14. And in June 1948 Stalin sought to resolve its status by
severing road and rail communications. West Berlin’s
population and politicalautonomy were kept alive by a
massive airlift. Stalin ended the blockade in May 1949.
The crisis officially described as ‘atomic-capable’, though
none were actually armed with nuclear weapons.
The Cold war affect on Europe:
 Truman doctrine: provided American aid to
Greece and turkey in order to prevent the spread of
communism.
 Marshal plan : the plan is to make Europe rich and
strong again ro resist communism

16. NATO was an organization meant to be a unifying force against
communism and the growing threat of the USSR. Members of
NATO were able to work together to contain and defend western
society against Stalin's expansion and Countries like the United
States, France, Great Britain, Canada, and many others made
up NATO.
The Warsaw pact was an organization which was created in
response to NATO. The Warsaw Pact's purpose was to defend
the Communist cause and allow the USSR to attain equivalent
power to the US and other democratic countries and Countries
like the East Germany, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and
etc made up Warsaw pact.

17. Cold war most important event
 china joined the cold war
In 1949, the thirty-year-long Chinese civil war ended in victory
for the communists under Mao Zedong. This had a major
impact on Asian affairs and on perceptions in both USSR and
US.
 The Korean war
 The Cuban missile crisis

19. Korean war
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Korea had been a part
of the Japanese empire, and after World War II it fell to the
Americans and the Soviets to decide what should be done with
their enemy’s imperial possessions. In August 1945, two young
aides at the State Department divided the Korean peninsula in
half along the 38th parallel. The Russians occupied the area
north of the line and the United States occupied the area to its
south.
The Korean War was started when North Korea, backed by
China and the USSR, invaded South Korea. This caused an
international conflict in which the US and USSR supported
opposing sides of the conflict.This was a way for the two forces
to support either communism or democracy without a direct
conflict.

20. Cuban Missile Crisis
The USSR had been worried about US missile in
turkey and soviet leader khushchev felt he should also
find allies and build nucleor missile sites near the USA.
In 1960,the USSR offered to ptotect cuba by placing
nuclear missile in cuba.Cuban leader castro accepted
the USSR’s offer and formed an alliance with it.
USA warned that is would attack the USSR if the
missile were not removed from cuba.The crisis was
resolved when the USSR promised to remove all its
missileThe blockade on cuba was also ended. In 1963
us nuclear missile were removed from turkey

21. 1979-86: ‘The second cold war’
in 1985 Gorbachev became President. His new thinking’ in foreign policy,
and his domestic reforms, created a revolution, both in the USSR’s
foreign relations and within Soviet society.Gorbachev’s aim in foreign
policy was to transform relations with the United States and Western
Europe.
Gorbachev’s foreign ministry end of the Brezhnev doctrine that had
limited Eastern European sovereignty and political development. The
Sinatra doctrine meant that Eastern Europeans were now allowed to ‘do
it their way’.
Gorbachev paved the way for agreements on nuclear and conventional
forces that helped ease the tensions and In 1987, he travelled to
Washington to sign the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
George Bush, who concluded a Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty
(START) agreement that reduced longrange nuclear weapons.However,
despite similar radical agreements on conventional forces in Europe.the
end of the cold war marked success in nuclear arms control rather than
nuclear disarmament.

23. Nuclear Weapon
The global nuclear dimension increased with the emergence of
other states: Britain in 1952, France in 1960, and China in
1964. Growing concern at the spread or proliferation of nuclear
weapons led to the negotiation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) in 1968.Despite successes of the NPT, by 1990
several states had developed or were developing nuclear
weapons, notably Israel, India, Pakistan, and apartheid South
Africa.The superpowers stood ‘eyeball to eyeball’, and most
historians believe this was the moment,in the cold war when the
risk of nuclear war was greatest.
While the threat of strategic nuclear war has receded, the
global problem of nuclear weapons remains a common and
urgent concern for humanity in the twenty-first century.

25. The Collapse of the USSR
A few days before the 25th, 11 representatives
from Soviet republics met in the Kazakh city of
Alma-Ata and announced that they would no longer
be part of the Soviet Union. This forced the
remainder of the USSR to dissolve into
independent nations, ending the Soviet Union.
The collapse of the USSR was the last defining
event in the Cold War, for it removed the threat of a
war between the USSR and US, ending global
tensions and a violent era in human history.