MODERN EUROPE

(1945 - 2013)

The Cold War (1945 - 1991)

State Of Tension And Hostility Without Actual Armed

Conflict

America Vs. Soviet Union

Democracy (Free Elections) Communist Party Rule

Capitalism - Private Enterprise Command Economy (Gov. Control)

Support Freedom And Democracy Spread Communist Revolution

US vs. USSR

Tension Started To Emerge Between America And The Soviet Union At The Yalta Peace Conference (February 1945)

Germany Would Be Divided Into 4 Occupation Zones Between USSR, U.S. Great Britain And France

In 1949 Germany Was Divided Into West (Democratic) And East (Communist)

Former Nazis Were Brought To Trial At Nuremberg And All Of Germany Underwent A Denazification Process

The United Nations

The United Nations Was Founded As A Worldwide Peace-Keeping Force

U.N. Also Tries To Solve Problems Of Disease, Hunger And Illiteracy

U.N. Security Council Is In Charge Of Keeping Peace (15 Nations - 10 Rotate)

United States

France

Great Britain

Russia (Soviet Union)

China

The Soviet Union

The Soviet Union Helped Establish Communist

Governments In Eastern Europe

Satellite States = Albania, Bulgaria, Romania,

Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, And East

Germany (States Where Policies Are Dictated By

Another Country)

“Satellite State Song”

Winston Churchill Said An "Iron Curtain" Had

Descended Across Europe

The Truman Doctrine

In 1947 America Adopted The Truman Doctrine = A Policy To Resist Communist Expansion Around The World (Containment)

Money Is The Best Weapon Against Communism

Truman Doctrine

1. Helped Greece And Turkey Against Communist Pressures By Giving Them $400 Million In Economic And Military Aid

2. The Marshall Plan Helped To Rebuild Western Europe By Giving These Nations $13 Billion

Satellite States Were Offered $13 Billion But They Said No

The Berlin Airlift and Wall

In 1948 The Soviet Union Blockaded West Berlin

America Responded With A Massive Airlift To Save

The City (Supply Planes)

The Soviet Union Starts To Build The Berlin Wall To

Separate East And West

Military Alliances Formed

1. N.A.T.O. - U.S., Canada And 10 European

Democracies (1949)

2. Warsaw Pact - The Soviets And Their Satellite

States (1953)

The Bomb and Arms Race

In 1949 The Soviet Union Tested Their First Atomic Bomb

The World's Largest Arms Race In History Began

In 1952 America Invents The Hydrogen Bomb, The Soviets Test One In 1953

Both America And The Soviet Union Practiced A Policy Of M.A.D. = Mutually Assured Destruction

Cold War Turns Hot

1. Korean War (1950 - 1953)

2. Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct. 1962)

3. Vietnam War (1965 - 1973)

Western Europe

Nations Of Western Europe Experienced An "Economic Miracle" As They Rebuild Their Economies After WWII

West Germany Became A Strong And Prosperous Nation

(1958 - 1969) - Charles De Gaulle Helped France Become Strong And Prosperous

In 1966 He Took France Out Of NATO

Moved France To A More Socialist Economy

Socialism

Socialism = The Government Controls Or Runs Key Businesses/Industries; People Voted for This (Democracy)

Most Countries In Europe Have Socialist Economies

Socialist States = Welfare States

Europe Today Is Linked Together By The EEC = European Economic Community (EU)

The Soviet Union And Eastern Europe

After The Death Of Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev Ruled The Soviet Union (1953 - 1964)

1. Criticized Many Of Joseph Stalin's Policies (De-Stalinization)

2. The Soviets Put The First Satellite Into Orbit Called Sputnik In 1957

3. Khrushchev Became The First Soviet Leader To Visit The U.S. In 1959

The Soviet Union And Eastern Europe

4. Cold War Heated Up

1960 - U-2 Spy Planes Shot

Down Over The Soviet Union

1961 - The Berlin Wall Was

Completed

1961 - Bay Of Pigs Invasion

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis

5. Khrushchev Speech To

The United Nations "We

Will Bury You"

Every 12 Years A Revolt Against

Communism

In 1956 Hungary Called For Free Elections And Tried To Withdraw From The Warsaw Pact Soviet Troops Crush The Hungarian Resistance With 100,000

In 1968 The Soviet Union Invaded Czechoslovakia To Crush "Communism With A Human Face"

The Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev Stated "Whenever Communism Is Threatened, The Soviet Union Will Intervene" = Brezhnev Doctrine

Satellite States Trying to Leave Soviet

Orbit

In 1980 Lech Walesa Led The Polish Labor Union

Solidarity on A Series Of Strikes To Protest Living

And Working Conditions In Poland

In 1979 The Soviet Union Invaded Afghanistan To

Put Down An Anti-Communist Uprising

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev Became The Leader Of The Soviet Union And Ruled From 1985 - 1991

Gorbachev's Reforms

1. Perestroika - Introduced More Freedom To The Economy

2. Glasnost - "Openness" As Freedom Of Speech And Expression Were Encouraged

The Fall of Communism in Europe

In 1989 Solidarity Reemerged Under Lech Walesa And Came To Power In Poland

Poland Became The First Country To Reject Communism

Berlin Wall came Down November 1989

By 1990 Germany Was Reunified

By 1990 All Of Eastern Europe Had Rejected Communism = Velvet Revolution

The Velvet Revolution (People Power)

Fall of Communism in the Soviet Union

In The August Coup Of 1991 Gorbachev Was

Driven From Power And Eventually Boris Yeltsin

Established Democracy

Fall of Communism in the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union’s republics

broke up into Individual

Countries with Russia being

the Largest

Russia has struggled to

make the Transition to

Democracy

Vladimir Putin = President

Of Russia Today (Now

Prime Minister)

Fall of Communism in Yugoslavia

In 1990 The Former Country Of Yugoslavia Broke

Up Into Smaller Nations Based On Nationalism And

There Has Been Fighting There Ever Since

Bosnian Serbs vs. Bosnian Muslims (1994)

Kosovo (1999)

Random Modern Europe Notes

Treaty of Maastricht(1991)- has a lot to do with the

European Union and the Euro Dollar.

Vietnam= Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954)

Arab-Israeli Conflict

1. Balfour Declaration (1917)

2. British Rule of Palestine

3. 1956 Suez Crisis

The “Americanization” of Europe

Random Modern Europe Notes

Existentialism= Depressing and Cynical

1. Being and

Nothingness

2. No Exit

1. The Stranger

2. The Myth of Sisyphus

Jean Paul Satre Albert Camus