“Peace Conferences of WW2”

Thurs. April 26th

Take out your NOTEBOOK:• Write the title:

“Peace Conferences of WW2”

Annotate both PRIMARY SOURCES on your own to better understand the two peace conferences!

In your NOTEBOOK:“Peace Conferences of WW2”

Yalta Potsdam

In your NOTEBOOK:“Peace Conferences of WW2”

Yalta Potsdam

• Feb. 1945 (before V-E Day)

• US – Roosevelt UK – Churchill USSR – Stalin*

• United Nations created

•

• Aug. 1945 (after V-E Day)

• US – Truman UK – Attlee USSR – Stalin*

•

Peace Conferences of World War II

Yalta Conference February 1945

Potsdam ConferenceJuly 1945

Yalta Conference:

February 1945 - British, U.S., and Soviet leaders met in Yalta, Russia (now the Ukraine).

The leaders agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany BEFORE Victory in Europe/V-E Day on May 8, 1945.

Yalta Conference: Feb. 1945

At this Allied Conference the following was decided:

– Germany to be temporarily divided into occupied zones.

– United Nations (UN) would replace League of Nations.

– USSR would enter the war against Japan 3 months after Germany surrendered.

– The Allies would work to establish democratic governments in Europe based on free elections.

– Yalta is still VERY controversial today!!!

Remember: Germany surrenders in May of 1945 and Japan in August of 1945!

Winston Churchill

At the Yalta Conference (February 1945) deciding the fate of the

world after World War II:

1. Wants Germany to be free and democratic, but is willing to split the country into four zones, each controlled by one of the major allies (Great Britain, France, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R)

2. Wants Berlin to be a free city but is also willing to split this city four ways.

3. Wants Poland to be free, democratic and capitalist.

4. Wants Stalin to give up his part of Berlin.

Did not trust anyone but was friendly with the U.S.A, and Harry Truman. He was not friendly with Joseph Stalin. He did NOT trust him at all. He thought Stalin was dangerous and Churchill

did not want communism to spread.

The United Nations - an organization of most of the countries of the world. They are the world’s voice.

The United Nations does not want any more wars. They want to make sure that every country in the world is free and independent, and all people have Human Rights.

They do not trust Stalin and the U.S.S.R because communism is VERY oppressive.

The United Nations is developed at the Yalta Conference (February 1945) deciding the fate of the world after World War Two:

• UN wants Germany to be a free country.

• UN wants the citizens of Berlin to be free.

• UN wants Poland to be free.

• UN wants Stalin to give his people human rights.

Post WWII, Germany was a mess…

• Germany had been largely destroyed by the Allied forces.

Potsdam Conference: July 1945• Another meeting was held

to decide the fate of post-war Europe (this meeting was AFTER “Victory in Europe” and held in Germany).

• Agreements at Yalta were further clarified but nothing very solid was determined.

• FDR had died … and Churchill had been replaced mid-conference after the British election. So Stalin was the only original!

Prime Minister President Joseph Clement Attlee Truman Stalin

Harry S. Truman

President of the United States of America, Truman had recently succeeded in testing the atomic bomb and was not afraid to use it. He WOULD use it against the Japanese in only a few months.

He believed in human rights, democracy, and capitalism. He did NOT like communism or Joseph Stalin—he did not trust him. He was willing to compromise with the other capitalist and democratic countries (including the United Nations), but did not want to deal with Stalin.

At the Potsdam (July 1945) Conference deciding the fate of the world after World War Two:

• Wants Germany to be free and democratic, but is willing to split the country into four zones, each controlled by one of the major allies (Great Britain, France, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R)

• Wants Berlin to be a free city but is also willing to split this city four ways.

• Wants Poland to be free, democratic, and capitalist.

• Wants Stalin to stop trying to spread communism.

Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin, head of the U.S.S.R., was the only one of the “Big Three” to have been present at both peace conferences.

He had been leader of the Soviet Union for a long time and ruled with an iron fist. He did let his people have human rights and he believed strongly in communism. He did not trust the west and the capitalist pigs he was dealing with at the conference.

He was at both the Yalta & Potsdam Conferences (February and July of 1945)

deciding the fate of the world after World War Two:

• Wants to control ALL of Germany and wants it to be a communist country.

• Wants to control ALL of Berlin (he does not like to share) and he wants it to be a communist city.

• Wants to control ALL of Poland and he wants it to be a communist country.

• Is willing to give up some of Germany to have ALL of Poland.

• Wants to spread communism all over the world.

• Truman informed Stalin that the US possessed “a new weapon of unusual destructive force.”

• The “Big Three” decided Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification.

• Germany and Berlin would be divided into 4 zones.

• Stalin set himself up to take ALL of East Germany ……….the Cold War begins. Prime Minister President

Joseph Clement Atlee Truman Stalin

Potsdam Conference: July, 1945

Differences between the Conferences

Yalta Potsdam

Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Attlee, Truman and Stalin

Germany to be split into four zones. Arguments about the details of the boundaries between the zones.

Germany will pay reparations. Disagreements about the amount of reparations Soviet Union wanted to take. It was agreed that Soviet Union could take whatever it wanted from the Soviet zone, and 10 percent of the industrial equipment of the western zones, but Britain and the US thought this was too much.

A government of 'national unity' to be set up in Poland, comprising both communists and non-communists.

Truman was angry because Stalin had arrested the non-communist leaders of Poland.

Free elections in the countries of eastern Europe. This part of the agreement was called the Declaration of Liberated Europe.

America and Britain were alarmed because communists were coming to power in the countries of Eastern Europe.

Germany Pays the Price

• Germany agreed to unconditional surrender (they had no say) of Nazi Germany.

• After the war, Germany and Berlin were split into four occupied zones; Allied armies were present in Germany & Berlin.

German Division and the Berlin Crisis• Plans at Potsdam and Yalta

divided Germany and Berlin into 4 zones under temporary military rule.

• U.S. ultimately decided Europe would not be stable without an economically strong Germany, which upset U.S.S.R.

• By March 1948, reunification with Soviet cooperation seemed impossible and the three Western zones were fused into a “new country” called West Germany.

Berlin: a symbol of the Cold War1. Place where East

vs. West split starts.

2. Place where conflict repeatedly flares.

3. Place where the end of the Cold War becomes clear in 1989.

The Iron Curtain• Britain’s Winston Churchill

made his famous Iron Curtain speech in March 1946 in which he described the new Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

• In 1944 and 1945, Soviet armies established Communist government across Eastern Europe closing it off from the west like a “curtain”.

• Only Yugoslavia had some independence although it had a Communist leader as well.