• You can check out the above "AP Euro Biographies" link for some people to review for the exam.  
• These powerpoints were created by former students. If I find more I will update the site. 

Post World War II

World War II created great instability and tension throughout Europe. As a result, the goal of the European countries was to create protective ties among countries, to serve "justice", and to decolonize.

Unions and treaties were created to establish stability in safety and economy. First the Organization for European Economic Cooperation was created to monitor the money given by the United States in the Marshall Plan. The European Coal and Steel Community combined the steel and coal resources of France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg. Similar to the Zollverein, the ECSC was made to regulate economic policies without a political union. From this the European Economic Community was created who lifted all trade restrictions among the countries in the Community. The EEC would eventually be named the European Union who establishes the Euro as the common currency and further cooperation in environmental affairs and defense justice.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a military alliance between the Unites States, Great Britain, France, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Norway. This is a defense alliance that agrees to work and defend together if an outside party attacks. This was created for collective security and stability. In response to the creation of NATO, Russia created the Warsaw Pact. This was the collective power of the eight communist states to defend if attacked. Europe and Russia believed of safety in numbers, apparent in the multiple alliances in economy and military aspects.

To break tension between Germany and the rest of Europe, the Nuremburg Trials began. In these trials, active Nazis were persecuted in court concerning their actions in World War II. Though reprimands were served to Germany, only 11 men were prosecuted out of the thousands who participated in the world. But only 11 men were necessary in satisfying the revenge wanted from Europe. The real threat that was growing was Communism.

Decolonization was a period where many great powers pulled their authority from other countries they had ruled. In 1947, Britain had decided to take their troops out of Israel and Palestine. A dislocated people because of the Holocaust, the Jews found a homeland in Israel. Zionism grew and the United Nations gave land to the new Jewish State from the local Arabs. As soon as this was established the state was attacked by Arabic land nearby. This constant fight over the homeland will last until today's news. In Africa, Great Britain still held control until Abdul Nasser declared the Suez Canal nationalized. Eventually, Great Britain allowed Egypt its own leadership. In Sub-Saharan Africa, many countries began to declare their independence from Britain, inspired by Egypt. Even with retaliation of white supremacy, that had grown in Africa, the indigenous people were able to keep their land. For France and the Netherlands, the colonies were more important to reestablish their importance and prestige in Europe. The Netherlands lost Indonesia and France lost Algeria. France eventually splits North and South Vietnam into Communist and Republic as a result of fighting with the nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh.

Post World War II was a time where Europe wanted to return from the destruction to old times but needed new methods in order to achieve those dreams. Alliances were needed to be created while decolonization would help strengthen mother countries. Europe had become too ambitious in its endeavors and a return to the quiet time before the World Wars was wanted by all.

Cold War

The period after World War II was awkward even for the Allies. Events in World War II led to tensions between the Soviet Union and the other Allies. The main reason for this was that the Allies did not help the USSR fight against Hitler and open another front to help the the Soviet Union.

At the Yalta conference Stalin agreed to allow free elections in Eastern Europe, of course he did not keep his promise and instead took control of most of the governments in Eastern Europe.

Yalta

Tito, the dictatorial leader of Yugoslavia, did resist Soviet power to an extent. Despite abiding by many of their rules, he occasionally sought independent policies. He made Yugoslavia the most liberal of the Communist countries, but that is not saying much.

The first major "conflict" of the Cold War was the division and governance of Germany. After WWII, the Allies: the UK, US, France and the USSR, occupied four different zones of Germany. 

The Allies began to realize that Stalin would not obey his promise of letting the other Eastern European countries rule on their own. This was seen in the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia and Poland in the mid 1940s. Winston Churchill described it as if "an iron curtain had descended across Europe".

After WWII, the Marshall Plan helped provide vital aid for Western European countries (and Yugoslavia) to help them recover in 1948.

The antagonism between powers grew and came to a head in Berlin. Berlin was in an awkward position quite literally. It was firmly in Eastern Germany (what would become the German Democratic Republic), but there was a Western portion of the city. The Soviet Union did not like this and so they blockaded the city in 1948.

In response to this the Allies formed the famous Berlin Airlift which provided supplies and food to the citizens of West Berlin until the Soviet Union lifted their blockade in 1949.

The Soviet Union kept trying to test the boundaries that had been set out for it. Earlier the Truman Doctrine said that the US would help any country resist Communism and had helped Greece and Turkey.

President Eisenhower of the US described how different countries might fall like "dominoes" in his Domino Theory. The US wished to contain Soviet influence, but the USSR thought otherwise. The North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) was formed in 1949 with the US, Canada, Britain and other European countries to provide collective security. In response to this the USSR formed the Warsaw Pact with the Eastern European countries in 1954.

The issue of the Aswan dam also showed Cold War tensions and had the USA and Britain withdrawing their help when Nasser, president of Egypt, also asked the USSR for money.

In 1961 the Berlin Wall was constructed to prevent Eastern German citizens from escaping.

Meanwhile things got very hot in the Cold War with the Cuban missile crisis. President Kennedy and Khrushchev reached an agreement and the Soviets agreed to not put nuclear missiles in Cuba. This showed the extent to which the arms race and the construction of the atomic and later hydrogen bombs had changed foreign relations between nuclear powers.

The Soviet Union also had to deal with many revolutions against their rule in Eastern Europe. One of these included Imre Nagy, a Hungarian who revolted against Soviet rule. The revolt was crushed with Soviet and Warsaw pact troops in 1956. Later on in 1968 the Prague Spring, a revolt led by Alexander Dubcek against Soviet government was crushed again by Soviet and Warsaw troops.

Finally, the revolution that arguably broke the USSR was the Solidarity movement in Poland. Led by Lech Walesa, the Solidarnosc challenged Soviet power. Along with support from Pope John Paul II and Reagan, the USSR began to show signs of weakness. 

The new leader of the USSR, Gorbachev (the previous leader was Brezhnev) brought about two new policies of glasnot (openness) and perestroika (reform) to the USSR. 

Soon large amounts of demonstrations and revolts in Eastern bloc countries forced the Soviets from power. Walesa was made president of Poland, and in Czechoslovakia the Velvet Revolution put Vaclav Havel and Alexander Dubcek in power through a bloodless takeover.

The Berlin Wall was finally torn down in in 1989 after Honecker was forced to resign in East Germany.

  Other  revolutions occurred in countries. By 1990s the Soviet Union had collapsed.