Class 4/26 and 5/2

What happened in Germany during the Cold War?

• The Berlin Blockade and Airlift (1948-1949)
• The Soviet Union felt threatened by the other allies' presence in Berlin while the four countries jointly occupied Berlin. He thought that they would be able to band together and eliminate all Soviet influence in Germany, so to prevent this, he blockaded western Berlin. This kept food and supplies away from the people who had been "indoctrinated" by the capitalists, in an attempt to kill of capitalism. 
• The US and UK ruined their plan by airlifting supplies to the starving people of Berlin
• Construction of the Berlin Wall (1961)
• The East German government built the Berlin Wall to stop emigration to West Germany. This wall became a symbol for conflict between capitalism and communism, and the Cold War itself. 
• German Economy
• The West German economy made a miraculous recovery called the Wirtschaftswunder ("The Miracle on the Rhine")
• This included replacing the Reichsmark (old currency) with the Deutsche Mark (new currency), which lowered inflation and led to rapid industrialization
• The Marshall Plan was eventually extended to West Germany, because the allies felt that Germany was holding back complete European economic recovery. 
• Fall of the Berlin Wall/German Unification (1989-90)
• The leader of East Berlin's Communist Party towards the end of the Cold War announced that they would begin allowing citizens to move freely between East and West berlin. One year later, German Unification occurred, on October 3, 1990. 
• East Germany's government had been falling apart prior to the fall of the wall. This was known as the Peaceful Revolution, a series of protests which ultimately led to the Unification Treaty
• Erich Honecker
• Honecker was an East German leader from 1971-1989, when the democratic reforms and revolutions happening across Europe took him out of office. 

What happened in Mother Russia?

• Stalin gave orders for the Berlin blockade (see above)
• NATO
• NATO was formed after the Berlin Airlift, when Stalin was not particularly popular with the other allies. As a result, Russia was not allowed to join. Furthermore, NATO was actually started to stop Soviet aggression, which contributed to the East/West divide. 
• Khrushchev Thaw
• Khrushchev "de-Stalinized" the USSR after Stalin died. He eased up on censorship and released prisoners from the Gulag. This allowed some Western ideas to reach the people of the Soviet Union, reviving its culture. 
• Khrushchev participated in the kitchen debate with Nixon
• Communism was still going strong. The thaw simply meant that ideas and cultures from other countries could now exist in the USSR. 
• U-2 Incident
• The Soviets shot down an American spy plane and sentenced its pilot to 10 years in prison. Khrushchev also refused to participate in a summit conference with the US, Britain, and France until the US promised to stop fighting over Soviet territory and apologized. 
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• The US discovered nuclear missile sites under construction on Cuba. Kennedy worried because of Cuba's proximity to the US, so he ordered a naval blockade of Cuba. Khrushchev and the other members of the Warsaw Pact prepared for a fight, but he eventually agreed to withdraw missiles from Cuba. 
• This is the closest the Cold War got to being a "hot war"
• Perestroika and Glasnost
• Perestroika was Gorbachev's policy for restructuring the economy. It involved abandoning centralized government planning. 
• Glasnost granted more freedoms to the media, which removed much of the censorship that had previously existed
• Detente
• Thawing of US/USSR relations under Brezhnev

What happened in England?

• The EU
• Great Britain was hesitant to join the EU because they did not want to admit to any weaknesses or flaws by changing. Their exam started to struggle and fail, so they tried to join the EU. Their request was vetoed twice by De Gaulle
• What is the EU?
• It was created in 1945 to tie together European nations to hopefully prevent any future wars. 
• It began as a customs union not unlike the Zollverein and evolved
• Great Britain finally joined the EU in 1973 after De Gaulle finally left office. This was popular with the majority of British people.
• Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady, did not want Britain to adopt the Euro (which never actually happened)
• Once she stepped down, her successor (John Major) signed the Maastricht Treaty which gave a lot of power to the EU
• John Major wanted to put Britain on the Euro standard, but its economy was flourishing and there was never enough support for it
• Maggie Thatcher AKA the Irony Lady
• She was the PM from 1979-1990
• She promised to fix the British economy by increasing taxes and balancing the budget
• The issue of the Euro came up during her third term, which she did not support. She won a vote over implementing the Euro, but it was a very close vote, so she decided to step down until she was removed from office

What happened in France?

• De Gaulle
• President of the Fifth Republic who worked on improving the French economy and maintaining French independence
• He was unafraid of making controversial decisions, which led to his successful nuclear weapons development campaign
• Algeria
• A revolt broke out in Algeria because of the instability that destroyed the Fourth Republic
• Additionally, they wanted to decolonize because of cultural differences: Algeria is a predominantly Muslim territory, France is predominantly Catholic
• France has a parliamentary government, which is easy to disband and re-form, which is why there were so many French republics and why it was not a huge deal
• De Gaulle helped Algeria achieve its independence despite the opposition of French people living in Algeria
• De Gaulle and the Military
• De Gaulle was a soldier, so he placed a lot of emphasis on the French military. He worked to modernize the military, especially after the crisis in Algeria. 
• Additionally, France was a founding member of NATO
• Nationalism
• De Gaulle wanted to "Make France Great Again" (thanks Cal)
• He did this through economic and military advancements
• He sanctioned the development of nuclear weapons, withdrew France from NATO, and vetoed Britain's attempts to join the EU
• Why did De Gaulle pull France from NATO?
• He did not want French troops to have to listen to a foreign general. So, he said that they would participate, but only if French troops were commanded by the French. 
• De Gaulle only cared about France, and France's wellbeing
• France encouraged innovations, such as the Concorde, a supersonic airplane that flew at twice the speed of sound

What happened to the former Soviet and puppet states? 

• Many of these states experienced revolutions, generally known as the Revolutions of 1989
• Some of the countries involved include Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia
• These were mainly the "puppet states"
• Poland
• Solidarity movement
• Formed after a strike by Polish shipyard workers
• Led by Lech Walesa
• They negotiated an agreement that allowed them to form a trade union,  which was the first one formed in the country
• This was not popular with the communists, but the movement stood up to communist leaders. They were unable to completely overthrow the government, but they were a significant force
• Pope John Paul II was Polish and helped lead the charge against communism, with the aid of the Catholic church in general