Cold War Presentation
Cold War Presentation
A General Overview
The Cold War was an ideological war between the two world superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, beginning after World War Two. After the war, Germany was left defeated, and Britain and France were left drained and exhausted. The United States and the Soviet Union, though also drained, held considerable power, and both soon became the new world superpowers but they had "conflicting ideologies and distrust to each other and constantly competed for power.
The Soviet Union wanted to spread Communism in Eastern Europe and create a "buffer zone" of friendly governments as defense against any attacks, whether by the Capitalists or by Germany. In 1946, with Eastern Europe under Soviet control and influence, Europe was divided into a West (western democracies and the United States) bloc and East (Soviet Union and Soviet occupied territory) bloc. An "Iron Curtain" separated Europe.
Reasons for the development of the Cold War
Capitalism against Communism
The fundamental cause of the Cold War was the difference of ideologies between the West and the East, USA and the USSR in particular. This was due to the fact that the two ideologies were practically opposites of each other, allowing for suspicion and mistrust between the two sides. A capitalist economy is based on private ownership, private profit and free competition. It encourages private individuals to own businesses and make profits. A communist economy, on the other hand, is quite different. The economy is controlled by the government. A country's wealth and resources are owned by the state or government. The state controls and plans all economic activity so that everybody benefits. Thus, it can be seen how different these ideologies were and how conflict could arise from these differences.
Security for the USSR
In recent history, the USSR had been invaded a total of three times, once in WWI, once in the Russian civil wars and once in
A General Overview
The Cold War was an ideological war between the two world superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, beginning after World War Two. After the war, Germany was left defeated, and Britain and France were left drained and exhausted. The United States and the Soviet Union, though also drained, held considerable power, and both soon became the new world superpowers but they had "conflicting ideologies and distrust to each other and constantly competed for power.
The Soviet Union wanted to spread Communism in Eastern Europe and create a "buffer zone" of friendly governments as defense against any attacks, whether by the Capitalists or by Germany. In 1946, with Eastern Europe under Soviet control and influence, Europe was divided into a West (western democracies and the United States) bloc and East (Soviet Union and Soviet occupied territory) bloc. An "Iron Curtain" separated Europe.
Reasons for the development of the Cold War
Capitalism against Communism
The fundamental cause of the Cold War was the difference of ideologies between the West and the East, USA and the USSR in particular. This was due to the fact that the two ideologies were practically opposites of each other, allowing for suspicion and mistrust between the two sides. A capitalist economy is based on private ownership, private profit and free competition. It encourages private individuals to own businesses and make profits. A communist economy, on the other hand, is quite different. The economy is controlled by the government. A country's wealth and resources are owned by the state or government. The state controls and plans all economic activity so that everybody benefits. Thus, it can be seen how different these ideologies were and how conflict could arise from these differences.
Security for the USSR
In recent history, the USSR had been invaded a total of three times, once in WWI, once in the Russian civil wars and once in