Cold War and World War 2
Potsdam Conference July 16 – August 2, 1945
• Leaders agreed that Germany must be defeated and de - Nazified • Leaders disagreed over
post – war Germany and Eastern Europe • Britain and United States
wanted free elections • Stalin feared anti – Soviet
governments in Eastern Europe
Expansion of Communism • Russia in 1917 due to revolution • Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
Hungary, Poland and Romania following World War II in 1945 • North Korea following World War II in 1945 • China in 1949 following World War II and civil war • Cuba in 1959 following a revolution • Vietnam in 1975 following the Vietnam War
Prelude to Russian Revolution
• By 1900, withdrawal of European investments in Russia weakened industrial and economic development • Defeat in the Russo – Japanese War in 1905
devastated the Russian economy • Worker strikes, peasant uprisings and military
mutinies spread across Russia in 1905 • Struggling industrial class resented the lack of
government action against unions and strikes
Bloody Sunday
• On January 22, 1905, in St. Petersburg, around 3,000 workers marched on the Winter Palace • Imperial guards fired
upon and kill nearly 200 people • Tsar Nicholas II was
blamed for the incident • Initiated widespread
strikes and protest
Russia to World War I
• By 1907, political unrest led to the rise of new political groups, including the Bolsheviks • Widespread worker strikes stagnated industrial and
economic growth • Unprepared for the outbreak of World War I • Russian military was poorly led, armed, supplied
and trained • By 1916, failures on the battlefield led to low
morale in the military and the populace
The Russian Revolution
• On February 23, 1917, protest over food rationing erupted in St. Petersburg • On March 15, 1917, Tsar
Nicholas II was forced to abdicate and a provisional government is installed • In July 1917, Bolsheviks
under Lenin rose in revolt and gained power by October
Vladimir Lenin
• Born on April 22, 1870, in south central Russia • Trained as a lawyer • Execution of his brother
in 1887 made him anti- tsarists • Became involved with a
Marxist group in St. Petersburg in 1893
Vladimir Lenin
• Arrested in 1894 for illegal political activities • Exiled for three years to Siberia in 1897 • Lived abroad in Munich and London after exile • Continued to print Marxist publications • Fled to Switzerland at the outbreak of World War I • Returned to Russia after the February Revolution to
take control of the Bolsheviks
Lenin and Russia
• Established the Russian Communist Party in March 1918 • Established the Politburo
as the governing body of the party • Made reforms to gain
worker and military support • Ended involvement in
World War
Reforms of Lenin
• In October 1917, issued Decree on Workers Rights, establishing an 8 hour work day • Issued Decree on Popular Education • On November 8, issued Decree on Land • Issued Decree on the Press the same month,
closing opposition newspapers • Issued Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of
Russia, allowing new independent nations
The Rise of Joseph Stalin
• Born on December 18, 1878, in the Georgia province of Russia • Joined the Bolshevik
movement in 1903 • Appointed Party
General Secretary by 1920 • Established leadership
of the Politburo in 1929
Russia Under Stalin
• The 1st Five Year Plan in 1928 was designed to rapidly increase factories and other industries • The 2nd Five Year Plan in 1933 planned for
the further expansion of industries in Russia • By 1937, production of heavy machinery had
quadrupled and oil production doubled • Wages decreased by 43% between 1928 and
1940
The Spread of Communism
• By 1947, Soviet supported governments were established in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania • Czechoslovakia installed a Communist government
in 1948 • Albania and Yugoslavia established independent
Communist governments • Communists under Mao Zedong gained control of
China in 1949
Communism in China
• In July 1921, the Communist Party of China was founded with 50 members • Membership grew to
1,500 by 1925 • Anti-communists
movement in July 1927, led to a division in the government • Mao Zedong emerged as
party leader in 1927
Chinese Civil War
• Mao led the Autumn Uprising in September 1927 • Struggle for control of the
government erupted with the Kuomintang led by Chang Kai – Sheik • Japan occupied
Manchuria in 1931 and continued to expand into China
Road to War in Asia
• By 1933, the rising power Japan controlled Korea, Formosa, Manchuria and islands in the Pacific • The Great Depression limited Japan’s access
to raw materials and resources • Japan began to expand its navy in 1935 • Japan’s goal was to conquer British Malaya
and the Dutch East Indies for the resources
2nd Sino – Japanese War
• Initiated by the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 7, 1937 • Communists and
Nationalists united to fight the Japanese • In December, Nanking fell
to the Japanese • An estimated 300,000
Chinese perished over the next month
Japan and Asian Expansion
• Japanese troops occupied Manchuria in September 1931 • Japan declared war on
China in 1937 and occupied northern areas of China • Japanese troops
occupied Indochina in July 1941
Japan in World War II
• United States entered the war with the attack on its fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 • By May 1942, Japan expansion included Borneo,
Philippines and most of Southeast Asia • Japanese navy defeated at the Battle of the Coral
Sea in early May 1942 • Japanese navy defeated a month later at the Battle
of Midway
Defeat of Japan
• By the summer of 1943 Allied forces were “island hopping” in advance toward the Japanese mainland • Allied forces reoccupied the Philippines by April
1945 • By April 1945, Allied forces defeated Japanese
forces in Burma and Hunan • Japan surrenders on August 14, 1945, after 2
atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Post – War Africa • Colonial soldiers returning from the war
brought the idea of independence to their homelands • Egypt gained limited independence from Great
Britain in 1922 • In 1956 France granted independence to
Morocco and Tunisia • By the late 1960s only Angola and
Mozambique were controlled by Europeans
Post – War Middle East
• In 1946 Jordan, Syria and Lebanon were granted their independence • The Allies supported the idea of a Jewish
state in Palestine • The independent state of Israel was declared
on May 14, 1948 • The Arab states opposed the establishment
of Israel
Independence Spreads • The Philippine Islands on July 4, 1946 • Pakistan and India on August 15, 1947 • Burma (Myanmar) on January 4, 1948 • Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on February 4, 1948 • Indonesia on December 27, 1949 • Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia on July 20, 1954
Post – War Soviet Union
• The economy of the Soviet Union was devastated by World War II • Soviet leaders began new industries through the
use of mandatory laborers of which 40% were women • By 1947 the Soviet economy was back to pre –war
levels • Most industrial production was used for military
purposes
Post – War Asia
• Korea was divided in to North and South Korea along the 38th parallel • Communists under Mao Zedong gained control of
China in mid – 1949 • Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic of China on
October 1, 1949 • On June 25, 1950, supported by China, North
Korean troops launched an invasion of South Korea • An armistice signed on July 27, 1953, ended the
conflict
Post – War Asia • In December 1946, the Communists forces
under Ho Chi Minh gained control of central and northern Vietnam from the French • By the early 1950s, both China and the
United States were sending aid to Vietnam • In July 1954, Vietnam was officially divided in
to a North and South Vietnam as the French withdrew from the country
Communism in China • Nearly 1.2 million party members by 1945 • Gained control of mainland China in 1949 • Developed a separate version of
Communism from the Soviet Union • Mao initiated a Cultural Revolution from
1966 to 1976, in which millions were effected • Mao’s death on September 9, 1976, led to a
power struggle for control of the party
Nations Under Communism
• Creates a political system dominated by the Communist Party • Party controls most of the economy • Bans opposing political parties • Arts, education and the media conform to
Party doctrine • Creates organizations to support Party
doctrine
Nations Under Communism
• Begins reforms by confiscating, collectivizing and redistributing land • Ends private property ownership • Views modernization of industry as the
economic foundation of socialism • Mobilization of the nation and its resources
under the control of the Party
Communist Industrial Society
• Rapid industrialization led to rapid urban growth • Exploitation of local areas for resources to
support urban areas • Growth of a privileged bureaucratic and
technological class • Growth of privileged state and party leaders
Cultural Revolution Under Mao
• Created reforms designed to combat capitalist tendencies in party leadership • Introduced education
and health care to the countryside • Industrialization on a
small scale was promoted in rural areas
Enemies of Communism
• In the 1950s, the definition of “enemy of the state” was expanded to include high ranking officials and supporters of the party • Stalin initiated the Great Purge the Soviet
Union in the 1930s • Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution in
China in 1966 to remove self – rewarding from Party leaders
Cold War Escalates • In June 1948, the Soviets established a
blockade around West Berlin • Supplies were flown into West Berlin by
American and British cargo planes • Soviet Union tested its 1st atomic bomb on
August 29, 1949 • COMECON was formed in January 1949 • NATO was formed in April 1949
Conflicts of the Cold War • In December 1946, the Communists forces under
Ho Chi Minh gained control of central and northern Vietnam from the French • On June 25, 1950, supported by China, North
Korean troops launched an invasion of South Korea • In 1959, communist forces under Fidel Castro
invaded Cuba • In 1979, Soviet forces moved into Afghanistan to
support the communist regime
The Cold War Escalates
• In August 1957, the Soviet Union tested its 1st Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) • On October 4, 1957,
the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the 1st space satellite • In November 1958, the
Soviets threatened West Berlin
Division in Communism • By 1960, an ideological riff between China
and the Soviet Union became apparent • Territorial disputes nearly led to open
conflict • Ideological differences took the (2) nations
down different paths of communism • A rivalry for communist leadership in the
world made the division deeper
Decline of Communism • Fueled by economic and moral reasons • By the 1970s, communist economies lag
behind capitalist economies of the West • Shortages and long lines for consumer goods
led to public resentment and unrest • Labor camps of the Soviet Union, Cultural
Revolution in China, and genocide in Cambodia discredited communist claims of morality over capitalist
Decline of Communism in China • After the death of Mao in 1976, Chinese
leadership moved more toward a capitalist economy and lifted some restrictions and prohibitions • Dismantled collective farms in favor of small
privately owned farms • Managers of state enterprises were given
more authority and control, begin seeking profits
Decline of Communism in the Soviet Union
• By 1987, Soviet leadership had initiated “glasnost” and “perestroika” • Lifted some government and cultural
restrictions and prohibitions • Managers of state enterprises were given
more authority and control, begin seeking profits • Increase freedoms led to demands for more
freedoms
Fall of Communism