The World after World War II - Study Notes

Lesson summary

World War II (1939-1945) was fought between the Allies (Britain, France, Russia, and the USA from 1941 after Pearl Harbour) and the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan). At its end the USA and the USSR emerged as super powers. Their contest for ideological supremacy divided the world into two camps, while many Afro-Asian countries, India included, stayed non-aligned. The UNO was set up in 1945 to prevent future wars.

15.1 Post-war conditions in Europe

• 60 million civilians were killed; the Nazis killed 6 million European Jews.
• Warsaw, Kiev, Tokyo and Berlin were devastated; Britain and France lost prestige.
• Many European countries became social welfare states; communism was active in Greece and Turkey.
• By 1948 the Soviets had set up left wing governments in Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary; Yugoslavia was communist under Tito.

Emergence of a bipolar world

• July 1945: Stalin, Truman and Churchill (later replaced by Clement Attlee) met at Potsdam near Berlin.
• The USA bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki without informing the USSR; Emperor Hirohito surrendered. The USSR produced an atomic bomb in 1949.
• 22 February 1946: George Kennan's 8,000-word Long Telegram advised that communism be contained.
• March 1946: Churchill's iron curtain speech at Fulton, Missouri, is taken as the signal of the Cold War. Stalin called him a warmonger.
• By the end of 1947 all of Eastern Europe except Czechoslovakia was under Communist rule.

Berlin Blockade

• Germany was divided into US, UK, French and USSR zones. The western zones merged by early 1948.
• June 1948: Russians stopped road and rail traffic to West Berlin; it was supplied by air for nearly eleven months. The ban ended in May 1949.
• FRG (West Germany) set up in August 1949; GDR (East Germany) in October 1949. Reunification in 1990 signalled the end of the Cold War.

15.2 Cold War

Bernard Baruch used the term on 16 April 1947; it was coined earlier by George Orwell. The Cold War (1945-1991) was a war of ideologies. Six strategies were used: economic aid, military pacts, propaganda, espionage, brinkmanship and surrogate wars.

• ANZUS (September 1951): US, Australia, New Zealand.
• SEATO (September 1954): eight members, only the Philippines and Thailand from south-east Asia; HQ Bangkok; disbanded 1977.
• Baghdad Pact (February 1955): Iraq and Turkey, then Britain, Pakistan, Iran; aim to check communism. Iraq left after the 1958 US intervention in Lebanon; it became CENTO, HQ Ankara; US only an associate; disbanded 1979.

Propaganda, espionage, brinkmanship and surrogate wars

• Both powers glorified their ideology through film, television, music, literature and art.
• CIA set up in 1947; KGB in 1954.
• Brinkmanship: a word from John Foster Dulles (Life interview, 1956). Example: the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, met by a US naval blockade.
• Surrogate wars: Korean War (1950-53) and Vietnam Wars (1955-75).

15.3 Third World and Non-Alignment

• Alfred Sauvy, French demographer and historian, coined the term Third World in 1952.
• Bandung Conference, Indonesia (1955): 29 states; Declaration on Promotion of World Peace and Cooperation, including Nehru's Panchsheel. Its ten principles guided NAM.
• V. K. Krishna Menon coined the term non-alignment in 1953 at the UN.
• First NAM summit: Belgrade, 1961. Founders: Nehru, Sukarno, Nasser, Nkrumah, Tito.
• Panchsheel: mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference, equality and mutual benefit, peaceful co-existence.

15.4 UNO and global disputes

• Moscow declaration 1943; Dumbarton Oaks (August-October 1944); Yalta (February 1945); San Francisco (April 1945) finalised the Charter.
• 24 October 1945: UNO with 51 members. First Secretary-General: Trygve Lie of Norway. 15 specialised agencies.
• UN soldiers are called Blue Helmets.
• Palestine: UNSCOP (May 1947) proposed 45 percent of land for Arabs and 55 percent for Jews; Israel formed on 14 May 1948.
• China: the People's Republic became a permanent member only from 1971.
• Korean War: began 25 June 1950; UN forces under General MacArthur; Uniting for Peace resolution; armistice July 1953.
• Suez Crisis 1956: Nasser nationalised the canal in July; Israel, Britain and France attacked; UNEF created.
• Hungary 1956: Imre Nagy's reforms; Soviet army crushed the rising on 4 November.
• Six Day War 1967: Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, Golan Heights and Sinai. PLO (1964) led by Yasser Arafat.

15.5 European Community

• OEEC (April 1948) disbursed Marshall Aid to 16 members; became OECD in 1961 (HQ Paris).
• Council of Europe (May 1949), HQ Strasbourg.
• Schuman Plan (9 May 1950); ECSC by the Treaty of Paris (18 April 1951) of six states. Britain refused to join.
• Treaty of Rome set up the EEC (Common Market), HQ Brussels. EFTA organised by Britain in 1960.
• De Gaulle opposed Britain's entry in 1961; Britain joined on 1 January 1973 with Ireland and Denmark.
• Single European Act: 1 July 1987. Maastricht Treaty: December 1991; EU in 1993; euro; Brexit vote 2017; 27 members.

End of the Cold War

• USSR equalled US nuclear capability by 1969; fear of Mutual Assured Destruction.
• Detente (late 1960s to late 1970s); SALT 1972 and 1979; START 1991.
• Gorbachev (from March 1985): perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (transparency and openness).
• 1989: Solidarity won in Poland; Berlin Wall fell in November; Helmut Kohl's ten-point programme.
• 8 December 1991: USSR disintegrated; 25 December Gorbachev resigned; Boris Yeltsin became President of Russia.