Origin of the COLD War

The origin of the Cold War must be sought in the Russian Revolution, the position of the USA and USSR in World War I and II and, above all, in the pacts after the war. We'll tell you in a Teacher!

One of the biggest conflicts in the 20th century was the Cold War, being a confrontation that took place between the capitalist bloc, led by USA, and the communist bloc led by the USSR. In this war, the two models that wanted to dominate the world faced each other, and therefore the consequences it would bring to the world were enormous. For all this and to understand why this conflict began, in this lesson from a Teacher we must talk about the origin of the cold war.

Index

1. What was the Cold War and why was it called that?
2. The Russian Revolution, the origin of the Cold War
3. United States and the USSR between the two wars
4. United States and the USSR during World War II
5. The beginning of the Cold War

The Cold War It was a period of intense

The name "Cold War" comes from the fact that there was no direct and open military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, but a constant confrontation through the competition in areas such as politics, economics, technology, propaganda and influence global. The two superpowers represented two opposing political and economic systems: capitalism led by the United States and communism led by the Soviet Union.

To understand the origin of the Cold War we must talk about the relations between the United States and the USSR, since this will help us see how their constant clashes were what caused the War Cold.

At the beginning of the First World War, Relations between the United States and Russia were good, both being members of the side of the Allies. This alliance only lasted for about 7 months, between April and November 1917, since the United States entered the conflict late, and Russia exited the war in November due to the beginning of the revolution Russian.

The Russian Revolution It took place between November 1917 and June 1923, being a process in which the Leninist socialist revolutionaries overthrew the monarchical and tsarist government of the time. This revolution brought enormous changes in Russian society, which went from a conservative government to one focused on the socialist ideals and in the thought of Vladimir Lenin.

In 1918, the Bolsheviks negotiated a peace agreement with the Central Powers of World War I, deciding not to participate in the same negotiation as the rest of the Allies. This agreement was called the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and it was the beginning of the differences between the USSR and the rest of the West and the United States, since they distrusted why the USSR was taking the negotiations alone.

After the war, relations between the USSR and the rest of the powers were very limited, since Lenin did not want to negotiate with Western capitalist countries, and he alone intended to intervene in nations that could become socialist. Additionally, the United States sent troops to aid the anti-Bolshevik Russian troops, causing even more tension between Lenin and the West.

To know the origin of the Cold War, we must understand the ideological differences between the capitalism and communism.

After winning the Russian Revolution, and now with Stalin in command, The USSR challenged the capitalist world, since they considered that the world was dominated by this economic system, and should be replaced by socialism. Stalin considered that the world was going to split in two, those who would join Russian socialism, and those who would join Western capitalism. That is why he started a process of ideological conquest to other nations, to get all possible support in the conflict that he knew he was going to have with the United States sooner or later

For years, events began to emerge around the world that were related to the confrontation between communist and capitalist modelsto. Some of these events were:

• the polish-soviet war
• the trials in Moscow against spies from Western countries
• the refusal of the United States to recognize the USSR
• the peace treaty between the USSR and Weimar Germany,
• the financing of British strikes by the Russians.

For this reason, the differences between the USSR and the United States were the center of all international relations.

At this point it was very important relationship of both blocks with fascist nations, especially with Japan and Germany. The USSR always had tense relations with Japan, even participating in wars against the Japanese region, and therefore there was always tension between both nations. On the other hand, relations between Hitler's Germany and the USSR were quite irregular, since Hitler He hated the communist system and the Slavic population, but he also considered the USSR a great ally. economic. On the other hand, the relationship between the United States and its allies with Hitler's Germany was always tense, since although signed peace agreements with the German government, were the first to start hostilities when Hitler invaded Poland.

For many experts, At this time there was already a kind of Cold War, since many of the elements that define the Cold War that we know appear. Even so, the confrontations between the United States and the USSR still They were not that intense, partly because the Soviets were not yet so powerful, so this stage is usually only considered as a precursor to the war.

In unProfesor we discover the phases of the cold war.

In the summer of 1939, the USSR began negotiating with Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. being a nation that had already reached certain agreements with the Western capitalist bloc, which was trying in every possible way not to enter into another war with the Germans. The USSR and Germany signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, in which both nations They divided Poland and reached a non-aggression pact., according to which they were not going to be allies, but neither were they going to intervene in the other nation's plans unless they clashed with their interests.

Shortly after this agreement, both nations invaded Poland, although separately, since they were not allies as such. Germany on the one hand began the Second World War by invading Poland, while the USSR remained neutral in this conflict. While Germany fought against the French and British, the USSR conquered numerous eastern regions, and especially the Baltic area.

At this point, relations between the USSR and the Allies were almost completely broken, as the USSR remained neutral, but also exchanged economic resources with Nazi Germany. Some experts considered that The USSR was able to negotiate entry into the Axis Powers, but their relations with the Japanese and Hitler's thinking about the Slavs and communists made it difficult to think that they could have reached an agreement.

In 1941, the Germans broke the pact by beginning the invasion of the USSR. In the call Operation Barbarossa. Still, the Russians were able to stop the German attacks, especially because of the Russian winter, so the war between both nations continued for a longer time than expected by the Germans. At this point, the Russians understood that the Axis Powers were their enemies, and They joined the side of the Allies, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, being from that moment one of the most prominent members of the war.

Throughout the conflict, there were numerous diplomatic clashes between the United States and the USSR, especially because of their different military strategies, but also because of the way in which each one treated the regions they conquered during the war. Still, it is evident that The union of both powers was what brought the victory of the Allies in the war, with the Russians being the first to enter Berlin to conclude the conflict, and the entry of the United States one of the keys to pushing the Germans towards their capital.

But After the war, is when the ideas of the United States and the USSR collided the most, in what is considered to be the key factor in the origin of the Cold War. The United States believed that the only way to maintain peace was create international organizations in which the nations will dialogue, needing for this that all of them were capitalists. On the other hand, the USSR considered it essential to expand its socialist model, in order to avoid future invasions. At this point World War II ended, with both nations trying to make more profits.

To finish this lesson on the origin of the Cold War we must talk about the events that They happened after the Second World War, being those that would bring about the beginning of the Cold War. We must understand that The Cold War had been brewing decades, and that therefore this last process only corresponds to the fact that a point arrived at which the accumulation of causes was such that it exploded.

After the war, the Allied states met in several conferences in which they discussed important issues such as what to do after the war. One of the most important topics was about what to do with Germany after the war, being a source of great disagreements between the USSR and the United States, since both wanted to obtain the greatest possible benefit. The arrival to the American presidency of Harry S. Truman, which opted for a much tougher relationship against the USSR.

After the war, The Soviets occupied several areas of Eastern Europe, being the regions that they had defended or had taken from German hands. On the other hand, the Americans They continued to occupy positions in Western Europe, being where his influence had been greatest. That is why during the Cold War this great differentiation between Western Europe and Western Europe was maintained. Eastern, since capitalism was more representative of the western zone and socialism of the regions of the this.

But, without a doubt, the area with the greatest relevance of all was Germany, which after the war was divided into four zones, each organized by one of the Allied powers, that is, France, the United Kingdom, the USSR, and the United States. This division meant that part of Germany maintained its liberal capitalist system, but the other began to enter the socialist economy that the USSR defended.

It was in the Potsdam Conference at the end of July 1945 when the big differences between the United States and the USSR, and especially in the case of Germany and Eastern Europe. It is said that this conference was marked by the huge tensions between nations that in theory were allies, setting the pace of negotiations in the future.

Little by little, the divisions between the United States and the USSR grew, for example with the NATO formation and of Warsaw pact, which established the allies that each nation was going to have to expand its ideology throughout the world. They also created the Marshall Plan, with which the United States gave aid to economically recover some nations, and the Council of Mutual Economic Aid, with which the USSR helped countries that decided to convert to socialism.

In this maximum stress point between the blocks of the United States and the USSR is where we find the Origin of the Cold War which would remain until 1991 with the victory of the capitalist side. In general, we can say that there is no single point to understand the origin of the Cold War, since which was a very long period in which many factors accumulated until the outbreak of the conflict.

If you want to read more articles similar to Origin of the Cold War, we recommend that you enter our category of History.

• McMahon, R. (2009). The Cold War. A brief introduction. Madrid: Alliance.
• Gaddis, J. L. (2008). The Cold War. RBA.
• Heffer, J., & Launay, M. (1992). The Cold War (Vol. 3). Akal Editions.