Causes and consequences of the Cold War

After World War II, the confrontation between the two victorious powers: the Soviet Union Y USA is what determined the beginning of the Cold War and it was called that way because more than a direct armed confrontation it was the tension created by demonstrating which would be the world power. The starting date is the year 1945, concluding in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Next in this lesson from a TEACHER we will see what the causes and consequences of the Cold War so that you better understand what this historical moment consisted of and how it affected our future.

Basically they were two main causes that gave rise to the beginning of the Cold War:

Communism vs. capitalism

On the one hand both blocks represented two political systems, social and economic antagonistic and unrecognizable to the point that the triumph of one of them means the disappearance of the other, while the United States defended capitalism as a political system, the Soviet Union was the defender of capitalism. communism.

This confirmed the division of Europe not only physical but ideological into two separate blocs by what was called the "Iron Curtain”, Where Germany was also divided into two parts, the eastern and western with the construction of a wall, the famous Berlin Wall.

Weapons in the United States

On the other hand, another cause was the acquisition of armaments by theAmerican people which greatly alerted the Soviets. Both powers were concerned with increasing their war warehouses and especially those related to nuclear bombs.

At any moment both the United States and the Soviet Union could make use of this weapon causing enormous destruction. The fact that the world was divided into two blocks meant that if one declared war on the other, a chain reaction would occur, ending with human life.

Within the consequences of the Cold War we have to specify that this tension ended with a large accumulation of weapons in the two great powers that they did not get to use for the simple fact that there was never an armed confrontation between both. In addition, military alliances such as the NATO in the United States and the Warsaw pact in the Soviet Union to militarily guarantee security and integrity.

Despite, as we have said previously, there was no direct conflict between the two powers, the rivalry between the blocks was manifested in conflicts located outside the territory of the United States and the Soviet Union since the challenge was produced indirectly through the peripheral allies. Both were determined to prevent the newly independent countries from allying with the rival bloc, hence the Korean war and the Vietnam War.

Finally the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991 due to an economic crisis that consisted of major changes in its economy that in turn led to the demise of communism as well as the Warsaw Pact, the obtaining of independence in several Baltic states and some former Soviet republics and the demolition of the Berlin Wall.