How did cold war affect Europe? 1.

Europe was divided Europe was divided into two blocs between 1945 and 1948 East comprised mainly of communist governments and the west consisted of democratic nations USSR expanded its control over eastern Europe by setting up communist governments in those countries, such as Poland where they took control by arresting all the democratic leaders and implaced their own communist leaders USSR could the influence there communist governments to follow policies which were in line with their own national interest They were the USSRs very own satellite states The west criticised the USSR for setting up such governments without holding free elections and not holding free elections Contributed to bad blood USSR was threatened by the presence of democratic force and thus used these countries as buffer regions to ensure its own security They felt that the USAs dissatisfaction was reflective of their aggressive attitude towards communism and this increased the paranoia of USA attack thus creating tension The USA on the other hand saw this as Soviet aggression and a form of attack on democracy as they were utilising violent means to achieve their arms and goals to promote communism This created tensions between the two sides as they both were paranoid and afraid of each other and also seen as extremely aggressive by either party Germany was divided A crisis ensued among Britain, France, USA and the USSR over how to administer geramny in 1948 Germany was to be divided into four parts and berlin into four zones according to peace talks in Britain

2.

In 1948, Britain France and USA decided join their separate zones in order to help west germany economy recover, they agreed to create a new wing Afraid that Germany would grow too strong and threaten the USSR, Stalin planned to seize control of west berlin through a blockade The USSR was able to do this as Berlin was within East Germany, He hoped to force the western powers to leave by blockading the city and preventing supplies of food from entering Problem: USA was adamant to support West Berlin as it was a symbol of democracy within communism It was afraid that should it back down, USSR would become more aggressive and invade West Germany Keen to avoid war, Truman utilised pacifistic measures ie: airlifting of food and other supplies into west berlin, this lasted 10 months Realising that the West had the ability and the will to help Berlin, USSR ended the Blockade This increased tension as USSR saw that its ability had been undermined by USA and further understood USAs ability, via manpower and resources to support a city for 10 months This intimidated the USSR as they understood the lengths the USA would take to protect its own ideology As for the USA, the USSRs actions proved that it was volatile and aggressive, thus the USA saw them as a threat to the stability of the world and the Eastern European community.

3.

Resulted in more segregation Truman doctrine Also known as the containment policy, this was started to ensure that communism was kept within its borders Following soviet expansion into Europe, Truman decided that the USA had to prevent communism from spreading as it was damaging to the democratic doctrine On 12 March 1947, he announced the Truman doctrine The Truman doctrine provided American aid to Greece and Turkey and helped to ensure that in Greece the royals managed to win the support of the people and implace democracy Turkey controlled the Dadanelles and the Greeks the communists and allowed America into their sovereign territory to place troops there Agreeing with Truman, Congress voted to send 400 million CASH to Greece and Turkey where they defeated the communists
This was seen as the communists as two things, firstly dollar imperialism where the USA were resorting to unscrupulous means, using money as a bargaining chip to buy support. Secondly they saw that USA was attacking communism and making their stand against communism and with this they saw this form of USA aggression as threatening and basically created tension within Europe. In addition turkeys receiving military aid, greatly distressed the USSR as turkey shared a border with the USSR USA on the other hand saw this as a means to avert the communist threat, as they thought that poor countries accepted communism thus by loaning them money to build up a capitalist economy it would prevent them from falling. Marshall Plan (5 June 1947)

4.

Following the Truman doctrine, came the Marshall Plan which was introduced to offer financial aid to the whole of Europe The plan sought to make Europe rich and strong and prosperous enough to resist communism by providing financial support Between 1948 -1952, 16 countries in Western Europe received a total of 13 billion dollars in aid, loans and goods Soviet satellites were forbidden from accepting American Aid As a result, western Europe recovered from WWII faster than that of Eastern Europe The marshall plan also divided Europes economies into two different spheres and heightened tensions IT was a huge success as firstly it helped resist communism to a certain extent in western Europe and also created an industrial and prosperous western Europe USSR called it dollar imperialism and in response, USSR got defensive and created COMECON USSR was getting threatened as it saw the USA as going all out in order to contain communism and go against USSRs national interest

5.

It saw USA as a potential threat and saw that the only way to defend itself was to band its satellite states together via comecon (shared economic prosperity) NATO + Warsaw Pact The division of Europe into two spheres of influence forced both sides to set up military alliances In April 1949, the USA started the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for collective security against soviet attack This was already a prime example of the distrust of the USA towards the Soviets and how they were paranoid and feared Soviet attacks In response, the USSR set up the alliance known as the Warsaw pact in 1955 uniting all communist countries in eastern europe except Yugoslavia

This exhibited the fear of the USSR toward the USA, USAs continued aggression towards communism, caused suspicion and fear on the side of the USSR who felt that the USA had the propensity to launch an attack and thus utilised the Warsaw pact via allying all satellite states, created a better defence and buffer zone to ensure their safety and security

Perestroika 1. reduced military spending