Cold War: Origins, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade, and Internal Conflicts

Classified in History

Written at on English with a size of 2.47 KB.

Item 11

**Formation of the Blocks**

**1.2 Origins of the Break**

The primary reason for the split between these two blocks was ideology. Consequently, the Cold War resulted from disagreement about the political order. For the Western bloc, democracy meant the development of individual freedoms within a context of parliamentary liberalism, respectful of different policy options and the legal existence of political organizations and unions. The USSR extended its influence into Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and East Germany, where democracies constituted a socialist economy and a clearly aligned foreign policy.

**1.3 The Marshall Plan**

This plan called for military intervention and economic aid to all European countries that ousted Communist ministers, such as France, Italy, and Denmark/Belgium. This plan offered support for four years and promoted the European Union as an instrument for resisting communism. The countries that accepted these conditions created the European Organization for Economic Cooperation. Between 1948 and 1952, 13 billion dollars were allocated, resulting in a miracle of economic reconstruction.

**1.4 The Berlin Blockade**

With Germany's surrender in 1945, it was divided into four zones: one controlled by the Russians, another by the Americans, another by the English, and another by the French. In 1948, the German Federal State was proclaimed, uniting the three Western zones into a single capitalist Germany. Germany was effectively divided in two. Berlin, the capital, was also divided into four zones but remained within the Soviet zone of Germany. After a while, the Federal Republic of Germany (capitalist part) was created, and shortly thereafter, the German Democratic Republic (communist part) was formed. Following the creation of the Iron Curtain, the capitalist states created NATO in 1949. The USSR responded with the Cominform in 1947, COMECON in 1949, and a military alliance in 1955: the Warsaw Pact.

**4. Internal Problems of the Block**

**4.1 Dissidence in Yugoslavia and China**

The economic, social, and political leadership of Josip Broz (Tito) distanced Yugoslav communism from the Soviet orbit and opened a new model dubbed *self-managed socialism*. From 1959 onwards, relations between the USSR and China deteriorated as China sought to develop its own socialist path, distinct from the Soviet one, which led to radicalized Sino-Soviet differences.

Entradas relacionadas: