Cold War: causes, conflicts, consequences

THE Cold War is the name we give to political and ideological conflict which lasted from the late 1940s to 1991. This event had as protagonists the U.S and the Soviet Union, countries that represented two distinct ideologies that were the capitalism it's the socialism, respectively.

The Cold War impacted the world in different ways throughout the 20th century, and resulted in disputes in the scientific, economic, sports, and military fields, in addition to a clear political and ideological dispute. Throughout this conflict, the rivalry and the geopolitical dispute led to the outbreak of a series of conflicts in other parts of the planet.

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Causes of the Cold War

The Cold War was the result of the ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.[1]

The Cold War began in the 1940s, shortly after the Second World War had an end. This conflict was the result of the dispute for world hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two countries that emerged with power status after the war. THE

difference in ideology is the key to understanding this conflict.

Historians consider a speech made by the US president Harry Truman the starting point for the start of the Cold War. In this speech, delivered in 1947, Truman called for an increase in the release of funds for the United States to stop the advance of socialism around the world.

From there, the Truman doctrine, the ideology that brought together the set of measures taken by the United States to contain the advance of socialism by Europe. Within the Truman Doctrine is the Marshall Plan, which was the financing plan of the European countries that had been destroyed with World War II.

The Manichean discourse propagated by this ideology ended up creating a climatealarmist which contributed to stir up the spirits between the two nations. As rivalry increased, the Soviets also adhered to the Manichean discourse, consolidating the polarization of the world.

Cold War Characteristics

The polarization of the world made the US and USSR massively invest in armaments development.[2]

During the duration of the Cold War (1947-1991), some actions could be observed, such as the racearmamentist, as the dispute between Americans and Soviets made the climate of war between the two sides exist and this led the two nations to invest massively in the development of weapons.

There was also, in this period, the racespace, as the rivalry between the Americans and the Soviets made the two countries invest in technological development, and space exploration ended up being a field of this dispute. The Soviets were the first to send a satellite, an animal and a human into space, and the Americans managed to get the first human to the Moon.

THE interferenceforeign it was also a mark of that conflict, as the Soviets and the Americans disputed its influence in several countries considered strategic from a geopolitical point of view. This resulted in conflicts in regions of Asia and Africa and in coups d'etat in Latin America.

Another striking feature of the Cold War was the polarization of the world into two large blocks: one in support for the United States and supporter of capitalism, and another supporter of the Soviet Union and supporter of socialism. The formation of these blocks led to the formation of a series of economic and military treaties.

In the economic field, we can highlight the formation of UnityEuropean, formed among the capitalist nations of Western Europe, and the Comecon, formed by the socialist nations of Eastern Europe; in the military field, in turn, we can highlight the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, led by the USA, and the Warsaw Pact, led by the USSR.

chinese revolution

The war between the communists in China and the nationalists (capitalists) extended from the 1920s, being interrupted by the Japanese invasion in the 1930s. When World War II ended, the conflict resumed and the communists led by Mao Tse-Tung, considered defeating the nationalists. In 1949, China became a communist nation, and the United States began to intervene more openly in Asia to prevent other countries from being influenced by China.

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Korean War

Korea was occupied and divided by the Americans and Soviets at the end of World War II, and from that division two nations were born: the KoreaofNorth, communist, and the KoreaofSouth, capitalist. This division resulted in a war started in 1950, when the North Koreans invaded South Korea with the aim of conquering it and reuniting the Koreas.

The South Koreans fought with the open support of the United States, which even sent soldiers to participate in this war. In 1953, a armistice (a peace treaty) was signed between the two sides, and the division between South Korea and North Korea remains in existence today.

Vietnam War

American participation in the Vietnam War was disastrous and forced the country's troops to withdraw from there, defeated in 1973.

Another symbol of US interference in Asian geopolitics during the Cold War was Vietnam. This country was a former French colony that gained its independence after a eight-year-long war (US supported the French). After this conflict, the country split into North Vietnam and South Vietnam, the former being influenced by communism and the latter by capitalism.

THE Vietnam War it began in 1959, and the entry of the United States into this conflict took place in 1965. The American involvement in the war was extremely unpopular in American society, it carried a very high weight. to the country's economy and killed thousands of young Americans, in addition to having resulted in enormous barbarism in the country. Asian. In 1973, US troops were withdrawn Vietnam and, in 1976, the communists won the war and reunified the country.

Missile Crisis

THE Missile Crisis it is probably the most tense moment in the entire Cold War, as the possibility of war between the Americans and the Soviets was real. It all started when a nationalist revolution it happened in Cuba in 1959. Due to US pressure on Cuba, the small Caribbean country aligned with the Soviets to escape the economic embargo.

In 1962, Soviets and Cubans reached an agreement to install a missile base in Cuba, but the information was discovered by the Americans and a diplomatic crisis began. The US said it would declare war if Soviet missiles were installed. After two weeks of negotiation, the solution was found: Soviet missiles would not be installed in Cuba, and the Americans would withdraw missiles installed in Turkey.

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Berlin Wall

For nearly three decades, the Berlin Wall was the great symbol of the polarization of the Cold War.

Perhaps the greatest symbol of the polarization of the Cold War was the case of Germany, a country that split into two nations and remained so for most of the second half of the 20th century. The region occupied by the Soviets, at the end of World War II, became the GermanyEastern, while the part occupied by Americans, French and British became the Germanywestern, each inspired by its own ideology.

This division, added to the flight of the population from East Germany to West Germany, mainly in Berlin, the capital of both countries, led the East Germans and Soviets to invest in the building a wall that isolated the capital from West Germany and prevented people from moving there.

The construction of the Berlin Wall began in 1961, remaining standing until 1989, when the bloc's crisis socialist in Europe and the economic and political crisis that hit East Germany, led the population to overthrow the wall. In 1990, Germany reunited.

End of the Cold War

The Cold War came to an end with the decay of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc. The Soviet crisis is related to the fact that the Soviet economy began to decline from the 1970s onwards. Historian Angelo Segrillo claims that the Soviet economic crisis is directly related to the country's inability to adapt to the system of toyotist production and the lack of technological innovation in the country compared to the United States|1|.

The problems in the Soviet economy were masked by the rising price of oil, which made the country's revenue sufficient to hide latent problems, such as the agriculture. The Soviet Union's involvement with afghan war, in 1979, ended up increasing the economic wear and tear of the Soviets.

In 1985, MikhailGorbachev assumed the Soviet command and had the function of solving the crisis that the country was facing at that moment. Gorbachev proposed reforms through the Glasnot and perestroika, but the reforms proposed by the Soviet ruler contributed to increasing the wear of the Soviet model.

On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned, and the Soviet Union dissolved. In its place, fifteen nations won their independence, and the socialist bloc ceased to exist in Eastern Europe. These events marked the end of the Cold War.

Image credits

[1] Vincent Grebenicek/Shutterstock

[2] Photo011 and Shutterstock

Grades

|1| SEGRILLO, Angelo. The Decline of Soviet Union: a hypothesis on industrial paradigms, technological revolutions and roots of Perestroika. To access, click on here [in English].

By Daniel Neves
History teacher