A iron Curtain was an expression used during the Cold War to make mention of the ideological barrier that existed on the European continent between the nations of Western Europe and Eastern Europe. The iron curtain was formed by socialist nations that were under the influence of the government of Soviet Union.
This expression was popularized through a speech by Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister, in the United States. She was referring to the ideological barrier, but the Cold War had physical barriers that separated the two blocs, with emphasis on the Berlin Wall, built in 1961 and demolished in 1989.
Read too: The world after World War II
Topics of this article
- 1 - Summary about the iron curtain
- 2 - What was the Iron Curtain?
- 3 - When did the term appear?
- 4 - Which countries were part of the Iron Curtain?
- 5 - Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall
summary of the iron curtain
The Iron Curtain is an expression created to refer to the socialist nations of Europe that were under the influence of the Soviet Union.
Its meaning is related to the Cold War and the ideological dispute of that period between capitalism It is socialism.
It was popularized through a speech by Winston Churchill delivered at the U.S in 1946.
In all, nine nations formed part of the Iron Curtain.
One of the symbols of this period was a physical barrier that separated Berlin, the Berlin Wall.
What was the Iron Curtain?
The iron curtain was an expression used during the Cold War period to refer to the bloc of socialist nations that existed in the LThis one ANDeuropeanand the dominance they suffered from the Soviet Union. It is a pejorative expression intended to reinforce the lack of freedom of these nations in relation to the Moscow government.
.ideological barrier that separated Eastern Europe from Western Europe, since its sovereignty was not respected by the Soviet government. For that reason, nations of the socialist bloc suffered Soviet interventions in certain periods of the Cold War. Therefore, it is about under the iron curtainmthe nations of that block wereTherefore,
This ideological barrier is a hallmark of the Cold War, a political-ideological conflict in which two powers — the United States and the Soviet Union — disputed global hegemony. Each one had its ideology distinct from the other, with the North Americans being capitalists and the Soviets being socialists.
It is important to mention that many historians consider that the influence of the Soviet Union on the nations of the socialist bloc increased with some agreements, such as Comecon, which guaranteed Soviet economic aid to Eastern European nations, but, mainly, by Pact of Warsaw, military agreement of the Soviet Union with the socialist nations of Europe. In that agreement, the Soviets were guaranteed to establish their troops in other socialist nations.
Do not stop now... There's more after the publicity ;)
When did the term come about?
The origin of the term Iron Curtain in the sense explained above éassignedThe to a speech by Winston ChurchillBritish Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945. During the speech, given on March 5, 1946, Churchill was no longer in that position because his party had lost ground in British politics towards Labor.
The speech took place at Westminster College, located in the city of Fulton, in the state of Missouri, in the United States. Former British Prime Minister spoke in his speech that an iron curtain had descended over Europe. This was understood as a way of referring to the consolidation of the socialist bloc as a result of the Soviet advance in Eastern Europe.
See too:Differences between socialism and capitalism
Which countries were part of the Iron Curtain?
We saw in this text that the iron curtain was an expression that referred to the nations of the socialist bloc in Eastern Europe. Although some nations in that bloc were not allies of the Soviet government and did not accept the interventions from Moscow (as is the case in Yugoslavia), the expression was originally intended for all nations involved.
The Iron Curtain nations were as follows:
Albania;
Oriental Germany;
Bulgaria;
Czechoslovakia;
Hungary;
Yugoslavia;
Poland;
Romania;
Soviet Union.
Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall
The expression iron curtain, as mentioned, referred to the ideological barrier between nations, but O symbol concrete of this dispute it was, in fact, the barrier that separated the city from Berlin. In this period, Berlin was divided in half, with West Berlin being the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the capitalist germany; and East Berlin, the capital of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the socialist germany.
The construction of the wall took place with the aim of preventing the population of the GDR from moving to West Berlin. Between the years 1948 and 1961, millions of inhabitants of the GDR moved to the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany due to the greater economic development and the greater freedom that existed there.
This population flight caused the GDR to lose brains and manpower, and, to prevent more people from leaving the country, the governments of the East Germany and the Soviet Union decided to build a wall to isolate West Berlin, which took place between the 12th and the 13th of August 1961.
Over the next few years, a large structure was set up to separate the two cities, relying on the height of the wall, security towers, armed lookouts, barbed wire, guard dogs, etc. A fall of the berlin wall happened only in 1989, starting à reunification of germany, à fall of socialism in Europe and Thethe end of the cold war.
Video lesson on the Berlin Wall: from construction to fall
image credits
[1] Kseferovic / Wikimedia Commons
By Daniel Neves Silva
History teacher
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SILVA, Daniel Neves. "Iron Curtain"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/cortina-de-ferro.htm. Accessed on July 5, 2023.
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Cringe
The slang adapted from English is used to designate someone who is seen as tacky, shameful, outdated and out of fashion.
