GLENWOOD HIGH SCHOOL
HISTORY DEPARTMENT
TERM 2- 2014
GRADE 9
WEEK
1&2
START
07/04/14
CONTENT
MARKS
Increasing tension between the Allies after
WW II:
USSR (communism) vs
USA (capitalism)
COMPLETE
18/04/14
End of WW II in the Pacific: Atomic Bombs
and the beginning of the Nuclear Age:
When, where, why and how did WW II
come to an end?
Why did the USA drop the bombs?
Was it justified?
Definition of ‘Superpowers’ and ‘Cold War’
3&4
21/04/14
02/05/14
Areas of conflict and competition between
the Superpowers in the Cold War:
Arms race
Space Race
[15]
CARTOON TEST
5&6
05/05/14
Division of Gernmany and the building
of the Berlin Wall 1961
16/05/14
[10]
PARAGRAPH TEST
End of the Cold War 1989:
The fall of the Berlin Wall 1989
The fall of the Soviet Union 1991
[50]
7&8
19/05/14
EXAMS
9 & 10
02/06/14
Exam Review
13/06/14
11
16/06/14
Mark Check
27/06/14
1
30/05/14
The Cold War and the Nuclear Age
Increasing tension between the Allies after the end of WW II in Europe
During World War II the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) and the United
States of America (USA) were allies. The two countries had little in common, but they
were united in their opposition to Nazism and this kept them together in their alliance.
After Germany had been defeated, the reason for the alliance was no longer there. Both
of them wanted more power and influence in the world. But they had very different
views about how countries should be governed and how economies should be run. The
USA was democratic and followed a capitalist system; whilst the USSR used a
communist system. At the outbreak of World War II, the USA was the world’s only
superpower, but by the end of the war, USSR emerged as a second superpower, ready
to challenge the USA. They were called “superpowers” because they were the leading
industrial countries and they had the strongest military forces in the world.
Tensions increased between the two when:
USA developed a new weapon (atomic bomb) during the war, but kept it a secret from
the USSR, even though they were wartime allies.
USA thought that USSR wanted to spread communism all over Europe and USSR
thought that the USA wanted to dominate Europe.
During WWII new technology made weapons bigger, faster and more deadly. The use
of bombs changed the nature of warfare, and introduced a new age of fear throughout
the world: The Nuclear Age.
End of WW II in the Pacific: Atomic bombs and the beginning of the Nuclear age
Although the war in Europe ended in May 1945, the war in the Pacific between the USA
and Japan continued. Japan relied on her strong navy to protect her. The Japanese
seemed unstoppable until they were defeated at Midway. Japanese naval power was
broken, but they refused to surrender. Instead they volunteered to become Kamikaze
pilots.
By July 1945, the Americans decided to use the new type of bomb which they had
developed. This was far greater than the power of any bomb used previously. It was
decided to target Japanese cities that had not yet been under serious attack, to show
the full destruction of which the bombs were capable. The cities of Kyoto and
Hiroshima were at the head of the list. Kyoto was an ancient city, full of history, and so
it was decided to target Hiroshima instead. Hiroshima was an industrial city with a
population of 300 000.
On 6 August 1945, a B-29 bomber plane named the Enola Gay took off for Japan. On
board was the first atomic bomb to be used in combat. The bomb was named Little
Boy. At 8.16 a.m. the bomb was detonated above the Aioi Bridge in the centre of
Hiroshima. The bomb was off target, and hit a hospital in the city. Moments after the
explosion all that was left of the hospital were a few concrete pillars. Thousands of
people within a 500 meter radius were killed instantly. People up to two kilometers
away were burned by the searing heat that followed the explosion. The shock wave
flattened houses up to 24 kilometers away. The destruction was terrible. There was
little the Japanese government could do to help.
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Many reasons have been given for the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. To
this day historians still argue over whether it was justified or not. The most commonly
accepted reason for dropping the bombs is that it would result in fewer deaths, both
military and civilian, than if the war carried on. In Western countries most people
believed that the bombing had been necessary to bring about the end of the war. Japan
issued a public criticism on the bombing, branding the USA “the destroyer of mankind”,
but still Japan refused to surrender. America did not give Japan much time to reconsider
its decision.
On 9 August 1945, a second mission was flown in. Another B-29 bomber plane,
carrying a plutonium bomb, headed for the town of Nagasaki. Nagasaki was on a hilly
landscape unlike Hiroshima, but the effect was still dramatic. It is estimated that 77 000
people died in this second bombing.
What was the Cold War?
The arrival of the Nuclear Age created a problem for the world’s superpowers. In the
past, when countries competed for power and influence, they did it through war. War
determined which country was stronger, and which would dominate the world. Nuclear
power changed this. As both the superpowers had access to the atomic bomb, and
because the bomb was so devastating, a new form of competition had to be found.
After the dropping of the atomic bomb, it was clear that it was too dangerous and
destructive to go to war directly with each other in a “hot war” in which they used
nuclear weapons. So they fought each other in what became known as the Cold War
from 1945-1991. It was called the Cold War because the superpowers never fought
against each other on a battlefield. In essence it was a war of ideologies and beliefs:
The Capitalist West (USA) vs. The Communist Bloc (USSR)
The development of the Cold War
Each of the superpowers believed that their political and economic system was the best.
Their philosophies were very different. As nuclear weapons prevented the superpowers
from testing their supremacy with war, they had to use their ideologies instead. The
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only way to prove supremacy was to have as many countries as possible follow your
ideology and accept your way of life. There was no point in appealing to the strong
established countries of the world, as they were already operating with systems of their
own. New areas of influence would have to be found.
The newly emerging independent countries of Africa and Asia provided a perfect
solution. As colonialism collapsed, many colonies were given independence. Very few
of these countries had any experience in government. They were desperate for help. It
was in these countries that the Cold War was fought. Both the USSR and the USA
offered aid to these countries in the form of training, money, manpower and military
equipment. They hoped that the new country would accept their ideology and side with
them. The superpower that could spread its ideology to the most new countries would
be the winner.
Many newly independent countries used this competition to their advantage. They
accepted aid from both sides, often changing political ideologies as it suited them. As a
result the USSR and the USA became involved in many conflicts as these young
countries struggled for independence and stability. The USSR and the USA were
involved in many wars around the planet. They never actually got into direct conflict
with each other. Nuclear power was not used, so the situation between them remained
a Cold War.
Competition and Conflict between the superpowers
The superpowers competed and conflicted with each other in:
The arms race
The space race
The division of Germany
The building of the Berlin Wall
The ARMS RACE began with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The
USSR felt threatened because it had not completed its own atomic bomb at this stage.
The USSR began to speed up its nuclear development immediately. The USSR
managed to complete its bomb by 1949. This knowledge alarmed the USA, which
began to increase nuclear development. The arms race had begun. Although both
countries realized that the use of their weapons would threaten them both, they
continued to develop bigger and larger bombs in the desire to prove dominance. The
fact that both sides possessed bombs made them feel insecure. This increased the
competition between the USA and USSR.
By 1952 the USA had developed a hydrogen bomb 100 times more powerful than the
atomic bomb. By 1953 the USSR had achieved the same. Both countries built up a
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frightening stockpile of nuclear weapons. People lived in fear of nuclear war. Many
protest organizations campaigned against the development of new weapons, but the
race continued. In the 1950s both countries built intercontinental ballistic missiles.
These missiles could carry nuclear warheads to targets thousands of kilometers away.
Each country placed weapons and missiles in countries all over Europe. The missiles
were aimed at the major cities of their enemy. By 1960, both sides head enough
weapons to destroy the Earth several times over. The main purpose behind this buildup was to make sure the other country did not start a war. Each country hoped that
these weapons would never be used, because the result of such a conflict would have
been mutual destruction.
The SPACE RACE was equally competitive. It was another arena in which the
competition between these two powers developed. As with nuclear development, each
country wished to outdo the other to show that it was more developed and advanced. In
1957 the Soviets launched the world’s first satellite into space called “Sputnik” This was
an amazing propaganda triumph for the USSR. They claimed that their scientists were
ahead of those of the USA. In 1962 American John Glenn orbited the Earth. In 1963
Valentina Tereshkova gave the USSR another triumph when she became the first
woman in space. The main competition was to see who could be the first to land
someone on the moon. This race was won by the USA when Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin walked on the moon on 21 July 1969.
As the USA and USSR had been allies in World War II, they each had an interest in
how Germany would be treated after the war. However, their attitudes were very
different. America did not want to punish Germany too heavily in case it led to future
conflict, as had happened after World War I. The USSR wanted to use German
resources to rebuild their own country when the war was over. This disagreement led to
GERMANY BEING DIVIDED INTO FOUR ZONES, each controlled by one of the
winning powers – Britain, France, the USA and the USSR. Within a few years Britain,
France and America had united their zones and as a result two Germanys existed:
West Germany, which was democratic and capitalist, and East Germany, which was
controlled by the communist USSR. The city of Berlin was also divided. Although
Berlin lay inside East Germany, half of the city belonged to West Germany.
West Germany, supported by the West, recovered from the war faster than East
Germany did. This was very obvious in the city of Berlin. Many East Berliners resented
the improvements that were happening in the West. This resentment was a threat to
communism that made Stalin decide to remove the evidence of Western capitalism from
Berlin. Stalin hoped to force the West to give up West Berlin so that he could control
the whole city. When the West refused to co-operate, he placed a total road and rail
blockade around the city. This led to the famous Berlin Airlift. From June 1948 to May
1949, the West flew all the supplies required by West Berlin into the city. During this
time there were 277 264 flights into West Berlin. Eventually Stalin was forced to lift the
blockade and the West appeared to have a victory. This victory, however, marked the
real start of the Cold War. Co-operation between the two sides was replaced by
competition. As each side strove for dominance, the world once again began to
separate into two heavily armed camps.
Berlin remained a focal area of Cold War competition for many years. The contrast
between East and West became greater. Thousands of unhappy East Germans fled to
the West. Most of these escapes took place in Berlin. This flow of defectors was not
good for communism. In 1961 Khrushchev decided that it had to stop. When the
Western powers again refused to hand over West Berlin, Khrushchev closed the border
between the two countries. On 15 August 1961 the building of the BERLIN WALL
began. The wall surrounded West Berlin and sealed it off from access by East
Germans for the next 28 years and became a symbol of the Cold War.
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The collapse of communism
During the Cold War attempts were made to improve relations between East and West.
However, there was so much mistrust between the two sides that little progress was
made. The first positive breakthrough came in 1972 when the two sides signed a
document limiting the number of nuclear missiles being produced. In 1975, both the
USA and the USSR signed the Helsinki Accord on European Security and the upholding
of Human Rights. Further agreements limiting arms production were signed in 1979.
However, later that year the USSR invaded Afghanistan, and relations broke down once
again.
A genuine improvement in relations took place in the 1980s only after both countries
had had a change in leadership. Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan were the
major players in bringing the conflict to an end. Gorbachev adopted new, liberal policies
in the USSR. He wanted to re-shape the Soviet economy to allow more profit-making
by individuals, and to reduce government control. For the first time since the 1920s,
criticism of government policy was allowed.
His policies horrified traditional
communists, but gave great hope to many Soviet citizens. As these liberal policies
were introduced, the people of Eastern Europe realized they no longer had anything to
fear from the USSR. Between May 1989 and March 1990 communist governments all
over Eastern Europe were overthrown. New democratic governments were set up in
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland.
The Cold War had begun in Germany and it would end there too. In 1989 the Berlin
Wall, symbol of the conflict between East and West, was pulled down. One year later
East and West Germany were re-united.
In December 1989, Gorbachev and the new American president, George Bush,
announced to the world that the Cold War was over. In 1990 Gorbachev received the
Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts. The ending of the Cold War had farreaching effects on the USSR. In 1991 there was an attempted coup against
Gorbachev, and on 24 August 1991 he resigned as the leader of the Soviet Communist
Party. Five days later the party was disbanded. In December 1991 the Soviet Union
itself was disbanded. Communism, as the world had known it for almost half a century,
was over.
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COLD WAR CARTOONS
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