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Chapter 28
Cold War and a New Western World, 1945 - 1970
Still under construction . . .
Outline:
I. Development of the Cold War
A. Confrontation of the Superpowers
B. New Sources of Contention
C. The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Move Toward Detente
II. The End of European Colonies
A. Africa: The Struggle for Independence
B. Conflict in the Middle East
C. Asia: Nationalism and Communism
1. China under communism
III. Recovery and Renewal in Europe
A. The Soviet Union: From Stalin to Khrushchev
B. Eastern Europe: Behind the Iron Curtain
C. Western Europe: The Revival of democracy and the Economy
1. France: The Domination of De Gaulle
2. West Germany: A New Nation?
3. Great Britain: The Welfare State
D. Western Europe: The Move Toward Unity
IV. The United States and Canada: A New Era
A. American Politics and Society in the 1950's
B. An Age of Upheaval: America in the 1960's
C. Development of Canada
V. The Emergence of a New Society
A. The Structure of European Society
B. Patterns New and Old: Women in the Postwar Western World
1. The Feminist Movement: The Questt for Liberation
C. The Permissive Society
D. Education and Student Revolt
VI. Conclusion
Key terms and People:
Chapter Summary:
No sooner had the Allies defeated the Central Powers than they began bickering among themselves. The democracies
hoped to see a Europe of representative governments and free markets, while the Soviets wanted to create a buffer against
further threats from the West. In the end, what Winston Churchill called an Iron Curtain descended across the continent, separating
East from West. The Cold War began.
Distrust grew as each side came to see the other as a menace to its own security
and to world peace. The Cold War, made all the more dangerous by the presence on both sides of nuclear weapons, continued
through much of the rest of the twentieth century, dominating foreign policy in all European countries. Only after the Cuban
Missile Crisis of 1963, when world survival hung in the balance, did the two sides begin the first tentative steps toward
détente.
Meanwhile the face of Europe changed in the years just after the war. While the Soviet Union created Stalinist
satellites out of the formerly independent nations to its west, the Western democracies experimented with social reform that
led in many countries to welfare states. Britain led the way by efforts, under the Labour government that came to power in
the first postwar election, to provide social security for all its citizens: insurance, healthcare, pensions. The Countries
of Western Europe united to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Common Market.
Social attitudes also
changed during the period from 1945 to 1970. Citizen protests of the status quo occurred on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
In Hungary and in Czechoslovakia of the Soviet bloc, in France and the United States of the West, people protesting materialism
and injustice made their voices heard in demonstrations. Everywhere in the West there was more freedom, yet there was also
a feeling that society had somehow lost its way. People looked for new solutions to an aging set of problems.
Focus Questions:
- Why were the United States and the Soviet Union suspicious of each
other after World War II, and what events between 1945 and 1949 heightened the tensions between the two nations?
- What were the major changes in the European colonies in Africa,
the Middle East, and Asia between 1945 and 1970?
- What were the main developments in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
between 1945 and 1970?
- What were the main political developments in the nations of Western
Europe and North Amrerica between 1945 and 1970?
- What major changes occurred in Western society between 1945 and 1970?
- What were the similarities and differences in the political, social,
and economic history of Eastern Europe and Western Europe between 1945 and 1970?
Chapter 29
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