The Cold War - Clash of The Superpowers
(Lecture Notes from Mr. Kersey's 7th Grade Geography Class)The Beginning of the Chill
- The “official” start of the Cold War was the Yalta Conference between the “big three”.
- The Yalta Conference was a meeting between Stalin, FDR, and Churchill to discuss the end of WW II.
- The leaders of the allies divided up Europe.
- The Soviets had control of the East, and the U.S. and Britain got the West.
- As time went on the influence of the democratic powers grew in the West, and the influence of communism grew in the East.
Germany Divided
- Germany, which was the major topic at the Yalta Conference, was divided into two halves.
- The US, France, Britain controlled the western half.
- The Soviet Union controlled the eastern half.
- Churchill called this division the “iron curtain.” This “curtain” kept the people in the east in, and it kept the people in the west out.
The Spread of Communism
- One goal of the Soviets was to spread communism to other countries. This scared the heck out of the democratic powers in the west.
- All over the world the U.S. and the Soviets opposed each other through other countries, such as Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba.
Tensions and Arsenals Grow
- As tensions grew between the Soviet Union and the U.S. each country built up a huge military and large number of nuclear weapons.
- The two Super Powers had a stand-off that lasted decades. There were many times, like during the Cuban Missile Crisis, that the world was brought to the brink of war.
