20 th century european history

20th Century European History

Short & Long Questionswww.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c) 2014

20th Century International Relations

Phase I1919 – 1939

The Uneasy Peace(SLIDES 3-38)

•Treaty of Versailles•Weimar Republic•Mussolini’s Italy•Wall Street Crash•Great Depression•Rise of Extremism•League of Nations•Nazi Germany•Appeasement

•Munich Conference

Phase II1939 – 1945World War II

(Slides 39-69)

•Invasion of Poland •Blitzkrieg•The Phoney War•Hitler’s Turns West•The Maginot Line•Fall of France•Vichy France•Operation Dynamo•Operation Eagle (Battle of Britain)•Operation Sealion•Operation Barbarossa•Battle of Stalingrad•Pearl Harbour•Final Solution•Operation Overlord: D-Day•The Battle of the Bulge•The Manhattan Project•Fall of Berlin•The Holocaust •Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Phase III1945 – 1990The Cold War

(Slides 70-94)

•Divided Germany•Europe Divided•NATO & Warsaw Pact•SuperPowers•Operation Vittles: Berlin Blockade•The Truman Doctrine•The Korean War•Sputnik I•Yuri Gagarin•NASA•Cuban Missile Crisis•The Vietnam War•SALT

www.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c) 2014

Phase I: 1919 – 1939

The Uneasy Peace

War Guilt Clause

Hyperinflation

Reparations

Wall Street Crash

PropagandaMarch on Rome

Squadristi Night of the Long Knives Der Fuhrer

Lebensraum

Herrenvolk

Fourteen Points

Il Duce

Enabling Law

Rearmament

Great DepressionOVRA

Kristallnacht

Nuremberg Laws

Anschluss

Appeasement

Battle for Grain Weimar Republic

Acerbo Law

Brownshirts (SA)


Treaty of Versailles (1919)

Germany:

• Lost Alsace-Lorraine to France & City of Danzig was administered by League of Nations. Also lost Posen to Poland (and all its overseas colonies)

• Had to reparations of 6.6 billion marks to France, Belgium & Britain

• Army reduced to 100,000 men• U-boats scrapped• Surface navy reduced

Article 231: ‘War Guilt Clause’

Whereby Germany accepted complete responsibility for the war and the damage

it caused


War Guilt Clause (1919)

Article 231: ‘War Guilt Clause’

Whereby Germany accepted complete responsibility for the war and the damage it caused

This would become a item of contention & controversy in Germany from 1920 on, providing Hitler & the Nazis with a reason to call the Weimar Republic a “nation founded in defeat” and a

means to attract German Nationalists to their extreme ideology.

’Dolchstoßlegende’: ‘Stab in the back’ myth

(Nazi accusation towards German politicians of 1918)www.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c) 2014

4 New Countries Created after World War I

• Austria • Hungary• Yugoslavia• CzechoslovakiaWoodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points:

One of President Wilson’s 14 Points was that of ‘self-determination of small nations’. This helped to break up old empires and create many new small nations throughout Europe.


March on Rome (22nd – 29th October1922)

• The Italian National Fascist Party marched on Rome, demanding to be made the new government of Italy

• The Blackshirts (‘Squadristi’) led the march on Rome

• 30,000 men took part in the march

• The Italian King, fearing a civil war, invited Mussolini and his party to form a new government for Italy

• Contrary to popular belief, Mussolini did not take part in the march. Staged photos were later taken


The Blackshirts‘Squadristi’

• Italian Fascist Militia• Strongly pro-

nationalist • Supported Mussolini &

the Italian Fascist Party

• Intimidated political opponents

• Attacked Communist parties & groups


Acerbo Law (1923)

•A law passed in Italy in 1923 whereby the political party who won the most seats would automatically get 2/3 of the seats in the Italian Parliament.

• Ostensibly introduced to create strong, stable governments, the law was in fact introduced to give Mussolini and the Italian Fascists dominance over the parliament.


Reasons Why Mussolini’s Party Gained Support after 1919

• Many Italians felt that they should have received more land in the Paris Peace Settlement and resented the little they received.

• Mussolini promised to crush communism and take on the mafia gangs

• Italy was heavily in debt after the First World War and Mussolini promised to bring strong, stable government to Italy

• Effective use of propagandawww.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c)

2014

OVRA Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-

Fascism• Italian Secret Police in

Mussolini’s Italy

• Founded in 1927

• Leader: Arturo Bocchini

• Arrest, detain & torture opponents of fascism in Italy


‘Battle for Grain’• Poor marshland was drained &

reclaimed for wheat production. Government gave grants to farmers to invest in machinery & fertiliser.

• Tariffs placed on imported bread

• Mussolini wanted to reduce Italy’s balance of trade deficit (due to imports). He wanted to make Italy as self-sufficient as possible

• Italy was almost entirely self-sufficient in wheat production by 1940

Mussolini ‘working’ in the fields, bringing in the harvest

(Propaganda)


Weimar Germany 1919 - 1933

• Founded in the aftermath of the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

• City of Weimar was the capital of the new republic.

• Gustav Streseman was the Prime Minister of Weimar in 1923 and Foreign Minister from 1924 – 1929.

• The Young Plan & Dawes Plan (American loans) helped to alleviate the financial burden on Weimar, particularly reparations & employment.


Threats to the Weimar Republic

(1919 – 1933)• Both Communist (KPD) and

Fascist (NSDAP) parties threatened the stability of Weimar Germany.

• Associated with defeat of World War One, many Germans disliked the Weimar Republic as being artificial and weak.

• Weimar suffered from depression & hyperinflation from 1920 – 1923 due to the enormous strain on its economy from payment of the war reparations.

• Weimar Republic joined the League of Nations in 1925 with the signing of the Locarno Pact, which declared that Germany would respect the western borders set out in the Treaty of Versailles.


Extremist Uprisings in Weimar Republic

Communist • Spartacist Uprising

(1919)

•

Nationalist & Fascist • Kapp Putsch - nationalist

uprising (1920)• Beer Hall Putsch –

Fascist (1923)


2 Reasons for Growth of Fascism in Europe after World War One

Fear of Communism

• Most western countries were afraid of communism spreading to their countries after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia.

• Because of this, many people supported fascist parties as they were seen to be strongly anti-communist

Unstable Economies & High Unemployment

• Many European countries suffered greatly from the Wall Street Crash and following Depression throughout Europe.

• In Germany, there were over 6 million workers unemployed by the time Hitler & the Nazis took power in 1933, promising to eradicate unemployment


Wall Street Crash (1929)

• 4th October – 29th October 1929

• Investors (up to 25,000,000) had invested steadily in a growing American Stock Exchange during the 1920s.

• However, when rates began to drop, people rushed to sell their shares and caused the Stock Exchange to collapse

• On 29th October – ‘Black Tuesday’ the American Stock Exchange lost 30 Billion Dollars worth of shares through hurried sales. The event plunged USA into the ‘Great Depression’, which also affected all of Western Europe


Lateran Treaty (1929)

The Treaty recognised:

• Catholic religion as the official state religion, with the Church being granted special authority over education & marriage laws

• Also, the treaty meant that Italy recognised the Vatican as an independent city-state


Reasons Why Hitler & Nazis Came to Power in 1933

• Resentment at the Treaty of Versailles

• Failure of democratic governments to deal with economic crisis following the Wall Street Crash

• Fear of communist groups staging a revolution & taking power in Germany


The Brownshirts (SA)Germany

• Ernst Rohm (leader)

• Militia of ex German soldiers & officers (WW1) that supported Nazi party demonstrations & speeches

• Strongly pro-nationalist & anti-communist

• Disrupted rival party gatherings and clashed with communist groups


Enabling Act (1933)

• Introduced in 1933 after the Reichstag Fire, this law granted Hitler the right to ‘rule by decree’

• This meant that Hitler could

make decisions and enact policies without consulting the German Parliament, in times of emergency

• In effect, it made him a dictator as soon after this, all other political parties were banned in Germany, creating a totalitarian state.


Night of the Long Knives ( June 30th – July 2nd1934)

• Ernst Rohm & hundreds of leading members of the Brownshirts (SA) assassinated by Nazis.

• The SA leadership was targeted by Hitler as they refused to become part of the German Army (Wehrmacht)

• Hitler knew he needed the support of the German High Command, who refused to allow a ‘second’ private army operate in Germany.


Nuremberg Laws (1935)

Under these laws, Jews ........

• Were forbidden from marrying Germans (non-Jews)

• Lost their citizenship of Germany (became ‘state subjects’)

• Could not hold public office or own property

• Forced to wear the Star of David


Nuremberg Rallies1927 - 1939

• Nazi Party annual parades of the Nazi Party and its followers • Organised by Albert Speer • Leni Riefenstahl made a documentary based on the 1934 Rally: ‘Triumph of the Will’ • Speeches, parades and celebrations of National Socialism


Hitler Youth & League of German Maidens

Hitler Youth League of German Maidens


Indoctrinate young German boys in military exercises & Nazi ideology

Hitlerjugend: 14 – 18 years old Deutsches Jungvolk: 10 – 14

(essentially a youths’ version of the original SA)

Indoctrinate young German girls to become

‘Wife, mother, homemaker’

Joseph Goebbels: Propaganda

• Minister for Propaganda & Popular Enlightenment (Reich Propaganda Ministry)

• Strictly controlled the press, cinema and all forms of media. Banned books that were contrary to Nazi ideology.

• Promoted & disseminated anti-Semitic material ‘The Eternal Jew’ (1940)

• Spoke at the Nuremberg Rallies, inciting greater military effort & support from all Germans and demanded absolute loyalty to Hitler.

• Launched the Nazi newspaper ‘Das Reich’ (1940)

"The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and

can never escape from it." Goebbels


Gestapo

• Nazi Germany’s secret police

• Founded by Hermann Goering (1933)

• Under Himmler’s (SS) control from 1934 onwards.


SS - Schutzstaffel• Heinrich Himmler (leader of

SS 1929 – 1945)• Paramilitary organisation who

absorbed the police and Gestapo under its control. The most feared & powerful organisation in the Third Reich.

• Membership was based solely on ability, obedience & physical & mental excellence.

• Swore an oath to Hitler (daggers)

• Responsible for many of the crimes against humanity (Jews) – SS Einsatzgruppen (death squads)


Appeasement

The practise whereby European leaders (& the League of Nations) gave in to Hitler’s demands in the hope that he would eventually stop being aggressive militarily

Reasons:Nobody in Europe wanted a repeat of WWI (deaths)

Britain could not afford another war in Europe

Hitler meets Chamberlain at the Munich Conference (1938)


Munich Conference (1938)“Peace in Our Times”

• The Munich Conference of 1938 was convened to attempt to prevent war in Europe.

• Four European leaders attended: Chamberlain (UK), Daladier (France), Hitler (Germany) & Mussolini (Italy). No Czech representative was invited.

• At this conference, it was decided to allow Germany to take control of the Sudetenland, where 3 million German speakers lived inside the border of Czechoslovakia

• Chamberlain returned to Britain, declaring that they had secured “peace in our times”


‘Anschluss’ (12th March1938)

• Austrian Nazi Party pushed for unification with Germany between 1934 & 1938. Hitler demanded that the Austrian Chancellor (Von Schussnigg) put Austrian Nazis in his government.

• Von Schuschnigg held a referendum on Austria’s independence in 1938, hoping to preserve Austria’s independence. He was defeated & resigned.

• Seyss-Inquart (a leading Austrian Nazi) became the Chancellor of Austria in March 1938. He then invited Hitler to send the German Army into Austria to “restore” order. The Anschluss took place on 12th March 1938.

Anschluss:Union of Germany &

Austria www.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c) 2014

Hitler’s Foreign Policy Aims

• Destruction of The Treaty of Versailles:

• Grossdeutschland: A unified country of all German-speaking people in Europe

• Anschluss: Union of Germany & Austria

• Lebensraum: ‘living space in the East’ (whereby Germany would forcibly take land from Slavic & Russian people to increase the living space of Germany)


Pact of Steel (1939)‘Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy’

Italy & Germany were to deepen their “friendship & communication”, while undertaking to combine their foreign policies and military action. It was also a common defense policy.


Nazi-Soviet 10-Year Non-Aggression Pact (1939)


Nazi-Soviet 10-Year Non- Aggression Pact (1939)

• Also known as the ‘Molotov-Ribbentrop’ Pact

• It laid the foundations of a ten-year declaration of non-aggression.

• Neither side truly believed in this, but it did buy time for Stalin to prepare for the eventual German attack (1941)

• The Pact also contained secret clauses to divide Poland between the two countries


Reasons why League of Nations failed to prevent war in

1939

• The League of Nations had no standing army to enforce its decisions

• The League failed to stand up to aggression by its members (Italy invading Abyssinia, 1935)

• The USA never joined the League of Nations


League of Nations


Timeline: 1919-1939Key Events

• 1919: Treaty of Versailles• 1922: March on Rome (Italy)• 1923: Acerbo Law (Italy)• 1923: Beer Hall Putsch (Ger.) • 1929: Lateran Treaty (Italy)• 1929: Wall Street Crash (USA)• 1933: Hitler comes to Power (Ger.)• 1933: Enabling Law (Ger.)• 1934: Night of the Long Knives (Ger.)• 1935: Nuremberg Laws (Ger.)• 1936: Berlin Olympic Games (Ger.)• 1938: Kristallnacht (Ger.)• 1938: Munich Conference• 1938: Anschluss (Ger. & Aus.)• 1939: Pact of Steel • 1939: Nazi-Soviet Pact

Key Periods

Specific•1914 - 1918: First World War

•1919 - 1933: Weimar Republic

•1922 – 1944: Mussolini’s Italy

•1933 – 1945: Nazi Germany

General1930s: Appeasement

1920s – 1930s: Failure of League of Nations


Phase II: 1939 – 1945

World War II

Blitzkrieg

Luftwaffe

Operation Eagle Operation Sealion

Operation Dynamo

Blitz

RAF Final Solution

Roosevelt

Vichy France

Pearl Harbour

Stalin

Allies v. Axis

Operation Barbarossa

Manhattan Project

ChurchillMaginot Line

Operation Overlord

Atlantic Wall

Battle of Britain

Holocaust

Battle of the BulgeU-Boats

Desert Fox


WWII Alliances

Allies• Britain

• France

• USA (1941)

• USSR (1941)

• Italy (1944)

Axis• Nazi Germany

• Fascist Italy

• Imperial Japan


Blitzkrieg (‘lightning war’)

Devastating & effective German offensive strategy involving:

1.Aerial Bombardment of defenses, depots & airfields (Stuka dive-bombers)

1.Tanks & Infantry followed up to ‘mop up’ remaining defenses.


German Armies Invade Western Poland (1939)


Junkers Ju 87 ‘Stuka’

Highly-effective dive bomber used in ‘Blitzkrieg’ warfare, attacking defensive positions and tankswww.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c)

2014

The Maginot Line

• French defensive barrier located along the border with Germany, constructed after World War One.

• Concrete bunkers, artillery guns and even an underground railway system connecting bunkers made it a formidable defensive barrier

• WEAKNESS: The Maginot Line extended along the border with Germany, but with only a much weaker defensive system along the border with Belgium


Evacuation of DunkirkOperation Dynamo

300,000 British & French troops rescued by over 800 ships and pleasure craftwww.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c)

2014

Third Reich Military Conquests

(1939 – 1940)• Poland (September 1939)

• Norway (April 1940)

• Denmark (April 1940)

• Netherlands (May 1940)

• Belgium (May 1940)

• Luxembourg (May 1940)

• France (June 1940)www.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c)

2014

Fall of France(June 1940)


Vichy France(1940 – 1944)

Governed by Marcel Petainwww.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c)

2014

Operation Sealion

Hitler’s plan to invade Britain in 1940-1941

•The plan depended entirely on first gaining air superiority over Britain – leading to Operation Eagle (Battle of Britain)

•The Luftwaffe failed to destroy the RAF in the Battle of Britain and Hitler decided to indefinitely postpone Operation Sealion on 17th September 1940


Battle of Britain

Radar

Spitfire Mk IV

Messerschmitt Bf109www.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c)

2014

The ‘Blitz’(October 1940 – April 1941)


Invasion of USSR - Operation Barbarossa

(June – October 1941)

Hitler invades Russia with over 3 million men & 4,000 tanks, supported by the Luftwaffe

3 Army groups invade:Army Group North: Leningrad

Army Group Centre: Moscow

Army Group South: Stalingrad

Hitler’s target was the oil-rich region of the Caucasus


Pearl Harbour(7th December 1941)


Operation Overlord: D-Day (6th June 1944)


Mulberry Eisenhower

Operation Neptune

Amphibious

Paratroopers

Atlantic Wall

Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah & Omaha

D-Day Landings:

Operation Overlord(6th June 1944)


D-Day Landing Sites


D-Day Landings• Operation Neptune – the

seaborne invasion of 6,939 ships in total (carrying troops, tanks & equipment across the Channel) began on 6th June 1944 (next slide).

• There were also airborne landings of paratroopers to take key bridges deeper inside France.

• The Allies towed ‘mulberries’ (artificial harbours) across the Channel to help get armoured vehicles and supplies onto the Normandy beaches in a much quicker, more efficient manner.

• 11,600 aircraft supported the landings, clearing the Luftwaffe away from the landing beaches

• Dwight D. Eisenhower was the overall Allied Commander of the D-Day invasion

• 156, 000 Allied troops landed on the first day

• After ferocious fighting on the beaches against the Atlantic Wall defences, the Allies eventually secured most beaches later on the same day (6th June 1944)

• By the end of 11 June, 326,547 troops, 54,186 vehicles and 104,428 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches.


Operation Neptune


Liberation of France25th August 1944

General deGaulle & Free French partisans parade in Paris following liberation by

Allied troops

Battle of the Bulge (1944)

• Last German counter-offensive in the west attempting to stop the Allied advance into Germany (1944)


Collapse of Nazi Germany 1942 - 1945


Fall of Berlin (1945)

• In April 1945, the Soviet Army from the East and Americans & British from the West finally drove towards Berlin.

• With Hitler holed up in his bunker underneath the Reichstag, German resistance became increasingly desperate

• The Soviets reached Berlin first on 2oth April, shelling the city and advancing rapidly towards the centre

• Hitler committed suicide on April 30th, 1945.


‘The Manhattan Project’(Development of Substitute Materials)

(1942 – 1945)

• The research & development of the atomic bomb in USA

• Led by Dr. Oppenheimer and a team of physicists. Major General Leslie Groves was the overall military commander of the Project.

• The first working atomic bomb was tested at the Trinity site, in the Nevada desert on 16th July 1945.

• Great secrecy surrounded the development of the A-bomb, but Soviet spies still managed to penetrate the security.


Hiroshima & Nagasaki6th & 9th August 1945

Oppenheimer


Final Solution(1942 – 1945)

Finalised at the Wannsee Conference in Germany in 1942, many different branches of Nazi Germany came together to organise the ‘efficient’ means to exterminate or expel the Jewish population from Europe. This would ultimately lead to the Holocaust.

Reinhard Heydrich (SS) was given the task of coordinating this effort throughout Nazi-occupied Europe


The Holocaust

By the end of WWII, after the concentration & extermination camps

were liberated throughout occupied

Europe, it was estimated that over 6 million Jews had been murdered as part of

‘The Final Solution’; the plan to eradicate all Jews from Europe

between 1942 & 1945.


Timeline: 1939-1945Key Events

• 1939: Germany invades Poland• 1940: Germany invades Norway,

Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium & France

• 1940: Operation Dynamo - Dunkirk• 1940 (June): Fall of France• 1940 (August-Sept.): Operation Eagle

(Battle of Britain)• 1941: Operation Barbarossa• 1941 (December): Pearl Harbour attack• 1942: Final Solution• 1944: (June): Operation Overlord (D-

Day)• 1944: Mussolini deposed in Italy• 1945 (May): Fall of Berlin• 1945 (August): Hiroshima & Nagasaki

A-Bombs• 1945: (August) End of 2nd World War.

Key Battles• 1939 - 1940: ‘Phoney War’

• 1940: Battle of Britain

• October 1940 – April 1941: ‘The Blitz’

• 1940 – 1943: North African Desert War

• 1942 – 1943: Battle of Stalingrad

• 1943: Battle of the Kursk

• 1944-1945: Battle of the Bulge

• March – May 1945: Battle of Berlin

• 8th May 1945: Germany unconditionally surrenders.


Phase III: 1945 – 1990

The Cold War

ContainmenT

Korean War

Zones of Occupation Iron Curtain

Warsaw Pact

Nikita Khruschev

Hydrogen Bomb

Berlin BlockadeBerlin Wall

Operation Vittles

NASA

Yuri Gagarin

S.A.L.T.38th Parallel

Sputnik I

Space RaceTsar Bomba

NATO

Fidel Castro

Satellite States

Cuban Missile Crisis

Marshall Plan

Bay of Pigs

John F. Kennedy

Truman Doctrine


United Nations(1945 - )

• Founded on 24th October 1945

• Replaced the ineffective League of Nations

• 51 member states joined in 1945• Made up of a General Assembly & Permanent Security Council

Maintain:• International peace & security • Protect & promote human rights • Foster social & economic development • Provide humanitarian assistance in times of famine, civil war & genocide • Establish a World Health Organisation to combat diseases


United Nations Charter(26th June 1945)

• Foundation treaty of the UN

• All members are bound by the articles of this treaty

• It declares that membership of the UN supersedes all other treaties that a country be part of ( e.g. alliances such as NATO, Warsaw Pact, EEC, EU)


United Nations


General Assembly

1 Country = 1 Vote

Security Council:USAUSSRBritain VETO

FranceChina

+10 Non-

Permanent members for 2 years’ duration

Secretary-

General

UN Peacekeeping

Forces

International

Court of Justice

Economic &

Social Council

International Criminal

Court

United Nations Organisations


• WHO: World Health Organisation

• UNICEF: United Nations International Children's’

Emergency Fund

• UNHCR: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

• UNESCO: United Nations Education, Scientific & Cultural Organisation

• WTO: World Trade Organisation

The Truman Doctrine(March 1947)

"the policy of the United States to support free people who are

resisting attempted subjugation by armed

minorities or by outside pressures."

(Truman effectively declared that it would be the policy of the USA whereby they would help defend democratic countries from take-over by Communist

groups or external Communist aggression)


Division of Europe: The ‘Iron Curtain’

The ‘Iron Curtain’

Europe Divided


• Winston Churchill referred to the division of Europe & Soviet domination of Eastern Europe as if an “iron curtain” had fallen across the centre of mainland Europe, cutting off the ‘satellite states’ of USSR (East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania) from the rest of Europe

A Divided Europe

• Western Europe = NATO(democratic & capitalist)

• Eastern Europe =

Warsaw Pact (Communist)

Satellite states of USSRSatellite states of USSR: East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia & Bulgaria.


Armed Alliances (1945 - 1990)

USA & Western Europe USSR & ‘Satellite States’


NATO Warsaw Pact

Cold War(1945 – 1990)

The two Superpowers - USA & USSR - dominated international relations from 1945 onwards. Both countries founded their own military alliances to further their respective foreign policies &

military defenseswww.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c)

2014

Marshall Plan(1948 – 1952)

• American economic initiative to help re-build European economies & prevent Communist takeover of those countries

• US Secretary of State George Marshall

• Rejected by Communist Eastern Europe under orders from Stalin

• 12.7 Billion dollars of US aid in total was invested in Western Europewww.historyvault.ie - Billy McSweeney (c)

2014

Berlin Blockade (1948 – 1949)


Berlin Blockade

Operation ‘Vittles’• When Stalin closed all road and rail

access to West Berlin in response tot he unification of West Germany, the Western Allies responded with an enormous airlift – Operation Vittles – to supply West Berlin.

• The operation lasted from 1948 to 1949, with a total of flights, before Stalin relented and re-opened the roads and rail access to West Berlin from West Germany


The Berlin Airlift: ‘Operation Vittles’


Blockade: 25th June 1948 – 12th May1949

•Between June 1948 & May 1949, the Western Allies’ air forces made flights to Berlin’s airport, bringing food, fuel and commodities to the western sector of Berlin. Eventually, Stalin lifted the blockade of Western Berlin, allowing supplies to be brought in normally.

•Over 278,000 flights brought the supplies into Western Berlin over almost 12 months.

Containment was a US foreign policy to prevent the spread of Communism throughout Asia, Africa &

Eastern Europe.

With the threat of nuclear war ever-present, the US

adopted this policy to both contain communism from

spreading while also minimising the risk of all-

out nuclear warfare.

‘Containment’


The Korean War(1950 – 1953)


Korean War (1950-53)• At the end of WWII, Korea had been divided

into Communist (North) & Democratic (South)

• The North Korean Army (Communist) attempted to take over South Korea, crossing the agreed 38th Parallel in 1950.

• USA, operating under a UN mandate, held the North Korean forces off from completely taking over South Korea.

• General Douglas MacArthur led the American forces, along with UN & ROK (South Korean Army) which at one point were driven back as far as Pusan, on the southernmost coast of South Korea.


Korean War (1950-53)• MacArthur retook Seoul and drove the North

Korean Army all the way back to the northern part of North Korea. The Chinese sent an army into Korea, afraid of MacArthur’s intentions.

• Eventually, MacArthur was replaced with General Ridgway, who took a more conservative approach, holding the line at the 38th Parallel. American bombing of North Korea was intended to force a ceasefire from the North Koreans.

• Eventually, in 1953, President Eisenhower signed an armistice with the North Koreans, returning the division of Korea to much the same way it was in 1950. The event was the first openly-hostile engagement between Communist and Democratic forces in the Cold War. The American policy of ‘containment’ was central to their strategy in Korea.


The Berlin Wall(1961 – 1989)

• Work began on the Berlin wall in 1961 in an effort to prevent East Berliners escaping to the West.

• East German engineers began constructing the barrier, which was added to and upgraded continuously over the next 30 years, making it almost impossible to move from East to West Berlin without being detected.

• Hundreds of East Berliners escaped using imaginative methods to cross ‘no-man’s land’


Cuban Missile Crisis(October 1962)


Cuban Missile Crisis:Background to Confrontation


• Fidel Castro and his Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces had seized power in the Cuban Revolution of 1959, ousting the US-backed Batista.

• Castro was backed by the Kremlin, and after the failed ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion by US forces in 1961, Castro sought support from the Soviets to defend Cuba from a possible US invasion.

• Khrushchev agreed, and secret plans were drawn up to move medium-range nuclear ballistic missiles (MRBMs) to Cuba.

Cuban Missile Crisis:Timeline

1959: Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba in the Communist Cuban Revolution

__________________________

•14th October 1962: An American U-2 spy plane photographs missiles (MRBMs) & mobile launchers being erected on the island of Cuba

•16th October 1962: President Kennedy & his advisers are briefed on the intelligence gathered by the U-2 spy planes.

•21st October 1962: Air force generals advise President Kennedy that air strikes cannot guarantee 100% that all missiles would be destroyed in a surprise bombing of Cuba.

•22nd October 1962: daily briefings are set up to formulate responses to the crisis. President Kennedy phones the British Prime Minister to make him aware of the seriousness of the situation.


Cuban Missile Crisis:22nd October 1962

• 22nd October 1962: - JFK makes a televised address to the nation, demanding that the Soviets remove the MRBM missiles from Cuba. He also explained his strategy of a naval quarantine which he had ordered that same day – preventing any more Soviet ships from supplying weapons to Cuba – and his intention to directly demand a complete nuclear disarmament of Cuba.

- Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev, demanding that the missiles be taken down and removed from Cuba


“It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by

the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union”

Cuban Missile Crisis:Pope John Paul XXIII’s Appeal

October 24th 1962:

"We beg all governments not to remain deaf to this

cry of humanity. That they do all that is in their power to save

peace."


Cuban Missile Crisis:Escalation

• 23rd October 1962: US Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson brings the crisis to the U.N. Security Council, challenging the Soviet ambassador to respond. US Navy completes its naval blockade of Cuba. Soviet ships stop dead in the water before entering quarantine zone.

• 24th October 1962: Khrushchev sends a telegram to President Kennedy describing the naval blockade of Cuba as “an act of aggression”. Soviet ships continue towards Cuba. American naval quarantine intercepts Soviet ships.

• 25th October 1962: Emergency meeting of the Security Council of the United Nations. US & Soviet ambassadors clash, with the Soviet ambassador refusing to admit the existence of Soviet missiles on Cuba.


Cuban Missile Crisis:The ‘Knot’ Tightens

26th October 1962: A letter from Khrushchev to Kennedy……….

“Mr. President, we and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied. And a moment may come when that knot will be tied so tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it, and then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly of what terrible forces our countries dispose.

Consequently, if there is no intention to tighten that knot and thereby to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.”

- Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, October 26, 1962


Cuban Missile Crisis:Resolution

• 27th October 1962: A deal begins to emerge with Soviet offers to remove missiles from Cuba in return for the removal of US missiles in Turkey.

• 28th October 1962: After extraordinary diplomatic efforts on both sides, involving ‘back-channels’ and other countries (Brazil) as intermediaries between the USA, USSR & Cuba, a deal is finally reached whereby both sides agreed to disarm Cuba (USSR) and Italy (USA) & Turkey (USA) of their ‘offensive’ nuclear missiles.


Effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis

• A ‘hot line’ was installed in both the White House & Kremlin to prevent any future misunderstandings in times of crisis.

• Talks began with a view to limiting the nuclear threat. These culminated in the S.A.L.T. I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) of 1969 & S.A.L.T. II during the 1970s. These resulted in two treaties to limit nuclear arms testing in 1972 & 1979.


20 th century european history

Documents

billy mcsweeney c

civil war

cold war slides

new small nations

new countries

complete responsibility

league of nations

new government of italy