What was the Cold War? Why did the Berlin Blockade happen in 1948 and at no other time since 1917?

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History Coursework              

Modern World Study

The Cold War

Part 1: What was the Cold War? Why did the Berlin Blockade happen in 1948 and at no other time since 1917?

The Cold War lasted from 1948 to around 1990. It was between the worlds two biggest ‘superpowers’, the USA and the USSR. The USA were capitalists, and the USSR were communists. This caused conflict between them. There was no direct conflict between the two powers; they used their money and power to help countries experiencing civil wars to fight each other to make the country either communist or anti-communist. It is for this reason that we call it the Cold War.

   

     The USA were very different to the USSR. The USSR only had one government; the communist party, as this was the only party allowed. It was run by a council called the Soviets, who were mostly Communists, so really, the country was run by Communists; whereas in the USA many parties can stand for election. The leader of the party that won would be head of the government. Americans had more rights, although black people were denied many rights up until 1960. Communists and Capitalists have different beliefs; Capitalists believe that everybody should be able to work to earn whatever they can, without having to share out their money, whereas Communists believe money should be shared out equally, so even people that don’t work get as much money as those that do. The USA did not agree with this policy, and they were paranoid that communism would spread all over the world. Communist countries did not like to be surrounded by Capitalism, as people living in communist areas wanted to move to capitalist areas to make more money; so the communist area becomes poor, and those who do not work are left with no money. Communism cannot survive when surrounded by Capitalism, and this is why their different beliefs caused tension.

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     The Russian Revolution occurred in 1917. This was the introduction of Communism to the USSR. You may expect a war to start at this time, because the USA may have felt threatened and paranoid about the introduction of Communism. However the Cold War did not begin in 1917, and there are a number of long and medium term reasons for this.

 

     The first long term reason is that the Russian Revolution occurred in the middle of World War One. Conflict with the USSR was avoided because the American president Franklin D Roosevelt said he ...

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