The Soviets cut off the western side of Berlin and prevented the Americans, British and French from accessing the city. It made the dispute between them public and was the first military confrontation of the USSR towards America. The western part of Germany had to supply West Berlin from the air for around a year, causing Russia to eventually give up. This was a triumph for the USA and the rest of Western Europe as they managed to outwit the Soviets, and due to their peaceful defeat the USSR looked increasingly aggressive. However this made Stalin and the Soviet Union despise the capitalist Europe even more.
America, Great Britain and the USSR have been working together as members of the Grand Alliance as an attempt to defeat Nazi Germany. Although they were working together, their relationships weren’t always friendly and there was many disagreements which is part of the reason the Grand Alliance broke down. America and Great Britain were Capitalists countries where as the USSR was a Communist country so there was disputes between all of the superpowers. The USA is to blame for the breakdown of the Grand Alliance for many reasons. After Roosevelt died Truman became the American president.
The roots can be found in the stagnation of the Soviet system in the late 1970s and early 1980s and perhaps most importantly in the ascension of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who opened the floodgates of change.Yet the ending might not have happened but for outside pressures, and this is where Reagan's legacy lies.The United States, in the years before and during the Reagan presidency, underwent a revolution in high technology that the Soviets could not match. The Soviet system was under pressure from Reagan's defense buildup and deployment of medium-range missiles in Europe, the CIA-backed mujaheddin fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan and Reagan's proposed missile defense system, the Strategic Defence Initiative. Reagan also challenged Soviet regional power in several conflicts from Nicaragua to Angola and lent support to the Polish dissident movement. These final battles of the Cold War shaped Reagan's foreign policy, including his determination to support rebels fighting Nicaragua's ruling Sandinistas, a Marxist group, in the 1980s. In Reagan's second term, it was disclosed that he had bypassed congressional restrictions on aiding the rebels, known as the contras, in part by diverting $3.8 million from the secret sale of 2,000 antitank missiles
Germany faced many problems such as unemployment, debt and lack of money. Construction of Autobahns and schools would have created many jobs and brought in a huge amount of money. This is exactly how Schacht planned to solve Germanys economic problems, with The New Plan. The New Plan consisted of four major parts (Limiting imports, Trade agreements, Government spending and tackling unemployment). However, Hitler was not happy with this as his spending on the military was being limited, which meant only a certain number of tanks/planes were being produced.
Case Study: The Russian Ruble Crisis and its Aftermath Overview The case “Russian Ruble crisis and its aftermath” gives a brief description of the crisis that the Russian currency went through after the fall of communism. The case provides a prelude which gives the background of the problem, it then delves into the actual crisis and the issues that happened at that time that shaped the aftermath of the crisis. The fall of communism had split the Soviet Union into different nations, Russia being the largest of them. The Russian government in an effort to decentralize the economy which was crumbling, introduced various programs to transform the country. One such step was to remove price controls, although price controls saw an increase in prices.
In 300 A.D. most of the roman army were barbarian trained soldiers. This is why the battles with the enemies was so hard. Rome didn’t have complete control over the military and the situations. Romans got tired and irritated by the army not wanting to defend then that they hired citzens from unemployment. But they knew that they couldn’t rely on that army so the emperors raised all of the taxes because hiring the army was expensive.
To what extent was the Cold War caused by Truman’s policies? The Cold War was a state of political and ideological conflict, military tension and economic rivalry after the Second World War. This ‘war’ was fought between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America (USA). After the Second World War had ended Europe was devastated and in ruins. The industry and agriculture sectors were severely damaged, governments were in disarray, there were supply shortages and a split had emerged between the Great Powers.
Having a war caused inflation, government spending rose from 4-30 million, taxation increased, and money became practically worthless and the price of food and fuel quadrupled. This made people angry as they could not afford supplies for themselves and their families, which made them, turn to the Tsar for help but he wasn’t seen to be doing much about the effects of war on the people at home. Furthermore, as well as not being able to
To what extent was Mikhail Gorbachev responsible for the fall of the USSR? “We can’t go on living like this” this was what Mikhail Gorbachev was reported to have said in the eve of his succession. What Gorbachev was talking about was the decline in living standards in the Soviet Union due to its crumbling economic, political and social policies, and was hinting at the change in policies and diplomatic relations which he would implement once he came into power, policies that would eventually lead to the end of the cold war and the collapse of the USSR. It was historian Raymond L. Garthoff who said “…Over four decades it performed the historic function of holding Soviet power in check until the internal seeds of destruction within the Soviet Union and its empire could mature. At this point, however it was Gorbachev who bought the Cold War to an end…”.
To what extent did Gorbachev contribute to the break-up of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact? Under the control of Stalin, communist states in Eastern Europe were forced to join the Warsaw Pact in 1955, which was a military alliance against the US NATO. Besides, earlier in 1947, he also launched the Molotov Plan which was an economic assistance to the Soviet satellites, had brought a great economic burden on itself. Luckily, there’s an upturn of Soviet after 1984. Gorbachev, who was the new General Secretary in 1985, was to a large extent contributed to the break-up of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact.