The goals of the United States were to rebuild a war-devastated region, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, and make Europe prosperous again. The act was named after Secretary George Marshall. The Marshall Aid was so important because it was used to restrict the Soviet “sphere of influence” from expanding as European countries preferred the idea of being rich instead of having to share their wealth with others. Many countries that were unofficially owned by Stalin were more interested in joining the USA with the Marshall Aid, but Stalin managed to “persuade” them to protest against Truman’s methods. Despite this, the Marshall Aid was a success and it bolstered the armies of Europe significantly, which put Stalin in a more vulnerable position.
The Bolsheviks wanted originally, world wide revolution but the countries in the West were cautious of Communism and therefore the Bolsheviks felt that survival of the regime was more important, they hoped that the West would collapse. Lenin knew that Russia and Communism was being targeted by the West therefore he appointed Chicherin as Commissar for Foreign Affairs in 1918 in order to build better relations with other countries. They stated a commitment to open diplomacy so that no secret treaties were signed like they were in the old Tsarist regime. Russia withdrew from the First World War with the signing of the Treaty of Breast-Litovsk with Germany which although took the pressure of the war away from Lenin, Russia lost a large deal of land in Finland, the Baltic States and Bessarabia. These were not regained when the treaty was annulled in 1919 after Germany’s eventual defeat.
There were many factors that created a base for the reformist groups to flourish at that time in Russia which in turn created a Revolution. Alexander III was determined to upkeep Russia’s image as a major European power, unlike his father; however he was a conservative, believing that his father’s reforms were a mistake and took to reverse them as much as he could. The counter-reforms initially may have looked like a success due to the period of stability during Alexander III’s reign; however with the Revolution a few years later it seems to be that the counter-reforms were not as successful as they may have seemed. The political oppression resultant of these counter-reforms meant Russia politically was behind its major European counterparts, whilst England and France by now had a form of democracy, Russia was still being ruled by total autocracy, and this increased the resentment against the government and added to the growth of reformist groups. Because of the political structure in place in Russia at the time, without a revolution the only way change was possible was from the Tsar being willing to change things, the Tsar was not willing and he clearly demonstrated this through the counter-reforms, leaving an angry population
However one of the Provisional Government’s greatest faults was that they did not pull Russia out of the war, which was the cause of many of the country’s problems, the Bolsheviks however used this as leverage in gaining support and promised people that they would pull Russia out of war if they were in power, this gained them obvious support. Many people believe that the Provisional Government orchestrated their own downfall, which made it much easier for the Bolsheviks to gain power. Other reasons for the Bolshevik’s success in October 1917 was due to German financial support. The German provided the Bolsheviks with money due to the fact that they wished to pull Russia out of the war, which was an obvious benefit to them; therefore they provided the Bolsheviks with enough money to launch campaigns and
To balance the problem the north created and made Maine a free state, as Missouri had become slave. The Missouri compromise did ease tension at the time but the question had been asked about if slavery was right or wrong and the balance would have to be constantly equal to stop tension and conflict in the future. Westward expansion was also a great area of concern, Democrat James Polk was very committed to the idea, he wanted to annex California and New Mexico from Mexico and let the Americans settle there. He believed it was ‘manifest destiny’ to control the whole continent. The idea of westward expansion was a good one because it would enable people to live in more room and to grow the population, however many northerners merely saw the idea of westward expansion to spread slavery.
Why Was the Berlin Blockade so Important? By early 1948 Stalin had control of most of Eastern Europe. The Americans responded to this by making the Western Europe wealthy and pro-American because they saw the Soviet Union as a threat and a weak Germany could be taken over by communism and a strong Germany could act as a buffer against communism. On the other hand Stalin thought that a strong Germany could repeat the invasions on 1914 and 1941 so he stripped them of all useful equipment and machinery. In 1947 Britain and France decided to join their zones together (Bizonia) and then a few months later France joined to make it (Trizonia).
There were many reasons how the Nazi Soviet Pact played a greater part in causing war in 1939 than the policy of appeasement such as an important factor, which let Hitler invade Poland without having to fight a war on two fronts. Also, after the failure of appeasement, the British had guaranteed polish security. Once Germany invaded, the British would be forced to declare war. The Nazi Soviet Pact can be considered major causes of World War Two, however the policy of appeasement was the most important reason for the war. The Nazi-Soviet pact was responsible for the outbreak of war because France and Britain had decided to finally intervene.
These aims were achieved to varying degrees of success. As a result of the Great War, the British Empire was extended even further, notably in Africa and the Middle East, helping to secure their power status across the globe. Their ‘great power’ status was further cemented by the post war treaties that ended some of the world’s empires notably the Ottoman Empire (under the Treaty of Sevres) and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (under the Treaty of Saint-Germain). Russia also was incapable of dominating Europe at this time as its empire had fallen and the country was consumed by civil war. But most importantly, the Treaty of Versailles weakened Germany to the point that it would not be economically or militarily able to pose a threat in Europe for some years.
became a super power was that after WW2, the American government saw a need to keep a vigilant watch on countries that wanted to harm U.S. interests. After the World Wars, enemy countries saw how rich the U.S. was in resources and wanted to capitalize on those resources. Also, they saw the threat of democracy on their own way of life in which those countries' saw the spread of democracy spread further into Europe soon after WW2. (2011, Lagon, M.P.) The differences between foreign policy before and after WW2 were very different.
Britain's American empire was slowly expanded by war and colonization. Victory over the French during the Seven Years' War gave Britain control over almost all of North America. Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies. Mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximize exports from and minimize imports to the realm.