Origins of the Cold War
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The origins of the Cold War involved the breakdown of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States, Great Britain and their allies in the years 1945–1949.
The origins derive from diplomatic (and occasional military) confrontations stretching back decades, followed by the issue of political boundaries in Central Europe and non-democratic control of the East by the Soviet Army. In the 1940s came economic issues (especially the Marshall Plan) and then the first major military confrontation, with a threat of a hot war, in the Berlin Blockade of 1948–1949. By 1949, the lines were sharply drawn and the Cold War was largely in place in Europe.
Outside Europe, the starting points vary, but the conflict centered on the US' development of an informal empire in southeast Asia in the mid-1940s.
Events preceding World War II and even the Russian Revolution of 1917, underlay older tensions between the Soviet Union, European countries and the United States. A series of events during and after World War II exacerbated tensions, including the Anglo-Americans repeated postponement of an amphibious invasion of German-occupied Europe, disagreement about Eastern European democracy made in wartime conferences and the Kremlin's control of an Eastern Bloc of Soviet satellite states.
19th century precursors
Conflicts such as The Great Game between the Russian and British empires over control of present-day Afghanistan, and the Crimean War between Russia and Britain over Crimea helped set the stage for animosity between Russia and the Anglosaxon countries.
See also
- The Great Game
- Crimean War
- Culture during the Cold War
- Historiography of the Cold War
- Non-Aligned Movement
