Post WWII Post WWII Big EventsBig Events

Partition of India and Dispute over Kashmir

• India Partitioned in 1947

• Two states: Pakistan (Muslim) and India (Hindu) …and the Sikhs?

• Princes decide at the final moment… apparently a bit too late.

• Violence over Kashmir

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Problems with OPEC?

Latin American Revolutions• Proxy Wars• US Policy of containment

– Guatemala –US supported an overthrow of the leftist government• The Cuban example

– The US can’t stop us… Bay of Pigs• Brazil, Chile and Argentina under dictatorships (end between

1980-1990)– “Brazilian Solution” –combination of dictatorship, violence and

industrialization– General Augusto Pinochet of Chile… supported by the US, stopped

communism in his country at the cost of thousands of lives• Nicaragua 1979

– Sandinistas, who wished to model their gov. after Cuba and the USSR, ousted the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza

– Carter’s conciliation… Reagan has other ideas• Economic sanctions• Arming of the counterrevolutionaries Contras

– Legal???

Iranian Revolution and the Sour Relationship with the US

• 1953 Coup- led by the CIA• Shah of Iran propped up by the US –CIA convinced

Shah to invest in US weaponry• Division of wealth led to popular uprising against the

Shah– Ayatollah Khomeini –Shi’ite cleric who became the leader of Iran

• Theocracy – US seen as “Great Satan”– US Embassy seized

• 1980 Iran-Iraq War (Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, wanted to stop the spread of Shi’ism)– US sold Iran weapons in exchange for the release of US

hostages– Also, sold weapons in order to finance war against Sandinistas

in Nicaragua• Iran-Contra Scandal

Peoples Republic of China• Chinese Civil War: ROC defeated by PRC• PRC established in 1949 and allied with USSR

– Great Leap Forward 1958– 1966 Cultural Revolution

• 1971 PRC recognized by the world as the true government of China (nationalists on Taiwan no longer recognized) – explains current problems between China and Taiwan

• After the death of Mao, China rejoined the world economy – Mass industrialization – Increased energy output (largest emitter of greenhouse gases)– Recently: 2nd largest GDP

• Relaxing some controls of the economy has led to several violent protests– Tiananmen Square 1989

Japanese Isolation

• Being left out of the Cold War gave Japan the opportunity to rebuild and strengthen their national economy

• Led to massive restructuring of their economy– Energy – Steel– Shipbuilding

• Japanese model of close cooperation between government and industry was imitated by the “Asian Tigers:” Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.

Cold War

Why? Different Intentions and Ideologies.• What is a Superpower? • US Intentions? Stronger World Economy = Stronger US

Economy, $$ to nations in return for economic and military friendship (in other words, US has a say in other nation’s affairs …e.g. Partition of Palestine, Suez Canal Crisis)

• USSR Intentions? Consolidate power and create pliant buffer states (eastern Europe), denied $$ from US because a strong world economy did not concern Stalin’s planned economy. With the largest army in the world, Stalin used might gain pliant buffer states (including the eastern third of Germany).– What is Stalin’s problem?: democracies had tried to stop

the Bolsheviks from winning the Russian Civil War; Suspected that the US and Britain delayed opening a second front (promised in 1942, delivered D-day ’44) so as to let the USSR bear the brunt of fighting the Germans; capitalism is communism’s great foe; and Stalin was paranoid.

Yalta and Potsdam Conferences following WWII

• Europe to be broken up into two “spheres of influence”

• Germany broken up

• What about Eastern Europe? US wanted free elections, but the USSR (which had its military there) said no and set up puppet governments …uh oh, this is the beginning of a long struggle.

The Pacts

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 1st World

• Warsaw Pact 2nd World

• Communist nonaligned countries• Noncommunist nonaligned countries

Third World

Post WWII Europe: The Sides

Berlin: East and West• USSR wanted the whole thing… It was, of

course, located in Soviet controlled East Germany.– Berlin Blockade – Berlin Airlift:

Soviets relent and Berlin is divided in two. In 1961, the Soviets build the Berlin Wall: a great symbol of the Cold War.

Key Cold War Players. Also, notice Vietnam, N. and S. Korea and East and West Germany

Nuclear Proliferation

• First the US, then the USSR and now?

Approximately 30 countries have attempted to obtain Nuclear weapons, 9-10 have been successful. South Africa had nuclear weapons but has completely dismantled its program.

Mutual Assured Destruction

• M.A.D. “Whoever shoots first, dies second.”

World Involvement?Proxy Wars?

• Choose your team! Don’t worry, if you are undecided the US or the USSR will be glad to influence your decision.– Korea– Vietnam– Afghanistan– Middle East– Cuba

Above: US soldiers in Vietnam. Left: Afghan freedom fighters attacking Soviet trucks.

End of the Cold War• After Stalin died, his

successors recognized that they could not continue in isolation. – Lack of incentives hurt Soviet

innovation– In 1970s, China initiated

diplomacy with the US– 1970s, lack of innovation,

agriculture became stagnant and unable to feed the Soviet population

The End… Continued

– Costly wars to stop the independence movements on the Soviet frontiers (esp. in Afghanistan) caused great problems

– Oil = $$ for the Soviets, but when oil prices fell in the 80s, the Soviet economy also fell

– Reagan and “Star Wars”

The End… continued– Mikhail Gorbachev, 1985, allowed more freedom of

information – People realized that they were worse off than much of the

rest of the world – Eastern European buffer states began to fight back against

Moscow

The End… Continued– 1986: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster– 1989: East Germans fled to West Germany

and the Berlin Wall came tumbling down– 1991: The Soviet Union fell

In the wake of the Cold War

• US befriends Eastern Europe• Russia continues to struggle with oil rich regions that want

independence (Chechnya)• As the world economy tumbles, Russian hardliners who

remember the Soviet Union fondly are saying “I told you so!”• Ukraine??• A new Chilly War

George W. Bush cruising with Vladimir Putin in Putin’s 1956 Volga

The End!