Chapter 22 Reading Notes
After WWII, the entire structure of Europe and the rest of the world changed politically, economically, and socially. Although these changes happened simultaneously, perhaps it is easier to break down the changes into those categories in order to better connect the changes.
Political Changes-The Cold War
The Axis powers after WWII were destroyed both structurally and politically. There was massive damage to the infrastructure in Germany and Italy (meaning about a quarter of their housing was completely destroyed not to mention industry and other government buildings that were casualties of the war). These countries and others that suffered had to be rebuilt at the end of the war but the question was how that should happen. Right after WWII, two powers emerged as “superpowers”, the USSR and the US. The term superpower is applied to these countries because they each controlled large areas of land, large populations, were economically influential, and had vast amounts of natural resources. The problem with this was that both nations distrusted the other because they had different economic systems (capitalism vs. communism), because they had different political systems (democracy vs. totalitarianism), and because they were each afraid the other wanted to take over the world and become the only superpower.
There was, however, an international organization established in 1945 in San Francisco that allowed the nations of the world to come together to resolve problems, hopefully without war. The organization was called the United Nations. It originally included only anti-Axis powers, but other countries were later added to the UN as they applied for membership after the war. The UN has two central organizations: the General Assembly and the Security Council. In the General Assembly, every nation is given an equal vote, regardless of size. In the Security Council, whose main goal is to prevent war, the Five Great Powers (the US, USSR, Great Britain, France, and China) are given permanent seats and ten other nations were given two-year terms on the Security Council on a rotating basis. The permanent memberswere each given a veto which meant that the Security Council could only act if the Great Powers were unanimous. In order to symbolize strong American commitment (as opposed to their refusal to join the League of Nations) the headquarters were located in New York. The charter provided for nations to be admitted as circumstances allowed; by 2005, there were over 190 member nations. The UN became a powerful peace-keeping force in that it provided a place for nations to discuss difficulties. Particularly, it kept the US and the USSR from drifting farther and farther apart in an era where they could agree on very little.
This era in history, from the end of WWII to the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s was called the Cold War since it was an era of distrust between the superpowers leading to hostility between them that resulted in a war of words and ideologies and even proxy wars, but never open military conflict between the two superpowers. Each superpower believed the other was trying to undermine its existence which would explain why President Harry Truman of the US issued the policy of “containment” which basically meant that communism would spread wherever there was a power vacuum. Thus, the US had to support democratic nations to avoid the spread of communism. The Soviet Union saw this as encirclement in which Stalin believed the only way to avoid domination was to establish “friendly regimes” on the borders of the Soviet Union. This led to communist vs. democratic conflicts in Iran, Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Korea. The Soviet Union sent troops to the Turkish border and pressed for joint control over the Dardanelles and the Black Sea. The British sent troops to bolster the Turkish forces in order to protect the Mediterranean and their interests in the Suez Canal. A similar occurrence happened in Greece where a civil war broke out between royalists (those who wanted a king) and communists. First the British then the Americans sent troops to help the royalists which eventually caused them to win the civil war. Finally, in Yugoslavia a communist military leader by the name of Marshal Tito took over the country. Although he was able to stay free of Soviet domination, western European powers were concerned about how friendly his regime would be to the Soviets.
One casualty of the Cold War was the lack of control over nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. In 1945, the US was the only country with nuclear weapons, and they proposed that atomic energy be controlled by an international organization. Nevertheless, the Soviet Union would never agree to a supranational authority controlling something like energy within its borders, so the idea was scrapped. By 1949 the Soviets had successfully tested an atomic bomb leading to a nuclear arms race with the US that lasted the rest of the Cold War.
The conflicts in Europe led British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to declare that an “iron curtain” had descended between eastern and western Europe as the US supported western Europe and the USSR supported eastern Europe. While the curtain was not an easy one to define, the line of separation basically came between countries that were friendly to the US and the countries that were controlled by the Soviet Union. Basically, the countries that fell under the control of the Soviet Union would include: Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia. These countries had communist regimes supported or controlled by the USSR. The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had been taken over by the USSR in WWII and were forced to become soviet republics integrated into the USSR. East Germany (called the German Democratic Republic) was a satellite state of the USSR. Lastly, Yugoslavia and Albania both had communist regimes that opposed the intervention of the USSR. They were not friendly with the west, but they were not dominated by the USSR.
One of the most concerning conflicts of the immediate postwar world was the Berlin Blockade and Airlift from 1948-1949. After the war, Germany had been split into four segments each of which were controlled by one of the four following Allies: US, Great Britain, France, and the USSR. The city of Berlin, though completely within the segment controlled by the USSR was also split into 4 portions and similarly split between the Allies. Since Germany was economically devastated after the war, the only way the German people could survive was by food imports from the Allies. By 1947, Great Britain, France, and the US had united their zones, but the USSR refused because they were using East Germany to pay for the economic devastation to their country. A problem came when the Allies decided to revive the economy of West Germany by issuing a new currency, called the Deutsche mark, that would replace the old currency at a 1-to-10 ratio. The Soviets were upset that they were not consulted on the issue and they blockaded all road and rail access to East Germany. The Allies feared that if they abandoned Berlin, they would lose all authority in Europe. So, at great risk, the Allies decided to airlift food to the city. It was at first unclear whether the Soviets would shoot down the airplanes, but they allowed them to pass through Soviet airspace and deliver their supplies. The airlift was continued for over a year until the Soviets let up on the blockade. Germany remained split until 1990 when it was reunited.
The difference between western and eastern Europe was further complicated by the Marshall Plan which will be explained under economic changes and the formation of NATO. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was a military alliance set up by the US to include western European nations that were not yet communist. The idea was to block the advance of communism into western Europe. The Soviets were upset by this move and responded with the Warsaw Pact in 1955 which was a military alliance for communist nations.
Political Changes- Reconstructing Europe
As the US and the USSR battled ideologies in the Cold War, the rest of Europe still had to be pieced back together from WWII. The countries followed two main options: a return to democracy or a change to communism. In those countries that embraced democracy, enfranchisement (giving people the right to vote) became hugely important. Countries that had previously denied women the right to vote, such as France, gave women suffrage. The last European country to enfranchise women was Switzerland in 1971. In the countries that embraced communism (whether by force or by choice), the vote was often taken away from people who did not belong to the communist party.
Germany was probably the most complex of the countries to restructure because it was split up among the victors. Additionally the Allies had to decide what to do with former members of the Nazi party- whether to allow them to participate in government life or not. It was a tricky situation because so many people had been part of the Nazi party that excluding them would make it difficult for the government to run. As a compromise, the Allies chose to try 22 Nazi leaders for war crimes in what were later called the Nuremburg trials. These trials were considered too lenient for some and too harsh for others. Some believed that more than 22 people should be condemned for the actions of Hitler’s government and that the trials were a way to get justice for those who had been affected by Germany’s decision to go to war. Others believed it was not fair for the victors of a war to try the losers for starting the war; also, many thought it was unfair for the Soviet Union to sit as a jury member when their crimes against humanity could be equal in measure. Regardless of the ethical struggle, the trials condemned 12 to death, 7 to lengthy prison terms, and acquitted 3. The trials were part of the “denazification” of Germany.
West Germany was united in 1947 and in 1948-1949, a constitutional convention was called to establish the Federal Republic of Germany. The convention produced a Basic Law with an extensive bill of rights that was to act as the main law for Germany until it could be reunited. The Basic Law gave most of the powers in Germany to the chancellor who was responsible to the majority party in parliament (called the Bundestag). The two major parties in Germany after the war were the Social Democrats and the Christian Democratic Union. The Christian Democratic Union ruled the country under chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1949-1969. The party reacted against Nazi barbarism by infusing politics with a moral and ethical purpose. In the 1970s another coalition took over the government attempting to develop connections with eastern Europe. In the 1980s, the Christian Democratic Union came back to power since at that time there was little hope of West Germany reuniting with East Germany. Under these stable governments, Germany began to prosper economically as it tied its destiny to that of western Europe.
East Germany’s story is not quite so happy. East Germany became a satellite of the Soviet Union. Although officially named the German Democratic Republic, it was not democratic nor much of a republic. East Germany developed a political system much like the USSR in which the communist party ran everything-including elections- and all others were excluded from political life. Since it was so dependent upon the USSR, East Germany became one of their staunchest allies. Not much changed until the reunification of Germany.
The Italian Republic also had to be reconstructed after WWII. As soon as Mussolini left Italy, the political parties that had been repressed for two decades suddenly reappeared with vigor. Italians voted in 1946 by a narrow margin to do away with the old idea of monarchy and establish a republic with a president, a cabinet, and all parties represented according to their share of the popular vote. The main party in Italy was the Christian Democrats that focused on policies of moderation that appealed to virtually all citizens. Communism was also a strong force in Italy usually getting at least 1/3 to ¼ of the popular vote. The Communists were excluded from the cabinet starting in 1947, though, for supporting political strikes in the country. The Italian Communist party was the strongest in the Western world, but it was still excluded from the national government through the 1970s.
Next, although Great Britain was democratic before, during, and after WWII, the two main parties in the country changed at the end of the War. Throughout the Cold War Era, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party took turns in power. The Labour Party was mostly concerned with expanding the welfare state while the Conservative Party was concerned with preserving Great Britain’s international prestige. They were both focused on the economic problems that Great Britain might suffer from since their industries were much older and had older equipment than their continental counterparts. Both the Labour and Conservative Parties knew that the welfare state could only continue as long as long as the country prospered economically. The northern provinces of Ireland (Ulster) continued to be a sticking point for Irish independence as well.
Meanwhile the French struggled to rebuild their government. WWII saw the end of the Vichy regime in southern France and also the end of the French Third Republic. Charles deGaulle became provisional president after the war. A constituent assembly was called to write a new constitution for the Fourth French Republic. The conservatives were deemed collaborators with the fascists, so their reputation was tarnished. The parties on the left like the Communists, the Socialists, and the Popular Republican Movement (a Catholic progressive party much like the Christian Democrats in Italy and Germany, called the MRP) had great success, though. The Fourth Republic was fraught with political stability, but the economy continued to grow as elsewhere in western Europe. The demise of the Fourth Republic came because France was entangled in colonial wars in Indochina (Vietnam) and then Algeria. The parties on the right called in the only person they believed could save the situation: Charles de Gaulle. He accepted the summons and was made premier and given emergency powers for six months in which time a new constitution was written and the Fifth French Republic was born. De Gaulle was elected president of the Fifth Republic and had significantly more powers than previous presidents. He created stability by granting independence to French colonies, building up French industry, and pursuing nuclear research for military and energy needs. The only threat to the Fifth Republic came in 1968 when student demonstrations led to a country-wide strike. De Gaulle used the military to put down the revolt but retired from public life the next year.
Communist World
The political restructuring of eastern Europe occurred at the whim and will of the Soviet Union. Whereas the Soviet Union had been surrounded by democratic nations to prevent the spread of communism at the end of the First World War, Stalin wanted to ensure that friendly, communist nations remained on his borders during the Cold War. Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia all fell to communist parties in their countries backed by the USSR. Thus, these countries were considered part of an “Eastern bloc” in that they were independent nations with their own governments, but they were strongly supportive (or coerced to be supportive of Soviet policies). These communist regimes were generally repressive and excluded anyone who was not part of the communist party. As previously mentioned, Yugoslavia and Albania were also communist nations, but they resisted Soviet influence more than the others. The Soviet-friendly countries took steps to nationalize industry and collectivize agriculture resulting in the last and fatal blow to the landed aristocracy that had once ruled eastern Europe. As a rule, these Soviet-friendly states also were subservient to the USSR in that they had to accept raw materials from the USSR and the USSR would provide markets for goods made in eastern Europe. They were forced to become part of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance which required them to be tied to the USSR as was previously explained.
The USSR was also changing at the end of WWII. In Stalin’s last years, he became increasingly disdainful of the west and distrustful of his own people. The Soviet Secret Police (KGB) continued to increase in authority, and Stalin became increasing dictatorial. Control of intellectual life grew stricter. Nevertheless, Stalin died in 1953 and was succeeded by a somewhat more progressive leader-Nikita Khrushchev. Interestingly, Khrushchev attacked Stalin’s “cult of personality” blaming Stalin for overly aggressive policies and declaring that Stalin was not infallible. This led to a campaign of de-Stalinization in which Stalin was no longer idealized as a perfect leader. It also led to a thaw in the restrictions on intellectual life though very slowly. Some new ideas were allowed in the USSR while some were still repressed. Khrushchev’s foreign policy was also more open than Stalin’s had been. He spoke “peaceful coexistence” with the west; he did not believe war was necessary nor inevitable. Khrushchev’s policies were concerning to other leaders in the USSR. They believed he was too soft, particularly after the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. He was ousted in 1964 and Leonid Brezhnev came to power.