Post-WWII Treaties, UN Creation, and Cold War Origins
Post-WWII Treaties and the Dawn of the Cold War
Treaties of Peace
Peace was established through a series of significant conferences. Key among these was the Yalta Conference (Crimea) in 1945, where Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt met. Agreements included:
- Partition of Germany into occupation zones.
- Poland to be administered by a government of national unity (pro-Soviet).
- Free elections in liberated countries.
- The USSR’s annexation of the Baltic republics and eastern Poland.
The Potsdam Conference (Germany) in 1945 determined Germany’s future, dividing it into four occupation zones (American, Soviet, British, and French). Key decisions included:
- The future of Berlin.
- War crimes trials at Nuremberg.
- Defining Poland’s borders and territorial changes affecting Germany. Germany lost East Prussia and its eastern border of 100,000 km.
- Japan lost its empire in Asia and was occupied by the U.S.
- China received Formosa (Taiwan).
- Korea was divided into two areas: a pro-Soviet North and an American-influenced South.
The Paris Conference (1946/1947) addressed treaties affecting countries that had supported Germany.
Creation of the UN
The Charter of the United Nations (UN) was adopted at the San Francisco Conference in 1945, with 46 founding states. The UN aimed to maintain peace and security, establishing:
- The sovereign equality of all members.
- The rejection of force.
- The right of peoples to self-determination.
All member states are represented in the General Assembly, a deliberative body that issues recommendations. The UN also includes:
- The Security Council (with five permanent members: USA, Russia, France, England, and China, each holding veto power, and 10 elected members serving two-year terms).
- The Economic and Social Council.
- The Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General (elected every four or five years).
Cold War Bloc Politics
Within months of the war’s end, the world divided into two blocs, leading to a latent Cold War characterized by ideological, economic, and propaganda battles, as well as military buildup. The primary conflict was between the U.S. and the USSR.
The U.S., as the hegemon of the Western world, promoted democratic systems, capitalist economies, limited state intervention, and individual freedoms, encompassing Western Europe, North America, and parts of South America.
The USSR, generally consisting of Eastern Europe, China, and Cuba, advocated communist political systems, eliminating private property and economic freedom, with strong state intervention and limited individual rights. Germany was divided, creating an impermeable barrier between Western and Eastern Europe. Propaganda was heavily used to demonize the opposing side through film, literature, and other media.
The Marshall Plan
The Truman administration provided military and economic aid to countries threatened by Communism. This included increasing American troops in Europe, establishing military bases in Greece and Turkey, creating the CIA, and providing economic assistance.
The Marshall Plan, conceived by U.S. Secretary of State Marshall, aimed to contain communism by granting credits and grants to European countries that accepted the aid. The European Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was created to manage the distribution of approximately $13 billion between 1947 and 1952.
The Soviet Union rejected the Marshall Plan and convened a meeting of European Communist leaders to support revolutionary struggles and create the Cominform to coordinate communist party strategies.