Analyze the ways in which the Cold War affected the political development of European nations from the end of World War 2 in 1945 to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961?

Answer 1

It lead to a division of Europe into two spheres: one that was communist and allied with the Russians and one that was non-communist and allied with the Americans. The dividing line ran roughly from Rostock in eastern Germany to Trieste on the Adriatic Sea and down to the borders of northern Greece and Turkey.

Germany was partitioned big time. One third of its territory was lost to Poland and the Soviet Union and one third of it became communist East Germany which the communists called "The German Democratic Republic." The remaining third became the German Federal Republic also known as West Germany. Berlin, the German capital was also partitioned into a Soviet (Russian) zone in the East and American, British and French zones in the West.

For about 10 years after East Germany was officially created (1949), the Russians and their East German communist puppets allowed people who didn't like it in East Berlin and East Germany to leave the country. At first, they thought it was a good policy and would allow them to get rid of a lot of ex-Nazis and Anti-Communist conservatives in the East German population. However, by 1961, communist government of East Germany realized that they were losing a lot of their best talent and brains in the flights to West Berlin and West Germany.

In August 1961, the East German dictator, Walter Ulbricht ordered a wall built between East and West Berlin so that no more people in his country could escape. He gave East German soldiers orders to shoot anyone trying to escape on sight.

Walter Ulbricht died in 1973, however the wall did not come down until 1989. There was lot's of partying and celebrating when it finally did.

During this period, the people of Hungary rose up in rebellion against their communist masters, in 1956, but the Russian communists put it down brutally using Mongolian troops. They were afraid to use civilized Russian soldiers because they felt that they might not be brutal enough. Many of the Mongolian soldiers carried typhus and there was a typhus epidemic which broke out in Hungary afterward killing many people. Some Hungarians escaped to Austria, the U.S. and Canada. Communist rule finally ended there too in 1989.

In 1949, the United States created the NATO military alliance in Western Europe along with Greece and Turkey in an effort to contain Russian communist expansionism. In 1955, the Russians countered by creating their own NATO-type alliance called "The Warsaw Pact." West Germany belonged to NATO while East Germany belonged to the Warsaw pact. In 1960, Charles DeGaulle pulled France out of the NATO alliance and put France on its own nuclear weapons program. He did not trust the United States to come to Europe's defense in the event of a massive Russian attack. On the other hand, Britain remained in the NATO alliance and decided not to follow France's example.