Origins of the Cold War

Political, social and economic causes:

Politically, there was a lot of turmoil going on before the Cold War. Resistance movements in Europe were affecting politics because the political parties were somewhat based on the resistance movement groups. It was difficult for those parties to get the parliamentary majority they needed, so they weren't as successful as they hoped. This contributed to the start of the Cold War because it caused confusion and disagreement between European countries. The Soviet Union also tried to keep their hold on Eastern Europe by demanding the goverments to follow the Soviet example, which contradicted what most of those countries wanted.

Socially, countries that had lost World War II seemed to be having more trouble than others. Germany had been de-Nazified, disarmed and divided into four occupation zones, which crushed their spirits. Stalin was paranoid about friendlyness coming from the West, and kept strict control over the social and cultural aspects of Soviet citizens' lives.

Economically, there were extensive problems and disagreements that let to the Cold War. The Soviet Union tried to maintain a hold on Eastern Europe by creating bilaterla economic treaties and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. They went through massive economic reconstruction due to wartime loss of life and property, and there was strict control over the economic life of Soviet citizens. Great Britain and the U.S. also had economic concerns that contributed to the onset of the Cold War. Great Britain's primary goal was to maintain its closed imperial economic system. The United States wanted to keep spheres of influence in the Western Hemisphere and in asia, and wanted to establish a worldwide system of free markets.


Primary cause?:

In my opinion, economics were the primary cause of the Cold War. There were so many contradictions between the countries and what they wanted, and these disagreements were a major problem that caused the Cold War. However, the social and political causes were also important, just not as important. All factors need to be considered, but I think the primary cause was economics.


Let's play the blame game:

I guess you can blame everyone or no one, but not just one country. I don't think any one country was completely responsible for the start of the Cold War, because no country made any move or decision that was crazy enough to start the war.

European Air Strategies Prezi

I created a prezi on Air Strategies of the European Theater. I focused on two main countries, one from the Axis Powers and one from the Allied Powers: Germany and Britain. There were both similarities and differences between the strategies of the two countries. Both targeted military installations and civilian areas, with hopes to destroy weapons factories and cities full of civilians. However, Germany used a unique strategy, called blitzkrieg, in which they had surprise attacks, lightning fast advances, and overwhelming power in all areas of the military. This was intended to catch the enemy off guard and make it difficult for them to respond effectively.

This is a link to my prezi on European Air Strategies:
http://prezi.com/rdmn9_ok6tcu/european-air-strategies/

Stalin's leadership and actions taken

Stalin's leadership leading up to WWII was primarily made up of dismissing, arresting, and killing anyone suspected of treason, but more about that later. He had some other noteworthy actions that he took and decisions that he made:

Stalin and Hitler seemed to become pretty close, and I think they affected each others decisions during the start of WWII. Stalin and Hitler made secret negotiations in 1939 concerning Poland. Stalin had no interest in helping Poland, and Hitler wanted to crush them. Stalin was allowed to annex its eastern provinces, which was great because Stalin wanted control of the three Baltic States. the Nazi-Stalin pact was signed on August 23. 

Another important action of Stalin's was concerning the Spanish civil war. Stalin didn't want to support Spain in any way, and the Russians who had led the Russian effort in Spain were arrested, imprisoned and shot.

Although those two actions of Stalin's were certainly important, my questions are more about this next action:
Stalin was obsessed with conducting purges of 'enemies of the state' in 1937. Most of those enemies were charged with treason and spying, and were sent to execution,  prison or labor camps. Surprisingly, even Stalin's close friends were at risk, and many were accused of high treason. According to the reading, "Of the eleven non-Russian Republics of the Soviet Union, ten had their heads in government removed from office during 1937." Stalin appointed successors for the heads that were removed, but within a few months they were arrested, and also charged with treason. My question is, why would he appoint all these people and then go and arrest them a few months later? Was he so paranoid and suspicious that he couldn't trust anyone? Basically, what was going on in his head?!

Then, in 1938, the Trial of the Twenty-One occurred, which lasted 10 days, and was basically the height of all the other purges and show trials. 
"In the course of two years, according to the precise records of the Soviet secret police, 33,514 'enemies of the people' had been shot and 5,643 imprisoned." That's a lot of people!! Once again, I'm asking why he was so crazy psycho about killing all those people?

Podcast Question Post

After WWI, there was a huge surge in technological developments in many areas of the U.S.. For the military, new "Tommy guns" were created. The first color motion picture appeared in 1922 for Americans to enjoy in their free time. For farmers, the mule drawn cotton stripper was invedted to make cotton harvesting easier. New technology was being invented across the country, and virtually all of America was giddy with the excitement of finishing the war and being so fortunate. What I'm wondering is, did those developments cause Americans to become overconfident with their situation? Did that lead to the Great Depression because they never expected the stock market to decline so suddenly? Did that element of surprise make it seem like the Depression hit even harder?

Fragments by Binjamin Wilkomirski

For my book review, I read the book Fragments by Binjamin Wilkomirski. He was the only one in his family to survive the death camps of the Holocaust. His memoir is written in a series of fragmented memories, starting when he was only two years old. His experiences in the Holocaust gave a unique perspective because they were written from a child's point of view - he was only three when he went to the death camps. This perspective was very interesting because, since he was a child, he didn't really know anything about what was happening, so his descriptions were filled with confusion. I enjoyed reading the book simply because it gave this different perspective.

Revolutionary Movements after WWI

Throughout history, it seems that revolutionary movements often lead to the start of a war. However, it is opposite in the case of World War I; there was a rise in independence movements in India and Egypt after the war. Why is this? Why is it that the war led to these independence movements? I understand that there was a rise in the number of totalitarian governments, which could cause people to want to revolt and become their own country. Is that the only reason there was such an increase in independent movements?

Reading pages 80-98

"We may have lost the battle (or two, or ten) but we've won the war."
In the reading, it was clear that the Central Powers had many more wins than the Allied Powers in the beginning of the war. They were successful in pushing back the Allies attacks, and defeated them many times. However, it was the Allied Powers that ultimately won the war. How were they able to do so when they had so many losses in the beginning?