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/