E7.+The+notion+of+'the+West'+and+'the+East'+in+the+Cold+War

= About the Cold War =
 * Lasted from 1945 to 1990s
 * Main Powers: Soviet Union vs. United States
 * Wanted global power/domination and take in other countries
 * Nuclear weapons became high possibility

Fight Over Power

 * Germany's defeat: US vs. Soviets conflict started right after causing a chain reaction
 * Conflict: over future security
 * Much of Western Europe supported America
 * However, Germany and parts of Eastern Europe undecided
 * United States - promoted capitalism and various forms of democracy
 * Soviets - wanted communism ➞ leads to **totalitarianism**
 * Conferences Yalta and Potsdam (Feb. & Jul. 1945) divided Germany and other parts of Eastern Europe into short-term “sphere’s of influence”
 * Germany: divided into four areas each influenced by the Allies (4):
 * France
 * Britain
 * United States - wanted Germany’s neighboring countries (see below) to have free choices
 * Soviet Union - wanted its neighboring countries (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia) to be under the Soviet’s rule too.
 * The Soviets declined U.S. Program and instead ruled the nations as puppets - foreign power rules
 * **STARTS COLD WAR**



= The West =
 * Stretched from the U.S. and Canada to West Germany and Italy
 * The nations of the West were either part of NATO or an ally of the United States

NATO

 * "North Atlantic Treaty Organization"
 * Consisted of the Western military bloc
 * Most of North America and Western Europe was part of NATO
 * NATO was initially formed to present an opposing force to the Soviet Union

The United States

 * Promoted capitalism as an economic system as opposed to communism, which was the system employed by the USSR
 * While the Soviet Union was advancing in scientific and military technologies (mainly nuclear weapons) beginning in the mid-1950s, the United [[image:http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/russia/images/coldwar.gif width="410" height="322" align="right"]] States enjoyed post-war economic prosperity
 * The US began responding to the military advancements a few years later, leading to the capability of both the US and the USSR of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) in 1970

The Space Race

 * A competition between the US and USSR over exploration of space
 * Began with the Soviet launch of the satellite Sputnik on October 4, 1957
 * The Soviet Union and United States both started launching spacecrafts into orbit, including the first man in space by the USSR and the first man on the moon by the US in 1969

= The East =
 * Comprised of the Soviet Union and the countries it influenced
 * based off of communist principles
 * against America as relations rapidly deteriorated and lines were drawn

The USSR

 * formed after the Russian Revolutionary War by Vladimir Lenin
 * Stalin was the paranoid and aggressive leader in charge at the time of the end of the war and the Yalta Conference
 * pushed for high and unforgiving reparations from Germany for WWI
 * refused proposal of international trade from Truman
 * refused to have any form of influence from the "West"

The Cuban Missile Crisis

 * the soviets installed nuclear weapon stations in Cuba
 * the excuse was to ensure that Cuba stayed independent
 * the soviets agreed to remove them as long as America promised not to invade Cuba

The Berlin Blockade
Creators: Cort Dalton, David Cuban, Cory DeMarco
 * the soviets wanted control of Western Berlin after WWI
 * to do so they blocked off the "West's" railways to supply it
 * to avoid this the "West" sent in a total of 13,000,000 tons of supplies into Berlin via aircraf [[image:http://dreamofarlequin.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/berlin-wall.jpg width="585" height="487"]]

Evaluators: Bryan Abbott, Kevin Bruno and Jessica Helmstetter

Evaluators: Candace Millar, Caroline Lancaster, George Bailey This is a really good page. I wouldnt change anything, the pictures and the chart are really helpfull. You left out some dates, Berlin Blockade: May 1949, Berlin Wall: 1949-1961 when 3.5 million East Germans left homeland (embarrassed communist leaders)