● 7th Century: Tibet had strong Buddist force, large independent empire, controlled by
Dalai Lama
● 8th Century: Tibet became Chinese Protectorate
● 19th century: Vietnam was a french colony
● 1917: communist government comes into power in USSR (mistrust starts to develop)
● 1919: paris peace conference (gave russia lands to other countries)
● 1920s: Tibet claimed independence due to Chinese weak political state (after WW1)
● 1921: Chinese Communist Party established
● 1927-1949: Civil war between CCP and NP (kaumentag)
● 1930s: stalin distrusted policy of apppeassement (felt that the west saw soviets as
enemy instead of nazi germany)
● 1938: stalin's feelings intensified when USSR was left out of Munich Conference
● 1939: Nazi-Soviet non-agression pact (if germans invaded poland, soviets would nit
come to their defence)
● 1941: Germany invaded russia (broke pact, Russia entered World War at end of year)
● 1935-1945: grand alliance puts differences aside to defeat common enemy = adolf hitler
● 1943: tehran conference
● Feb 1945: yalta conference
● July/Aug 1945: potsdam conference
● 1946: Churchill's speech in Missouri, warning of iron curtain
● 1947: Truman issued speech to the US congress, offered to send military aid, finance
and advice to any countries resisting communist takeover (truman doctrine)
● 1947: Cominform (communist information bureau, set up to coordinate communist
workers party, ideological unity)
● 1947: India gained independence from Britain
● 1948: Communist coup in czechoslovakia confirming western suspicions
● 1948-1952: over $17 billion given in marshall aid
● 1949: Cominform (economic growth, similar to marshall plan but for USSR)
● 1948-1949 = berlin blockade and airlift
● 1948: Stalin closed all land entry routes linking berlin to west
● 1949: CCP and red army (chinese) joined forces and marched into beijing to announce
establishment of People's Republic of China
● 1949: due to airlift conducted by west, stalin opened land routes to Berlin (German
federal republic and german democratic republic formed)
● 1949: formation of NATO (west)
● 1949: CCP comes into power (victory for USSR)
● 1950-1951: Mao’s People's Liberation Army Invaded Tibet, announced it as an
independent region under PRC
● 1950: US naval ships petrolled straits between mainland china and taiwan
● 1950: Treaty of friendship signed between USSR and China (Mao visited Moscow)