Cold War Essay
What best explains escalating tensions from 1944-194
Between 1944 and 1948 tensions between the Russians and the Americans/most of western
Europe were escalating to the point of the formation of the cold war. This was directly after
the catastrophic world war two which saw Russia lose huge amounts of soldiers and western
powers lose huge amounts of status and money. The gap in power after Germany was
defeated saw both America and Russia competing to be the number one global superpower
of the world and this caused the cold war. The rising of tensions between 1944 and 1948
were largely due to the difference in general ideologies between the two countries yet they
both being powerful. Russia believed in communism, a system that was totally different and
almost opposite to America who believed in capitalism. Russia had been invaded three times
by Germany and wanted countries like Bulgaria, Poland and Romania to act as a buffer zone
from Germany but also wanted those countries to be communist and often used bribes and
the red army to control the elections. America and the west also bribed countries with the
promise of money and wonderful business.
Overall, I believe that the differences between the two countries best explains the escalating
of tensions, Russia opted for a ruthless approach often using violence and bad faith in times
like capturing Bulgaria or the Berlin blockade. America opted to be the classic good country
and offer countries good things if they accepted capitalism but they were both very
responsible for escalating tensions because they both wanted to be superpowers.
Firstly, if we take a look at the differences between how the communists elected to control
eastern countries we see that in capturing Hungary he let the country choose its political
leader but as soon as a non communist party was elected he rigged the next election in
1947 and the country was communist. He did the same in most other eastern countries; in
by 1947 Stalin had removed the Romanian kings and appointed communist leaders to
control the country; by 1945 Stalin had gained communist control of Bulgaria by rigging
elections and was well on his way to removing the monarchy; he had gotten control in
Poland because the country was destroyed by war and needed to get built back up. Overall
the general theme of the countries is that it forms a buffer zone between Germany and
Russia and it forms a communist iron curtain all across eastern Europe. Furthermore, if we
look at the capitalist way of taking control of countries we see that most of the countries were
given Marshall aid which was huge sums of money paid to their governments to help with
their losses in the war. For the United states this was good because it provided them with
reliable trading partners and Europe to slowly rebuild its economy through money from the
United States.
Overall, we see that political differences exacerbated when the communists have to threaten
countries with the red army and rig elections to establish communism and impose a foothold
in eastern Europe whereas capitalists offer European countries money and trading partners.
Stalin restricted every country he could from accepting the Marshall plan out of fear of
capitalism.
Secondly, the reason for the rising of tensions between Russia and America was down to
the countries both wanting to be the superpowers of the world and both had good reasons to
be the global power. Russia had lost about 27 million men in the war which meant that they
had very good reasons for wanting all the eastern European countries and most of the world
felt that because America and Britain combined didn’t even have 1 million people dead in
world war two so they could not demand territories from anyone and so Russia got all of
eastern Europe which was the first step in the escalation of tensions between the two
countries. Russians control of Eastern Europe meant that the west feared the domino effect
What best explains escalating tensions from 1944-194
Between 1944 and 1948 tensions between the Russians and the Americans/most of western
Europe were escalating to the point of the formation of the cold war. This was directly after
the catastrophic world war two which saw Russia lose huge amounts of soldiers and western
powers lose huge amounts of status and money. The gap in power after Germany was
defeated saw both America and Russia competing to be the number one global superpower
of the world and this caused the cold war. The rising of tensions between 1944 and 1948
were largely due to the difference in general ideologies between the two countries yet they
both being powerful. Russia believed in communism, a system that was totally different and
almost opposite to America who believed in capitalism. Russia had been invaded three times
by Germany and wanted countries like Bulgaria, Poland and Romania to act as a buffer zone
from Germany but also wanted those countries to be communist and often used bribes and
the red army to control the elections. America and the west also bribed countries with the
promise of money and wonderful business.
Overall, I believe that the differences between the two countries best explains the escalating
of tensions, Russia opted for a ruthless approach often using violence and bad faith in times
like capturing Bulgaria or the Berlin blockade. America opted to be the classic good country
and offer countries good things if they accepted capitalism but they were both very
responsible for escalating tensions because they both wanted to be superpowers.
Firstly, if we take a look at the differences between how the communists elected to control
eastern countries we see that in capturing Hungary he let the country choose its political
leader but as soon as a non communist party was elected he rigged the next election in
1947 and the country was communist. He did the same in most other eastern countries; in
by 1947 Stalin had removed the Romanian kings and appointed communist leaders to
control the country; by 1945 Stalin had gained communist control of Bulgaria by rigging
elections and was well on his way to removing the monarchy; he had gotten control in
Poland because the country was destroyed by war and needed to get built back up. Overall
the general theme of the countries is that it forms a buffer zone between Germany and
Russia and it forms a communist iron curtain all across eastern Europe. Furthermore, if we
look at the capitalist way of taking control of countries we see that most of the countries were
given Marshall aid which was huge sums of money paid to their governments to help with
their losses in the war. For the United states this was good because it provided them with
reliable trading partners and Europe to slowly rebuild its economy through money from the
United States.
Overall, we see that political differences exacerbated when the communists have to threaten
countries with the red army and rig elections to establish communism and impose a foothold
in eastern Europe whereas capitalists offer European countries money and trading partners.
Stalin restricted every country he could from accepting the Marshall plan out of fear of
capitalism.
Secondly, the reason for the rising of tensions between Russia and America was down to
the countries both wanting to be the superpowers of the world and both had good reasons to
be the global power. Russia had lost about 27 million men in the war which meant that they
had very good reasons for wanting all the eastern European countries and most of the world
felt that because America and Britain combined didn’t even have 1 million people dead in
world war two so they could not demand territories from anyone and so Russia got all of
eastern Europe which was the first step in the escalation of tensions between the two
countries. Russians control of Eastern Europe meant that the west feared the domino effect
