PreviousPreviousHomeNext         

    

Test Your Understanding

    

  • [Click on the question to reveal the answer.]

    Try to remember BEFORE you click!

    • Apologies to Firefox users - collapsible lists may not work on your browser; click here for advice.

  • Who was Prime Minister of Britain in 1945?

    • Winston Churchill

  • Who was president of the USA in February 1945?

    • Franklin D Roosevelt

  • Who became president of the USA in 1945?

    • Truman

  • Who was leader of Russia in 1945?

    • Stalin

  • What is a ‘cold war’?

    • America and Russia were enemies but they didn’t declare war. But they did everything to oppose each other short of war.

  • List FOUR causes of the Cold War.

    • Beliefs

    • Aims

    • Resentment about History

    • Events

  • What do Communists believe?

    • That the means of production should be owned and controlled by the government.

  • The USA is a ‘capitalist democracy’. What do these words mean?

    • Capitalists believe that property and industry should be privately owned.

    • Democracy is where the people can elect their own government.

  • Name TWO historical complaints that Stalin had against Britain and the USA.

    • In 1918 Britain and the USA had tried to destroy the Russian Revolution.

    • Stalin thought that they had not given him enough help in the Second World War.

  • What could Britain and the USA not forgive Stalin for (from 1939)?

    • Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany in 1939.

  • Give TWO things that Stalin wanted from the peace.

    • huge reparations from Germany

    • a ‘buffer’ of friendly states to protect the USSR from being invaded again.

  • What worried Britain and the USA about Stalin’s plans?

    • that large areas of eastern Europe were falling under Soviet control.

  • When did Russia develop the atomic bomb?

    • 1949

  • List TEN events leading up to the Cold War, Feb 1945 to Mar 1948.

    • Yalta Conference (Feb 1945)

    • Potsdam Conference (Jul 1945)

    • Hiroshima (Aug 1945)

    • Salami tactics (1945-48)

    • Fulton Speech (Mar 1946)

    • Greece (Feb 1947)

    • Truman Doctrine (Mar 1947)

    • Marshall Plan (Jun 1947)

    • Cominform (Oct 1947)

    • Czechoslovakia (Mar 1948)

  • Give FOUR things agreed at Yalta.

    • divide Germany into four ‘zones’, which Britain, France, the USA and the USSR would occupy after the war.

    • hold elections in the countries of eastern Europe.

    • set up a government in Poland which would contain both Communists and non-Communists.

    • set up the United Nations.

  • Explain TWO reasons why the Potsdam Conference was less successful than Yalta.

    • In March 1945, Stalin had invited the non-Communist Polish leaders to meet him, and arrested them.

    • America had a new president, Truman, who was determined to ‘get tough’ with the Russians.

  • Name THREE things that the ‘Big Three’ disagreed about at Potsdam.

    • the details of how to divide Germany.

    • the size of reparations Germany ought to pay.

    • Soviet policy in eastern Europe.

  • What were ‘salami tactics’?

    • gradually getting rid of all opposition, bit-by-bit.

  • Was is ‘totalitarianism’?

    • where the government has total power over the people.

  • Was does the word ‘imperialistic’ mean?

    • wanting to build and empire. Communists used it as an abuse-word to describe the western powers.

  • What was Churchill’s Fulton speech (5 March 1946) about?

    • He said ‘a shadow’ had fallen on eastern Europe, which was now cut off from the free world by ‘an iron curtain’.

    • Behind that line, he said, the people of eastern Europe were ‘subject to Soviet influence . . . totalitarian control [and] police governments’.

  • Why did Britain keep soldiers in Greece after the Second World War had finished?

    • To support the Greek free government against the Communists.

  • What happened when the British could no longer afford to keep soldiers in Greece?

    • America paid for the soldiers, and also gave economic aid to Greece.

  • What did the Truman Doctrine say?

    • Truman told Americans that it was America’s DUTY to stop Communism.

    • His policy towards the Soviet Union was one of ‘containment’ – he did not try to destroy the USSR, but he wanted to stop it growing any more.

  • Why did Marshall propose the Marshall Plan?

    • He said every country in Europe was so poor that it was in danger of turning Communist.

    • Europe was ‘a breeding ground of hate’.

  • How much aid did the Marshall Plan want to send to Europe?

    • $17 billion

  • Which country turned Communist in March 1948?

    • Czechoslovakia

  • What rival to Marshall Aid did Stalin set up in 1947?

    • Cominform

  • Give FIVE causes of the Berlin blockade.

    • Cold War was just getting started

    • Aims

    • Bizonia

    • American Aid

    • New Currency

  • How long did the blockade last?

    • 318 days

  • How did the US and Britain supply the Berliners?

    • by airplane

  • List FOUR results of the Berlin blockade.

    • Cold War got worse

    • East and West Germany

    • NATO and the Warsaw Pact

    • Arms Race