The Origins of the Cold War

CLICK HERE to see Scott Allsop's FANTASTIC video of the events of post-war Europe - 8MB download but worth the wait!          How many of the events he features can you recognise?

Contents:

1. Hot War/ Cold War

2. Causes

3. Yalta and Potsdam

4. Hiroshima

5. Salami tactics

6. Fulton

7. Truman Doctrine/ Marshall Plan

8. Berlin Blockade

9. Self-test 1945-1949

10. Korean War 

11. Khrushchev and Peaceful Co-existence

Plus:

• Revision sheet

• Hard-copy booklet

• Exemplar AQA Assessment

• Exemplar OCR Assessment

Links:

Why did the USA and USSR become rivals in the period 1945 to 1949? - Historiography

  Cold War: basic narrative overview

Cold War: simple overview specifically aimed at the AQA GCSE.

  Scott Allsop's FABULOUS video of the post-war world - how many of the events he features do you recognise?

AQA SYLLABUS CONTENT:

• Why did the USA and the USSR become rivals in the years 1945-49?

• Ideological differences and their effects.

• The Yalta and Potsdam Conferences.

• The dropping of the atomic bomb (on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and its effects.

• Soviet expansion in the East; the Iron Curtain; Czechoslovakia, 1948.

• The Truman Doctrine: the situation in Greece and Turkey; the purpose of Truman Doctrine.

• The Marshall Plan: effect of Marshall Aid and the Soviet response; Cominform and Comecon; Yugoslavia.

• The Berlin Blockade and Airlift.

 

• How did the Cold War develop in the years 1949-55?

• The formation of NATO: its membership and purpose

• The nuclear arms race: atom bomb; hydrogen bomb

• The Korean War, 1950–1953: reasons for involvement of UN and USA; the role of MacArthur; the part played by USSR and China

• The ‘Thaw’: death of Stalin; Austria; Khrushchev’s policy of peaceful co-existence

• The formation of the Warsaw Pact: membership and purpose.

 

OCR SYLLABUS CONTENT:

• Who was to blame for the Cold War?

  • Why did the USA-USSR alliance begin to break down in 1945?

  • How had the USSR gained control of Eastern Europe by 1948?

  • How did the USA react to Soviet expansionism?

  • Who was more to blame for the start of the Cold War, the USA or the USSR?

• The origins of the Cold War; the 1945 summit conferences including the parts played by Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and Truman;

• the breakdown of the USA-USSR alliance in 1945–6; Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe; the Iron Curtain;

• the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan;

• the Berlin Blockade and its immediate consequences.

 

In this module you will learn:  

• FOUR causes of the Cold War [BARE].

• NINE events which caused the Cold War.

• FOUR decisions made at the Yalta Conference.

• TWO decisions and three disagreements at the Potsdam conference.

• The ‘salami tactics’ that brought Communists to power in Eastern Europe

• FIVE causes [CABAN] and FOUR results [CENA] of the Berlin crisis, 1948–9.

• FIVE ‘Berlin Airlift Facts’.

• FOUR causes of the Korean War [CJD-Kim].

• FIVE phases of the Korean War, 1950–53.

• FOUR ways Khrushchev brought a ‘thaw’ in the Cold War.

• THREE ways ‘peaceful co-existence’ worsened the Cold War.

• EIGHT countries in the Warsaw Pact.