Berlin Blockade free essay sample

Each place had a 90 second interval to land and deliver food, looting, oil and building materials, this was extremely difficult as the corridor was full of soviet planes yet by September, 4600 tones was being flown into West Berlin. Therefore the blockade was a failure for the USSR as they failed to keep the West out and ended up giving in as the West were persistent in not withdrawing and showing how strong capitalism was as a whole. One cause of the Berlin Blockade is that the cold war was worsening because of events such as the Prague Coup, Conform and the Truman Doctrine. The Prague Coup was a time in which the Communists took over Czechoslovakia hat would start the process of introducing the Marshall Plan and the policy of containment as the East had been allowed to take over and spread the communism sphere of influence. After the Truman Doctrine had been created, Conform was created by the Soviets in response to it and focused mainly on politics as politicians were linked to the Soviets and they had to do what Stalin wanted. This therefore was the start of Blockade as it was starting to show how opposite they were and what they had in mind for Europe was completely clashing with each others ideas.Another cause was the Aims for Germany as this was one of the most significant examples of disagreement between the West and East. The aims for Germany were first discussed at the Yalta conference in Feb./March 1945 and also at the Potsdam conference in July/August 1 945 and whereas Stalin wanted Germany to stay weak and divided so that this meant there was no threat to the USSR, the West (made up of Britain, France and the USA) wanted Germany to be prosperous again.This was because they were giving them money and food therefore damaging their economy but also because a wealthier and therefore stronger Germany loud mean that it could become the Wests first line of defense against the USSR. This signified that they wanted to speed up economic recovery of Germany. This was a cause of the Berlin Blockade because it was breaking both Yalta and Potsdam agreements as the West got scared and the East were pushing boundaries. Similarly to this, Begonia is also considered a cause of the Blockade as this was also going against the agreements of both conferences.Begonia was the unification of Britain and the Aquas zones in Germany. This made the rebuilding Of Germany easier and therefore made Germany stronger for any future attacks. This would have been a problem for the East and West because it scared Stalin as he believed it was a threat to attack. Therefore this was yet another problem that had aroused between the capitalists and communists as it was seen as tactic to rebuild Germany stronger than before putting everyone at risk if there was an attack. Another cause of the Blockade was investment in West Germany as this may have looked to Stalin as a chance of strengthening the economy and military as possibly a threat to the East. There were a number of things that made the investment more significant such as the Marshall Plan/Marshals Aid. Marshall Aid was to do with the containment of communism by helping all countries in Europe who wished for economic assistance including West Berlin. This was a tactic by the West to try and stop the countries struggling from turning to communism henceforth increasing Stalins communist sphere of influence across Europe.This would have made the West to look weaker than they actually were if the policy of containment hadnt been successful. Finally the last cause of the Berlin Blockade was the New Currency situation that occurred in the winter of 1947-48. There was a discussion on the introduction of a new currency between the East and West yet Stalin was completely opposed to the idea. Interestingly, the West went against Stalins feelings and introduced a new currency called the Deutsche. They didnt however; introduce the currency in West Berlin.The East, in retaliation, also introduced their own currency but also introduced it in East Berlin. This then led to the introduction of the Deutsche in West Berlin. This therefore suggested that now they were competing with each other for power and there now was a gig point of tension across the whole of Europe. These factors all led to the Berlin blockade because as a result of these, when the main autobahn was closed for repairs, the USSR stopped all rail traffic between the West and Berlin.It also suggested a build-up of tension and anger between the two sides that had been less noticeably present for quite some time yet had never been addressed before. The main reason for the Berlin blockade was Begonia and was a bigger reason that the cold war worsening, aims for Germany and new currency/investment in West Germany because this now meant that are owe two super sectors and meant that West Germany had a Western influence.This would anger Stalin because he might think that Germany is becoming stronger and being built back up by the West and prove a bigger threat to him. The Berlin Blockade was the first time that the former allies had ever come close to fighting each other and therefore the consequences of the airlift/blockade were enormous and damaging for any relationship the CSS and USSR had. One consequence of the blockade was the Arms Race as this showed significant fear and tension between Stalin and Truman.In 1 945, America developed the A-Bomb without the Soviets being informed, then in 1949, the Soviets had successfully managed to develop the A-Bomb; this happened 3-4 years earlier than expected by the Americans. This meant that both sides feared each other as they felt they were in danger and began to rapidly build up their armies and weapons in the 1 asss American doubled its air force and increased army to 3. 5 million men. As the arms race continued to develop as a fast pace, the H-Bomb was developed by the USA in 1952 and by 1 953 so had the Soviets. This again was much quicker than expected and showed the development within the USSR technology. Overall by the sasss both had the H-Bomb which could wipe out an entire city, 852 bombers (Americans) could com platelet destroy Moscow and if the Russians attacked America, roughly 20 million would die. A significant development In the Arms Race was when in 1957, the USSR developed Spics before America.This therefore showed that Arms Race had become increasingly competitive after the Berlin Blockade. Another consequence linked to the Arms Race was the development of NATO and the Warsaw Pact as this also showed increasing fear and distrust between the two sides. The North Atlantic Treaty Association (NATO) was an organization set up by the West to protect against the USSR. Originally 1 2 western states signed the pact and agreed that they would support the other if one was attacked.A major problem with NATO was that it only had 14 army divisions whereas the USSR and its allies had 173. The USSR condemned NATO by claiming that the west was preparing for war and then when West Germany were allowed to join, Stalin created the Warsaw Pact in 1955 as retaliation to NATO. All Eastern European countries mined except Yugoslavia and similarly to the terms in NATO, they would protect each other if they were attacked. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact were military alliances and based on collective security.This therefore showed that neither side actually trusted each other even though they used to be legalities a few years before, it showed the differences between them and highlighted how little they actually had in common in terms of working together. Also there is the fact that East and West German were created in 1949. May 1949 was the time when the western allies brought their zones gather to form the State Of West Germany commonly known as the FROG the Federal Republic of Germany.This then resulted in the eastern allies also bringing their zones together to form the state of East Germany officially known as the GIRD German democratic republic. Additionally to this, Berlin was also more divided than it used to be and therefore much like when West Germany was created by the western allies, West Berlin was created by Britain, America and France. To compete with this change in the West, the East Berliners were encouraged to start thinking of themselves as a part of East Germany by the USSR.This therefore suggests that there was a competition for power and control within Europe be;en the two of them and also it showed that all agreements in the past regarding Germany were off and that it was a case of trying to build up their individual empires. This can be linked to the Berlin wall because when Khr ushchev came into power, he saw that the GIRD, even though they remained loyal to the USSR, were fragile and struggling and were therefore often faced with a prosperous FROG and as a result of this, millions were fleeing over the border to have a happier fife within the ERG.