Cold War Europe — West and East
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Question
What is NATO and when was it founded?
Answer
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance of the USA, Canada, and Western European states founded in April 1949, built on collective defence (Article 5).
Question
What event directly triggered the founding of NATO?
Answer
The Berlin Blockade (1948–49), which convinced Western leaders the USSR was expansionist and Western Europe needed a collective defence alliance.
Question
What was the EEC and when was it created?
Answer
The European Economic Community, created by the Treaty of Rome in 1957, forming a tariff-free common market between France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
Question
Give two rival explanations for why the EEC was founded.
Answer
1) Genuine idealism for lasting peace through interdependence (Monnet, Schuman). 2) Cold War necessity — building a strong bloc to resist Soviet pressure and stay loyal to the USA.
Question
How did relations between Western Europe and the USA change over time?
Answer
From dependent gratitude (Marshall Plan, late 1940s) to friction (de Gaulle pulled France out of NATO's integrated command in 1966) to renewed alignment under Cold War pressure (1979 dual-track missile decision).
Question
What were 'salami tactics'?
Answer
The method Soviet-backed communist parties used to seize power in Eastern Europe gradually — sharing coalition government first, then purging rivals, then banning opposition entirely, 1945–48.
Question
What was the Warsaw Pact and why was it founded in 1955?
Answer
A Soviet-led military alliance of the USSR and seven Eastern European states, founded in May 1955 directly in response to West Germany joining NATO.
Question
What was COMECON and what was its real economic effect?
Answer
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1949), the USSR's answer to the Marshall Plan; in practice it forced economic specialisation and unequal trade that mostly benefited the USSR over its satellite states.
Question
Give one example of the social impact of Soviet control in the East.
Answer
Surveillance by secret police such as East Germany's Stasi, censorship of media, restricted travel, and the Berlin Wall (built 1961) preventing citizens leaving.
Question
Why could Josip Broz Tito defy Stalin in 1948 when other Eastern European leaders could not?
Answer
Yugoslavia was liberated by Tito's own communist partisans, not the Red Army, so no Soviet troops occupied the country and Tito had his own military and political base independent of Moscow.
Question
What was 'Titoism'?
Answer
Tito's independent path to socialism after breaking from Moscow in 1948, including worker self-management in factories rather than strict Soviet-style central planning.
Question
Name three instances of opposition to Soviet control that were crushed by force.
Answer
The East German uprising (1953), the Hungarian Revolution (1956), and the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia (1968) — all suppressed by Soviet or Warsaw Pact forces.
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Full study notes for Cold War Europe — West and East
Topic 13.12 hub
Europe during and after the Cold War (1945–2020)
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