Superpower relations and the two blocs
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Question
What does 'bipolar' mean in the Cold War?
Answer
A world dominated by two rival superpowers, the USA and the USSR, each leading its own bloc with its own alliance and economic system.
Question
What was NATO?
Answer
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization — the Western military alliance led by the USA, formed in 1949 to defend Western Europe.
Question
What was the Warsaw Pact?
Answer
The Soviet military alliance of Eastern European communist states, set up in 1955 to bind them to Moscow.
Question
Capitalism vs communism — the one-line contrast
Answer
Capitalism: private owners run business for profit. Communism: the state owns the economy and aims for equality.
Question
What is a sphere of influence?
Answer
A region a great power controls or heavily shapes. The USSR controlled Eastern Europe; the USA influenced Western Europe and beyond.
Question
What was the Iron Curtain?
Answer
The imaginary barrier splitting communist Eastern Europe from the capitalist West, named by Churchill in a famous 1946 speech.
Question
How did ideology intensify the Cold War?
Answer
Each side believed its system was best and the other was dangerous, making the rivalry feel like good against evil and hard to compromise.
Question
Give an example of Cold War propaganda success.
Answer
The 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first satellite, suggested communism could out-invent capitalism and shocked the USA.
Question
What is a proxy war? Give examples.
Answer
A conflict where rival powers back opposing sides instead of fighting directly — such as Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Question
How did the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) shape relations?
Answer
The 13-day nuclear standoff was the closest brush with war; the fear it caused pushed both sides towards détente in the 1970s.
Question
What was détente?
Answer
A deliberate easing of tension between the superpowers, mainly in the 1970s, including summits and arms-control deals like SALT.
Question
How could individual leaders change the rivalry?
Answer
Their personalities and choices raised or lowered tension — Stalin tightened control, while Gorbachev's openness helped end the Cold War peacefully.
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Topic 17.2 hub
Leaders and nations
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