Postwar World

The Postwar World

c. 1900-Today

Objectives

Explain the historical context of the Cold War after 1945.
Explain the causes and effects of the ideological struggle of the Cold War.
Compare the ways in which the United States and the Soviet Union sought to maintain influence over the course of the Cold War.
Explain the causes and consequences of China’s adoption of communism.
Explain the causes and effects of movements to redistribute economic resources.
Explain the causes of the end of the Cold War.
Advances in U.S. military and technological development, the Soviet Union’s costly and ultimately failed invasion of Afghanistan, and public discontent and economic weakness in communist countries led to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Compare the processes by which various peoples pursued independence after 1900.
Explain how political changes in the period from c. 1900 to the present led to territorial, demographic, and nationalist developments.
Explain the economic changes and continuities resulting from the process of decolonization.
Explain various reactions to existing power structures in the period after 1900.

The Iron Curtain

Hopes for greater self-government were largely unfulfilled following World War I; however, in the years following World War II, increasing anti-imperialist sentiment contributed to the dissolution of empires and the restructuring of states.
Technological and economic gains experienced during World War II by the victorious nations shifted the global balance of power.
The global balance of economic and political power shifted during and after World War II and rapidly evolved into the Cold War. The democracy of the United States and the authoritarian communist Soviet Union emerged as superpowers, which led to ideological conflict and a power struggle between capitalism and communism across the globe.

Political cartoon depicting the expansion of Soviet influence over Eastern Europe.

labeling used on Marshall Plan aid

Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech during the 1963 March on Washington.

Castle Romeo thermonuclear test on Bikini Atoll.

1968 was a year of turbulent protests and riots around the world.

The Mercury and Apollo programs led to the first moon landing by American astronauts in 1969.

The Iron Curtain

East Asia, 1945-present

After World War II, Tokyo was completely rebuilt. Japan experienced tremendous growth during the Japanese economic miracle from 1945 to 1991.

"Turn China into a prosperous, rich and powerful industrialized socialist country under the leadership of the Communist Party and Chairman Mao!"

The Tiananmen Square protests, Beijing, China, 1989 challenged Communist Party rule, but were brutally repressed.

The Kim dynasty has ruled North Korea as a totalitarian state since 1945.

Satellite image of the Korean Peninsula at night, showing North Korea in almost complete darkness. Material shortages are widespread in the Hermit Kingdom.

As a result of internal tension and Japanese aggression, Chinese communists seized power. These changes in China eventually led to communist revolution.
In communist China, the government controlled the national economy through the Great Leap Forward, often implementing repressive policies, with negative repercussions for the population.

East Asia, 1945-present

Together China and India are home to more than 1/3 of the human population.

South Asia, 1945-present

Mohandas K. Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement, is one of the most celebrated figures of the 20th century.

Jawaharlal Nehru was Mohandas K. Gandhi's friend and successor. He was the first prime minister of independent India from 1947 to 1964.

Benazir Bhutto, a prime minister of Pakistan, was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation. She was assassinated in 2007 by al-Qaeda and Taliban Islamic extremists.

US military and political experts believed the Domino Theory that if communism took root in a Southeast Asian nation it would spread to neighboring countries.

images from the Vietnam War

The Cold War produced new military alliances, including NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and led to nuclear proliferation and proxy wars between and within postcolonial states in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Movements to redistribute land and resources developed within states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, sometimes advocating communism or socialism.
Groups and individuals, including the Non-Aligned Movement, opposed and promoted alternatives to the existing economic, political, and social orders.

South Asia, 1945-present

The Middle East, 1945-present

Israeli jets during the 1956 Suez Crisis. Israel fought neighboring Arab states in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Arab terrorist campaigns have continued against Israel since the 1979 Camp David Accords with Egypt.

American president Jimmy Carter mediated the Camp David Accords signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin.

Political cartoon of a mujahideen resistance fighter during the Soviet-Afghan War, 1979-1989

Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution.

The revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran relied on child-soldiers for its survival during the grueling Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1995

The 9/11 terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda led to the United States' Global War on Terror.

US marines toppling the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, Iraq (2003) shortly after the start of the Iraq War. Instability in Iraq led to the rise of ISIS.

Long-term Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi (1969-2011) was overthrown during the pro-democracy Arab Spring revolts.

The redrawing of political boundaries after the withdrawal of former colonial authorities led to the creation of new states.
The redrawing of political boundaries in some cases led to conflict as well as population displacement and/or resettlements, including those related to the Partition of India and the creation of the state of Israel.
In newly independent states after World War II, governments often took on a strong role in guiding economic life to promote development.
Although conflict dominated much of the 20th century, many individuals and groups— including states—opposed this trend. Some individuals and groups, however, intensified the conflicts.
Militarized states often responded to the proliferation of conflicts in ways that further intensified conflict.
Some movements used violence against civilians in an effort to achieve political aims.

U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other members of the national security team watch updates in the White House Situation Room during the 2011 special forces mission that killed Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the al-Qaeda terror network.

The Middle East, 1945-present

Africa, 1945-present

Gold Coast became the first British African colony to win independence in 1957. Under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, the new state called itself Ghana after the medieval empire of that name.

Tshibumba Kanda-Matulu painted key moments from Congo’s brutal colonial past, the fight for independence and later struggles for power.

Mobutu Sese Seko was the notoriously corrupt military dictator of Zaire (Congo) from 1965 to 1997, a period of widespread human rights violations during which he embezzled up to $15 billion from his people.

Idi Amin, dictator of Uganda (1971-1979), committed appalling acts of violence against his people. An estimated 300,000-500,000 civilians were killed by his regime.

Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress (ANC) party worked with F.W. de Klerk to dismantle the apartheid system. He became the first black prime minister of South Africa in 1994 after the ANC won the first genuinely democratic elections in the country's history.

Nationalist leaders and parties in Asia and Africa sought varying degrees of autonomy within or independence from imperial rule.
After the end of World War II, some colonies negotiated their independence, while others achieved independence through armed struggle.
Regional, religious, and ethnic movements challenged colonial rule and inherited imperial boundaries. Some of these movements advocated for autonomy.
The migration of former colonial subjects to imperial metropoles (the former colonizing country), usually in the major cities, maintained cultural and economic ties between the colony and the metropole even after the dissolution of empires.

Africa, 1945-present

Latin America, 1945-present

The beautiful Evita Peron, wife of Argentine president Juan Peron, campaigned for women and the poor during her time as First Lady of Argentina (1946-1952). Beloved by the masses, three million attended her funeral when she died of cancer at age 33.

Left-wing movement such as the Zapatistas, Sandinistas, FARC, and Shining Path have been suppressed by U.S.-backed counterrevolutionaries such as the Contras and right-wing dictators including Augusto Pinochet.

Images of Argentine communist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a key actor in the Cuban Revolution, are prolific symbols of socialist revolution throughout Latin America.

PEMEX, PDVSA, and Petrobras, the state-owned oil companies of Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil, are the three largest corporations in Latin America.

Brasilia was built between 1956 and 1960 to be the new federal capital of Brazil. It was designed by modernist architect Lúcio Costa.

Chilean right-wing military dictator meeting Augusto Pinochet with American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Pinochet waged a Dirty War against socialists and communists with heavy U.S. assistance through Operation Condor.

The Cold War produced new military alliances, including NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and led to nuclear proliferation and proxy wars between and within postcolonial states in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Movements to redistribute land and resources developed within states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, sometimes advocating communism or socialism.
Groups and individuals, including the Non-Aligned Movement, opposed and promoted alternatives to the existing economic, political, and social orders.

Latin America, 1945-present

Fall of Communism

Soviet intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile system

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991) introduced dramatic reforms that accelerated the USSR's collapse.

People hugged, kissed, sang, cheered, and cried as the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989 bringing a dramatic and joyous end to the Cold War. East and West Germany reunited into a single state on October 3, 1990.

Advances in U.S. military and technological development, the Soviet Union’s costly and ultimately failed invasion of Afghanistan, and public discontent and economic weakness in communist countries led to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The 1991-2008 breakup of Yugoslavia led to the genocidal Yugoslav Wars.

Fall of Communism

The European Union and Russia

Formed in the Cold War's wake in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, falling British support for the European Union led to the 2016 Brexit referendum to leave the EU.

France's large Muslim population, largely descended from France's former North African colonies, has clashed with French police and with French nationalists who argue that Islamic values are contradictory to traditional French liberal and Christian values.

Conflicts in African and the Middle East led to a humanitarian disaster as a flood of immigrants crossed the Mediterranean into Europe during the 2015 Refugee Crisis.

In newly independent states after World War II, governments often took on a strong role in guiding economic life to promote development.

Russia destroyed most of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, suppressing a Chechen independence movement in the 1990s-2000s.

The still under construction Moscow International Business Center is home to $12 billion of newly constructed skyscrapers. However, much of the office space sits empty.

Vladimir Putin has overseen a Russian resurgence with military expansion in the brief Georgian War, annexation of Crimea, and involvement in the Syrian Civil War.