History | Major conflicts after WWII and attempts to make peace

Major Conflicts after WWII and the Quest for Peace

Hello everyone! Welcome to your study notes for one of the most dramatic periods in modern history. After World War II, the world hoped for peace, but instead, it entered a new era of tension and conflict. In this chapter, we'll explore the biggest stand-off ever, the Cold War between the USA and the USSR. We'll also look at other serious conflicts in the Middle East, the Balkans, and South Africa, and examine how the world, through the United Nations, tried to stop the fighting.

Why is this important? Because these events shaped the world we live in today! Understanding them helps us understand today's news, international politics, and the ongoing challenges of making peace. Let's get started!

Part 1: The Cold War - A Battle of Superpowers (1945-1991)

What was the Cold War?

The Cold War was a long period of intense political rivalry, tension, and competition between the two new superpowers after WWII: the United States (USA) and the Soviet Union (USSR). It's called "cold" because the two main rivals never fought a direct, large-scale "hot" war against each other.

Analogy Alert! Think of it like a huge rivalry between two school teams that absolutely hate each other. They never have a massive all-out brawl in the playground (a "hot war"), but they compete in everything else: they try to get more students to join their side, they spread rumours about each other (propaganda), they sponsor smaller teams to compete (proxy wars), and they constantly build up their strength to intimidate the other (arms race).

Key Players and Their Beliefs:

• Team USA (The "West"): Believed in Capitalism (private ownership, free markets) and Democracy (people choose their government).

• Team USSR (The "East"): Believed in Communism (government owns everything, aims for a classless society, one-party rule).

These two ideologies were complete opposites, and both sides wanted to spread their own system around the world. This clash of ideas is the root cause of the Cold War.

Origins of the Cold War (Why did it start?)

Don't worry if this seems tricky at first. The Cold War didn't start on a single day. It was a gradual breakdown of trust. Here are the main reasons:

1. Ideological Differences: As we saw, Capitalism and Communism are fundamentally opposed. The USA feared a global communist revolution, while the USSR feared capitalist countries would try to destroy it.

2. Post-WWII Disagreements: The "Big Three" allies (USA, USSR, UK) defeated Nazi Germany together, but they couldn't agree on what to do with Europe afterwards. At conferences like Yalta and Potsdam, they argued over the future of Germany and Eastern Europe.

3. Soviet Expansion in Eastern Europe: Stalin's Soviet army had freed Eastern European countries from the Nazis, but it never left. The USSR set up communist "satellite states" in countries like Poland, Hungary, and East Germany to create a "buffer zone" to protect itself from a future invasion. To the West, this looked like an aggressive empire-building. Winston Churchill famously called this dividing line the "Iron Curtain".

4. US Response - Containment: The US President, Harry Truman, decided the USA had to stop the spread of communism. This policy was called containment.

• The Truman Doctrine (1947): The US promised to give money and military help to any country threatened by a communist takeover (starting with Greece and Turkey).

• The Marshall Plan (1948): The US gave massive amounts of money to help rebuild war-torn Western Europe. The idea was that if countries were economically stable, they wouldn't be tempted by communism.

Quick Review: Origins of the Cold War

Think of the acronym I.D.E.A.S. to remember the causes:
Ideological differences (Capitalism vs. Communism)
Disagreements after WWII (Yalta/Potsdam)
Expansion of the USSR in Eastern Europe ("Iron Curtain")
American response (Containment: Truman Doctrine & Marshall Plan)
Suspicion and distrust on both sides

Development and Characteristics of the Cold War

The Cold War wasn't just a staring contest. It had several key features:

Characteristic 1: Bipolar World & Two Blocs

The world was divided into two camps, or "blocs", led by the two superpowers.

• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), 1949: A military alliance led by the USA. Members (like the UK, France, Canada) promised to defend each other if one was attacked. It was based on collective security for the capitalist world.

• Warsaw Pact, 1955: The Soviet Union's response to NATO. It was a military alliance of the USSR and its communist satellite states in Eastern Europe.

Characteristic 2: Arms Race & M.A.D.

Both sides built up huge armies and terrifying new weapons. The most dangerous part was the nuclear arms race. After the USA used atomic bombs in 1945, the USSR developed its own in 1949. Then they both developed even more powerful hydrogen bombs.

This led to a scary idea called M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction). This meant that if one side launched a nuclear attack, the other side would still have enough weapons to strike back and destroy them completely. This fear of total annihilation is what prevented a direct "hot war".

Characteristic 3: Proxy Wars

Since they couldn't fight directly, the superpowers fought indirectly by supporting opposite sides in other conflicts around the world. These were the proxy wars.

• Example 1: The Berlin Blockade & Airlift (1948-49): The USSR blocked all land access to West Berlin (controlled by the Allies but deep inside Soviet-controlled East Germany) to try and force the West out. Instead of starting a war, the US and its allies flew in supplies for nearly a year, forcing the Soviets to back down. This was an early Cold War showdown.

• Example 2: The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962): The USSR secretly put nuclear missiles in Cuba, just off the coast of the USA. When the US found out, the world held its breath for 13 days, fearing nuclear war. It was the closest the world ever came to a hot war. Eventually, the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a US promise not to invade Cuba.

Did you know? The "Space Race" was another part of the Cold War competition. When the USSR launched the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, it terrified the USA, who thought the Soviets were technologically superior. This pushed the US to create NASA and eventually land a man on the moon in 1969 to prove its own power.

Détente: A Thaw in the Cold War

By the late 1960s and 1970s, both sides were exhausted by the tension and cost of the Cold War. The Cuban Missile Crisis had scared everyone. This led to a period of easing tensions called Détente (a French word for "relaxation").

Key events of Détente:

• SALT I Treaty (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), 1972: The USA and USSR agreed to limit the number of certain types of nuclear missiles they had. It was a first step in controlling the arms race.

• US President Nixon visits China and the USSR: These visits opened up communication and improved relations.

Détente ended in 1979 when the USSR invaded Afghanistan, and tensions rose again.

The End of the Cold War & Collapse of the USSR

The Cold War ended suddenly between 1989 and 1991. How did this happen?

Factor 1: Internal Problems in the USSR

The Soviet communist economy was a disaster. There were shortages of food and basic goods. The government was spending a huge amount of money on the military to keep up with the USA, which it couldn't afford. People were unhappy.

Factor 2: Gorbachev's Reforms

In 1985, a new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power. He knew the USSR needed to change or it would collapse. He introduced two radical new policies:

• Glasnost (Openness): Allowed more freedom of speech and press. For the first time, people could openly criticize the government.

• Perestroika (Restructuring): Tried to reform the communist economy by allowing some small private businesses.

Analogy Alert! Gorbachev's reforms were like opening the windows of a stuffy, old house. It let in fresh air, but it also revealed all the cracks and rot in the walls, and the sudden wind helped knock the whole thing down.

Factor 3: Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe

Gorbachev also announced that the USSR would no longer use its army to keep the communist governments of Eastern Europe in power. Inspired by this and by "Glasnost", people across Eastern Europe rose up and demanded change.

The most famous event was the Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. For decades it had been the most powerful symbol of the Cold War division. When it came down, it signalled the end was near.

The Final Collapse

The new freedoms led to nationalist movements inside the Soviet Union itself, with many republics wanting independence. After a failed coup by old-style communists in August 1991, the Soviet Union fell apart. On December 25, 1991, the USSR officially ceased to exist. The Warsaw Pact was dissolved, and the Cold War was over.

Key Takeaway for Part 1

The Cold War was a 45-year global struggle between the USA and the USSR, driven by ideology. It was characterized by military alliances (NATO vs. Warsaw Pact), an arms race, and proxy wars. It ended due to internal weakness in the USSR, Gorbachev's reforms, and popular revolutions in Eastern Europe.

Part 2: Other Major Conflicts & Peace Efforts

The Cold War dominated world politics, but it wasn't the only major conflict. Let's look at three important regional conflicts and the attempts to make peace.

The Arab-Israeli Conflict

Causes (Why did it start?)

This is a complex conflict over land, not just religion. Both Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs have deep historical and religious ties to the same piece of land.

• Zionism & Immigration: In the late 19th century, the Zionist movement began, calling for a Jewish national homeland in their ancestral land (then called Palestine). Jewish immigration to the area increased.

• UN Partition Plan (1947): After WWII, Britain gave the problem to the newly formed United Nations. The UN voted to partition Palestine into two states: one Arab and one Jewish. The Jewish leaders accepted the plan, but the Arab leaders and surrounding Arab nations rejected it.

• Creation of Israel (1948): Israel declared its independence in 1948. Immediately, five neighbouring Arab countries attacked it.

Development (What happened next?)

This first war in 1948 was the start of a cycle of wars and violence.

• Major Wars: Israel won the 1948 war and several later wars, including the Six-Day War (1967), where it captured significant territory (the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights), and the Yom Kippur War (1973).

• Ongoing Issues: The wars created a huge number of Palestinian refugees. The conflict has continued over issues like the status of the captured territories, Israeli settlements, and the Palestinian demand for their own independent state.

Attempts at Peace

The United Nations has been heavily involved from the beginning. It has passed many resolutions (like UN Resolution 242, calling for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in 1967 in exchange for peace) and has sent peacekeeping forces to monitor ceasefires. However, its efforts have had limited success in achieving a final peace settlement.

Racial Conflicts in the Balkans (The Yugoslav Wars)

Background: What was Yugoslavia?

Yugoslavia was a country in the Balkans created after WWI. It was a mix of different ethnic groups (Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Slovenes, etc.) and religions (Orthodox Christian, Catholic, Muslim). For decades, they were held together by the strong communist leader, Marshal Tito.

Causes (Why did it fall apart?)

• Death of Tito (1980): The "glue" holding the country together was gone.

• Collapse of Communism (late 1980s): This weakened the central government and the idea of a unified country.

• Rise of Nationalism: With Tito and communism gone, old ethnic rivalries exploded. Ambitious leaders, especially Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević, stirred up nationalist hatred. Different republics wanted to become independent countries.

Development (The Wars of the 1990s)

When republics like Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence, the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav army tried to stop them. This led to a series of brutal wars.

A key feature of the Bosnian War (1992-95) was "ethnic cleansing". This is a horrifying term for using violence, murder, and terror to drive an entire ethnic group out of an area. The most infamous example was the Srebrenica massacre, where Bosnian Serb forces killed over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Attempts at Peace

The United Nations sent peacekeeping forces (the "Blue Helmets"), but they were often powerless to stop the fighting and atrocities like Srebrenica. The UN also imposed economic sanctions on Serbia. Ultimately, it took NATO military intervention (air strikes) to force the warring sides to sign a peace agreement, the Dayton Accords, in 1995.

Common Mistake to Avoid: Don't just say "the Balkan conflict". Be specific! The conflicts involved the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the worst fighting was the Bosnian War, driven by aggressive nationalism and ethnic cleansing.

Apartheid in South Africa

What was Apartheid?

Apartheid (an Afrikaans word for "apartness") was a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. Its goal was to keep the races separate and maintain white political and economic control.

Development (What was it like?)

• System of Segregation: Black South Africans (and other non-white groups) were denied basic rights. They had to carry pass books, live in separate areas called "townships", use separate beaches, schools, and hospitals, and were not allowed to vote.

• Resistance: The main group fighting against apartheid was the African National Congress (ANC). One of its leaders was Nelson Mandela. After peaceful protests were met with violence from the government (like the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960), the ANC turned to armed struggle. Mandela was arrested and spent 27 years in prison, becoming a global symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle.

Attempts at Peace / The End of Apartheid

The end of apartheid was achieved through both internal resistance and massive international pressure.

• Role of the United Nations: The UN strongly condemned apartheid year after year. It imposed an arms embargo and called for comprehensive economic sanctions, isolating South Africa from the world community.

• Global Movement: People around the world protested. There were famous boycotts of South African sports teams and products. Many companies stopped doing business there.

This pressure worked. In 1990, the South African President F.W. de Klerk started to dismantle apartheid laws and freed Nelson Mandela from prison. In 1994, South Africa held its first-ever elections where all races could vote. Nelson Mandela was elected president, completing a remarkable and peaceful transition to democracy.

The Role of the United Nations in Peace-making

As we've seen in these examples, the UN is the world's main organization for trying to make peace. But how well does it work?

The UN's Peace-making "Tools":

1. Diplomacy & Mediation: Acting as a neutral negotiator and passing Security Council resolutions to condemn actions or propose solutions (e.g., in the Arab-Israeli conflict).

2. Sanctions: Imposing economic or military penalties to pressure a country to change its behaviour (e.g., the arms embargo and economic sanctions on South Africa).

3. Peacekeeping Forces: Deploying soldiers from member countries (the "Blue Helmets") to monitor ceasefires and create a buffer between warring parties (e.g., in the Balkans and the Middle East).

Assessing the UN's Role: Successes and Limitations

The UN's record is mixed. It's a vital organization, but it has major weaknesses.

• Successes: The UN played a crucial role in coordinating international pressure that helped end apartheid in South Africa. Its peacekeeping missions have successfully kept the peace in some conflicts.

• Limitations:

- The Veto Power: The five permanent members of the Security Council (USA, Russia, China, UK, France) can veto any major decision. During the Cold War, the USA and USSR constantly vetoed each other's proposals, paralyzing the UN.

- No Army of its Own: The UN relies on member states to voluntarily provide troops and funding. Sometimes, countries are unwilling to send their soldiers into dangerous situations.

- Limited Mandates: UN Peacekeepers are often only allowed to use force in self-defence. They are not an army of invasion. This is why they couldn't stop the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.

Key Takeaway for Part 2

After WWII, major conflicts erupted over land, nationalism, and race in places like the Middle East, the Balkans, and South Africa. The United Nations tried to make peace using diplomacy, sanctions, and peacekeeping forces. While it had some successes (like helping to end apartheid), its effectiveness was often limited by the political interests of powerful nations (especially the Security Council veto) and its lack of enforcement power.