-
Period: to
Nato And The Warsaw Pact
The cold war brought tension into europe in the late 1950's. Stalin supported the spread of communism while other europeans and the U.S fought for the spread of democracy. In order to strengthen their defence, the U.S, Canada, and ten european countries formed the NATO (North Atlantic Trreaty Organization) , in 1949. In 1959 The soviet reacted by creating the Warsaw Pact. This was betweeen the Soviet Union and 7 other Soviet-led satalites in Eastern Europe. These were the two sides of the war. -
Period: to
Chinese Civil War
Communist conquer Tibet in 1950. The Dali Lama was forced to leave the country in 1959. Between 1958 an 1960, Mao led a program called The Great Leap Forward. He urged people to make a superhuman effort to increase farm and industrial output. Betwen 1959 and 1961, 55 million people were thought to have starved to death. In 1966, Mao launched the great proletarian Cultural Revolution. The goal of this was to purge China of Bourgeois tendencies. -
Period: to
Nuclear Arms Race And The Detante
The U.S building the A-Bomb was used as an incentive for the Soviets to reserch nuclear weaponry. The U.S and the USSR were fightingto be the number 1 country with nuclear power. Their was a growing fear because of the inventions of the new weaponry including the Hydrogen bomb. In 1972 and 1979, The two enemies sighned an aggreement to not fight because they knew that a Nuclear War would turn out devestating. Tension had stopped but came back in the war in Afghanastan in 1979. -
Period: to
Korean Conflict
In the early 1950's Kim I1 Sung called for a heroic struggle to reunite Korea. Troops from the U.S landed on the beaches around the port of Inch'on behind enemy lines in september 1950. These U.S troops quickly captured Korea's North-South rail lines and cut off North Korea from their supply of food and ammunition. In 1953, both sides formed an armistice to end the fighting. By the late 1960's Koreas economy had lept ahead of everyone else involved. -
Period: to
Communist Cuba and the Missle Crisis
Fidel Castro rallied an uprising against the corrupt dictator of the time. He eventully took power. Castro and his rebellion had began rebuilding Cuba. He took most land under government control. Castro wanted help from the Soviets. This angered the U.S. This caused JFK to support the Bay Of Pigs Invasion and enforced a trade embargo when the invasion failed. In 1962, the USSR sent nuclear missles to Cuba -
Period: to
The Soviet Union Falls Part 1
In 1956, Hungarians tried to break free of Soviet control. Krushchev sent tanks in to enforce obedience. Leonid Brezhnev did the same thing when the Czechs challenged the Soviets in the "Prague Spring" in 1968. In 1957 the government poured recorces into science and technology, lauching the first satalite called Sputnik. In 1979, The soviets became involved in the war in Afghanastan. In the mid 1980's, The American government began to smuggle modern weponry into Afghanastan.Continued.... -
Period: to
THE SOVIET UNION FALLS PT. 2
Mikhail Gorbachev came into power in 1985. He tried to bring about reforms. These changes quickly went out of control. By 1989, Eastern European countries from Poland and Bulgaria broke out of the Soviets orbit. Estonia, Lithuania,and Latvia gained full independence in 1991. By the end of 1991, the remaining Soviet Republics seperated to form 12 independent nations, in addition to the Baltic states. -
Period: to
Vietnam Conflict
South Vietnamese camandos conducted raids on North Vietnamese Islands in 1964. The next day, North Vietnamese had attacked a U.S ship, the Maddox because they tought it had helped out the Southern Vietnamese. On August 7, 1964 congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This authorized the president to take all necesary messures to prevent further aggression in southeast Asia. In 1968, gurilla forces came out of the jungles and attacked U.S and S. Vietnamese forces in cities across the south -
Period: to
Afgahnastan Conflict
In 1979 the Soviets became involved in a long war in afghanastan, an islamic country just south of the Soviet Union. By the mid 1980's the American government started to smuggle modern weponry to the Muslim religious warriors. -
The Berlin Wall
By the 1950's, Berlin had divided after WWII. This was between democrats and communists. Citizens in east Berlin Fled to the Democrats in the west. In order to keep people from going away from communism, the Soviets built a humungus wall built out of cement. This wall was very hevily guarded. -
Eastern European Independence
Revolts against the Soviets had erupted in Poland, Hungary, and Czhechloslavakia in the 50's-60's. Economic hardship and overpowering revolts forced The soviet Union to pull itself apart and give each part its own self-government. In 1992 Czhechloslavakia split into the Czhech Republic and Slovakia. This was the first time that Eastern European countries were free since 1939.
