International Relations: the changing international order 1918–1975 - The Cold War in Europe 1945–1961: Rising Tensions — OCR GCSE History

After 1945 the wartime alliance broke down and a new order took shape around two superpowers, the USA and the USSR. Europe divided into a Western bloc tied to the USA through NATO (1949) and an Eastern bloc dominated by the USSR, while Germany and Berlin were split into occupation zones. Outside Europe, decolonisation created new independent states, and conflicts such as Korea (1950–1953) showed the rivalry spreading beyond the continent. The nuclear arms race, with the USA using atomic bombs in 1945 and the USSR testing its own device in 1949, raised the stakes of every confrontation. Consequences include the division of Europe, the formation of rival alliances, proxy wars and a lasting fear of nuclear war. A good answer links each change to a specific consequence rather than listing events loosely.

Between 1945 and 1948 the USSR consolidated control over Eastern Europe. Soviet forces occupied much of the region at the end of the war, and communist governments loyal to Moscow were established, often called satellite states. The conferences at Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam (July–August 1945) set out agreements on the future of Germany and Europe, but growing disagreement, especially over Poland and Germany, widened the split. The USA and its allies responded with containment: the Truman Doctrine (1947) offered support to states resisting communism, and the Marshall Plan (1947) provided economic aid to rebuild Western Europe. These responses deepened the division of Europe. A strong answer links each Soviet action to a specific Western response and shows how the conferences contributed to mistrust.

This topic covers three linked developments in the early Cold War. First, the division of Germany: the wartime Allies split Germany and Berlin into zones, and the Western zones moved towards a separate West German state while the Soviet zone became East Germany. Second, the Truman Doctrine (1947) committed the USA to containing communism by supporting threatened states, and the Marshall Plan (1948) gave economic aid to rebuild Western Europe. Third, the Berlin Blockade (1948–49), when Stalin cut land routes to West Berlin, was answered by the Berlin Airlift, in which Western aircraft supplied the city until the blockade was lifted. Learn what each event was, who acted, and how each raised East–West tension.

This topic covers how two rival military alliances formed in the early Cold War. NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) was set up in 1949 by the USA, Britain, Canada and other Western states, pledging collective defence so that an attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all. When West Germany was brought into NATO in 1955, the Soviet Union responded by forming the Warsaw Pact with its Eastern European satellite states, creating a matching collective-defence alliance. Together the two alliances divided Europe into opposing armed blocs and deepened Cold War tension. Learn the founding year, the leading members and the trigger for each alliance, and how each alliance increased suspicion between East and West.

This topic asks you to know why the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and to explain its consequences for relations between the superpowers. Learn the background: after 1945 Germany was divided, and Berlin lay deep inside the Soviet zone but was itself split into sectors. By 1961 around three million East Germans had left for the West, many through Berlin, which weakened the East German state. In August 1961 the East German authorities, with Soviet backing, sealed the border and built the Wall. Study the effects: it stopped the refugee flow, it became a symbol of a divided Europe, and it reduced direct confrontation over Berlin while hardening the division between East and West. Link each cause and effect with clear agents and dates.