HI 112

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HI 112

• Raffael Scheck
• 7

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The Start of the Cold War
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Background

• Neither side initially wanted a confrontation.
  The division of Germany and Europe was no
  foregone conclusion
• But the differences between the Soviet Union and
  the western victors were irreconcilable from the
  start (democracy, capitalism)

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Initial Understandings

• American forces will withdraw by 1947
• Soviet Union moderates its policies so as not to
  endanger American withdrawal and because it
  believes French and Italian Communists will take
  power
• U.S., Soviet Union, Britain, and France take
  occupation zones in Germany and Austria but agree
  to a common administration of both countries
• Soviets hint that they will respect democracy and
  the exiled prewar governments in Eastern Europe
• Delineation of zones of influence

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The Understandings Unravel (1945-48)

• Incompatibility of Soviet interests (security,
  economy) with democracy in Eastern Europe
• Soviet frustration with their share of Germany
• Fallout over the Civil War in Greece
• Truman Doctrine, 1947
• Soviets oust all non-communist members of
  governments in Eastern Europe and manipulate
  elections
• Marshall Plan 1948

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What to Do With Germany?

• Soviet Union annexes a part of East Prussia and
  insists on a move of Poland to the west.
  Consequence deportation of 10 million Germans
• Potsdam Conference, July-August 1945 commitment
  to a democratic, demilitarized, and denazified
  Germany administered by the four powers
• Problems with the ex-territoriality of the
  western sectors of Berlin
• The West consolidates its sectors in response to
  economic problems
• Soviet reaction The Berlin Blockade 1948-49
• Foundation of two German states, 1949

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Germany in 1945
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The Big Three at the Potsdam Conference (1945)
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(No Transcript)
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The Berlin Blockade
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Divided Europe
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Conclusions

• An Iron Curtain runs through Europe and cuts
  through Germany and Berlin
• Democracy and close ties to the United States
  prevail in most of Western Europe
• Stalinist puppet regimes are firmly in power in
  most of Eastern Europe
• Europe becomes a battleground of the Cold War -
  from subject to object of world history
• Both halves of Europe begin to unite - with close
  military and economic ties to their respective
  superpower ally

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Western Europe During the Cold War
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The Integration of Western Europe

• Motivated by Marshall Plan and desire to overcome
  old divisions
• Pooling of coal and steel resources the European
  Coal and Steel Community (ECSC, 1951)
• Defense cooperation (NATO)
• The Treaty of Rome, 1957. Creation of a European
  Economic Community (EEC), but vision of a union
  in all aspects
• Franco-German reconciliation as the motor of
  European integration
• The enlargement of the EEC/EC

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Robert Schuman
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The European Coal and Steel Community
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De Gaulle and Adenauer
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The Treaty of Rome 1957
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The Flag of the European Community/European Union
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NATO Members (1949-2004)
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Milestones Of Western European Integration During
the Cold War

• 1948 Marshall Plan
• 1949 NATO
• 1951 European Coal and Steel Community, ECSC (It,
  Fr, West Germany, Benelux countries)
• 1957 European Economic Community (Treaty of Rome)
• 1973 Accession of Great Britain, Ireland, and
  Denmark to the EEC (now renamed European
  Community, EC)
• 1981 Accession of Greece to the EC
• 1986 Accession of Spain and Portugal to the EC

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Decolonization

• Background frustration of non-European states
  with the Versailles peace order
• Growing independence movements in the European
  colonies Marxist ideology and democratic
  principles
• World War II shakes up the colonies and weakens
  ties to Europe
• Peaceful dissolution of most of the British
  Empire 1945-60
• Less peaceful dissolution of the French Empire
  (conflicts in Vietnam and Algeria) 1950-62

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Indian Independence (1946)
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French Defeat in Dien Bien Phu (1954)
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The Algerian War, 1954-1962
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Eastern Europe During the Cold War
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What Was Similar in East and West?

• Recovery and reconstruction, albeit on a much
  lower level in the East
• Lasting peace
• Strong international cooperation, albeit forced,
  not voluntary (COMECON Warsaw Pact)
• Promise of access to consumer goods - although
  much less successful in the East

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What Was Different in the East?

• Total state control over the economy
• Full employment but low productivity
• Control of education and careers
• Social security and universal medicare, but at
  very low quality
• Exploitation by the Soviet Union
• Industrialization, but ailing agriculture
• Consumer sector remains a great source of
  frustration due to shortages and low-quality
  products (examples refrigerators, bananas,
  radios, Trabant)
• Repression secret police censorship

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The Trabant
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Phase I Reconstruction 1945-1953

• Rebuilding of destroyed areas
• Beginnings of land reform in Eastern Europe
  (collectivization of agriculture forced
  industrialization)
• Tight political control under Stalin
• Military-industrial achievements (nuclear power)

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Phase II Post-Stalinism 1953-64

• Destalinization Attack on Stalin Cult but not on
  the flaws of the system
• Stalins death sends false signals to fellow
  communist countries (GDR, Hungary)
• Khrushev emerges as successor by 1956
• Berlin crisis 1961
• Cuban missile crisis

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East Berlin, 1953
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Phase III Stagnation 1964-85

• Brezhnev rule of the apparatchiks premium on
  loyalty of party bureaucrats rather than
  performance
• Intensified corruption and mismanagement
• Economic crisis worsens but is kept largely
  secret
• Repression of Prague Spring, 1968
• Arms race with U.S.
• Invasion of Afghanistan, 1979

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Phase IV Acknowledgment of Crisis 1985-89

• Gorbachev
• Perestroika restructuring of the economy toward
  liberalization of trade and services
• Glasnost transparency in political discourse
• Confrontation with the Stalinist past
• Yet reforms are hesitant and exacerbate the
  crisis. Vision of becoming a wealthy welfare
  state like Sweden is ludicrous

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Anti-Soviet Uprisings
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The Revolutions of 1989
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The 1980s A Decade of Stress in the Communist
Countries

• Economic crisis
• Astronomic debt to the West
• Demand for democratization and peaceful reform
• Defensive Communist parties
• The Solidarity movement in Poland under Lech
  Walesa - repressed in 1981 but still vital in
  1988

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The East German Problem

• Comparison to the West widespread desire to
  leave
• Trabi treck through Hungary and Austria, summer
  1989
• Mass protests in Leipzig (Monday Demonstrations)
  we are the people
• Conservative Communist Regime. Gloomy 40th
  anniversary celebration in October 1989

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The Specter of Tiananmen Square

• Massacre in Beijing on 4 June 1989 Peoples
  Liberation Army crushes pro-democracy protest by
  students
• Signal for Eastern Europe?

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The Collapse of the Soviet Bloc

• Polish government opens round table meetings
  with Solidarity - 1988
• Hungarian communists dismantle iron curtain with
  Austria - Summer 1989
• Opening of the German Wall, 9 November 1989
• Peaceful revolutions except in Romania

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Summary

• Eastern European communist regimes, pressed hard
  by economic crisis, sooner or later make
  concessions to vast popular movements for reform.
  They give up their power monopoly peacefully and
  concede democratization
• Decisive the Soviet Union no longer takes an
  interest in keeping up bloody repression. Eastern
  European Reform Communists take advantage of the
  new latitude

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Europe Since the 1990s
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The Reunification of Germany

• From we are the people to we are ONE people
• Currency reform 11 - July 1990
• Rush to German unity - 3 October 1990
• Economic and social collapse in the East

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The Allied Foreign Ministers Agree to German
Unification
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Mercedes Embraces Trabi
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The Dissolution of the Soviet Union

• Glasnost and economic crisis strengthen
  centrifugal tendencies
• Attempted Putsch to reinstate hard-line
  communism, August 1991
• Russian President Yeltsin as key figure
• Dissolution of Soviet Union for the sake of a
  Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
  November 1991

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Russia After 1991
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Widening and Deepening the EU

• Treaty of Maastricht, 1992/1996
• Introduction of the Euro, 2002
• Europe of the 25 (2004)
• Critique and Achievement

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The European Union Today
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A Bitter Tune National Hatreds Revived

• The violent dissolution of Yugoslavia, 1992-98
• Demand for national self-determination and
  democracy
• Serb minorities in Croatia and Bosnia - cicil war
  1992-95
• Albanian-Serb tensions in Kosovo. NATO
  intervention 1999

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Present Issues

• Environment
• Americanization
• Immigration
• Birth rate
• Crisis of the welfare state
• European integration as a model of international
  cooperation?
• Europe as a distinct type of modernity?

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Conclusions
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Europe Today Roles and Tasks

• Preserving a rich historical heritage
• Protecting democracy and liberty
• Ally of the United States - but with different
  priorities
• Being open for an environmentally conscious and
  socially generous society

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A little trip to my home town Freiburg im
Breisgau
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At the edge of the Black Forest
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Into town
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Modernity and history
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The market place
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The Cathedral
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lets get a coffee and dessert!