The Cold War was a conflict between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, from the end of World War II until 1991.
The Cold War was the political-ideological conflict that was established between the United States and the Soviet Union after the Second World War . This polarization marked the world from March 12, 1947 (date of Truman’s speech, then president of the USA, announcing the war against communism) to December 26, 1991 (date of Gorbachev’s resignation, the last Soviet president), causing several conflicts in other countries, such as the wars in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan, in addition to the division of others, such as Germany, which even had its capital divided (by the Berlin Wall).
In Latin America, the Cold War caused the USA, via the CIA, to sponsor several dictatorships, including the Brazilian one, which lasted more than 20 years. The end of the Cold War only happened with the end of the USSR , and its main consequences were: the establishment of capitalism as the only world order and the creation of new countries in Asia and Eastern Europe.
The Cold War was a direct consequence of the end of the Second World War and how the world was shaped after that conflict, with the dispute between two powers with completely different political and economic models: on the one hand, the United States (USA), capitalist , and, on the other, the socialist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Both sought to conquer new countries under their rule and establish a new global hegemony.
The most important events of the Cold War were: the Korean War; the Chinese Revolution; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Vietnam War; and the War in Afghanistan.
The German country was a critical point in the conflict, as polarization was most explicitly manifested there , which divided it into zones of influence at the end of the Second World War. Thus, East Germany emerged, linked to the USSR, and West Germany, linked to the USA. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRA) corresponded to West Germany; and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), to East Germany. This separation had repercussions on the capital, Berlin, from 1961 onwards, being divided by a wall.Don’t stop now… There’s more after the advertising 😉
The Berlin Wall existed for almost three decades . It was built by East Germany, with support from the USSR, since the capital was on the Western side, which led to several population flights to the other side. Its fall, in 1989, was one of the greatest symbols of the decline of the USSR, the reopening and the end of the Cold War.
With the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War, Brazil became part of the new world order that divided the world, the capitalist bloc. Despite this, João Goulart, then president, began to apply, from 1961 onwards, a different foreign policy. To this end, he supported student, peasant, popular and trade union movements. He also sought to get closer to the USSR, which generated conflicts with Brazilian military, political and economic forces.
Furthermore, at the beginning of 1964, he proclaimed a series of social reforms (among them, agrarian reform, for example), called basic reforms. The Brazilian bourgeoisie, influenced by the USA, attacked this policy, generating coup plots, which culminated in the 1964 coup , starting the Brazilian Military Dictatorship , which lasted more than 20 years.
The Soviet economy, from 1970 onwards, began its crisis . The aforementioned War in Afghanistan contributed to the decline of the superpower, just as Chernobyl , the nuclear accident in 1986, caused the State to spend a lot and also lose (even more) prestige on the world diplomatic stage. In this way, a plan to reopen the country began to be drawn up, but its end only came at the end of 1991, with the resignation of Gorbachev , responsible for perestroika and glasnost (economic and political opening measures in the USSR).
Conflicts between communists and capitalists by this time had also cooled down, which facilitated the opening to the West, especially economically. With the end of the Soviet Union, the Cold War also ended.
With the end of the Cold War and the USSR, small countries were formed in Eastern Europe — such as Yugoslavia, Slovakia, Slovenia, etc. — and in other regions of the planet — such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The Soviet Union itself became Russia again.
Another consequence of the Cold War was that, economically, the European Union was formed by the capitalist countries of Western Europe and Comecon (socialist nations of Eastern Europe). In the military field, in turn, we can highlight the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, led by the USA. Finally, the previous polarization became a generalized capitalist regime.
Winston Churchill was born in November 1874 and died in January 1965, in England, where…
The Hittites were an Indo-European people who lived in the second millennium BC. BC established…
The Library of Alexandria housed the knowledge of Antiquity. There were not only books, but also…
The Swan Song was a legend possibly created in Ancient Greece to refer to a…
The origin of Wall Street dates back to the attempted colonization process of the USA…