Notes
The Cold War divides Europe
- After WWII, an "Iron Curtain" (Churchill) divided capitalist Western Europe from the Soviet-dominated East.
- The Marshall Plan rebuilt Western Europe. The Berlin Airlift (1948–1949), NATO (1949) and the Warsaw Pact (1955). The Berlin Wall went up in 1961.
- Soviet control was enforced by force: Hungary (1956) and the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia (1968) were crushed.
Western Europe after 1945
- Welfare states expanded: national health care in Britain (NHS), pensions, and unemployment insurance.
- European integration: the European Coal and Steel Community (1951), the European Economic Community (1957), and the European Union (Maastricht Treaty, 1992) with the euro.
- Decolonization: Britain left India (1947); France fought in Algeria (1954–1962). Many former colonial subjects migrated to Europe.
- Economic problems in the 1970s; Margaret Thatcher cut government's role and privatized industry.
The end of the Cold War
- Solidarity, a Polish labor movement led by Lech Wałęsa, challenged communism. Gorbachev's reforms (glasnost, perestroika) loosened control.
- 1989: revolutions across Eastern Europe, mostly peaceful (the Velvet Revolution). The Berlin Wall fell; Germany reunified (1990). The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
- Yugoslavia broke apart in ethnic wars in the 1990s, including genocide in Bosnia (Srebrenica, 1995).
Contemporary Europe
- EU expansion into Eastern Europe, debates over migration and national identity, and Brexit (Britain left the EU in 2020).
- Russia's invasion of Ukraine (2022) renewed tensions.
- Movements for women's rights, environmentalism, and LGBTQ+ rights; second-wave feminism (Simone de Beauvoir).
Practice
Churchill used the phrase in 1946.
It helped prevent communist gains.
Reformers sought "socialism with a human face."
Led by Lech Wałęsa.
It loosened central control.
It laid the foundation for the euro.
Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims fought.
She was a leading free-market conservative.
Free response
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Free-response question
Answer (a), (b) and (c).
(a) Describe ONE way the Soviet Union controlled Eastern Europe after World War II.
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It installed communist governments and used military force to crush reform movements, as in Hungary in 1956.
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(b) Explain ONE reason European countries pursued economic integration after 1945.
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To rebuild economies and prevent another war by tying countries like France and Germany together through shared industries (the Coal and Steel Community).
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(c) Explain ONE cause of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989.
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Gorbachev's reforms and his refusal to use force let reform movements like Solidarity succeed, while economic stagnation weakened public support for communism.
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