Western and Eastern Blocs

Cold War Conflicts HIST 1301 | History Western and Eastern Blocs In 1948, tensions that had been brewing between the US and the USSR throughout the latter part of the 1940s reached a breaking point. The United States, Britain, and France intended to reunite the three areas of Germany they had occupied since the conclusion of World War II because they believed a strong Germany was essential to Europe's economic recovery and a crucial bulwark against the rise of communism. When combined, these zones would be far larger, wealthier, and more populous than the Soviet zone. They would also contribute significantly to the postwar European economy by using the same currency. The Soviet Union protested because it wanted to keep Germany weak and divided. It left the Allied Control Council, which oversaw Allied operations in Germany, in March 1948. To distribute Marshall Plan funding, the United States and the United Kingdom launched the Deutschemark, a new currency, into their zones and the western parts of Berlin that they occupied in June. The Soviet Union, enraged, closed off all land access to West Berlin. By road, train, or canal, no fuel or food could reach the city. The Western Allies were to be starved out by the Soviets in order to give up their hold on parts of Berlin and the Soviet zone as a whole. The United States and the United Kingdom quickly developed preparations to feed the beleaguered city by plane after realising that the only option to get across the blockade was by air. They conducted the Berlin Airlift for over a year, a massive operation that saw an American or British jet take off from Berlin's Tempelhof Airport once every 45 seconds. In May 1949, the Soviets lifted the embargo after realising they were unable to overcome the determination of the Western Allies. A fortnight later, the occupation zones of the Western Allies were brought together to establish the Federal Republic of Germany, popularly known as West Germany, with Bonn serving as its capital. Then, in an effort to prevent future Soviet invasion, the Western Allies took one further action. By signing the Treaty of Brussels in 1948, Belgium, France, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom formed a military alliance to be protected from the Soviet Union. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), an alliance for military support and mutual defence, was formed in 1949, just before the lifting of the Berlin blockade, by the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. The other members pledged to defend each other should any of the members come under assault. The democratic capitalist nations that joined NATO came together to establish the bloc, or Western Bloc—a collection of nations brought together by a shared goal. The Eastern Bloc, which was made up of the Soviet Union and its allies, was attempting to expand communism throughout Europe, while the Western Bloc rejected this. The Soviet Union established the Warsaw Treaty Organisation, often known as the Warsaw Pact, as a military and political partnership in 1955 when West Germany also joined NATO. The communist countries of Eastern Europe, including the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), which was once under Soviet control, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Romania, were among its other members. In the eyes of the Soviets, the agreement was essential protection against a unified Western Europe and a resurgent Germany. The states on opposing sides of the Iron Curtain were represented by NATO and the Warsaw Pact, which solidified the boundaries that had been established between them. Soon, not only in Europe but across the rest of the world as well, the Western and Eastern Blocs clashed.