Post-War Rebuilding and the Cold War: Crash Course European History #41

Sometimes, friendship isn't forever. At the conclusion of World War II, the old structures of power were a shambles. The traditional European powers were greatly weakened by years of total war and widespread destruction. The USSR was looking to expand its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, and at the same time, the United States was assisting with the rebuilding of Western Europe (with some hegemonic strings attached). As two nuclear-armed superpowers emerged, the world entered the Cold War.

Sources

-Anslover, Nicole L. Harry Truman: The Coming of the Cold War. New York: Routledge, 2014.
-Burleigh, Michael. Small Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the Modern World, 1945–1965. New York: Viking, 2013.
-Feinberg, Melissa. Curtain of Lies: The Battle over Truth in Stalinist Eastern Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017
-Smith, Bonnie G. Europe in the Contemporary World, 1900 to the Present. 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
-Westad, Odd Arne. The Global Cold War : Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

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