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Yalta Conference
The tension that came from the Yalta conference was from Stalin breaking the promises he made during the conference. Originally, the leaders were on the same page when they agreed to require Germany’s unconditional surrender and to set up in the conquered nation four zones of occupation to be run by their three countries and France. However, Stalin broke his promises, causing controversy. -
Division of Germany
After Germany's surrender in WWII, Germany was divided into 4 military occupation zones, France in the southwest, Britain in the northwest, the United States in the south, and the Soviet Union in the east. This was almost right after Germany's surrender (8 May 1945) so this was one of the first tensions in the lead up to the Cold War. Because now these countries were dividing territory of Germany, it created a territorial tension between the nations involved, especially with the Soviets. -
The Satellite Nations
The satellite nations of the Cold War were Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and East Germany. Theses were the nations that were aligned with/under the control of the soviet union. Stalin announced that with these nations being communist, a war between communism and capitalism was inevitable. This statement, along with the divide of Europe because of the Satellite Nations, tension formed. -
Iron Curtain speech
In the Iron Curtain Speech that Churchill delivered on March 5, 1946, he stated that "an iron curtain has descended across the continent.", referring to Europe and the divide between created by communism. This speech created tension because it is one of the events that is considered to be announcing the cold war. It also created tension because the speech praised the U.S. and critized the Soviet Union. -
Truman Doctrine
The Turman Doctrine was a statement in which Truman established that the United States would provide assistance to democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. This sparked tension between the U.S. and USSR because Truman showed that he was serious about stopping the spread of communism, threatening the USSR by strengthening democratic countries. -
NATO
NATO formed in defense of further communist expansion, however, the formation of NATO ended up causing tension. The formation of NATO caused the USSR to create the warsaw six years later in response to NATO, causing more tension. -
Berlin Airlift
Because Berlin was divided, and the Berlin blockade, the U.S. needed a way to bring supplies to their sectors of Berlin. An actually attack would have sent the cold war into being a physical war, so the U.S. decided to bring in supplies by airlift. The airlift was successful at bringing in supplies, making the Soviets upset that the blockade was not working to cut Berlin off, making tension between the Soviets and the U.S. -
H-Bomb
The U.S.'s first successful hydrogen bomb test gave the U.S. an advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. The U.S. was shocked to learn that the Soviet Union successfully made an atomic bomb, making the U.S. work hard to pull ahead in the race with a hydrogen bomb. Of course, because this gave the U.S. the advantage, it caused tension between the U.S. and the Soviet union. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact made it so that the Soviets were in control of the armed forces of the Soviet member states. This created a mutual defense in which if a member state was under attack, nations within the pact would come to their defense. This added the tension of the soviets now having a setup defense pact to all of their nations, which showed how they were prepared for attacks, and created a higher tension between the Soviet nations and outside nations. -
The Space Race
The Space Race between America and the Soviet Union caused a lot of tension between the two countries. Both countries fought to prove that they were superior in space travel technology, causing tension.
