How did World War 2 set the stage for the Cold War and the different paths followed by Western and Eastern Europe?

Answer 1

World War I was unfinished business. Germany, an emerging eco-industrial powerhouse, harbored a long list of grievances towards its imperial rivals in the region. Since Germany was NOT physically occupied in the first World War it did not bear the same burden as the other belligerents (France, England, Russia, Turkey, etc). Therefore the German military retreated in good order; its population and infrastructure remained intact. No army invaded/occupied German soil. It was militarily forced to capitulate due to the strength of growing Allied resolve, manpower, and materiel. Germany wisely pushed for an armistice- a temporary halt to fighting that strategically favored Germany.

Now with a whole new catalog of issues and new grievances to bear imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, and with its military infrastructure still largely viable, it was ripe for a repeat of hostilities. The origins of the "stabbed very very painfully, in the back" ideology perpetuated by Adolf Hitler and other extremists festered largely because Germany and her allies were not forced to sign a declaration of unconditional surrender. This would have negated German territorial ambitions in the region.

A tangle of "he/said she/said" alliances and imperial rivalry meant that sooner or later the whole of Europe would be dragged into a quagmire. Germany sought to be on equal footing with much older European powers and after the "diktat" (slave) treaty of Versailles made good on her promises. The close of the second world war essentially rendered two imperial powers, America and the USSR. The USSR not only repulsed the German invaders in the Barbarossa campaign but aggressively expanded its own borders in the process, at the same time extinguishing smaller Baltic countries. It essentially replaced Germany as the town bully.

The USA endured minimal casualties and no damage to its infrastructure (bombing, artillery, airborne invasion, etc). It could essentially fight a war of production from afar. Thus the USSR and the USA embarked on the "Cold War" as two military superpowers wrestling for control of economic and political spoils and fortunes. Basically the "winners" of the second world war. The USA and the USSR were allies in name only and just long enough to defeat a common enemy much akin to German/Japanese relations during the war. Neither side liked each other very much but both shared a similar hatred for a common enemy, the Bolsheviks. WWI was the last imperial war. The winning Allied countries which lost the least (USA and Japan) gained the most. Great Britain and France lost more but held onto what they had. Allied countries Russia, Italy, and Portugal which dropped out early at least preserved their imperial holdings. On the losing side, Germany, Austria, and Turkey lost it all. Austria and Turkey were mostly agrarian (farming) and they were slower to recover than Germany which was industrial. Also, the Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany; a country which does not take well to humiliation, and Nazism seemed the best hope for restoring Germany as a major power. As to how the Cold War began, democracy and communism had combined to defeat fascism. Once fascism was ended, the two victors were left looking at each other. Imperialism was finished, but it was inevitable that these two ideologies would face down each other, and perhaps only the threat of mutual destruction by atomic weapons prevented a showdown. * Since the Turks were Asian and Muslim, the British, French, and Italians tried to make a colony of Turkey after WWI, but the Turks rose up and moved them out quickly. Turkey ceased to be a world power but maintained its neutrality throughout WWII and was not bullied into participation by either the Allied or the Axis. Austria was less fortunate. As Hitler was Austrian by birth, his first conquest was to absorb Austria into the Nazi fold. * Although the Dutch and British had more substantial territory in the Pacific, this contributor believes that a showdown between the US and Japan was inevitable even if WWII had never happened, based on Imperial notions brought to Japan by the American Commodore Matthew Perry in the 1850's. [A strong navy was vital to an overseas empire, and coal was replacing sail. The US worried that Russia would break through Japanese isolationism and set up coaling stations in Japan.] * Not related to the question directly, but some countries managed to maintain a sort of neutrality in the Cold War, most notably the former British colonies of India and Egypt, and their military structures used equipment from both Communist and Free World countries. * Little known or appreciated is that Germany did not start WWI. Austria did. A weakness of the imperial system is that it required one empire to side with another if its own territory was threatened, but this is still a weakness of our ideological system today. Yesterday's enemy becomes today's ally, and vice versa. * As Germany and Italy were not confederated until the late 1800's, the USA had a lead on them as a growing imperial power, and Japanese imperialism would not have happened without anti-Russian US meddling, just as the Taliban would not have gained control of Afghanistan without US support. The US stole its empire from Spain with help from Great Britain, which threatened Germany if they interceded on behalf of Spain. After the US entered WWI, Great Britain became the junior partner and has been ever since. The shift from WWI to the Cold War is the shift from countries battling each other for territory to one of clashing political and economic ideologies, and WWII may be seen as the transitional phase between them. The flags themselves have become less important than the ideals they purport to represent.

Answer 2

Well thanks to the Soviet Union they caused it.Cuba was doing there own buisness until Soviet Union stepped in to try to put nuclear missles there to stop it.