What division in Europe did the Iron Curtain refer to?

Answer 1

The iron curtain meant separation, division and instability.

The term "Iron Curtain" referred to a theoretical boundary which divided Europe into two separate zones, symbolically, politically and physically. Use of the term started at the end of World War II and continued until the end of the Cold War, which was from about 1945 to 1990. With the Iron Curtain in place, some of the Eastern and Central European countries were under the political influence of the Soviet Union. Exceptions were West Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Austria.

The term "Iron Curtain" was originally used during World War II by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and later Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk towards the end of the war. It was popularised by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who first used it in his "Sinews of Peace" address at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on 5 March 1946, during which he stated:

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow."

Answer 2

The 'Iron Curtain' was the division between NATO and Warsaw Pact nations, dividing Communist Central & Eastern Europe from Capitalist Western Europe and the USA. The division was formed by partition agreed between the USSR and the West following the collapse of the Third Reich at the end of WW2; France, Italy, Spain, the UK, the USA, Denmark and the Benelux nations were in the West (though France opted out of the NATO command structure until this year). All nations to the East were part of the Warsaw Pact, and had Communist governments. Germany itself was divided into East and West; within East Germany, the former capital of Berlin was itself partitioned into four 'sectors', one each for the USA, Britain, France and the USSR. A corridor existed from East to West Germany, to allow Westerners access to their parts of Berlin. Although loosely a part of the Warsaw pact, Yugoslavia enjoyed a special status as a semi-seperate Communist federation, and the type of Communism practiced there was considerably more liberal and humane than that of the Soviet Union.chicken liver

Answer 3

Plato Learning: The correct answer is Barriers to prevent travel and communication between eastern and western Europe