In 1948 and 1949, Stalin decided to impose a blockade on West Berlin as part of an overall plan to bring West Berlin, then the whole of the western portion of Germany (still occupied by French, British, and American forces), into union with Soviet-controlled East Germany. By closing land-access to West Berlin, Stalin considered that the city would soon require Soviet assistance and thereby come under Soviet control.
The Berlin crisis. Stalin sought to submit Berlin to Soviet rule by by closing off all roads leading to Berlin from the west and starving it . The Western Allies however organized a huge airlift into Berlin to supply the Berlin people with everything necessary. When Stalin found he had been outmaneuvered, he chose not to escalate the conflict but to lift the blockade of Berlin.
The troops tried to send in supplies but there was a blockade and they were not able to deliver them.
Blockade runners. You are doing guided reading activity 11-2
Blockade: naval action aimed to prevent the enemy from making use of its ports, merchant marine and any maritime traffic, irrespective of the origin and carriers, by means of the navy.
shutting off a part or region to prevent passage by hostile forces
starve West Berlin into submitting to Communist rule
what was western allies response to the berlin blockade
The Berlin Blockade (defeated by air transport planes from West Germany) was in 1948. The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and lasted until 1989. The Berlin Blockade was first, before the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Berlin Blockade
Hitler was the king of Berlin.
The Berlin Airlift
To isolate East Berlin from West Berlin
The population of West Berlin at the time of the blockade and airlift (1948-49) was about 2 million.
No. The Soviets instituted the Berlin blockade, so the allies initiated the Berlin airlift to get supplies to civilians inside the blockaded city.
The Soviets ended the blockade of West Berlin in 1949 because they realized it was not achieving their goal of forcing the Western Allies out of the city. The blockade had led to the Berlin Airlift, where the Allies supplied West Berlin by air, showing the Soviets that their blockade was ineffective.
The Soviet Union did not blockade its own zone, so the blockade applied only to the three Western sectors of Berlin: it did not 'extend out'.
To isolate East Berlin from West Berlin