Cruising on the ship of "Age of discovery" colonialism anchored the less fortunate lands, it was high time when Europeans greed for land and raw materials increased. History is embedded with the tales of various tyrants who invaded foreign lands to inculcate their profits and powers. The colonialism of the 15th century was not anything new. Traditions of; waging wars, plundering other countries and depriving people of their rights were revived, but this time invasion came prancing in the disguise of "Progress". Although, seizure of World War II baptized progress as the "development", nonetheless, it resulted in the division of the world. The wounds of imbalances in power and riches, that were concussed during the era of colonialism, were …show more content…
After the great fall of All mighty colonizers, the world was divided into three parts; First World -The Capitalists, Second World- The Communist and Third World or Global South- post-colonial bloc of nations. During the cold war period, The Cold War; by definition (primarily) a nonmilitary conflict America and Russia channeled in the race of politics for gaining support from various fallen countries. It pitted against each other, two perpetual structures of life: one that stressed human rights and the rule of law (by the Capitalists), and the other one subordinated human rights and law entirely to the interests of the state. USA was afraid that Communism will harm their free market economy (USA used containment policy to stifle communist influence in Eastern Europe and Asia) and ultimately will replace America as Super power, on the other hand USSR was fretting that America will influence the world using her money. In this hustle bustle, America came up with the idea of development project, certain policies were suggested under this project one of them was the Marshall plan, For both selfless and selfish reasons, the United States institutes the Marshall Plan, giving massive amounts of aid to the war-ravaged countries of Europe. Suspicious of American intentions, Stalin prevented countries in the Soviet sphere from taking part in …show more content…
Famous July 1994 conference of 44 finance ministers at Bretton Woods, provided the opportunity to create an International banking system that will lubricate the world economy by mobilizing funds to regions who need purchasing power. In this conference USA treasury steered the attention towards chartering the foundation of "twin sisters": the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The conference president, Henry Morgenthau, foresaw:"the creation of a dynamic world economy in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace..and enjoy, increasingly, the fruits of material progress on an earth, infinitely blessed with natural riches. This is the indispensable cornerstone of freedom and security. All else must be built upon this. For freedom of opportunity is the foundation for all the
From 1948-1952 the US invested $13 billion toward reconstruction while simultaneously loosening trade barriers. To avoid the postwar chaos of World War I, the Marshall Plan was designed to rebuild Western Europe, open markets, and win European support for capitalist democracies. The Soviets countered with their rival Molotov Plan, a symbolic pledge of aid to Eastern Europe. Polish leader Józef Cyrankiewicz was rewarded with a five-year, $450 million dollar trade agreement from Russia for boycotting the Marshall Plan. Stalin was jealous of Eastern Europe. When Czechoslovakia received $200 million of American assistance, Stalin summoned Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk to Moscow. Masaryk later said that he “went to Moscow as the foreign minister of an independent sovereign
A war does not necessarily require physical weapons to fight. From 1947 to 1991, military tension and ideological conflicts held place. Cold War is defined as a state of political hostility existing between countries, characterized by threats, violent propaganda, subversive activities, and other measures short of open warfare, in particular. The causes of the Cold War between United States and the Soviet Union were the mutual distrust that had taken place in World War II, intense rivalry between the two super powers, and conflicting ideologies. The two superpowers differed in views of political and economic principles and were eager to spread their ideologies to other countries. The United States were in favor of democracy and capitalism while the Soviet Union sought for the chances of influencing communism. Cold War did not involve the use of physical arms but was intensely fought. Propaganda, economic aids, Arms Race, and the creation of alliances were the main methods to fight the war. The use of propaganda played a crucial role in containment by criticizing the other power and raised the morale and spirit of their nation. The economic support for nations helped them recover from the desperate situation after World War II, which prevented the nations from falling under communism. Also, the Arms Race and forming alliances between the two main powers were important weapons for competition and rivalry in Cold War.
Since the Russian Revolution in 1905, the world housed suspicions regarding communism. These suspicions grew through both World War I, blossoming into a direct confrontation between Communist Russia and Capitalist America. Following the acts of World War II, the Cold War erupted. During the Cold War, United States foreign policy grew gradually aggressive, reflecting the public sentiment.
During 1940-1970, the USSR and the USA were the world’s leading superpowers. After WW2, it was the US money that helped rebuild nearly all of Western Europe, putting nearly half a dozen countries into debt. They opened trade and helped Europe’s ravaged economy to get back onto its feet. They did so by creating the ‘Marshall Plan’ on June the 5th, 1947. The plans aim was to reconstruct Western Europe and at the same time to stop Communism spreading to them – the Americans were avid believers in the Domino Theory, and believed that communism would take over all of Europe if they did not intervene. They also created other policies such as the Truman doctrine on March the 12th, 1947 (which is a set of principles that state that the US as the worlds ‘leading country’ will help out other democratic governments worldwide) and NATO, 4th of April 1949.
The post-war world left the Soviets and the United States in an ideological power struggle. The origin of the cold war is hard to pinpoint. There were several issues and disagreements that led to it. The political differences between the 2 nations were absolute opposites. America was a democracy, a system that allows its citizens to choose the political party in which runs the government. The Communists were led by one of the most vicious dictators in human history, Joseph Stalin.
The Cold War was a post-World War II struggle between the United States. and its allies and the group of nations led by the Soviet Union. Direct military conflict did not occur between the two superpowers, but intense economic and diplomatic struggles erupted in the country. Different interests led to mutual suspicion and hostility in a rising philosophy. The United States played a major role in the ending of the Cold War.
The USSR rejected contributions from the Marshall Plan, due to the conditions that accompanied it, such as allowing United States supervision of the participant's economy, and to be part of a unified European economy based on free trade (European-United States History). Under the Marshall Plan, the United States provided 'friendly' governments in Europe between 1948 and 1952 and succeeded in stimulating the reconstruction of capitalism (Post-World War II, Cold-War Era in Europe).... ... middle of paper ... ...
The political ideologies of the USA and of the Soviet Union were of profound significance in the development of the Cold War. Problems between the two power nations arose when America refused to accept the Soviet Union in the international community. The relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union was filled with mutual distrust and hostility. Many historians believe the cold war was “inevitable” between a democratic, capitalist nation and a communist Union. Winston Churchill called the cold war “The balance of terror” (1). Cold war anxieties began to build up with America and the Soviet Union advancing in the arms race for world dominance and supremacy. America feared the spread of Communism
The Cold War was an argument between the Soviet Union and the United States of America after WWII. During WWII the USA and the Soviet Union were allies fighting a common cause: Adolph Hitler who was attempting to overthrow the surrounding countries. Although the USA and the Soviet Union were allies, the relationship between the two countries was very tense (What Was). Neither country trusted the other. After WWII their relationship became even more tense due to the building of new weapons capable of destroying entire countries.
After WWII ended the Soviet Union began to do its expansion into Eastern Europe. This feed the paranoia of America thinking that the Soviet Union wanted to take over the world. The Soviets did not like the Americans interventional approach to foreign relations. They felt that they should be able to rule their country however they saw fit without being slapped on the hands by an outsider. The fact of the matter is that both sides had their reasons of hating the other and both sides were to blame for cold war and in some respect it might have even been inevitable.
From 1945 to1975 many nations around the world were afraid of the belief called communism that eventually led to a Cold War. Many people were afraid that it would spread like a disease all around the world and affect everyone to the comfort of their homes. Communism limits the freedom and gives little or no democracy to the people it rules or governs. The two powerful nations the United States non-communist and the Soviet Union (USSR) communist and get themselves into a feud between each other and drag other nations along in the fight. This communism belief threatened many people at this time and the effort to stop communism from spreading or do exactly that, had taken its tole on the people of the U.S and the people around the world.
Third world countries became the perfect battleground for cold war proxy battles during the early 1940’s to late 1990’s. United States wanted to flex its political muscle and try to curtail the spread of Soviet Communism in the developing nations. Most of the nations in developed world had already made their political and socio-economic stand regarding the form of governance and leadership pursued. Underdeveloped nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa were still vulnerable and easily influenced in terms of ideologies and political direction. Most nations in Latin America like Chile were recovering from colonialism and thus logistic, economic and political aid from powerful nations to propel their economies which made it easy for Americans and Russians to act as their “saviors’”. The quest for global dominance had intensified between United States and USSR and the shift was focused to developing nations like Chile. Both Americans and Russians used different mechanisms to enhance their propaganda and support the regimes which were friendly to them and used any means necessary to topple hostile regimes. CIA used covert operations in Chile and most of the Latin nations to plant their puppet leaders in order to safeguard their foreign policy interests and maintain dominance. Military coups and social unrests were planned, orchestrated and executed with the assistance of CIA. The research paper tries to critical analyze the impact of the cold war on Chile and influence of United States.
From when World War II ended in 1945, all the way up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War was the center of attention of international affairs. It was a struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. From an American view the Cold War was a mostly a war on communism. The US caused and maintained the Cold War, the US is to blame for the Cold War for disparish of the communist Soviet Union in support of the political and economic systems.
At the same time, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were involved in the Cold War. They were competing against one another, constantly trying to show that their country (and therefore their form of government and ideals) was the better choice. They were competing for influence over the rest of the world. Eventually the USSR and Communism lost, but far more important results came out of this competition instead.
Colonialism was a concept of superiority of one territory over another; it was a concept that originated centuries ago. Colonialism had been put into action throughout a long line of history and did not end after World War II in 1945. Even with resistance and efforts from independent states after the war, colonialism did not disappear and continued as a dominant system. It remained and changed its form, resulted in the process of globalization, which continued to control over newly independent states following World War II. Globalization, a form of colonialism, maintained power for the system over states or regions through economic terms with the development of the World Bank, and its derivation of structural adjustments. This financial institution was formed and contributed to colonialism; it assisted in the economic affairs of colonized nation(s). Along with class, professor Manfred B. Steger's book, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, and I.B. Logan and Kidane Mengisteab's article, "IMF – World Bank Adjustment and Structural Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa," discussed the indirect rule of colonial powers through globalization.