Superpower Struggle: Causes and Impacts of the Cold War

After World War II devastated and shocked the world with its horrors and death toll, the need for power consumed the minds of several people. During World War II, countries were fighting to have control and wanted to be considered superior to others or be known as superpowers. After World War II, only two superpowers remained; the United States and the Soviet Union. In the Cold War, they will continue to fight for this superiority over one another, but the cause changed everything. The Cold War was caused by Germany’s and Europe’s division between democracy and communism and the want for superiority by several nations, which affected several nations politically, socially, and economically throughout the world by affecting the government and the people as a result of the war. The differences between the United States and the Soviet Union is what furthered tensions and led to the event of the Berlin Wall being created, which divided Germany. For instance, the United States led the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Western Europe and the Soviet Union

The communist countries had a command economy that made most of the decisions. The democratic countries on the other hand had a market economy where private consumers and producers made most economic decisions and own most property. During the time of the Cold War, most of the money was going into developing nuclear weapons, building alliances, making treaties, and stopping suspicious activity, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even though a lot of money was being used, the countries benefited in the fact that they were becoming more powerful and industrialized. The Soviet Union and the United States were developing into more and more powerful countries, but were investing in furthering their country rather than social problems, which hurt the