The causes

Ideology

Both countries at the time were strong and powerful superpower nations that influenced the world in a way, but also both governments thought that their political ideologies were the way 'forward' and that all nations should adopt their way of government. Additionally, both nations used propaganda, communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause, against each other.

America

The United states of America believes in a democratic way of government allowing the civilians to vote for there political party to govern the country in a democratic election system. In addition, the US is a capitalist state which simply means that people are allowed to make private businesses, own private property the right to earn a profit and so on. This had a positive impact towards the citizens of America because they had the rights to enjoy their freedom, the rights of equality. (But at that time America had a issue with black civil right) democracy and justice. But as in most capitalist countries nowadays, there were extremes - some countries grew in wealth, when others struggled in poverty. Furthermore, the government were strongly against the ideologies of communism and that capitalism is the way forward.

Soviet Union

Before the late 80s Russia had been under communist control by the government and it's political ideologies were totally different as the government has a one-party so the Soviet people could only vote for one government, but that didn't manner because the nation was under a dictatorship. Also all of the candidates in the one-party system all belonged to he Communist party. In addition, the ideologies of Communism meant that the rights of individuals were seen as less important than the good of the society. Unemployment within the communist was a rare aspect to come across, because everyone were forced by the government to work and to support their economy. If people refused to cooperate then their would be sent to the gulags. A prison camp. Also as the people were supporting the nation rapidly in becoming the worlds superpower country, all citizens were able to have equal rights and equal paid, but also free health care, paid electricity and education. Which seemed good but the government was corrupt.

The Berlin Airlift

Reason why Stalin blockade Berlin was to force people living in the West regions of Berlin out and restricting any access by land to West Berlin, such as roads, railways leading to West Berlin. Stalin did this because his goal was to receive full communist control over the whole of Germany. The Allies (US, France, UK etcetera) continued supplying West Berlin for ten months via Airplane given general supplies such as; medical provisions, clothing, food and water, for then months. To ensure that the people are safe and don't fee the region but also to prevent communism to spread into the Western world. As a result in May 1949 West Germany became the Federal Republic of Germany and Communist East Germany became the German Democratic Republic in October later that year. Germany remained divided for forty-one years and during this time Berlin remained an important symbol of the Cold war. Berlin itself was divided by the Berlin wall which was built by the Soviets in 1961.

Germany had become a real headache for the Western Allies after the destruction of war, their zones were in economic chaos. Stalin feared a recovering Germany wand wanted to keep it crippled, but it was clear to the Allies that Germany could not feed its people if it was not allowed to rebuild its industries. Although they themselves were vary of rebuilding Germany too quickly, Britain, France and USA combined their zones in 1946 to form one zone(which became known in 1949 as West Germany) In 1948 they reformed the currency and within months there were signs that West Germany was recovering.

Why was NATO set up?

During the Berlin Blockade, war between the USSR and the USA seemed a real possibility. At the height of the crisis, the Western powers met in Washington and signed an agreement to work together. The new organisation they formed in April 1949 was known as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)

Berlin Wall

The Berlin wall was built in 1961 to restrict the free movement from West Berlin to East Berlin, in addition the wall dividing the Berlin reduced the amount of people from escaping to the West but that didn't stop people from illegally crossing the boarder.

The process of the Berlin Wall began on Sunday 13th August 1961 when East Berlin soldiers put up a barbered wire barrier along the entire frontier of East and West Berlin. But this didn't stop people from crossing the boarder. And then in 1962 East Berlin which was under full Soviet Union Control built a full fortified wall dividing East Berlin to the West, which gradually built up over the years.

The West's reaction to the Berlin wall

On 27th October Soviet tanks pulled up to Checkpoint Charlie (the most famous boarder crossing) and refused to allow any further access to east. All day the US and Soviet tanks fully armed faced each other in a tense 'stand off'. Then, after 18 hours one by one five metres at a time the tanks pulled back. Another crisis, another retreat.

The international reaction was relieved and Khrushchev ordered Ulbricht to avoid any actions that would increase tension. Kennedy said ''it's not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war'' So the wall stayed, and over the following years became the symbol of division - the division of Germany, the division of Europe and the division between Capitalist western and Communist East. The communist's presented the wall as a ''protective shell'' around East Berlin, the West presented it as a prison wall.

The end of the Cold War

The Cold War ended when communist Soviet Union lost control of Eastern Europe. During 1989 many of the countries behind the 'Iron curtain' broke free from communist control. An important symbol of this collapse was the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Large group of East Germans marched to the checkpoints on the Berlin Wall to protest about the harsh conditions imposed upon them by their communist leaders. The guards at the checkpoints threw down their weapons and together they began to dismantle the wall.

This happened in 1989 because four years earlier in 1985 the Soviet Union elected Mikhail Gorbachev as leader. He was to remain in power until 1992. During this time he changed the Soviet Union and these changes eventually led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

There had been almost no new thinking about how to run the Soviet economy since the days of Stalin. Each leader had followed the same policies and had ignored the warning signals that things were going wrong. Gorbachev was different as he was very concerned about the attitude of Soviet people to work. Work standards were slipping really badly in USSR. Gorbachev had a particular worry about alcoholism which was reaching epidemic proportions in the UUSR. Life expectancy of Soviet men had actually declined from 67 in 1964 to 62 in 1980, largely as a result of chronic alcoholism. Gorbachev was worried that Soviet goods didn't seem to work properly, Soviet refrigerators were 'shoddy, the standards of building work in the USSR had declined. He introduced change. The two key ideas were glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) He called for open debate on government policy and honesty in facing up to problems.

In 1987 his perestroika programme allowed market forces to be introduced into the Soviet economy. For the first time in 60 years it was no longer illegal to buy and sell for profit. He began to cut spending on defense, also Gorbachev wad realistic enough to recognise that his country could never hope to outspend the USA on nuclear weapons. He took the initiative he announced cuts in weapons spending. Two years later the USA and the USSR signed a treaty to remove most of their missiles from Europe.

At the same time, Gorbachev brought a new attitude to the UUSR's relations with the wider world. He also announced a new policy on Eastern Europe.