IB History Breakdown of Grand Alliance 1945-46 Notes

End of WWII and Shifting Dynamics

1. The Grand Alliance (US, UK, USSR) was united by defeating Nazi Germany, not by shared ideology
2. VE Day (May 1945) removed the common enemy and exposed deep ideological divisions between the allies
3. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima (Aug 6) and Nagasaki (Aug 9) ended the Pacific war and signalled US technological supremacy
4. Roosevelt's death (April 1945) brought Truman to power - less experienced and more suspicious of Soviet intentions
5. Stalin sought a buffer zone of friendly states in Eastern Europe to prevent future invasion from the West
6. The US envisioned a post-war order based on self-determination, open markets, and collective security through the UN
7. Lend-Lease aid to the USSR was abruptly cancelled after VE Day - Stalin interpreted this as economic pressure
8. Wartime cooperation at Yalta (Feb 1945) papered over differences with vague compromises on Poland and Germany

Potsdam Disagreements

1. The Potsdam Conference (July-Aug 1945) was the last Big Three summit - Truman replaced Roosevelt, Attlee replaced Churchill midway
2. Germany was divided into four occupation zones (US, UK, French, Soviet) with a shared Allied Control Council
3. Reparations were the sharpest dispute - the USSR demanded heavy payments while the US feared crippling Germany as after Versailles
4. The compromise allowed each power to extract reparations from its own zone - the USSR also received additional transfers from western zones
5. Poland's borders were shifted westward along the Oder-Neisse line - giving former German territory to Poland at Stalin's insistence
6. Free elections were promised for Poland, but the Soviet-backed Lublin government was already consolidating control
7. Truman was more confrontational than Roosevelt - he directly challenged Soviet actions in Eastern Europe at Potsdam
8. De-Nazification and de-militarisation were agreed in principle but applied very differently across the four zones

Soviet Actions in Eastern Europe

1. The Red Army occupied most of Eastern Europe by 1945 - this military presence enabled political control
2. In Romania, King Michael was forced to appoint a communist-led government in March 1945 under direct Soviet pressure
3. In Bulgaria, the communist-dominated Fatherland Front took power in 1944, eliminating opposition through purges and rigged trials
4. In Poland, the Lublin Committee (pro-Soviet) marginalised the London Poles despite Yalta promises of free elections
5. Stalin used salami tactics - slicing away opposition parties piece by piece until communists dominated coalition governments
6. Hungary held relatively free elections in Nov 1945 but communists controlled key ministries including interior and security
7. The US protested but had limited leverage - the Red Army was physically present in the region while Western forces were not
8. Stalin viewed Eastern Europe as a defensive glacis - the USSR had suffered 27 million dead and would not tolerate hostile neighbours