In this essay I will look at what is understood by the term the "Cold War-, how it came about, what happened in Germany, Europe and the rest of the world as this war continued and how it finally came to an end. I will also look at how Europe was affected then, how it is affected today and how it has progressed to the Europe we know.
So what was the "Cold War-? I would define the Cold War as a struggle for power between communism and capitalism which concluded in a stand-off between East and West, not only in Europe but throughout the world. However, it could be defined as the following. "From 1945-90 Communist Russia and the capitalist west confronted each other in what was known as the Cold War - Cold because there was no actual fighting,""1. Another definition is, "The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension and conflict short of full-scale war, characterised by mutual perception of hostile intention between military-political alliance or blocs.""2. It has also been described as "the shifting struggle for power and prestige between the western powers and the communist bloc from the end of the World War II until 1989-3. .
Each side was of the opinion that they were superior to the other and both wanted to spread their own influence throughout Europe and the rest of the world, using any way they could, including propaganda and militaries. It is common knowledge that the both of these sides had nuclear weapons in their possession which maybe prevented a proper war breaking out between them, but both of them fought various wars and battles in other parts of the world to defend themselves and their interests. This "Cold War- lasted until 1990, when communism in Europe fell.
Now that we know what the Cold War was, we can look at its causes. America and Russia had two very different political systems.
America was a very democratic country where the population could vote for different political parties.