Cold War - Chapter 3

Stalin and the Soviets really made it obvious that they intended to set up Europe exactly as they pleased, and the Americans obviously noticed. Moreover, it appeared that Stalin was actively encouraging further war among his enemies. In a speech he made in February 1946, Stalin told the Supreme Soviet that, in order to survive, capitalist countries had to be constantly fighting with each other, or they couldn't grow and increase their strength.

America didn't like the sound of this. These weren't the words of an ally, who was interested in keeping the peace. Washington requested a report from George Kennan, who was the American ambassador in Moscow at the time. They wanted to know what Kennan thought the Russians were up to and what they were trying to achieve with their foreign policy.

Kennan minced his words. He REALLY went to town on his report and had it transmitted back to Washington as a telegram. This was known as the Long Telegram, and it was sent on 22nd February 1946 - all 8000 words of it. In it, Kennan said that the combination of Marxist-Leninist theory (which is the bit that says capitalism makes war inevitable) and Russian fears of being invaded again had made them incredibly hostile towards the capitalist world. They used this hostility to force an authoritarian regime on their citizens. He advised Truman that he had better give up turning a blind eye to the Soviets taking control of Europe, and instead take steps to limit their power and influence, or there would be an almighty smackdown between Communism and democracy. "Stand up to those bullies in the Kremlin!" he might well have written - except that he would have made that one sentence last for two pages, knowing him.

Tuman was worried. He hadn't really grasped that there was going to be such an issue. He probably thought that the atomic bomb would be enough to scare the Russians into submission, but it quickly became obvious that the Russians were not going to take that submissive role, especially when Stalin refused to remove his troops from Northern Iran. They'd been stationed there during WW2 to protect the oil supplies from Hitler, but there was no need for their continued occupation. Perhaps Stalin thought the world would just forget he was surrounding some of the world's biggest oil reserves.

Truman hadn't forgotten, though. Well, it's hard to forget that 30,000 troops are positioned such that they could overthrow the Iranian government, or attack Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Stalin used his troops to partition Iran and create a couple of "people's democratic republics" within the country. You can read more about the Iranian Crisis here.

Truman chucked his toys right out of the pram. He had previously said that he was "tired of babying the Soviets" and would henceforth "treat them with an iron fist and strong language". This was the first time his words had really been tested. America roared, and the Russians backed down. The troops were withdrawn from Iran.

This association of iron and the Soviets was strengthened when Winston Churchill gave a lecture in Missouri, echoing what Kennan had written. It was to become one of the most famous lectures ever, because in it, he said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." Churchill had coined the phrase that would be used to describe the Soviet regime for the next 50 years.

Cold War - chapter 2

When we left our Big Three, they were all pretty unhappy with each other, following the Potsdam conference. They retired to their respective corners....er, I mean countries, and did their best to regroup following the second world war. America were still feeling quite smug because they had the atomic bomb; Russia were busy building a buffer zone.

Each country in eastern Europe that bordered Russia eventually had a Soviet-sympathising, communist government. Remember how Russia promised they'd allow free elections everywhere? Yeah, well...right now Russia was scuffing its feet along the ground and refusing to meet anybody's eye, because they totally reneged on that promise.

The Russians had several methods for getting their people into the governments of other countries..

In Poland (which never stood a chance really, did it?), once the Soviets had helped the communist government into power, they then helped them to remove members from all the other parties from the government, and then banned all the other parties anyway, just to make doubly sure.

In Romania, they relied on the good old policy of rigging the elections (perhaps George W Bush took his inspiration from here) to make sure they were in power by 1946, and then forced the King to abdicate so there was no threat to their authority.

In Hungary, they employed the tasty-sounding "salami technique", by encouraging splits and divisions between the political parties that made up the coalition government, so that it was severely weakened and couldn't hang on to power for very long. In 1947, the Soviets accused the Hungarian government of offending the Red Army and banned their party.

In Albania, they didn't have to do much at all - the Albanians happily copied the Russian model of government and had red leadership in 1945.

In Bulgaria, the Soviets made friends with the existing party and formed a coalition with them. Awww! Friendly Soviets, how sweet! Except that, once they were nice and cosy, they accused the leader of the other party of plotting a coup, hanged him, and purged all his supporters.

A similar thing happened in East Germany, where the Soviets merged with the ruling Socialist party and then purged all its members.

That just leave Czechoslovakia. This country proved a bit more difficult. They hadn't been a country for very long, having been founded in 1919 by Tomas Masaryk. This probably made them less willing to give in to Soviet demands. Although the communists were strong in the government in 1946, the foreign minister, Jan Masaryk, was keen to maintain the country's independence, and applied for Marshall Aid (more on that later). He was horrified when the communist members of the government rejected the application, and most of the non-communists ministers resigned in 1948, hoping to force an election.

It was the chance the communists had been waiting for. Instead of holding elections, they just filled the empty positions with their own people. Then Jan Masaryk appeared to commit suicide (hmmmm....) and the Czech government were Soviets through and through. Most of the world called this "the Czech coup", but the Russians and their mates called it "Victorious February."

Cold War - the first chapter

After several years of pretending to be friends during the second world war, by the end of it, relations between America and the USSR were beginning to get a bit strained. Thanks to massive ideological differences, the ongoing feud between Russia and Poland - evidenced by the refusal of Stalin to send troops to help the Poles overthrow their Nazi occupiers - and the vast number of war casualties suffered by Russia (an estimated 90 times more than those of the USA), a post-war friendship was never really on the cards.

Was this because they had completely different aims? Well, the Americans were all about self-determination for the peoples of Europe. They wanted to see freely elected governments taking control after years of oppression by the Nazis. Perhaps they wanted this so that they would have a strong, healthy market in Europe in which to sell American goods.

Meanwhile, Stalin was more interested in keeping Russia safe from attack. He believed that capitalists must fight in order to remain capitalists, and since Russia had been invaded several times from the west, he wanted to keep his country safe and secure by installing friendly governments along his western borders. And don't forget those warm water ports! Throughout Russian history, they've struggled to control some of those.

To start with, everyone played nice. Here was the situation at Yalta.

(If you click on the picture, it should get bigger).

As you can see, everyone is smiling and happy. The end of the second world war was in sight - Hitler was about 2 months away from killing himself and it was time to party and divide up the spoils (and debts) of war.

Stalin was happy, because he thought he was soon going to get his hands of $10 billion in reparations, paid by Germany after the war. The USA were happy, because the USSR had agreed to free elections for the peoples of eastern Europe. Germany had been portioned up between Russia, America, Britain and France - this wasn't ideal, but they couldn't agree on anything else at this time, so they created the boundaries as a sort of stop-gap.

However, by the time the Potsdam conference came around in July, things had changed significantly. For a start, there was a new American president. Roosevelt had kicked the bucket shortly after Yalta and his replacement, Truman, was nowhere near as pragmatic as his predecessor. He was suspicious of Stalin and the Soviets, and not willing to give them an inch.

And he didn't really have to, thanks to a huge event which had just taken place in the New Mexico desert. The first atomic bomb had been successfully tested, and the Americans were now the proud owners of the world's most destructive weapon. Like a man driving around on his new motorised lawnmower while his neighbour struggles with a rusty old mechanical one, Truman smugly hinted that Stalin no longer held all the cards, all through the conference.

Stalin knew exactly what had happened, thanks to his excellent network of spies, and instantly upped funding to the USSR's own atomic bomb project.

A third thing that changed was the Polish government. Stalin had ignored his previous promise and not allowe democratic elections, possibly fearing that a Russia-friendly government would not be popular with the Polish people and he would lose control. It became clear that he was not about to allow free elections anywhere else in Europe, either.

Finally, America now flatly refused to whack Germany with enormous reparations payments, probably remembering the Treaty of Versailles and how the enormous fines spelled out in that had led to financial ruin for German and, eventually, the second world war. Stalin, expecting $10 billion, was now left with nothing. I bet he'd already spent some of it, too. Don't you hate it when that happens?

By the end of the Potsdam conference, this was the rough situation.


Relations had cooled considerably. But it was only going to get colder.

An answer to the mysteries of Stonehenge?

A couple of archaelogists from London reckon they've finally figured out why Stonehenge exists.

Stonehenge was built so long ago that we don't really have any concrete evidence of the reason for its consturction, but we can certainly take a look at all the evidence and make an educated guess. Do you think they've got it right?

Combatting Terrorism in the UK

This week, Channel 4 news reported on measures being taken by the British government to combat terrorism. You can watch the video here (the relevant story starts about 5 minutes in).

Paper 1 - Types of Questions

Question B - Explain

* Always out of 7 marks
* You need to describe or explain 3 to 4 points
* You do not need to argue both sides or make a judgement
* This needs to be more detailed - spend about 10 or 12 minutes on it and write about two-thirds of a side

Example -

"Explain why people travelled west to become homesteaders"

Explain 4 relevant points - in this case, 4 push/pull factors. Write a paragraph for each, for example -
One reason why people moved West was because of overcrowding in the eastern cities. (This is worth 1 mark). Lots of immigrants were arriving from Europe and land was scarce and expensive. (Now you're up to 2 marks) This meant that many poor people lived in squalour. The west, with its open land, seemed like paradise to them. (Clear explanation - 3 marks).

You are more likely to get full marks if you can link your reasons together. For example, you could add to the above paragraph with...
As well as this, people who had already moved west wrote letters back, telling their friends about how good it was on the Plains, and the newly-built railroads produced adverts to make the West look even better, so people would use their service.
Also the government were giving out free land following the Homestead Act of 1862; this was followed by the Timber Culture Act and the Desert land Act. These all made land available to homesteaders very cheaply if they farmed, built a house and planted trees.


Example questions for you to try

Medicine Questions
Explain how the way of life and the beliefs of the Egyptians helped them to make advances in medicine - this just means explain 3 to 4 ways in which the Egyptians improved medicine.

Explain how war has helped progress in medicine - explain the impact of, for example, Pare, Roman army, Florence Nightingale, WW1 and X-rays/transfusions, WW2 and penicillin.

Explain how factors other other than Fleming's work contributed to the development of penicillin - this means explain the impact of Florey and Chain/WW2 - don't write about Fleming!

Explain why it was possible for advances to be made in medicine during the Medical Renaissance

Explain why it was possible to make advances in public health in nineteenth-century Britain

Explain why there was opposition to advances in surgery in the nineteenth century

American West questions
Explain why the American Government passed the Homestead Act of 1862 - you should explain about Manifest Destiny, wanting to spread its influence and settle the Plains, to increased the amount of land under its control, preventing overcrowding in the East, providing more home-grown food for the big eastern cities.

Explain why cattle ranching spread to the Plains

Explain why the Battle of the Little Big Horn took place when it did

Paper 1 - Types of questions

Question A - Describe

* Always out of 5 marks
* EASY marks! You just need to describe a couple of points
* Don't spend too long on this
* Aim to write no more than half a side (if you have big writing!)

To get good marks....
Identify 5 relevant points
To get full marks....
Describe/explain 2 relevant points

Example -
"Briefly describe the medical advances of the Ancient Greeks"

Either identify 5 relevant points, for example -
The Greeks made advances in the way patients were treated. They visited Asclepia to pray for healing. Hippocrates developed the Theory of the 4 Humours. He also developed the method of clinical observation. Doctors who trained under Hippocrates had to take the Hippocratic Oath.
(4 marks - 1 for each point)

Or describe/explain 2 relevant points. Develop your examples with explanation, for example -
Hippocrates developed the Theory of the 4 Humours. This theory related illnesses with the seasons and the elements. They believed that the body was made up of 4 liquids called humours. These were blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile. An imbalance in these caused illness.
(3 marks - write 2 paragraphs like this for full marks).

An excellent revision aid for American West

Morning keeners,

I've found this very cool revision guide for American West. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "How to revise GCSE History" link. You'll need Flash 8 to make this work.

This will give you some tips on how to organise your revision and what to look at.

I'm working on some exam question stuff today, as well as some more MP3s - this time we're talking to cowboys. Those should be live by the end of the week. Hopefully I will also have figured out RSS feed by then, so you can subscribe and download updates automatically.

I hope your early exams are going well. You're all next door right at this moment!

Best wishes,
Miss Hand

History Revision Podcasts are live

The revision are now available on the Matravers School website. You can download them by clicking here or you can buy them from school on CD for the princely sum of 50p (not available on CD yet as we're in the process of recording more). Stick them on your ipod and listen to them while you're revising for maths!

Best wishes,
Miss Hand

Paper 1 - Structure

Morning, soon-to-be-no-longer-year-11!

Your first History paper is just over 3 weeks away.
It consists of 2 parts - Medicine Through Time, and American West.

Medicine Through Time
Answer TWO questions.

QUESTION 1
This is compulsary!
It consists of several sources, followed by a 3-part question. Each part is worth 5 marks.
You will need to use the sources and your own knowledge to answer these questions.
You should aim the spend about 25 minutes on question 1. Give yourself 5 minutes to read through the sources and questions, 5 minutes to answer each part of the question, and 5 minutes to read through.

Keep checking back for tips on how to answer the questions.

QUESTION 2
You will have to choose 1 out of 3 questions. Each one is worth 20 marks and is split into 3 parts -
a) Description (5 marks)
b) Explanation (7 marks)
c) Evaluation (8 marks)
READ the questions carefully and choose the one you can answer the best.
Answer ALL parts of the question you have chosen.
You should spend about 35 minutes on this question -

• 3 minutes to read and decide which questions to answer
• 5 minutes to answer part (a)
• 10 minutes to answer part (b)
• 12 minutes to answer part (c)
• 5 minutes to check through

Keep checking back for tips on how to answer the questions.

American West
Answer TWO questions.

QUESTION 1

This is the same as the Medicine question 1, but is worth 20 marks instead of 15.

QUESTION 2

This is the same as the Medicine part of the paper, but you only have a choice of 2 questions.

Over the next few days we'll be breaking down the questions and giving you tips on how to answer each one, so come back and read again soon.

Best wishes, Miss Hand

Welcome

Hello!

Here is a place for you to share your questions whilst you are so so busy, spending every waking moment revising for your History GCSE. It will all be worth it when you open your results in August.

If you get stuck with anything or can't find a fact, or you need anything at all, post a comment here and one of us will do our best to help you out.

Best wishes,

Miss Hand