Western Europe Since the End of WWII Term Paper

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Western Europe Since the End of WWII in 1945

What do you consider the biggest changes to have taken place in Western Europe after 1945? After World War II, Europe became divided into two blocs: the East and the West. This division was caused by the rapid spread of Communism in Eurasia or Eastern Europe propagated by the Soviet Union. While the Eastern Europe was converted into becoming a Communist-Socialist society, Western Europe was given foreign aid by the United States through the European Recovery Program. The ERP is part of the U.S.-led Marshall Plan for the European and Asian regions, in its attempt to regain control over other countries and curb the growing influence of Communism in the said regions. Because the Eastern Europe was already influenced by Communism, Eastern Europe, although it remained susceptible to Communist influence, gained from the ERP and was able to economically recover and rebuild its countries. The ERP made the Eastern European countries dependent on the U.S., and this also marked the dismantling or breakdown of colonial empires established by England and France (among others) in the Asian region prior to the Second World War.

What was the post-war role of the United States in Western Europe? How did it contribute to the present strength of those European countries? As was stated and discussed in the earlier question, the United States played a vital role in rebuilding the war-torn European countries. More specifically, U.S. helped revive the Western European economy by providing foreign aid through the European Recovery Program (part of the Marshall Plan). The cooperation of Western Europe with the U.S.'s containment policy plan for the European and Asian regions resulted to the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. NATO aims to provide security, economic stability, and freedom to its member countries, which are mainly countries in Western Europe, which were not influenced by Communism in Eastern Europe and Asia. Apart from the NATO, the economic cooperation, security, and stability developed during the post-war period in the Western European countries led to the development of the European Union (EU), established in the 1990s.

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How firm was the hold of the Soviet Union on its Eastern European satellites? The division between Western and Eastern Europe led to different consequences between the two. Western Europe, which decided to adopt the capitalist and democratic ideology of the U.S., attained economic security, stability, and success over the years. Eastern Europe, on the other hand, suffered economically because the Communist-Socialist ideology does not subsist to capitalism and economic progress through free markets and trade, leading to the eventual stagnation of Communist European countries. As a result, Eastern European countries began adopting the free market and trade model of the U.S. (capitalism), such as the Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. The eventual fall-out between Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union shows that economic progress and stability plays an essential role in strengthening relationship among countries, affecting in the process the balance of political power and control between the U.S. And the Soviet Union, as well as the strengths and weakness of each country's preferred ideologies.

Discuss the role of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev. Nikita Krushchev was Joseph Stalin's successor and held the post as the Soviet Union's prime minister from 1958 to 1964. Unlike Stalin, Krushchev tried to foster friendly or diplomatic ties with non-Communist countries, although this strategy is contrasted by his own policy of cooperation with other countries while adopting a Communist-Socialist nation. This position is his….....

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