Berlin Blockade Essay Example
Discuss and account for one of the Berlin crises which erupted during the Cold War.
In this essay I will look at the Berlin Blockade of 1948. This was the first of two Berlin crisis's and has often been cited as the starting point of the cold war. The cold war has often been described as a clash of beliefs, between that of capitalist beliefs and that of communist beliefs. In 1948 Stalin ordered a blockage on all ground access routes between West Germany and West Berlin, effectively trying to starve out the inhabitants of West Berlin, which at the time were Western allies and Western Berliners. I will look at the events leading up to this blockage and the influence that these had on the subsequent crisis. I will look at some of the possible causes for this growing tension between the East and the West and the resulting effect that this tension had. Having done this I will look at the success of the Berlin airlift and the implications this had for future East and West relations. In concluding I will have looked at some of the events that lead up to and influenced the blockage of Berlin as well as some of the possible causes for tension that finally gave way to the Berlin blockage. Finally I will have discussed the success of the Berlin airlift and the subsequent implications that it had for East West relations.
After WWII and the reaching of the Potsdam Agreement, Germany was divided into four zones to be occupied by the US, British, French and Russians respectively. The Russians had an Eastern zone and the US, British and French divided the Western zones amongst themselves, these zones would later be called East Germany and West Germany. However Berlin the capital of Germany was also to be divided into four zones similar to that of Germany itself again with the Soviet zone being called East Berlin and the Western controlled zones being called West Berlin.
One of the first events that influenced the eventual Berlin blockade was the Soviet breaking
In this essay I will look at the Berlin Blockade of 1948. This was the first of two Berlin crisis's and has often been cited as the starting point of the cold war. The cold war has often been described as a clash of beliefs, between that of capitalist beliefs and that of communist beliefs. In 1948 Stalin ordered a blockage on all ground access routes between West Germany and West Berlin, effectively trying to starve out the inhabitants of West Berlin, which at the time were Western allies and Western Berliners. I will look at the events leading up to this blockage and the influence that these had on the subsequent crisis. I will look at some of the possible causes for this growing tension between the East and the West and the resulting effect that this tension had. Having done this I will look at the success of the Berlin airlift and the implications this had for future East and West relations. In concluding I will have looked at some of the events that lead up to and influenced the blockage of Berlin as well as some of the possible causes for tension that finally gave way to the Berlin blockage. Finally I will have discussed the success of the Berlin airlift and the subsequent implications that it had for East West relations.
After WWII and the reaching of the Potsdam Agreement, Germany was divided into four zones to be occupied by the US, British, French and Russians respectively. The Russians had an Eastern zone and the US, British and French divided the Western zones amongst themselves, these zones would later be called East Germany and West Germany. However Berlin the capital of Germany was also to be divided into four zones similar to that of Germany itself again with the Soviet zone being called East Berlin and the Western controlled zones being called West Berlin.
One of the first events that influenced the eventual Berlin blockade was the Soviet breaking