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Unit 8 Overview
Unit 8 Overview
The end of the Second World War produced new alliances and new tensions. As the United States and Soviet Union faced off, the dream of global unity dimmed.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
Why did the United States and Soviet Union become rivals after the Second World War?
How was decolonization connected to the aftermath of the Second World War?
How were the Cold War and decolonization linked?
How does US military spending show the Cold War’s global impact?
What does the collapse of Soviet military spending in 1989 reveal about the Cold War’s end?
: This was a decades-long post-World War II conflict
: between the U.S. and Soviet Union.
: - The Cold War.
: - Well, you have to phrase your response
: in the form of a question, like "Jeopardy!"
: - What is "Jeopardy!"?
: - Now you've got it!
: (music playing)
: Hi, I'm Colby Burnett, and along with Kim Lochner,
: we're introducing Unit 8:
: End of Empire and Cold War.
: When the Second World War ended with an Allied victory,
: the world paused to take a deep breath.
: By September 1945,
: the authoritarian Axis powers were defeated
: by an international coalition
: led by the United States and the Soviet Union.
: Peace was restored.
: And the victorious powers wanted to create
: a new international forum to avoid future conflicts.
: They called it the United Nations.
: Many people had supported the war
: believing it was a fight to protect important values
: like national and individual sovereignty.
: So they had hope that this victory
: would create an opportunity to expand those rights
: across race, class, and gender lines
: in a peaceful, cooperative way.
: The last peace treaty of the war was signed in Tokyo Bay.
: But almost immediately, new challenges emerged.
: The first was a confrontation between the United States
: and the Soviet Union.
: These were the two countries made stronger,
: rather than weaker, by the war.
: Germany and Japan had been defeated.
: France and Britain were struggling
: from the devastation of the conflict.
: And China was divided between nationalists and communists.
: So the United States and the Soviet Union emerged
: as the two new superpowers.
: But these two superpowers
: had vastly different interests and values.
: Most importantly, the U.S. was deeply supportive
: of a free-market, capitalist world economy,
: whereas the Soviet Union was the world's largest
: centralized, command economy.
: So, in some ways, this was a confrontation
: between two systems of production and distribution.
: Additionally, their governments distrusted each other.
: They were powerful states
: competing for influence around the world.
: The result was a long, if often hidden, conflict
: involving the two states and their allies
: called the Cold War.
: The Cold War simmered around the world
: from the end of World War II to the late 1980s.
: KIM: The Cold War had a global reach for another reason.
: The world was already turned on its head by decolonization.
: You see, the people of the colonies
: wondered why they, too, shouldn't benefit
: from the struggle for freedom and national sovereignty.
: Why shouldn't they get their independence?
: These feelings drove a flood of anti-colonial movements
: that brought down weakened European empires
: after the Second World War.
: From Africa to Indochina,
: from South Asia through the Pacific
: and into the Caribbean,
: local inhabitants found
: that they could use the tools of nationalism
: to forge internal solidarity.
: Colonial subjects created new political communities,
: then won independence from their imperial rulers.
: Both the United States and the Soviet Union
: saw these movements as opportunities
: in their struggle against each other.
: They would support local leaders who sided with them,
: and take down those who favored their enemies.
: This resulted in vast networks
: that tied leaders of independence movements--
: and their opponents-- around the world
: to one side of the Cold War or the other.
: So how should we study these two great global trends,
: the Cold War and decolonization?
: Usually, they form separate chapters in a textbook.
: But in this unit,
: we will study them as intertwined episodes in history.
: So, why are we doing this?
: How does studying them together
: give us a different view of this era?
: Is our understanding better when we study them together?
: We can find answers about the Cold War and decolonization
: by looking at the data:
: in this case, U.S. and Soviet military spending.
: Yes, this spending is evidence of the Cold War confrontation.
: But it also relates to the decolonization struggle.
: Some of the money spent on U.S. and Soviet militaries
: went to other countries,
: in the form of military aid or expeditions
: either in favor of, or against, anti-colonial movements.
: This chart shows us how much money was spent on the military
: by several large countries in the 20th century.
: For example, we can see a big spike in military spending
: around the Second World War.
: After the war, as expected,
: spending goes down almost everywhere.
: But then it begins to rise again for two countries,
: the United States and the Soviet Union.
: The two records are somewhat different,
: but generally, they rise together.
: In looking at this spending,
: we can identify how it corresponds
: with some Cold War and decolonization events.
: For example, in the U.S. military budget,
: there was a big increase in 1950 as the Korean War began.
: There was another increase in the mid-1960s,
: as the Vietnam conflict ramped up.
: There was a third spike in the 1980s,
: as confrontation spread in Central America
: and other regions.
: Each of these was an important Cold War conflict.
: But each was also about decolonization,
: whether in Korea, which had been a Japanese colony,
: Vietnam, which had been a French colony,
: or the Central American states,
: which were part of an American informal empire.
: You might have also noticed
: that Russian military spending increased at a steady rate
: until the end of 1988.
: Then, in 1989, it suddenly collapsed.
: What does this mean?
: What does it tell us about who "won"
: and who was "defeated" in the Cold War?
: KIM: To find more evidence to help us study
: the Cold War and decolonization,
: we can zoom in and take a closer look
: at specific historical events in this era.
: One of these is the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale.
: Cuito Cuanavale is a small, sleepy farming town
: in Southern Angola in Central Africa.
: Angola was a Portuguese colony until 1975.
: At that time,
: anti-colonial movements successfully ended
: Portugal's overseas empire.
: A socialist party led the new government of Angola.
: This party aligned with the Soviet Union,
: who had helped fund the Angolan struggle
: against the Portuguese.
: In reply, the United States and its allies,
: including the government of South Africa,
: supported an Angolan rebel group called UNITA.
: Throughout the 1970s,
: the Angolan government was backed by Soviet advisers
: and volunteers from other communist countries,
: such as Cuba.
: They battled UNITA and its supporters,
: particularly South Africa.
: In late 1987,
: government forces finally closed in
: on UNITA strongholds in Southern Angola.
: The South African military quickly sent aid
: to the UNITA forces trapped there.
: In response to that move,
: Cuba sent tens of thousands of volunteers
: to aid the Angolan government forces.
: As a result,
: the small town of Cuito Cuanavale
: turned into a massive battlefield.
: Throughout February and March 1988,
: Cuban and Angolan forces battled
: the UNITA rebels and troops from South Africa,
: eventually driving them off.
: Now, neither the United States nor the Soviet Union
: were directly involved.
: Instead, the conflict was fought through allies and local forces.
: But this was definitely a Cold War confrontation
: between the capitalist and the communist worlds.
: And it was also the last battle
: for the decolonization of Angola.
: The battle of Cuito Cuanavale is only one example
: of the way in which the Cold War and decolonization overlapped.
: In this unit, you will encounter many.
: You will see how civil wars in China and Latin America
: combined Cold War face-offs
: with struggles to throw off the legacy of colonialism.
: You will explore resistance to colonialism in Southeast Asia,
: which found itself embroiled in the conflict
: between Marxism and capitalism.
: This, in turn,
: drew the United States into a war in Vietnam.
: You will see how anti-colonial leaders
: in India, Indonesia, and the Middle East
: navigated between the two superpowers
: in order to successfully achieve their own independence.
: Finally, you'll return to Southern Africa
: to see the end of apartheid.
: This struggle was the final political liberation in Africa
: and also one of the last Cold War political settlements.
: You know what's really consistent about the world
: from 1750 until now?
: - No, what's that?
: - Nothing.
: Not one thing.
: "Let's have countries instead of empires."
: "Oh, now let's bring back empires
: just to watch them fall."
: "And then let's have one war to end all wars
: and then a sequel."
: None of it makes sense.
: - Okay, but that's why we have to teach it.
: - Oh.