The Cold War
Driving Question: What were the causes of the ideological struggle of the Cold War, and how did it impact global conflicts and alliances?
How did the Cold War start? At the end of World War II, the victorious allies lost both their shared enemy and their shared purpose. The two most powerful allied nations, United States and the Soviet Union, swiftly moved to consolidate their relative positions, resulting in the division of post-war Europe. The two nations soon became known as superpowers as they avoided direct conflict by involving themselves in the opposite sides of other countries’ conflicts, while also promoting their favored ideologies of capitalism or communism.
Learning Objectives
- Explain the causes and effects of the ideological struggle of the Cold War.
- Use the historical thinking practice of sourcing to assess different perspectives of who started the Cold War.
- Use the historical thinking practice of causation to categorize the multiple causes of the Cold War.
Vocab Terms:
- capitalism
- communism
- containment
- ideological
- nonalignment
- self-determination
- superpower
Opener: The Cold War
Put your causation, contextualization, and claim testing skills to the test to solve a Cold War mystery.
Sourcing: Who Started the Cold War?
Want to know who started the Cold War? And does the answer to that question change depending on who’s making the claim? Compare two different sources to get to the root of this important question.
Cold War: An Overview
Was the Cold War an economic crisis? A political crisis? Ideological struggle? Or was it all those things and more?
-
Guiding Questions
-
Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the article. Be sure to look at the section headings and any images.
While you read
Look for answers to these questions:
- What was the basic difference at the heart of the Cold War conflict?
- What does this author identify as the three main features of the Cold War?
- Why did Stalin want to expand Soviet influence in Eastern Europe?
- What was the policy of containment and what does the author use as an example of this policy?
After you read
Respond to the following questions:
- To what extent does this article explain the causes and effects of the ideological struggle of the Cold War?
- The Cold War was a conflict that divided nations across the world. Which of the AP themes do you think best describes why the Cold War happened?
Causation: Cold War
As you’ve seen throughout this lesson, the causes of the Cold War are varied and complex. Use your causation skills to evaluate the most important ones.
