End of the Cold War
Ch.35, pg. 839-847
End of the Cold War
& Explosion of the 1980s & 1990s
Causes of change in Russia’s pattern of expansion
1. Internal decline:
• Leadership
• Environmental degradation
• Declining industrial production amidst
rising military costs
2. External pressure:
• Islamic fundamentalism
• Western consumerism
• China’s shift away from USSR toward
capitalism
• U.S. diplomacy & defense spending
stretched USSR thin
Age of Reform
• Gorbachev ushered in atmosphere of
change, openness, & innovation
• Economically, perestroika allowed for
some private ownership & decentralization
• Politically, created new parliament &
allowed opposition groups
• Yet, results were slow from efforts to
balance reform & stability
Dismantling the Soviet Empire
• Soviet decline prompted successive,
usually peaceful political changes
throughout Eastern Europe
• Symbolized by fall of Berlin Wall in 1989
↳ New flexible communist leadership or
democratic republics installed
↳ Market reforms caused rapid inflation
↳ Old nationalist tensions boiled
Renewed Turmoil of the 1990s
• Gorbachev’s authority declined &
Soviet Union broke into independent
republics in 1991
• Boris Yeltsin takes leadership of Russia
• Economic & political uncertainty reigns
supreme
Global Connections
• End of Cold War promised a new age of
peace yet regional conflicts remained
• Democracy spread
• U.S. as sole superpower
•Global influence
•Harsh reactions to this dominance now
centered on single nation