YEAR 3
POLITICAL CHANGE IN 20TH CENTURY IRELAND
1.
POLITICAL GROUPS IN 20TH CENTURY IRELAND
Governing Ireland
 Irish MPs and lords in Westminster
 Lord Lieutenant represented King
 Chief Secretary represented British government
Nationalists
Vast majority supported Irish Parliamentary Party (Home Rule Party).
Led by John Redmond
84 of 105 seats in 1910
Home Rule meant a parliament in Dublin to deal with internal affairs
Peaceful means.
Had support of the Liberal Party.
IRB
Secret revolutionary organisation
Responsible for 1867 Fenian Rising
Complete independent Republic
Supported by Irish in USA
Sinn Féin
Arthur Griffith 1905
Dual monarchy
Abstentionist
Tariffs to develop industry
Small until after 1916
Unionists
Wanted to stay in UK. No HR. 3 reasons
1. Felt British
2. Home rule = Rome rule
3. Fear of losing trade links
Carson and Craig
Supported by Conservatives (Empire would fall apart)
Labour Movement
Poor state of workers in Ireland
James Larkin from Liverpool set up ITGWU
William Martin Murphy and Employers Federation = Lockout
Police, government and Catholic Church supported employers.
After 5 months workers defeated
ITGWU did not die
2. THE HOME RULE CRISIS
The Home Rule Bill
1910 the Liberal government needed the support of the Home Rule Party (84 seats)
1911 Liberals passed The Parliament Act. House of Lords could only delay bills for 2 years.
1912 Third Home Rule Bill became law.
1914 WW1 broke out.
1916 the Irish didn’t want HR
Unionist Opposition
Took different forms
 Demonstrations and speeches by Carson and Craig
 Solemn League and Covenant
 UVF
 Larne (35000 rifles)
The Curragh Mutiny
Nationalist Reaction
Eoin MacNeill wrote ‘The North Began’
IVF
IRB involvement
Howth gun running (900 rifles) Asgard
WW1 stopped Civil War
3. REACTION TO WORLD WAR 1
Unionists joined 36th Ulster Division to show support for the union
Redmond at Woodenbridge split IVF
Those who supported Redmond became the National Volunteers and joined the British army
Those who supported MacNeill kept IVF name (IRB mainly)
250,000 Irishmen fought in WW1. 30,000 to 40,000 died
4. THE 1916 RISING
Plans for a Rising
IRB ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’
Military Council (Thomas Clarke, Patrick Pearse, Sean McDermott, Thomas Mac Donough,
Joseph Plunkett and Eamon Ceannt)
James Connolly and the Irish Citizen’s Army persuaded to join.
Roger Casement. 20,000 rifles from Germany on the Aud.
MacNeill would not take part unless they were attacked first. The Castle document was forged.
MacNeill was deceived and agreed to allow the IVF take part at Easter
Plans go wrong
Aud captured and scuttled. Casement arrested and hanged.
MacNeill found out the Castle Document was a forgery and called off manoeuvres on Easter
Sunday
The Rising goes ahead
Military Council decided to go ahead on Easter Monday.
Rising confined to Dublin and bound for military failure
Pearse and the Proclamation
1500 rebels took key buildings in the city (GPO, Boland’s Mills, Jacob’s Factory, The Four
Courts)
Failure to take Dublin Castle a big mistake.
British reinforcements from the Curragh and England.
The Helga shelled the GPO
Saturday, unconditional surrender
The Results of the Rising
1. 500 killed, more injured, much damage
2. Dubliners angry with rebels
3. Martial law (2000 interned)
4. 90 sentenced to death. 15 executed in Kilmainham Jail. Irish minds were changed. Home
Rule finished.
5. Sinn Féin got blamed and became popular. It changed its aim to an Irish Republic.
DeValera became its leader.
The Conscription Crisis
Compulsory military service further boosted Sinn Fein’s popularity
The 1918 General Election
73 seats for Sinn Fein
Called their MPs Teachtaí Dála and refused to take seats.
1919 Dáil Éireann set up.
5. THE INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE
Sinn Féin and the First Dail
1919 Mansion House
27 TDs only, jail or on the run
First meeting issued:
 Declaration of Independence
 A message to the Free Nations of the World
 A programme to improve living and working conditions
At a later meeting DeValera (rescued) elected president
Collins was Minister for Finance; Markieviec (labour), Griffith (home affairs and vice-president)
The Dail:
 Got control of Local gov.
 Set up their own courts
 Got loans
The War of Independence
Same day of First Dail, Soloheadbeg happened (Breen, Treacy and others). 2 RIC dead, gelignite.
Early stages, RIC main target of guerrilla campaign.
Collins: Director of Intelligence. The Squad. £10,000 reward on his head.
Flying Columns (Tom Barry, Liam Lynch, Ernie O Malley) victories at Kilmichael and
Crossbarry.
The British Response
Black and tans
Auxiliaries
Could not cope with guerrilla warfare and carried out reprisals (Cork, Balbriggan, burnings,
beatings and murder)
The Government of Ireland Act 1920 offered Home Rule to North and South. Ulster Unionists
accepted and Northern Ireland state was formed.
Major incidents of the War of Independence
 Tomás MacCurtain,s murder
 Terence MacSwiney’s 74 day hunger strike
 Bloody Sunday 21st of Nov 1920. 11 agents killed. 12 in Croke park (Michael Hogan).
 Burning of Customs House (80 of Dublin brigade gone)
Peace
People wanted peace. IRA out of ammo and short of men.
Bad publicity for British gov. Costing a lot of money
DeValera and Lloyd George agreed a ceasefire.
Treaty Negotiations
DeV refused to go (Knew a Republic not on offer?)
SF delegation: Collins and Griffith were main Irish negotiators
British reps: Lloyd George (P.M), Churchill, Birkenhead and Chamberlain were experienced
Talks held in London
Irish delegates had to report back to Cabinet
Irish wanted Unity British insisted on loyalty to Crown and Empire
L.G. gave them an ultimatum: sign or face renewal of war
Terms of Treaty
Created a 26 county Irish Free State
Governor General=King’s rep in Ireland
TD’s had to take oath of allegiance to King
British retained 3 Treaty ports for naval use (Cobh, Lough Swilly, Berehaven)
Ireland was a dominion of British Commonwealth = status as Canada
Boundary Commision to look at border between IFS and N. Ireland (Collins and Griffith told by
LG that this would make N. Ireland unfeasible as a separate entity)
Treaty Debates
Pro-Treaty: Collins Griffith Cosgrave: ‘The freedom to achieve freedom’, best deal that could be
got.
Anti-Treaty: DeV, Stack, Brugha, Markievicz: Betrayal of Republican martyrs, couldn’t accept
Oath to King.
Vote: Pro-Treaty 64 Anti-Treaty 57. DeV and his followers walk out: ‘The majority have no right
to do wrong’.
6. THE IRISH CIVIL WAR
Divisions
Pro-Treaty (Regulars or Free State Army) V Anti Treaty (Irregulars or Republicans)
Both sides grabbed barracks as the British left
Irregulars took 4 Courts
Collins won election well. When 4 Courts Irregulars took a Regular general, Collins attacked them.
He won easily with British artillery.
The Munster Republic
Limerick to Waterford
Collins used ships
Death of Collins and Griffith
August 1922
Griffith had brain haemorrhage
Beal na mBlath
WT Cosgrave and Kevin O Higgins took over
Guerilla Warfare
Did not work well because:
 Free State had support of most people
 They knew the land as well
Great brutality on both sides
April 1923 Liam Lynch killed. Frank Aiken and DeV called a ceasefire
Results
 Death and destruction
 Lost leaders
 Bitterness
 Political Parties
7. CUMANN NA nGAEDHEAL IN POWER 1923-1932
Aims:
 Establish law and order
 Rebuild the economy
 Manage relations with Britain (Anglo-Irish relations)
After the Treaty
 Irish Free State is made up of 26 counties
 Irish Free State is a member (dominion) of the British Commonwealth
 Oireachtas, Dail, Seanad are established
 Oath of Allegiance to King by TDs
 Governor General represents King in Ireland
 British control 3 Treaty ports- Cobh, Lough Swilly, and Berehaven. Important for British
security.
Law and Order
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Garda (unarmed) set up
Courts system is established (District Court, Circuit Court, High Court, Supreme Court)
Public Safety Act (gives Government wide powers of arrest)
The Army Mutiny (Old IRA members of army dissatisfied with redundancy and progress to
republic). Richard Mulcahy (defence minister) resigned and leaders arrested. Important to
control army. O’Higgins sorted it.
The Economy
 Concentration on agriculture (loans to farmers (ACC), better breeding)
 The Shannon Scheme (ESB)
 Sugar industry
Relations with Britain
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The Boundary Commission 1925- no change. Cosgrave signed off on partition. Republican
elements unhappy-not using Treaty as a ‘Stepping Stone’.
IFS joined League of Nations in 1923. British unhappy with this.
IFS sent diplomats to other countries. British unhappy…they said there was already a
Commonwealth representative there.
1931 Statute of Westminster (allowed members to change any laws made for them by the
British parliament). DeV uses this to good effect.
Reasons for Decline of Cumann na nGaedhael
 Blamed for the failure of the Boundary Commission
 Great Depression caused by Wall St Crash of 1929
 Cut in pay for teachers and garda-unpopular
 Popularity of Fianna Fail- provided good opposition
 People were tired of same faces; they wanted a change after 10 years of CnaG.
8. FIANNA FAIL IN POWER
Dismantling the Treaty
 Used the Statute of Westminster to abolish the Oath
 Got rid of the Governor General (ignored him, boycotted events he was at)
 Removed the king as head of state (during abdication crisis)
 1937 New Constitution (no mention of King)
The New Constitution (Bunreacht na hEireann)
 The name ‘Taoiseach’ replaced old title of ‘President of Executive Council’
 Douglas Hyde became 1st President
 Articles 2 and 3-said constitution was for 32 counties.
 Special position of Catholic Church recognised
 New name: Eire not Free State
The IRA and the Blueshirts
On taking power DeV released the IRA prisoners who disrupted C na G meetings. He outlawed
IRA in 1936 after a number of murders and bank raids.
ACA elected Eoin O Duffy as leader. Blueshirts. Adopted Fascist characteristics (salute, uniform).
DeV banned them after planned march on Glasnevin.
Joined with C na G to form Fine Gael. O Duffy was first leader. Unpopular so went to Spanish
Civil War.
The Economic War
DeV refused to pay the Land Annuities.
British put tariffs on Irish cattle (20%). Irish put tariffs on British goods (5%). Ireland hardest hit.
Anglo- Irish agreement 1938:
 £10 million compensation paid to Britain to end land annuities
 Free Trade
 3 Treaty ports returned (Cobh, Lough Swilly, Berehaven)
The Economy
Sean Lemass (Industry and Commerce) put Protectionism in place. Helped infant industry but poor
quality goods at high prices.
Irish Sugar and Aer Lingus set up.
The Emergency
Neutral because:
 to show independence
 too weak
Emergency Powers Act:
 Censorship
 Army built up. LDF 250,000 men.
The IRA a danger to neutrality. Some executed, some died on hunger strike and some interned.
German spies. ‘Operation Green’
North Strand 34 dead.
Britain and US did not like our neutrality. Dev rejected their criticisms.
What Lemass (Minister for Supplies) did:
 Irish Shipping
 Rationing
 Turf replaced coal
 The glimmer man
9. 1948 – 1959
Defeat for DeValera because:
 People wanted a change
 Unemployment and emigration
1948 to 1951 The First Inter-Party government.
Fine Gael, Labour and Clan na Poblachta.
Taoiseach was John A Costello. Sean MacBride (external affairs), Noel Browne (Health).
Achievments:
 1949 Republic
 Marshall Aid built houses and hospitals
 Rural electricification
 Fight against TB
 IDA set up to attract foreign industry to Ireland
 The Mother and Child scheme
1951- 1954 DeValera in power.
Better social welfare but still high unemployment and emigration
1954 – 1957 The Second Inter-Party government
 Joined UN
 Took action against IRA for border attacks (Clan na Poblachta pulled out of the
government as a result)
1957-1959
DeV again interned IRA
1959 Dev became President for the next 14 years
Lemass took over as Taoiseach
9. SEAN LEMASS AND THE 1960s
Lemass appointed younger ministers like Lynch, Haughey and Donough O Malley
TK Whittaker drew up the First Programme for Economic Expansion, which:
 Got rid of Protectionism.
 Encouraged exports.
 Grants and tax concessions to attract foreign industry
Lemass met Terence O Neill.
New schools were built.
Free Secondary education introduced
First shopping centres built
Finglas, Ballymun, Ballyfermot etc.were built.
RTE set up
‘Swinging Sixties’
JFK arrived.
10. YEARS OF UNCERTAINTY 1966 –1985.
Jack Lynch as Taoiseach 1966 – 1973
1970 The Arms crisis. Blaney and Haughey and Blaney sacked. Boland resigned in sympathy.
Haughey later acquitted.
The campaign to join the EEC. We signed up on the 1st January 1973.
The Coalition government 1973 – 1977
Fine Gael and Labour led by Liam Cosgrave.
Oil crisis led to inflation and unemployment. Taxes increased.
Sunningdale signed by Heath and Cosgrave but the new power-sharing agreement was broken by
Unionist opposition
1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
1977 – 1981 Fianna Fail returns
‘Give-away election’
1979 Lynch resigned and Haughey took over.
1981 Coalition under Garret Fitzgerald (FG and Lab)
1982 Haughey and FF in power for 10 months
1982 –1987 FG under Fitzgerald
Still inflation, debt, high taxes, emigration and unemployment.
Fitzgerald and Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985. It stated that the Republic
would have a say in running Northern Ireland..
NORTHERN IRELAND 1920 – 1985
Early Years
Government of Ireland Act 1920. Separate state. Westminster kept control of trade, foreign affairs,
defence.
For the next fifty years unionists dominated NI.
Craig PM until 1940
Conflict between Protestants and Catholics.
Catholics seen as a threat to Union.
1922 RUC and B-Specials set up with Special Powers Act to arrest and imprison anyone.
1920s Catholics driven out of homes and jobs. Riots. Some Catholics killed.
Discrimination against Catholics in:
 Government jobs
 Gerrymandering
 Education
The Economy in 1920s and 1930s
Shipbuilding and linen in decline.
Great Depression 40% unemployed.
1932 workers from both sides protested. Police crushed them. Sectarian violence returned,
encouraged by political leaders like Basil Brooke.
World War 2
Strategic importance (south neutral, American base)
Shorts, Harland and Wolff, parachutes, rope etc.
Churchill offered DeValera the north if we joined the war
Craig replaced by J.M. Andrews and then Brooke
Over 1000 killed in bombing of Belfast.
North and South driven further apart by the war.
The Post-War Years.
Labour and the Welfare state:
 Education for Catholics
 Housing (discrimination)
 Free medical care for women and children
Ireland Act 1949 guaranteed union with consent.
IRA bombing campaign in the 1950s
Shipbuilding and Linen began to fade in the 1960s
O Neill, Civil Rights and the Troubles.
O Neill wanted better relations with the South and Catholics.
He visited Cardinal Conway, Catholic schools and Lemass.
Strongly criticised by Paisley, O Neill resigned in 1969.
NICRA began in 1967. It wanted:
 An end to gerrymandering
 An end to discrimination in government housing and jobs
 One man, one vote in local elections
Leaders included Fitt, Currie, Hume and Bernadette Devlin.
Derry march attacked by police on TV.
Troops sent in to protect Catholics were welcome.
1970 SDLP founded.
Provos broke away
Internment a big mistake
Jan 1972 Bloody Sunday 13 killed
William Whitelaw and direct rule 1972
Attempts at Peace.
Heath and Cosgrave signed Sunningdale. Power sharing and a Council of Ireland for cross-border
cooperation.
New government led by Faulkner and Fitt.
Paisley and the Ulster Worker’s Council general strike. 1974 Direct Rule returned.
1979 Thatcher became PM.
Sands and the hunger-strikers wanted political prisoner status. 9 died.
1985 Thatcher and Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement at Hillsborough. This gave the
Republic a say in the running of NI. Thatcher did not give in to the Unionists.
1993 Major and Reynolds signed the Downing Street Declaration. Hume’s secret negotiations with
the IRA led to ceasefire and unionists followed.
1998 with Clinton,s help the Good Friday agreement led to the power-sharing NI Assembly.
The PNSI and decommissioning.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE 20TH CENTURY
EUROPE AFTER WORLD WAR 1
The Legacy of World War 1
11 of 11 of 11 of 1918
Death and damage
Downfall of Empires
New states (Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia)
Rise of USA
Rise of Communism in USSR
Versailles
USA GB France and Italy. Wilson, George, Clemenceau, Orlando.
14 Point Plan = League of Nations.
Treaty of Versailles
No choice for Weimar Gov. Unfair? War guilt clause a cause of WW2?
Demilitarisation of Rhineland
100000 men. No subs or aircraft. Small navy.
Anschluss forbidden
£6.6 billion in gold.
League of Nations
To achieve peace by making each member responsible for each other’s security.
Assembly (all countries represented, one vote, unanimous)
Council of Ministers (unanimous, main decisions)
Secretariat
International Court of Justice
Failed because:
 Unanimous
 No army
 USA did not join. Germany and Russia for a short time.
Success in minor dispute between Finland and Sweden
Failures: Japan in China; Italy in Abyssinia; Hitler and Versailles
Democracy and Dictatorship
Dictatorship: One man or party; control of press; no freedom of speech; secret police; no freedom
of the individual.
Communist dictatorship
Marx. Abolish private property and profit. Revolution. State ownership. No religion.
1917 Lenin. 1924 Stalin. Powerful country. Millions died.
Fascist dictatorship
 anti-Communist
 Extreme nationalism
 Racism
 Hostility to democracy
 Cult of the leader
 Use of violence to get power
MUSSOLINI AND FASCIST ITALY
Early career
Socialist teacher. Wounded in WW1.
Founded Fascio di Combattimento (blackshirts)
Fasces
Why Fascism became popular.
1. Weak governments. 1 million dead. Disappointed with Paris Peace deal. Inflation and
Unemployment.
2. Fear of Communism
3. Blackshirt violence.
4. March on Rome. Victor Emmanuel III
Becoming a Dictator
 1923 biggest party gets 2/3 of seats
 Opposition walked when Matteotti was murdered
 Rule by decree
 OVRA secret police
 Il Duce. Cult of the Personality
 Brainwashing, Balila.
 Propaganda
Successes at home
 Autostada and railways
 Latern Treaty
 Pontine Marshes
 Employment
 ‘Battle for Grain’ ‘Battle for Births’
Foreign Policy
Aims: to recreate the Roman Empire and to make the Med an Italian lake.
Took Libya, Abyssinia and Somalia.
Friendship developed with Hitler = 1936 Rome-Berlin Axis (allowed anchluss if Italy kept South
Tyrol)
1939 Pact of Steel (full military alliance)
Italy did not join WW2 (army not ready) until Germany seemed to be winning in 1940.
Hitler had to send Rommel to help Italy in North Africa.
The End
Allies invaded
Mussolini arrested on king’s orders.
Nazis released him. Puppet gov.
Partisans killed him
HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY
Early career
Austrian
Blamed Jews for art failure in Vienna
Dispatch rider in German army. 2 Iron crosses. Wounded twice.
Joined Nazi party as gov spy. Became leader.
Munich Putsch. Trial and Jail (Mein Kampf)
Hitler’s Ideas
 Superior Aryan Race must be kept clean.
 Lebensraum
 Jews undermining Germany
 Anti-Communist
 Abolish Versailles
 Weimar weak
Why Nazism became popular.
 Weak governments
 Economic problems
 Great depression
 Popular policies on Versailles, Communism, Jews.
 Violence. SA ‘Brownshirts’ (Rohm) SS and Gestapo (Himmler)
 Propaganda
 Hitler’s personality (speeches)
Becoming a dictator
1. More popular in 1930s. Elected Chancellor in 1933.
2. SA and SS beat up opponents
3. Reichstag fire = banned socialists
4. Enabling law = rule by decree
5. Banned all other parties. Fuhrer.
Propaganda
Goebbles
Strict censorship
Mass rallies
Olympic games
Books burned and rewritten
Hitler Youth. League of German Maidens
Successes at home
6 million found jobs in 3 years
Autobahns
Volkswagen
Rearmament
The Jews
Anti-Semitism
Nuremberg laws (no citizenship, no intermarriage, star of David)
Crystal Night
Ghettoes
Final Solution.
The Drift to War in Europe
Hitler’s aims:
 Unite all German speakers
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Lebensraum
Destroy Treaty of Versailles
1934 people of the Saar voted to rejoin Germany
1934 Mussolini rushed troops to prevent Anschluss
1935 An agreement with GB on a limit to the size of the navy but not on submarines.
1936 Rhineland demilitarised. A gamble.
1936 Rome-Berlin Axis. Friendship with Italy because:
 Hitler backed invasion of Abyssinia
 Co-operation in the Spanish Civil War
1938 Anschluss referendum
Sudetenland
1938 Munich Conference. Chamberlain. Appeasement
1939 6 months. Rest of Czechoslovakia.
1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact. (10 year non-aggression, divide Poland)
31 August 1939 invasion of Poland
WORLD WAR II
Invasion of Poland
SS dressed up 29th of August
1st September GB and France declare war.
Blitzkrieg
Luftwaffe, then Panzers then motorised infantry. Poland defeated in 5 weeks.
Phoney War
Fighting on sea only.
Denmark and Norway
Spring 1940 Denmark in a day.
Norway was to protect neutral Sweden’s iron ore getting to Germany. Quisling in Norway.
France
Wrong to think the Ardennes would send the Germans through Belgium (Maginot Line)
Dunkirk 300,000British and French troops evacuated in ‘Operation Dynamo’
France surrendered in the same railway carriage.
Vichy France and Occupied France.
Resistance
Operation Sea Lion and The Battle of Britain
German plan = Sea Lion
Churchill ‘We shall never surrender’.
RAF Spitfire and Hurricanes and Radar V Luftwaffe.
The Blitz
North Africa
Oil
Italy incompetent.
Rommel’s Afrika corp successful at first.
Montgomery and El Alamein a turning point.
Operation Barbarossa
June 1941 (bad time) 3 pronged attack on Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev.
Russian retreat. Scorched earth policy.
Stalin’s ‘Great Patriotic War’
German troops and machines not able for Russian winter.
Stalingrad (control of Caucasus oil fields) big turning point.
USA Joins the War
USA had supplied food and weapons to GB. Allied convoys had tried to fend off U-Boat
‘Wolfpacks’.
Japan’s Empire.
Dec 1941 Pearl Harbour. US navy lucky as only 18 ships sunk.
Eventually Alllied ships, weapons (depth charges), sonar, code-breaking and air reconnaissance
won.
Allied Bombing
US Flying Fortresses and GB Lancasters bombed German cities and factories.
German retaliation with V1 and V2.
Allied Advance 1942-1945
GB and US troops up through Italy.
Russians pushed back. Battle of the Kursk (biggest tank battle)
Operation Overlord. D-Day 6 June 1944 Normandy (shallow) Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold and
Sword. Mulberry Harbours. Gliders and parachutes. Pluto the pipeline.
Battle of the Bulge
Hitler,s suicide and VE day 15th August 1945
Defeat of Japan
US helped by Austalia and GB.
Island hopping. Aircraft carriers. Kamakazi.
Battles of Midway, Coral Sea and Iwo Jima.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Why the Allies Won
 Bigger armies
 USA wealth and weapons ‘the arsenal of democracy’
 Oil
Results of WW2
 Destruction (Marshall Aid)
 Nuremberg trials
 Germany divided
 Cold War
 Super powers
 European Unity
THE RISE OF THE SUPERPOWERS
Causes of the Cold War
 Political differences
 Disagreements during WW2 . The US slow to open ‘second front’. 27 m Russians died.
Atomic bomb not shared with USSR.
 The Iron Curtain. Buffer zone of ‘satellite states’. Tension.
 The Truman doctrine. Originally to help Greece and Turkey (Communist pressure) led to the
‘Marshall plan’. The Russians competed with ‘Comecon’
Case Study 1. The Berlin Blockade 1948.
Causes.
At Yalta and Potsdam Germany divided into zones. So was Berlin. These were supposed to be
temporary.
USSR wanted revenged and stripped its zone.
The Allies did not want another Versailles and wanted a strong ally.
Course.
When the Allies introduced the Deutschmark the Russians cut off routes to Berlin.
Russians hoping Allies would leave Berlin
The Berlin Airlift. 3 air corridors. Plane landing every 90 seconds. People suffered.
11 months May 1949 blockade lifted
Results
 War did not happen
 East and West Germany to stay
 NATO and Warsaw Pact
 Tension
 1961 The Berlin Wall.
Case Study 2. The Korean War.
After WW2 38th Parallel
1948 US backed Republic of Korea elected in the south (Seoul)
USSR Democratic Republic of Korea in the north (Pyongyang)
1950 border incidents led to North invading South.
UN (mainly US) army under MacArthur drove them back and went on to the Chinese border. Mao
Tse tung entered the war and again the South was invaded.
Truman sacked MacArthur.
1953 Stalin died (Khrushchev) and Eisenhower became President. War ended. 38th Parallel
resumed.
Results:
 Over 1million dead. Country in ruins
 Increased tension
 New ally for US
 UN authority established
The Cold War Spreads
 The Arms Race began in earnest (H-bombs, ICBMs)
 Space Race (1957 Sputnik 1 first satellite, 1961 Gagarin in space, 1969 man on the moon)
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Propaganda
Sports
Case Study 3 The Cuban Missile Crisis
US backed Batista dictatorship. US industry and sugar plantations.
1959 Castro’s communist revolution nationalised the above.
US sanctions = Khrushchev + USSR bought Cuban sugar and sold weapons.
Kennedy and CIA = Bay of Pigs failure.
1962 U2 photographed Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba
Kennedy’s blockade. Very close to war.
USSR agreed to dismantle bases
Results:
1. Both sides took measures to prevent nuclear war
2. 1963 US missile bases in Turkey dismantled
3. ‘hotline’ set up
4. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (above ground)
The Cold War Comes to an End
1985 Gorbachev comes to power. Wanted to reform communism so the people would be better off.
‘Perestroika’ (reconstruction) and Glastnost (openness)
He wanted to cut military spending and made agreements with Reagan and Bush (snr) to scrap
thousands of nuclear missiles.
Gorbachev’s promise not to use force to prevent democracy in eastern Europe led to the collapse
of communism in East Germany and other countries
1989 Berlin Wall came down
1990 Germany reunited
The USSR began to break up.
MOVES TOWARDS EUROPEAN UNITY
Reasons for European Unity.
1. To keep the peace
2. To revive economies
3. To compete with superpowers
4. To resist communism
Steps towards European Unity.
1. 1949 The Council of Europe. 10 countries (including Ireland). It has no real power but did
set The European Court of Human Rights. Citizens have won against their governments.
2. Jean Monnet (French economist) believed in a united Europe.
Robert Schumann (French Foreign minister) believed that if German and French coal and
steel industries depended on each other, there would be peace.
Konrad Adenauer (German Chancellor) agreed with ‘the Schumann Plan’.
3. 1951 The Treaty of Paris formed the European Coal and Steel Community. 6 countries
(Luxemburg, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy)
4. 1957 the same 6 countries signed the Treaty of Rome setting up the European Economic
Community
5. 1973 GB, Ireland and Denmark joined
6. 1993 Maastricht Treaty the European Community became the European Union.
Successes
1. Peace and prosperity
2. Free trade
3. Common currency
Problems
1. Gap between richer and poorer countries
2. Poorer countries joining
3. Loss of sovereignty
4. Too distant from the people