okay welcome to 1991 and I reckon we ought to check back in with the Cold War and see how it's going and here comes the collapse of the entire stinking Soviet Union and that's going to end the Cold War quick fast and in a hurry so let's talk about it if you're ready to get them bran cows milk let's get to it okay now there are about a thousand causes for the end of the Cold War but in this video we're going to talk about three of the main causes and the first is the technological and Military advancements of the United States so by the early 1980s the US and the Soviet Union had produced over 12,000 nuclear missiles and all those Weapons of Mass destructions were pointed at one another a major consideration that kept their respective fingers off the launch buttons was the guarantee that if either did start a nuclear war it would certainly end in mutual assured destruction even so it was tense between the two powers for a long time however that tension did relax somewhat during a period of daytont in the 1970s for example US president Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid brv signed the Strategic arms limitation treaty better known as salt one in which both States agreed to prohibit further manufacturer of nuclear weapons but then in 1980 the US elected Ronald Reagan as president and he took a much harder line against the Soviets and decided to take that day taunt and flush it down the toilet to that end Reagan spearheaded the Strategic Defense Initiative or SDI it was a system that rendered any attack on the US by nuclear weapons Obsolete and how would that be well the SDI sought to launch defense systems into space that conect a nuclear launch and shoot them down from space with lasers like they were going to shoot down nuclear missiles from space with lasers and therefore it was no wonder that the detractors of this plan dubbed at Star Wars look even though the SDI never really came to pass it represented a growing divide between the US and the Soviet Union Reagan believed that the Soviets would attempt to match the us spending and weapons development and in large part he was right but the problem was that since the 1970s the Soviet economy had been stagnant and could not support that kind of spending therefore the Soviet attempts to keep up with the US Military and technological investment LED them into further economic decline oh and by the way let me just mention that if you need help studying for your AP exam you might want to grab my AP World himler review guide which is everything you need to study as fast as possible it's got whole unit review videos that you're not going to see here on YouTube no guides to follow along practice questions practice exams and answer keys for every dang bit of it so if that's something that you're into check the link in the description okay now the second cause of the Soviet collapse and the end of the Cold War was the failed Soviet invasion of Afghanistan so in 1979 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in order to prop up its Communist Regime against Afghan Muslim groups that had sought to overthrow it however the Afghan Rebels were supported and supplied by the United States in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and so while the Soviets were able to control some of Afghanistan's major cities they could not win the rural Guerilla war waged against them by the rebels and so all in all the Soviet Union waged this losing battle for 9 years and that effort further depressed the Soviet economy and the third cause and final nail in the coffin for the Soviet Union was the policies of Soviet leader Mel gorbachov Who Rose to power in 1985 now in addition to what I just mentioned about a second ago about Soviet economics in the later 1960s and early 1970s the Soviet economy was in a crisis like foreign trade was extremely limited and then government control of Agriculture stifled that industry because Farmers didn't have an freedom to decide what to plan and how much to sell their crops for additionally Eastern European Soviet block countries were growing more and more discontent with Soviet oppression for example the prag spring which was a series of mass protests in Czechoslovakia erupted in 1968 as a reaction against oppressive Soviet policy and the Soviets violently crushed this outcry but the sentiment was spreading and the Soviet state was having to devote more and more resources that they did not have to putting those rebellions down with all this background the liberal reformer male gorbachov enters stage right with some policies in his pocket that's ultimately going to lead to the Dem of the Soviet Union the first policy was known as Paris troa which was a restructuring of the economy to address all their economic woes by reducing the level of central planning from the government his second policy was known as glass notes which means openness and under this policy all the dissent and the criticism against the government and its policies that had so long been brutally silenced by previous leaders was now allowed and as it turns out there was a lot of it and then third gorbachov decided that the Soviet Union would no longer use military intervention in order to prop up Communist governments in its own sphere of influence with those devel satellite States and the Soviet block took quick advantage of the loosening Soviet grip so democratic reform movements erupted in one Eastern European country after another and that led to similar reform movements in the Soviet Union proper as people in Lithuania and Georgia and other states began declaring independence and Breaking Free from Soviet control then in 1989 the Berlin Wall was torn down and Germany was reunited in response to all these destabilizing forces the Soviet legislature voted in 1991 to dissolve the Soviet Union thus marking an end to the Cold War okay we're at the end of another unit so click here if you want to grab my AP World heer review guide which has everything you need to study as fast as possible for that National exam and you can click here to keep reviewing my other unit videos if that's the kind of thing you're into it was good to see you and I'll catch you on the flipflop himler out