[Music] hi there and welcome to the history teacher this revision video covers superpower relations and the cold war 1941 to 1991 from the gcse edexcel nine to one course hopefully you'll also find it useful if you're studying any of the other exam boards or if like me you just love history you can now become a member to support me to continue to make this content you'll get exclusive access to worksheets revision materials and you'll get to vote on forthcoming episodes just click on the join button below this video hi there guys last time we looked at the reasons the grand alliance was an uneasy agreement between polar opposites only united in the goal of removing the nazis today we're going to look at the series of conferences which took place to decide how the alliance would work together and what would happen after the war the first was held at tehran in iran in december 1943 the three nations wanted different things from the alliance the usa had entered the war after the japanese attacked pearl harbor in hawaii in july 1941 and roosevelt wanted the support of stalin to defeat the japanese the ussr wanted the usa and britain to open up a second front in western europe to take the pressure from them and britain wanted support in defeating nazism and defending its empire the usa and britain agreed to invade western europe in may 1944 this would ease pressure on the ussr who were being invaded by the nazis and suffering heavy losses as the nazis would now have to fight on two fronts the ussr in return agreed to support the usa in defeating the japanese after the nazis were defeated they agreed that the soviet union would gain land from poland and that an international body to settle disputes like this one should be set up to prevent future wars no formal agreement on the future of germany was reached a little behind schedule the usa and britain invaded western europe in the d-day landings in june 1944 and the tide of war began to turn by the beginning of 1945 it was clear that the nazis were in retreat the soviet union had been able to repel the nazis and they were now chasing them back to germany the british and usa too were closing in on berlin so in february 1945 the three members of the grand alliance met again this time in yalta in modern day ukraine to discuss what they were going to do with germany once they had defeated the nazis it was decided that germany should be split into four zones where the ussr the usa britain and france each having control of a zone berlin too would be split into four zones the nazis were to be prosecuted and the united nations set up to police disputes between nations they had tried to learn from the mistakes of the first world war and all countries would be allowed to join however there was some dispute over membership for some of the nations that made up the soviet union the ussr true to their word confirmed that they would support the usa against the japanese as soon as the nazis were defeated the soviet union agreed that future elections in the ussr would be free however poland remained a source of contention roosevelt and churchill were determined to let the people of poland choose their own future but stalin was worried about a future invasion from germany not unreasonably when you think they've been invaded twice in 30 years therefore stalin wanted poland to act as a buffer zone to prevent future invasion it was agreed that a free election would be held stalin was sure the election would return a result for the communist party while britain supported the london polls a group of polish politicians who had been forced to flee poland once the nazis invaded on the 7th of may 1945 the nazis surrendered and the war was over the tenuous relationship between the usa and the ussr was already beginning to collapse president roosevelt died on the 12th of april 1945 and was replaced by the younger and less experienced harry s truman truman disliked stalin and distrusted him he accused stalin of breaking his promises about poland and the treatment of the prisons of war nevertheless the three nations met once again in august 1945 this time at potsdam which is just outside berlin to finalize the future of germany and europe truman approached the conference aggressively he did not want to give stalin room to get out of any of the prior agreements this attitude irritated stalin and the conference got underway with bad feeling on both sides the situation was made even worse when the usa dropped the first atomic bomb on nagasaki japan the day after the conference began this shocked sterling as he felt that as the ally of the usa he should have been warned churchill tried to continue the work he had started but he was replaced during the potsdam conference by clement ali whose priority was to get back to britain and start repairing the damage from the war however the conference did confirm many of the items that had been agreed in yalta a united nations was established which any country was allowed to join however there were five permanent members britain france the usa the ussr and china these five had the ability to veto which meant they could override any vote a council of foreign ministers was established to oversee the writing and agreeing of treaties following the war they also agreed to the denuncification of germany this banned the nazi party from existing they removed all evidence of the nazis from germany and the leaders of the nazi party were tried as war criminals germany was also reduced in size slightly and germany and berlin were split into four zones the soviet union was assigned to the north east of germany and this was the area with the least wealth therefore the soviet union was to receive 25 percent of the output of the other three zones in compensation germany would have to pay reparations as it had at the end of world war one and stalin pushed for harsh terms however truman opposed this and choosing to learn from the lessons of the treaty of versailles they allowed germany to pay in equipment and materials as well as money making it a more manageable payment poland's border with the soviet union was moved west as had been agreed giving the ussr the land it felt had been taken from it not everything was as easily agreed on though stalin wanted to share the occupation of japan once they surrendered which was now inevitable however truman refused additionally a stalin started to back out of the initial promises of free elections for all soviet occupied nations and began to install communist governments who would do the will of the soviet union ultimately the ussr and britain and the usa had little in common the ideologies of the east and the west were opposed and each feared the other's influence in their country britain and the usa feared a communist uprising in their own countries while the soviet union feared an invasion from the west the agreements made in the three conferences held at least for a while but the fragile alliance based only on a determination to defeat the nazis fell apart as soon as the nazis had fallen okay that is everything you need to know about the three conferences please don't forget to check out my website for worksheets and revision guidance and i will see you next time