hello and welcome back to all you need notes uh for Edexcel IGCSE history and this is the fourth video in the superpower relations topic from 1943 to 72 looking at the three crises Berlin Cuba and Czechoslovakia I'll be explaining two effects of everything related in this part of the specification as well as when needed the causes and the events if it demandsman's specification in order to help you prepare for your question b c and a in people want so the first thing then is the U2 incident the first effect of this was that American Soviet relations broke down so the Soviets shot down a U2 spy plane which was an American plane on the 1st of May 1960 which was traveling over the Soviet Union and mapping out taking spy images of the Soviet Union and here because they they'd actually taken it down the Soviets could prove that the U.S was spying on the Soviet Union they'd once been allies during the second world war yet now America was spying on the Soviet Union so this showed a lot of distrust between the Soviet Union and the U.S relations weren't very good and the US had actually lied about it when the evidence was shown they said well it was it's where the plane was the first explanation they gave but then the actual full evidence was revealed and they had to admit then that yes it was a spy claim that Month in May there was a summit conference at Paris for the for the main powers of the world and Khrushchev who was the leader of the Soviet Union he walked out after President Eisenhower refused to apologize for spying on the Soviets so it showed a complete breakdown of trust they weren't collaborating anymore they weren't cooperating um and they did not trust each other both sides the second effect was that it was a propaganda victory for the Soviets so the Soviets now had concrete proof that the U.S were lying for being deceitful and were betraying their former wartime Ally it was a huge embarrassment for America as well they thought the Soviets could not shoot down the U2 plane um but they'd developed the weapons to do so even though the Americans didn't know and the Soviets put the pilot to the plane it was called Gary Powers on trial um and they even took the wreckage of the plane they toured it around the entirety of the country so it was a huge propaganda exercise for them to say look this is why we're spending so much on our weapons program because America is lying to us and and they are spying on us we're not getting on well with America now for the first of the main three crises so we're going to look at the erection of the Berlin wall and to begin with the reasons for it so one of the main reasons for the Soviets putting up at the Berlin Wall was that there was an exodus of young unskilled workers from East Germany to West Germany so if you remember Germany being split into four zones of occupation um and then after the Berlin airlift crisis don't get that confused with the Berlin Wall crisis um after the Berlin airlift crisis the U.S UK and French zones joined together to make West Germany and the Soviet zone became East Germany and Berlin itself was also divided into two as well West and East Berlin young workers were fleeing from East Germany to West Germany via the Via Berlin so they could get across and then they were transported to West Germany because West Germany recovered a lot better since the war it was more prosperous there were better opportunities better wages the economy was just way better better resources health care jobs houses Etc it was all much much better in West Germany compared to communist East Germany and here are some statistics Mountain to note down a few of them three million people had left by 1958. that's about a sixth of the population of East Germany so there was a huge drain of resources and in August of 1961 alone 40 000 East Germans crossed the border so the the rate of immigration was just increasing exponentially and so Khrushchev needed to put a stop to this to make sure that East Germany just didn't have any young people to make sure that East Germany still had young people remaining they hadn't all left communism was also facing a propaganda disaster so when saying everyone's equal but in East Germany loads of teachers and Engineers were saying well we deserve higher salaries um and so obviously communism is meant to be the best thing possible for a worker but a lot of these Germans are saying well it's not um for us they weren't getting the salaries they needed um and so that they were trying to flee as well it just wasn't going well in East Germany so Krush Dev gave an ultimatum to Kennedy he said he told Kennedy to withdraw troops from his West Germany from the West Germany section of Berlin or be completely cut off by land just like the Berlin airlift crisis it was a direct challenge to Kennedy um Kennedy was a new president from January 1961 he dropped Eisenhower and he himself wanted to appear strong but he was very very inexperienced he was a new president um and Khrushchev could almost take advantage of him and he refused to make any concessions um Kennedy was not going to be um forced into taking any um any decisions and so he did not withdraw troops from Berlin so the wall was erected and there's a picture of Checkpoint Charlie so two effects of the Berlin Wall being erected first was that it was a propaganda victory for America so by building the wall crushed to have completely ended the refugee crisis again just repeating that that statistic three million had left by 1958. and Kennedy just claimed that the Soviets had to war people in literally to stop them escaping communism he said communism's just putting people off they're trying to flee it um and so they're having to force people to stay in East Germany uh the US also accused these German guards of Cruelty so the war was set up and they shot 130 over 130 people over time who tried to cross it because people did buy a cover of night so it was a huge victory for the US when they were saying well look what so if it's having to do to to keep people in to to make them stay in a communist state it's just not working the second effect was that tensions calmed between America and the Soviets so Khrushchev had had plans to unite Berlin under Soviet rule he wanted to say Sable I I'm the leader of the Soviet Union to have done this to have United Berlin to have taken it back from the Americans but his plumbers now dropped the wall just seemed permanent there was no trying to get America out of Berlin the Americans were there to stay and the wall seemed permanently um because Chef couldn't do anything neither could um the Americans about the Soviets in Germany the wall was just there those two sides were remaining and so tensions between them did start to come after quite a few child um a year or so that they had to accept that that they both were there it showed that the US communisms I'd like to leave um and Germany was unlike to be United that's what America did want they didn't like the stuff it's being so close to West Germany um but both sides are going to be there and there's nothing you can do about it and so there's no point in fighting over it and crushed to have avoided war over West Berlin he had to accept the American and the British control over West Berlin he couldn't tell us Kennedy Kennedy proven himself as strong he wasn't going to be intimidated and so well both sides the tensions between both sides decreased they were not going to go to war So eventually that crisis ended nothing however the next one is looking at at the Cuban Missile Crisis We Begin then with the Bay of Pigs invasion so there are two effects of this the first effect is that it made Cuba and the Soviets closer so just a small bit of background information uh Cuba had been very very close to America um a trading partner that was very very close to the American main Coast lots of American uh Americans went on holiday there there were a lot of gambling criminal gangs um and one of the Cubans called Castro decided to lead a um Revolution he cast out all the Americans and it declared to Cuba um as independent from America and America did not like this they did not like the fact that loads of their own people are being cast out of Cuba and that Castro had taken it for himself and so they wanted to get Cuba back therefore they sent 1400 armed Exiles so people who have been in Cuba been expelled they sent them and they gave them military equipment and they sent them into Cuba on the 17th of April 1961. Castro had feared that America might launch a foreskin Invasion and in fact some of the American um military leaders had said you know we should be going um and taking that Cuba by force but they decided to say well let's send in some people see how they do because making it seem like America's America's launching a foreskin Invasion isn't a good look uh we'll just pretend that they're on their own Castro therefore in order to try and protect Cuba from future invasions if America tried to declare himself a communist and he went to the Soviets and asked Khrushchev to help defend Cuba from any attacks so of course should have said yes he welcomed Cuba's new Ally and he sent new military equipment plus and this is crucial a nuclear missile base with nuclear weapons foreign between the US and the Soviets so America been very very close to Cuba um and this put a strain on the um relation between America and the Soviets they're Soviet Union and now taken as an ally a country that had been very very close to America and was geographically right next to America um they were Polar Opposites Cuba had gone to to the Soviet Union because the enemy of my enemy is my friend almost um and Kennedy was very very concerned about a military base operated by the Soviet Union only 145 kilometers from the U.S Mainland so very very close the Soviets could launch some sort of Invasion um or at least try to attack America from Cuba he was very very scared at how close the Soviets had come to American soil however and we'll see a bit more about this in the next few slides Kennedy then discovered that there was a nuclear weapons based on the island this was only 145 kilometers from the U.S Mainland the Soviets hadn't really been close enough to fire nuclear weapons directly at the U.S before and now they were right um well now they had a base right next to it so they could take out a lot of cities in America this became a huge threat um they were close enough to easily find missiles onto major cities in America so Kennedy was very very distressed when he found this out although this wasn't immediate immediately that we found out we found it out a bit later um and so this really increased tensions because America was very scared about what the Soviet Union could do with that base sew onto the Cuban Missile Crisis proper what were the causes and events of it and this is quite a long slide firstly the US had a nuclear missile base in Turkey which was not far from the Soviet Union so the Soviets felt that they if they had the chance um to put nuclear weapons near America they should Soviet Union felt quite threatened so the nuclear missile base was very close to them so America was easily able to launch nuclear missiles into the Soviet Union if war broke out so the Soviets wanted to be able to do the same and hence why they took um hence why they were so eager to put in your chemical Base in Cuba secondly America really feared the expansion of Communism uh so there was a policy of containment they had and they didn't like the Cuba who would want to be so close to them um they didn't like the Cuban switched to the Soviets and they feared that because Cuba was now a communist they might start a series of rebellions across South America um and therefore put um a lot of stress um on America because there were Communist States all around them so they wanted to make sure that communism didn't spread across South America and so America cut off diplomatic talks they cut off a trade with Cuba and so Cuba felt like they had to turn to the Soviet Union once the Soviets had begun sending weapons to Cuba the Americans began spying on what was happening there and on the 14th of October 1962 a U2 another one a spy plane took photographs of a nucleos site being built in Cuba this was an absolutely huge thing a nuclear missile base being built right next to America was a national security threat and so Kennedy decided to launch a naval blockade around the island of Cuba on the 22nd of October so this meant that ships which were carrying weapons from the Soviet Union would be turned around by American ships and U.S generals themselves were even ready to launch a full scale invasion of Cuba if they needed to um and it's it's hard to convey it but tensions really were very very high and there was really a possibility if the Soviets tried to force their weapons through that a war could break out between the two sides it was closest to the world ever got to full on nuclear outbreak however diplomatic talks did calm it down on the 26th of October Khrushchev offered to remove the nuclear weapons if and only if Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba um and also later to remove the missiles in Turkey the U.S agreed to the first part and they removed their nuclear missile base from Turkey shortly afterwards so everything turned out fine so the cube Cuban Missile Crisis itself two effects of it the first fact was that tensions between the two sides de-escalated so both sides had really been very close to nuclear war the U.S had 54 bombers with Warheads ready during the blockade just in case the Soviets um went to military force to try and get their weapons in uh and again some military generals were saying well we should invade Cuba and so to ensure that better communication um was set up between Moscow and Washington a hotline was set up in June of 1963 between the two and this led to what the period of what we call Dayton like an easing of tension between the two sides learn more about the hotline in the next video also the nuclear non-proliferation treaty was signed in 1968 stopping nuclear weapons being shared with other countries that didn't have them so under that treaty the Soviet Union would no longer be able to share um and give out nuclear weapons to different countries again we'll cover that a bit more in the next video the second effect was that the Soviet Union and Khrushchev appeared weak so because he'd removed missiles from Cuba christchative seemed weak and Kennedy seemed strong and favorable he'd stuck to his line he'd refused to allow the um the the nuclear weapon space in Cuba and he had made sure that it was blockaded he'd stopped the Soviets continuing to to influence Cuba um and to have strong power there and Kennedy did seem strong and a good president so Kennedy's population therefore increased Khrushchev tried to claim a success he tried to say well at least Cuba's safe for these Kennedy's agreed not to obey uh not to invade Cuba but it was a great humiliation for him he'd had to remove um the nuclear weapons see that doesn't come to what the Americans wanted and so his popularity really decreased decreased in the Soviet Union and he was dismissed in 1964. the third and final crisis we have to look at is the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia also known as the Prague spring so cross and events of it then so check people um check uh Czechoslovakia was a satellite state so heavily influenced by the Soviets it was Communist but people were fed up by the lack of freedom of speech there the low quality of life because there wasn't much money the censorship the arrests by the police for being anti-communist the purges they'd had enough of it and um Dove Keck who was the leader of the um who became leader of Czechoslovakia he said that he wanted socialism with a human face censorship but therefore what's relaxed so he took a less Hardline communist stance so there was a censorship there was increased trade with the West so they began trading with Miss Europe um there were more Regional governmental powers Democratic elections were promised but crucially unlike the Hungarian invasion they what he said he wanted to stay in the Warsaw Pact he tried to convince the new Soviet leader called Brezhnev that this Prague spring I.E you know a new um time for Prague it was becoming a lot better people were enjoying it a bit more he tried to say well no this isn't a revolution we're not going against communism we just want a less hard-line communism um that's a bit fairer for the people but Brezhnev wasn't having it eventually and on the 20th of August 1968 half a million Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia and earthquake was arrested and replaced by an extreme communist leader and there's a picture of the tanks rolling in so two effects of it then firstly Brezhnev secured loyalty in Eastern Europe so he used forced in the Park Spring and he showed that he could and would use military action against people who didn't toe the line on communism and this formed what he what was called the Brezhnev Doctrine Soviets would use force on countries which attempted to take a more liberal approach to Communism so flight States had to obey the Soviet Union and what the Soviet Union said communism was communism couldn't be um compatible with Democratic elections was communism was what the Soviets wanted it to be and this saw increased Soviet control over Warsaw Pact members uh they were less likely to to try to disobey the Soviets and Britain have just asserted his authority he was a new leader but through doing this he said that you know I'm in charge here and you can't go against my rule the second effect was that it increased tensions with other countries America opposed it but they were at that time involved in fighting the Vietnam War so they were less confrontational uh towards the Soviet Union that they couldn't split their troops up at two different places and obviously it was a bit hypocritical for the Americans to say you shouldn't be invading Czechoslovakia when they themselves were occupied in Vietnam Western countries were angered by it uh they dislike this brutal use of force against Czech Slovakia especially as it was still communist especially it was still saying we'd remain in the Warsaw Pact it was different in the Hungarian Uprising and so the Communist parties in Italy and France for example they distanced themselves from the Communist Party um in the Soviet Union Mao in China he condemned the use of force as not truly socialist and this heightened uh tensions between the Soviet Union and China and even other satellite States like Romania and Yugoslavia openly opposed the use of force that they could do very little about it and that is it for this episode um on the superpower relations 1943-72 for Edexcel IGCSE history and those were the three crises in Berlin and Cuba and in Czechoslovakia that has helped Eurovision um for your gcses or mock exams I'd really appreciate a like And subscribe but thank you very much for watching anyway goodbye