Hey and welcome back to Heimler’s History. Now in the last video we began Unit 8 of our AP World History curriculum, and we basically just set the stage for the big global processes of the Cold War and decolonization in the 20th century. And in this video, the stage setting is done, so we’re going to look at the Cold War right in its nasty face. So if you’re ready to get them brain cows milked, I can think of no better person to do it than me. Let’s get to it. So, just by way of reminder, after World War II was over the global balance of power really shifted in the hands of two states, namely, The United States and the Soviet Union. And these two superpowers locked arms in a Cold War that would last over forty years. Now again, by way of definition, a Cold War is just a state of hostility between two countries which does not result in open warfare. So the U.S. and the Soviet Union basically just stood there hurling insults at each other’s mothers but it never resulted in the hurling of fists at one another, but, it kind of did indirectly. But we’ll get to that in another video. For this video, let’s just begin by asking the question, why was it that these two powers were in tension. Then we’re going to see how these two nations fought without actually fighting. And then thirdly, we’re going to consider the Non-Aligned Movement of nations that wanted nothing to do with this larger conflict. So first, why are these two powers at odds? Well, the first thing to mention is that they had competing systems of economics. The United States was a capitalist economy. And capitalism is just an economic system characterized by the private ownership of capital goods. And capital goods, in case you were wondering, are goods that are used to make other goods, like a machine in a factory. So in a capitalist economy, those capital goods are owned by individuals, which is to say, privately. And those individuals make economic decisions that are in their own self-interest. Communism, on the other hand, is an economic system characterized by government ownership of capital goods distributed to the people evenly. Now before anybody rages out on me in the comment section about that definition, let me hasten to add this: What I just said is not communism defined in its theoretical sense as outlined for us by Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels. This was communism in its historical form as it was worked out in the Soviet Union. So these two super-powers had a deep difference when it came to economics. But they also had a deep difference when it came to styles of government. The United States was a democracy, which is to say they held free elections to elect their leaders. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, was an authoritarian government that was dominated by a single political party and had a strong, despotic leader. Now, after having explained all that, you might be wondering: ok, so they had some differences in economics and government. So what? Why would that start a Cold War? Well, here’s the thing: both capitalism and communism have within themselves the impulse to spread. Neither of these two ideologies, neither of the two ways of seeing the world are content to stay within its own boundaries. Both of these ideologies have seeds within them, that when watered and tended, seek to remake the whole world in its image. And that is the nature of the Cold War. The Americans wanted a democratic world. The Soviets wanted a communist world. And there was no stopping either of them until the whole world was conformed into one image or the other. Okay, our second point to consider is this, how was it that these two nations fought without actually fighting? And the first way was to make other countries economically dependent upon them. For example, the Soviets gathered up many of the nations of Eastern Europe into what became known as the Soviet Bloc. These countries included, but are not limited to, Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. When these countries came under Soviet influence, Stalin introduced Five Year Plans to collectivize agriculture and develop industry. And as a bonus, any party but the communist party was outlawed. Ain’t no party like a communist party cause the communist party is literally all that’s legal right now. And once the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe was complete, the economies of those countries in the Soviet Bloc were made to serve the Soviet Russian economy and not their own populations. So that’s how the Soviets made countries economically dependent on them, how did the United States do it? Well, the United States sought to make at least Western Europe in its image by means of something called the Marshall Plan. Because the United States emerged from World War II fabulously wealthy, they were rich enough, as we say here in the South, to burn a wet dog. Wait, what? Who’s burning dogs? Uh, how else you gon’ dry them off? Fair enough. Anyway, the point is, America emerged from World War II with a booming economy. And in order to keep the Western European nations from sliding into communism, The United States offered billions of dollars in aid in the form of the Marshall Plan. The rationale was that since these European nations are in ruins their economic instability might tempt them to give communism a whirl. But if said economic instability was cured, then those nations would remain free and democratic. And as it happened, that worked. So Western Europe emerged as largely capitalist and democratic, while Eastern Europe was communist and authoritarian. Now I should mention that the Marshall Plan was part of a larger U.S. policy introduced by George Kennan which was called containment. And this policy acknowledged that it was dang near impossible to uproot communism where it already existed, and so the containment policy was basically just to keep it from spreading. And you might even say contain it. And later, president Truman introduced what’s called, the Truman Doctrine, and that basically just put firepower into the idea of containment. He promised military aid to any country that was being threatened by the spread of communism. And this doctrine had its eyes specifically on Greece and Turkey who were dangerously close to falling to the communists. Now eventually, these policies are going to lead the United States and the Soviet Union into some proxy wars, but we’re going to save that for another video. Okay, what are some other ways the Soviets and the Americans fought each other without actually fighting each other? And I can think of two ways right off the top of my head: an arms race and a space race. First, the arms race. So as I mentioned in the last video, one of the real points of contention between these two powers was the United States decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan in order to end World War II. Stalin saw that and his eyes grew wide with jealousy over such destructive power. I gotta get me some of that. And so began the race to build bigger and bigger bombs, with greater and greater destructive capacity because hey, why kill 100,000 people with a single bomb when you could kill a million? So in 1945 the U.S. dropped the first iteration of their atomic bomb. By 1947, the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb which was bigger and more destructive than that American bombs. Early in the 1950s both powers developed a hydrogen bomb which was about a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb. You see the atomic bomb could basically kill everyone within about a mile radius. The hydrogen bomb could kill every human being in a 5-10 mile radius. By 1959 the Soviets developed an intercontinental ballistic missile which was capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the mainland of the United States. And you can imagine with all this one upmanship going on, everybody in both of those two countries is getting a little fearful, not to mention the rest of the world. But despite the development of increasingly destructive bombs, they never fired one of them at each other. Now why is that? Because each side began to realize that if either of them launched a nuclear bomb at the other, then it would result in mutual assured destruction. And that conviction kept either one from pulling the trigger because they understood that no matter who started the nuclear war, by the end of it, nobody would be victorious because everybody would be reduced to carbon ash. Okay, now the second competition between these two countries was the space race. With all the technology they were developing in rocketry to blow each other up, they decided to divert some of that energy to conquering space. And so in 1957 the Soviets launched the first satellite into space called Sputnik. In 1958 the Americans answered with a satellite of their own. Then in April of 1961 the Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin to be the first man into space. And in May of that same year, the Americans sent Alan Shepherd to be the second man in space. But the crescendo of this entire contest came in 1969 when the Americans successfully landed a manned capsule on the moon and claimed it for themselves. Okay, so that’s how the United States and the Soviet Union fought each other during the Cold War without actually fighting. And this conflict between these two powers became so large that it began to dominate the world stage. And in that way it became almost inevitable that smaller, less powerful countries would get swept up in the conflict. But there was a movement brewing in these countries who wanted to declare on the world stage that they wanted nothing to do with this conflict. It was called the Non-Aligned Movement. It basically consisted of new Asian and African nations who had recently shaken themselves free from colonial rule. And, understandably, they wanted to distance themselves from this conflict between the two superpowers. And so in 1961, the Non-Aligned movement was formally established. And its goal was to represent the interest of developing nations. Member nations of the movement desired an alternative framework for their budding social, political, and economic lives than the one dominated by the U.S.-Soviet conflict. And I should mention a couple of notable leaders in this movement. First is Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Under his leadership Ghana won its independence from Great Britain. He also created the Organization of African Unity in which he advocated for the unity of Africans no matter which country they were from. Second, you’ve got the first president of Indonesia, Sukarno. And he became president in 1945 and was the one responsible for the organization of the Bandung Conference in 1955 which was responsible for the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement. Alright, that’s what you need to know about Unit 8 topic 2 of AP World History. If your desire is to not be aligned with those people who are getting bad grades in AP World you shall remain not in alignment. It’ll blow up your scores bigger than a hydrogen bomb. But if you’re finding in yourself an itch to want to align with something, then subscribe here and I’ll keep making videos for you. Heimler out.