[Music] the yalta conference codenamed argonaut was one of the three major conferences in world war ii regarding the post-war fate of the world bringing together the heads of government of the three great powers the united states the united kingdom and the soviet union the yalta conference became known as one of the most controversial meetings to this day historical background the yalta conference occurred when the second world war was near an end with the inevitable victory of the allies led by the so-called big three the united states the united kingdom and the soviet union formed by the end of 1941 the big three also called the grand alliance played the largest role in prosecuting the war against the axis powers led by nazi germany imperial japan and fascist italy the relations of the three great powers resulted in major decisions that shaped the war and planned for the post-war world via numerous high-level conferences most notable were the three world war ii conferences gathering the big three leaders u.s president franklin d roosevelt british prime minister winston churchill and soviet premier joseph stalin the yalta conference was the second of these three wartime conferences the first meeting gathering the big three allied leaders was the tehran conference codenamed eureka taking place in tehran iran in november 1943 the meeting discussed strategies to defeat nazi germany and agreed upon an invasion of normandy codenamed operation overlord set in june 1944 and led by the us and britain as an attempt to open a second front of the war against nazi germany meanwhile the soviet union led by stalin promised to help the u.s win the pacific war against japan after the german surrender the yalta conference following the tehran conference in february 1945 the trio met again at the yalta conference also known as the crimea conference taking place at yalta in crimea of the soviet union now in ukraine the yalta conference was hosted when france and belgium had been liberated from nazi occupation and the german defeat was on the horizon therefore the meeting focused on reorganizing germany and shaping a post-war peace in europe one of the conference's biggest outcomes was the division of germany into four controlled zones occupied by the us great britain france and the soviet union berlin germany's capital was further divided into four similar occupation zones besides holding some responsibility for post-war reparations germany should undergo complete demilitarization and denotification meaning that german militarism would be eradicated and members of the nazi party and schultz to fall would be removed from positions of power and influence at yalta the three leaders also created the declaration of liberated europe allowing the people of europe to create democratic institutions of their own choice the status of poland was also put on the table although pledging to permit free elections in poland stalin did not agree to return the poland territory it had annexed in 1939 he used the krazan line as poland's eastern border thereby keeping all ukrainian and belarusian territories within the ussr's sphere of influence during the conference the soviet union agreed to join the war against the empire of japan and committed to participating in the united nations the united nations was part of the atlantic charter issued by roosevelt and churchill in 1941 as their first real step toward a world organization impacts of the yalta conference after the yalta conference tension over european issues deteriorated the relations between the united states and great britain and the soviet union the agreements reached at yalta left roosevelt harshly criticized by the u.s citizens as it became clear that stalin would not honor his promise of political freedom for poland the issue of the post-war status of poland brought about animosity and mistrust between the united states and the soviet union signaling the crumbling of the grand alliance barely one year after the yalta conference in march 1946 the former british prime minister churchill delivered his famous speech declaring that an iron curtain has descended across the continent hinting at the end of the cooperation between the soviet union and its western allies and the beginning of the cold war thanks for watching if you find this information useful please give us a thumbs up and share it with your friends don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more videos of history