The Cold War and Motivations Behind It Essay

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Abstract

Evaluating the situation, it appears that the major motivation behind the actions of the major players in this conflict was the distribution of authority in the world which started after the capitulation of Germany. As a response to the actions of the United States and the capitalist world, the Soviet Union along with its supporters engaged in the unprecedented rush of armaments.

Introduction

After World War II the spheres of influence in the world were under great changes which caused serious tension between the major political players in the world and their adherents. As a result, in the 1950s and 1960s, the world became bipolar with the two openly antagonistic camps of the capitalistic and communistic world. Evaluating the situation, it appears that the major motivation behind the actions of the major players in this conflict was the distribution of authority in the world which started after the capitulation of Germany. As a response to the actions of the United States and the capitalist world, the Soviet Union along with its supporters engaged in the unprecedented rush of armaments.

Main body

In 1946, after the total fall of Nazi Germany and its allies of Japan and Italy, the situation in the world changed in a significant way. The world saw two new major players in the face of the Soviet Union and the United States. These two countries represented antagonistic ideologies and philosophies; even the economic models that they defended were completely different. These camps developed speedily occupying new territories and acquiring new allies. Their competition was so outstanding that it caused an unprecedented situation in the world in less than two decades.

Being motivated by different principles and having different values, the United States represented a capitalistic world, and the Soviet Union leading communist countries became enemies. This led to the armament rush having no parallels in the whole course of the history of humanity. The Soviet Union possessed some of the greatest minds in the area of chemistry and physics; it also spent the major part of its financial funds on armament. After a few years after World War II, the countries which lost in it were already rebuilt; however, this did not happen in the Soviet Union as the country used its funds for unprecedented armaments and acquiring new adherents wherever in the world it was possible.

As a result of such politics by the two main players in the world arena the world became a very dangerous place to live. In particular, atomic weapons created by the Soviet Union were produced in horrifying amounts. A similar situation occurred with the other types of weapons of mass destruction including chemical and biological weapons. Along with that, the world continued to be divided into two parts the one controlled by the communists and the one controlled by the capitalist. In the 1960s, it created such a terrible situation that the world was on the edge of nuclear warfare.

Not only became this antagonism transparent in the armament rush. As a response to the capitalistic world, the Soviet bloc continued its expansion looking for new allies, and promoting its values in the world. The Soviet bloc initiated propagating companies against the capitalist world showing it as the source of all the wickedness in the world.

Conclusion

Concluding on all the above-discussed information, it should be stated that after World War II the world was divided between the two superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States. These countries propagated different concepts of economical development and political system organization. All of that led to the unprecedented armament rush in the history of humanity putting the world on the edge of the danger of nuclear warfare.

References

Jeffry A. Frieden, Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century. W.W. Norton Press, 2007

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IvyPanda. (2022, February 1). The Cold War and Motivations Behind It. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-cold-war-and-motivations-behind-it/

Work Cited

"The Cold War and Motivations Behind It." IvyPanda, 1 Feb. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/the-cold-war-and-motivations-behind-it/.

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IvyPanda. (2022) 'The Cold War and Motivations Behind It'. 1 February.

References

IvyPanda. 2022. "The Cold War and Motivations Behind It." February 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-cold-war-and-motivations-behind-it/.

1. IvyPanda. "The Cold War and Motivations Behind It." February 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-cold-war-and-motivations-behind-it/.


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IvyPanda. "The Cold War and Motivations Behind It." February 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-cold-war-and-motivations-behind-it/.

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