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 Iron Curtain and the division of Europe 1945 (Úlfur)

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 Iron Curtain and the division of Europe 1945 (Úlfur)

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The Iron Curtain was a metaphorical, political, and physical barrier between Western and Eastern Europe. Europe was divided between two opposing ideologies: communism in the east and capitalism in the west. The term was coined by Winston Churchill in 1946 with his now notoriously famous quote, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." The quote took note of the now post-war Europe being split into two opposing factions once again, with the US-aligned West and the communist puppet states of the East.

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Eftir seinni heimsstyrjöldina skiptu stórveldin (Bandaríkin, Sovétríkin, Bretland og Frakkland) Þýskalandi á milli sín. Sovétríkin hernumu austurhluta Þýskalands á meðan Bandaríkin tóku undir sig vesturhlutann með Bretlandi og Frakklandi. Í 45 ár var vesturhlutinn undir stjórn kommúnista og vesturhlutinn með markaðsfrelsi (kapítalisma). Eftir skiptinguna flúðu margir sem bjuggu á austurhlutanum yfir á vesturhlutann vegna pólitískra eða persónulegra mála. Það varð til þess að Sovétríkin ákváðu að setja upp vegg þvert yfir Þýskaland til að skilja að austur- og vesturhlutann fyrir fullt og allt.

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Communists Take over many different countries in the cold war (Tinna)

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Communists Take over many different countries in the cold war (Tinna)

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In the cold war many countries in eastern Europe were taken over by communists. This happened to over 10 countries. The countries were: Albania, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Mongolia, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Somalia, Vietnam and Yugoslavia. Communists often worked their way up from the inside and then took over after being elected.

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Árið 1947 var Grikkland og Tyrkland að fara í gegnum borgarastyrjaldir, og á meðan voru kommúnistar að reyna taka völd yfir löndunum. Harry S. Truman, bandarískur maður, hafði heyrt allt sem hafði verið að gerast og ákvað að taka það í sínar eigin hendur. Hann gerði ræðu um nýja ábyrgð bandarískra manna til að hjálpa löndum í Evrópu frá kommúnisma. Bandaríkin höfðu alltaf reynt að blanda ekki í evrópsku málin og tóku ekki þátt í báðum heimsstyrjöldunum þar til þau sjálf voru fyrir árásum.

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Marshall-áætlunin opinberlega þekkt sem Evrópska endurheimtaráætlunin, er nefnd eftir bandaríska ráðherranum Georg C. Marshall. Marshall-áætlunin var bandarískt frumkvæði sem átti að hjálpa Evrópu að endurheimta hagkerfin sín og endurbyggja það sem hefði verið eyðilagt í stríðinu. Marshall-áætlunin var samþykkt á bandaríska þinginu árið 1948 og kostaði 13,3 billjónir bandarískra daðla, en í dag myndi hún kosta 133 billjónir. En ef Evrópuþjóðirnar vildu þiggja þessa aðstoð þá þurftu þau að vera huti af nýrri stofnun sem heitir OEEC, OEEC er stofnun sem á að stuðla frelsi að frjálsri verslun í Evrópu.

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25. Júní. 1950 réðst her Norður Kóreu á Suður Kóreu. Bandaríkin hjálpuðu Suður Kóreu en Kommúnistalönd eins og Kína og Sovétríkin hjálpuðu Norður Kóreu. Landamörkin á Kóreu héldu áfram að breytast þangar til að vopnahlé var samið þann 27. Júlí. 1953. Það hefur verið vopnahlé alveg síðan.

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NATO vs Warsaw Pact 1949 and 1955 (Eydís) 

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NATO vs Warsaw Pact 1949 and 1955 (Eydís) 

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NATO began in 1949 in Western Europe and North America not long after World War Two. They did not want to repeat the horrors world war 2 had impacted on the world—millions of people died, people became homeless, and overall the world had become so dull after such an event. Their main rule was to help each other in case of a war—as an attack on one of them was an attack on all.

The Warsaw Pact, on the other hand, is mostly the same, a war alliance that countries partake in to protect each other from war—though the only difference is that instead of Western Europe and North America, it is the Soviet Union and its puppet states. Though after the Soviet Union fell apart, many countries left the Warsaw Pact and joined NATO or stayed neutral.

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Geimkapphlaupið var keppni á milli Sovétríkjanna og Bandaríkjanna til að sjá hver gæti náð betri getu á geimflugi. Geimkapphlaupið byrjaði með Sovétmönnum þegar þeir skutu gervihnöttum Sputnik-1 út í geim árið 1957, fyrsti maður út í geim var hann Yuri Gagarin árið 1961. Geimkapphlaupið endaði með því að Bandaríkjamenn unnu geimkapphlaupið með því að lenda á tunglinu með Apollo-11 árið 1969. Geimkapphlaupið breytti heiminum á alls konar vegum, t.d. með betri geimtækni. Það hafði líka gríðarlegar afleiðingar á pólitík á heimsvegu.

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The Vietnam War persisted from the first of November 1955 to the thirtieth of April 1975. The Vietnam War was a conflict involving Laos, Cambodia, and the southern Republic of Vietnam, which was supported by the United States, against the northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which received backing from the Soviet Union. One of the reasons this war started was because of the partition of Vietnam in 1954, which divided the country into a communist north and a capitalist south, which led to growing and mounting tensions between the two countries. Also, the communist north sought to reunify the country under their rule. This and a few other reasons are the main underlying causes for the Vietnam War. The north aided and funded an insurgency in the south, the Viet Cong. By 1958 North Vietnam invaded Laos, establishing the Ho Chi Minh trail to supply the Viet Cong. By 1963 the North had covertly sent up to 40,000 soldiers to the Viet Cong, supplied with Soviet and Chinese weapons. The US didn't stand by idly, though; they started by sending military aid to the south. At first they sent 900 military advisors, but increasing escalation made them increase that number to 16,000 military advisors; shortly after, they started being directly involved. In 1965 the United States officially joined the war; by 1969 more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. The Soviets and Chinese started supplying the North with weapons, supplies, and advisors. The war was grueling and difficult for the Americans, with the Viet Cong and their guerrilla tactics, their extensive knowledge of the jungle, and support from the north, Soviets, and Chinese. The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and by 1973 most US troops had withdrawn. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North.

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The Berlin Wall was constructed in August 1961 to divide West Berlin, controlled by the Western Allies, from East Berlin, governed by communist East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, or GDR).

Its main purpose was to stop the mass emigration of East Germans to the West. Before the wall, people could freely travel to West Berlin, where they experienced the prosperity of capitalist societies and could even fly to non-communist countries via the West Berlin airport.

East German authorities were concerned about the loss of skilled workers, professionals, athletes, and celebrities who were leaving for better opportunities in the West. To prevent this "brain drain," the GDR built the Berlin Wall to restrict movement and keep its citizens from fleeing the country.

In 1989 revolutions in neighboring countries set in motion an opening of borders and largely the dismantling of the Iron Curtain. Leaders in the GDR then came under pressure from the people to relax border constrictions between East and West Berlin. After weeks of unrest in the east to relax border constrictions, the GDR announced on the 9th of November 1989 that all citizens of the GDR could visit the western part of Berlin. Crowds flocked to the border wall.

They demanded the opening of the border crossing, which overwhelmed the border guards, leading them to open the gates. Consequently, people began trying to dismantle the wall with everything they had: hammers, chisels, and more. People could finally move between both the east and west parts of Berlin freely shortly after Germany was reunited on 9 November 1989. The demolition of the wall began in 1990 and ended in 1994.

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The Cuban missile crisis started when spy planes saw nuclear missiles being put in Cuba. When the president of the United States heard of this, he had a hard decision to make to prevent war from arising. Finally, he decided to put a port embargo on Cuba. American military ships surrounded the island to prevent any importation of weapons or products into it and told the Soviet Union that it would stay that way until the nuclear missiles would be removed. In addition to that, he planned on attacking Cuba if the Soviet Union would refuse to take the missiles back. Eventually Soviet ships came to take back the nuclear missiles and ended the crisis.

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Árið 1987 gerðu Bandaríkin og Sovétríkin samning um að hætta með hættuleg vopn (t.d. kjarnorkuvopn) eftir að Gorbatsjov sá að Sóvíetríkið hafði ekki efni fyrir að halda áfram að taka þátt í vígbúnaðarkapphlaupinu.

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Árið 1989, þegar Sovétríkin höfðu ætlað sér að gera auðveldara að sækja um flutning til Vestur-Þýskalands, varð mikill misskilningur. Fólk hélt að það væri að lýsa yfir falli Berlínarveggsins. Fólk safnaðist saman hjá honum og hjálpaðist að við að fella hann. Þýskaland var sameinað á ný.

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Um 80’s var meira og meira af fólki á móti kommúnistastefnunni í Austur-Evrópu. Það var mótmælt og krafist kosningaréttar og að lokum varð ríkisstjórnin að gefast upp. Eitt af öðru féllu kommúnistastjórnir í Austurlöndunum. Þá byrjaði fólk í Sovétríkjunum einnig að mótmæla og krefjast sjálfræðis. Árið 1991 sundruðust Sovétríkin og 15 ný lönd mynduðust frá brotum þess.

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The difference between a cold and hot war (Eydís)

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The difference between a cold and hot war (Eydís)

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When it comes to a cold war, there is often a lot of tension. Countries have no idea what their enemies are planning, and they can’t do much except train their soldiers and prepare for any situation. Europe was split in two, an arms race began, there was constant fear of the unknown and it affected the neighboring countries. That is the meaning of the cold war—or, in my interpretation, a balanced threat. Both sides prepare for the worst, yet end up stuck in a waiting game with no direct fighting.

A hot war, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Both sides are actively fighting, and the battlefield is intense and dangerous and soldiers have no time to rest. An example for a hot war is to imagine a pot of boiling water: bubbles constantly rising, water steaming, and chaos from the heat. That’s what a hot war feels like—fast-paced, destructive, and full of action.

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Meginhugmynd kommúnisma er að það er engin stétt, það er ekkert sem er yfirstétt né millistétt. Kommúnismi er pólitískt kerfi sem lætur alla á jafnt.

Kapítalismi er að ríka fólkið heldur áfram að vera ríkt en þau fátæku fá minni pening. Það er frekar erfitt að búa í samfélagi með svoleiðis pólitískt kerfi og það fátæka hefur erfiðan tíma til að eignast pening. Það minnir mig svolítið á Bandaríkin, ríka fólkið fær léttilega þúsundir dollara en hinir þurfa að vinna yfir tíma bara til þess að borga laun.

Munurinn er að kommúnismi hefur jöfn laun (en ef þú vinnir yfirvinnu færðu þann pening sem þú vannst fyrir) á meðan kapítalismi hefur mjög mismunandi laun, sem gæti endað mjög ósanngjarnt.