POL101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Total War, Economy Of The Soviet Union, Mutual Assured Destruction
Document Summary
The term cold war" comes from the 14th century, with regards to a long-running conflict between muslims and christians in spain. Term was popularized in the 1940"s by american journalist walter lippmann. The 20th century cold war (1948-1989) was a period of entrenched ideological opposition between the u. s and the u. s. s. r, during which each side did everything short of military conflict to destroy each other. The stakes underlying the cold war stems originally from the atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki (6/9/1945+9/8/1945 respectively) The cold war was about preventing a war of global nuclear strikes. Pre-hiroshima period was defined by the yalta conference (4-11/2/1945), between the big 3". Britain was a rapidly declining power, while the u. s was becoming a hyper-power in its own right. Notably, britain coped well with its rapid decline; no domestic consequences came of. The relationship between the wartime allies was sound; they agreed on several post-war points.
