History (AS)·International relations since 1919 · NSSCAS 1.5
Co-operation since 1945 & the fall of communism
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After 1945 the world did two things at once: nations co-operated as never before, and they split into two great rival blocs. In this lesson we meet NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the economic and regional organisations that tied nations together, and then we watch the cracks open inside the Soviet bloc — Hungary, Prague, Solidarity. We follow Gorbachev's daring reforms and the astonishing year of 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down, and we finish with the great exam question: why did communism fall — from the inside, or from outside pressure?
What you'll learn in this lesson
By the end you should be able to (NSSCAS History (AS) 1.5):
- Explain the forms of political, economic and regional co-operation since 1945
- Describe the rival alliance blocs and the economic organisations of the Cold War
- Explain the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
- Evaluate the internal and external reasons the Soviet bloc collapsed
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