Question

How did the cold war develop, how did it shape political and economic life in individual nations, and how did it end?

Answer 1

The Cold War, which happened between the end of the World War II (1945) and the extinction of the Soviet Union (1991), is the name attributed to the historical period of strategic disputes and indirect conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union, disputing the political, economic and military hegemony in the world.

With the end of World War II, the contrast between capitalism and socialism was predominant between politics, ideology, and military systems. Despite the rivalry and attempt to influence other countries, the United States did not conflict with the Soviet Union (and vice versa) with armaments, as both countries held large amounts of nuclear weapons, and a direct armed conflict would mean the end of the two countries and possibly life on our planet.

With the goal of strengthening capitalism, US President Harry Truman launches the Marshal Plan, which was a low-interest loan offering and investments so that countries devastated in World War II could recover economically. From this strategy the Soviet Union created, in 1949, the Comecon, which was a kind of contestation to the Marshall Plan that prevented its socialist allies from being interested in the favor proposed by the then political enemy.

The lack of democracy, economic backwardness and crisis in the Soviet republics eventually accelerated the crisis of socialism in the late 1980s. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and the two Germanies were reunified.

In the early 1990s, then-President of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev, began to accelerate the end of socialism with economic reforms, agreements with the US and political changes.

Answer 2

2.  The Cold War had many effects on society, both today and in the past. In Russia, military spending was cut dramatically and quickly. ... After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the post–Cold War world is widely considered as unipolar, with the United States the sole remaining superpower.

1.  A cold war is a state of conflict between nations that does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars were waged by surrogates. This term is most commonly used to refer to the Soviet-American Cold War.

3.  The fall of the Berlin Wall preceeded the shredding of the Iron Curtain, which also was the end of the Cold War. When Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the reins of power in the Soviet Union in 1985, no one predicted the revolution he would bring. A dedicated reformer, Gorbachev introduced the policies of glasnost and perestroika to the USSR, with the support of President ronald Reagan and his strong and heartfelt efforts to support a free and democratic Germany as one country or soverign.