Shortly after midnight on this day in 1961, East German soldiers begin laying down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between Soviet-controlled East Berlin and the democratic western section of the city.
After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though technically part of the Soviet zone, was also split, with the Soviets taking the eastern part of the city. After a massive Allied airlift in June 1948 foiled a Soviet attempt to blockade West Berlin, the eastern section was drawn even more tightly into the Soviet fold. Over the next 12 years, cut off from its western counterpart and basically reduced to a Soviet satellite, East Germany saw between 2.5 million and 3 million of its citizens head to West Germany in search of better opportunities. By 1961, some 1,000 East Germans–including many skilled laborers, professionals and intellectuals–were leaving every day.
In August, Walter Ulbricht, the Communist leader of East Germany, got the go-ahead from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to begin the sealing off of all access between East and West Berlin. Soldiers began the work over the night of August 12-13, laying more than 100 miles of barbed wire slightly inside the East Berlin border. The wire was soon replaced by a six-foot-high, 96-mile-long wall of concrete blocks, complete with guard towers, machine gun posts and searchlights. East German officers known as Volkspolizei (“Volpos”) patrolled the Berlin Wall day and night.
Many Berlin residents on that first morning found themselves suddenly cut off from friends or family members in the other half of the city. Led by their mayor, Willi Brandt, West Berliners demonstrated against the wall, as Brandt criticized Western democracies, particularly the United States, for failing to take a stand against it. President John F. Kennedy had earlier said publicly that the United States could only really help West Berliners and West Germans, and that any kind of action on behalf of East Germans would only result in failure.
The French Revolution was the first democratic revolution in Europe that actually gave birth to a stable democratic state. Foremost it is seen as the beginning of the democratization of Europe.
The actions of the British that led to the War of 1812 were:
- restrictions on US trade
- forcing American sailors to join the British Navy
In the first decade of the 19th century, Britain was at war with France but both countries continued to trade with the U.S. and this led to tensions.
War eventually broke out between the British and the U.S. because:
- the British were blockading France and refusing to allow the Americans to trade with them
- the British were capturing American sailors and using them to man Royal Navy ships
- the U.S. wanted to expand into Canada and saw this as an excuse to do so
In conclusion, the War of 1812 would not have happened if the British were not restricting U.S. trade and forcing American sailors into the Royal Navy.
<em>Find out more at brainly.com/question/20802332. </em>
