The End of WWII

Goals

Aftermath Over 50 million people lost their lives as a result of World War II After the war the Allies held war crime trials in Nuremberg Nearly 200 Germans and Austrians were tried and most were found guilty Top Nazis received death sentences and others were imprisoned The Nuremberg trials helped establish that political and military leaders could be held responsible for their actions during war

Building Governments and Unions After the war the Allies set to building democracies throughout Europe It was felt that by building strong democracies, the allies would be able to strengthen societies and prevent the rise of citizens like Hitler In April of 1945, 50 nations convened in San Francisco to draft a charter for the United Nations The UN was to work for peace and attempt to prevent the outbreak of disease, improve education, protect refugees, and help nations develop economically

Cold War As Stalin was pushing German soldiers out of Russia and other Eastern European nations Stalin tried to convince the other Western powers to allow Russia alone to determine the fate of Eastern Europe When England, France, and the US refused it set off a decades long tension After WWII the United States abandoned their policy of isolationism Instead, President Truman felt that the U.S. should counter what he saw as a communist threat This systematic distrust and conflict is known as the Cold War It is a cold war because no actual armed conflict took place

Expansion With Stalin trying to expand his Soviet influence, Harry Truman stated that “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures” This policy became known as the Truman Doctrine and was used to justify U.S. action in future conflicts that attempted to stop Communism

Division In order to help strengthen democratic regimes, the Allies instituted the Marshall Plan This plan was designed to give aid to battered European nations The Soviets were angered by their limited ability to collect reparations from Germany Germany was divided when the Soviet Union took control over East Germany The East became a Soviet Controlled Communist entity while the West became democratic

Alliances There are two alliances that became the center of conflict over the next few decades The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed by the U.S., Canada, and other western nations as a pact to help each other if they were attacked In Response the Soviet Union formed a military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact with seven satellite nations of the Soviet Union