Modern Europe

1
Modern Europe

• The Second World War cost Russia almost one-third
  of her wealth
• They launched a new Five-Year Plan
• Stalin died in 1953
• In 1955 by Nikita Khrushchev
• Khrushchev was ruthless but he was never able to
  achieve the same success as Stalin
• He consolidated collective farms and increased
  the amount of agricultural land

2

• 1957 Russia launched Sputnik and greatly
  increased prestige, especially in the Third World
  
• The Thaw he tried to make amends for Stalins
  atrocities
• Boris Pasternak wrote Dr. Zhivago showed the
  limits of the thaw received the Nobel Prize
• He tried to ease the tension with the west but
  tension with China increased
• Opposition to Khrushchev increased and he was
  replaced in 1964 by Alexei Kosygin

3

• 1977 Leonid Brezhnev assumed control
• 1982 Brezhnev died and was replaced with
  Andropov and the Chernenko and finally Gorbachev
• During the war Poland, Hungary, Romania,
  Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and the
  Baltic States fell under soviet control
• The soviets controlled these countries by
  Moscow-trained Communists
• 1948 communists had a coup in Czechoslovakia
• The countries were placed on Five-Year Plans

4

• The first major figure to declare independence
  from Moscow was Tito of Yugoslavia
• 1953, after Stalins death, riots broke out in
  Berlin quickly suppressed
• 1956 revolts in Poland and Hungary
• In Hungary they were led by Imre Nagy
• The Russian put down the revolts with tanks and
  showed the world the ruthlessness of the soviet
  system
• The Prague Spring - The unsuccessful revolts
  did change the culture of Hungary and led to a
  loosening of soviet ties

5

• In 1968 the communists ended the Prague Spring
  by brutally suppressing a revolution in
  Czechoslovakia
• Brezhnev Doctrine allowed for Russian
  intervention in Eastern European affairs
• However, Poland was economically successful as
  was The German Democratic Republic

6

• 1989, perhaps as important as 1789
• Mikail Gorbachev became the head of the Soviet
  Union
• Perestroika the economic restructuring of the
  country based on decentralization and
  self-management
• He needed western help so implemented glasnost
  (openness) which allowed for free speech
• Gorbachev even criticized Stalin but did not
  challenge the power of the Communist party
• Once soviet control was released longstanding
  ethnic hatred flared up in many places

7

• Gorbachev traveled a great deal promoting peace
  and an end to the Cold War
• In 1980 shipyard workers at Gdansk, Poland went
  on strike against Communist laws they were
  led by Lech Walesa
• The union movement Solidarity became so popular
  in Poland and around the world the Polish
  government was forced to back down
• As the unrest continued the Communists arrested
  leaders, including Walesa
• Pope John Paul II, a Pole, urged the people to
  protest
• Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983

8

• By 1985 the Brezhnev Doctrine was dead
• 1988 Hungary was seeking ways to get western help
  for reform allowed vacationing East Germans to
  enter Austria
• 1989 East German leader Erich Honecker also
  gambled, but believed if Germans could travel
  they would return
• The trickle became a flood 350,000 East Germans
  left by 1990
• Gorbachev told Honecker that soviet troops would
  not help him
• So in November 1989 the East Germans opened the
  Berlin Wall

9

• Only in Romania did the government forces fight
  back
• Ceausescu ordered his troops to open fire on
  protestors
• 1991 the Soviet Union sent troops to Lithuania
  to stop protestors
• Russian politician became alarmed made Yeltsin
  the new leader
• 1991 Yeltsin became the first Russian leader to
  be elected by popular vote
• Leningrad became St. Petersburg
• Yeltsin wanted autonomy for the Baltic States and
  self-government for the other provinces

10

• A small group of old hardliners staged a coup
• Gorbachev disavowed the rebels and Yeltsin
  rallied the legislature
• Gorbachev returned to private life
• Yeltsin agreed to dissolution of the old USSR

11
European Union

• Churchill urged European cooperation but
  nothing happened
• 1947 Marshall Plana) very generous - 15b in
  aidb) helped combat Communismc) first step
  toward European cooperation
• 1948 10 countries met to create a Council of
  Europe the British refused to cooperate
• Also in 1948 three countries Belgium, Luxembourg
  and Holland created a customs union called
  Benelux

12

• 1951 France, West Germany, Italy, and the
  Benelux countries formed the European Coal and
  Steel Community under the presidency of Jean
  Monnet of France
• 1957 the same six signed the Treaty of Rome
  creating a large trade free area called the
  European Economic Community (EEC) or Common
  Market headquartered in Brussels
• They wanteda) Elimination of internal
  tariffsb) same social and economic policiesc)
  the movement of people

13

• The Treaty of Rome also created the European
  Atomic Community (Euratom) to coordinate
  non-military atomic research
• 1960 Britain created the European Free Trade
  Association with Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
  Austria, Switzerland, and Portugal
• The two groups seemed like rivals but they
  werent
• Britain started to fall behind other countries
  and in 1963 they sought entry into the Common
  Market (although they were twice vetoed by French
  President Charles De Gaulle)

14

• 1967 the three organizations Euratom, ECSC, EEC
  formed the European Community
• 1968 the six countries negotiated the GATT
  agreement
• 1969 Britain joined
• 1985 The Single European Act
• 1991 The Maastricht Treatya) common currencyb)
  common policies
• Today there are 12 countries

15

• The Balkans had been part of the Ottoman Empire
• After 500 years Serbia freed from Muslim rule
• Shared Eastern Orthodox Christianity with Russia
• 1914 the struggle independence led to the
  assassination in Sarajevo of the heir to the
  Austrian throne
• Independence came after World War I
• Serbia was Eastern Orthodox Croatia, Slovenia,
  Roman Catholic many Bosnians were Muslims
• 1929 Yugoslavia was created - Yugoslavia means
  South Slavs

16

• Yugoslavia was occupied by Germany in World War
  II
• But there was a civil war with the Communists led
  by Marshall Tito
• 1946 Yugoslavia was Communist with 6 republics
• Tito believed that only Communism could stop the
  ethnic rivalries
• 1980 Tito died separatist movements appeared
• 1987 Milosevic became the head of the Serbian
  Communists

17

• 1990 Yugoslavia started to dissolve
• 1991 war broke out between Serbia and Croatia
• NATO sanctioned air strikes against the Serbs
• 1995 Dayton Peace Accords brought peace to
  the region
• Serbs and Croats tried to create enclaves in
  Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Ethnic cleansing