Post-War Rebuilding and the Cold War: Crash Course European History #41

Sometimes, friendship isn't forever. At the conclusion of World War II, the old structures of power were a shambles. The traditional European powers were greatly weakened by years of total war and widespread destruction. The USSR was looking to expand its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, and at the same time, the United States was assisting with the rebuilding of Western Europe (with some hegemonic strings attached). As two nuclear-armed superpowers emerged, the world entered the Cold War.

Sources

-Anslover, Nicole L. Harry Truman: The Coming of the Cold War. New York: Routledge, 2014.
-Burleigh, Michael. Small Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the Modern World, 1945–1965. New York: Viking, 2013.
-Feinberg, Melissa. Curtain of Lies: The Battle over Truth in Stalinist Eastern Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017
-Smith, Bonnie G. Europe in the Contemporary World, 1900 to the Present. 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
-Westad, Odd Arne. The Global Cold War : Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Thanks to the following patrons for their generous monthly contributions that help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever:

Eric Prestemon, Sam Buck, Mark Brouwer, William McGraw, Siobhan Sabino, Jason Saslow, Jennifer Killen, Jon & Jennifer Smith, DAVID NOE, Jonathan Zbikowski, Shawn Arnold, Trevin Beattie, Matthew Curls, Rachel Bright, Khaled El Shalakany, Ian Dundore, Kenneth F Penttinen, Eric Koslow, TimothyJ Kwist, Indika Siriwardena, Caleb Weeks, HAIXIANGN/A LIU, Nathan Taylor, Andrei Krishkevich, Sam Ferguson, Brian Thomas Gossett, SR Foxley, Tom Trval, Justin Zingsheim, Brandon Westmoreland, dorsey, Jessica Wode, Nathan Catchings, Yasenia Cruz, Jirat
--

Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet?

#crashcourse #history #europeanhistory

[crashcourse]

Hi all. We had a map error in the original version of this episode, so we uploaded it again. Sorry if you got double notifications. Thanks for watching! -stan

[garyermann]

I know the "Hiding behind the desk" thing is often made fun of, but I feel like the trope of criticizing it often distracts from the rationale behind the tactic. Certainly, if you are directly in the main blast of a nuclear attack, it won't do much. But it's not like bombs draw a big circle where everyone inside instantly dies, and everyone outside is completely uninjured. There's always an outer limit where people directly exposed to the bomb will be severely injured, and those who take some amount of cover will survive with lesser wounds. We can look to the tragic accounts of survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki: there are many reports of people surviving the blast strangely uninjured compared to those around them, simply because they happened to have been in places that offered even the smallest amount of extra protection.


Learning from these lessons, if your job is to prepare a city for a possible atomic attack, wouldn't the best approach be to teach everyone to go to the best cover they could find? It won't save everyone, but it will certainly make a difference.

[michaelmangano]

This “unless you’re the Mongols” never gets old

[TheGawdessDravidienne]

You could have discussed the Non Alignment Movement too.

[diptendubt]

What about the Non-Aligned Movement? Yugoslavia as communist yet non-Eastern block?

[beatrizcostenaro]

I love all the crash courses on history humanize history. It's a way of seeing history that you'll never learn in school and even if you know the subject it's worth watching for this new perspective.

[vincentpellegrino]

Thanks for the Mongol's clip. I've missed them.

[MASSPrime]

Can you do a crash course: African history?

[FLOWLEDGE]

Thanks to quarantine, the planet is recovering so much that the Mongols returned

[katiebolger]

YOU POSTED THIS THE DAY BEFORE MY EUROPEAN HISTORY EXAM BLESS YOU CRASHCOURSE

[Onkipasmode]

I came after years. He speaks slower and seems much calmer now. I appreciate the change as english is not my first language 👍👍

[dauf]

Being 2AM and sleepy, I was so confused when I saw this video on my feed, "didn't I watched this like a few hours ago?" Thanks for the late night confusion guys.

[nunooliveira]

I feel like altough this is a course on European History, you still focus too much on the United States. That bit where you talk about schools doing exercises on how to react in the case of nuclear war is not an european experience, or at least where i live in.

[manaalwajidali]

YES "UNLESS YOU'RE THE MONGOLS" ITS BEEN SO LONG SINCE IVE SEEN THAT MAH HEART😭😭😭😭

[shockingheaven]

After crying my heart out last episode, I was relieved to see the Mongols here

[Loremastrful]

I hope you can shine a light on decolonization and the break up of Euorpean empires in the next one. Its one of those issues where the world impacts Europe and Europe impacts the world.

[stevekarr]

Congratulations Crash Course. You guys are the best thing on YouTube. I just love your presentation, your facts, graphics, and John Green. I understand why you turned off the comments for EP 40, but that was one of the most deeply moving, important videos I have ever seen.

[WaltRBuck]

What I heard... "The media was good at causing mass hysteria." .. nothing's changed.

[victorbruant]

Rebuilding is much easier if your Vault has a G.E.C.K.

[jordisaura]

The kiss at 0:20... How much i hate confinement!