Tensions in the wartime alliance and peace-making, 1941-1945

History · A Level: The origins and development of the Cold War, 1941-1950. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

Test this topic free All History topics

The idea

The USA, Britain and the USSR were allies only because they shared an enemy. Stalin suspected that the West delayed the second front to let Germany and the USSR destroy each other. The West distrusted communism and Stalin's plans for Poland.

The three leaders met at Tehran and at Yalta, where agreement was still possible because Germany was not yet beaten. Yalta's promise of free elections in Eastern Europe was soon read very differently by each side.

By Potsdam the war in Europe was over, Truman had replaced Roosevelt and the USA had tested the atomic bomb. The tone was harder and the main arguments were over Poland and reparations.

Rules to remember

Atlantic Charter, August 1941: Roosevelt and Churchill promised self-determination and no territorial gains.
Tehran, November 1943: a second front in France in 1944; Stalin would join the war against Japan after Germany's defeat.
Percentages Agreement, October 1944: Churchill and Stalin informally shared out influence in the Balkans.
Warsaw Uprising, 1944: the Red Army halted outside the city while the Germans crushed the Polish Home Army.
Yalta, February 1945: Germany and Berlin in four zones; free elections in liberated Europe; the United Nations; Stalin to fight Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.
Potsdam, July to August 1945: Truman and then Attlee replaced Roosevelt and Churchill; each power took reparations from its own zone; Poland's western border was set provisionally on the Oder-Neisse line.
Atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945) ended the war but deepened Stalin's suspicion.

Common mistake

Students mix up Yalta and Potsdam. Yalta (February 1945) came before Germany's defeat with Roosevelt and Churchill present; Potsdam (July 1945) came after it, with Truman and, by the end, Attlee.

Worked example

A source describes a conference where the US president knows of a successful atomic test and the British prime minister changes halfway through. Which conference is it?

The first atomic test was on 16 July 1945, so the meeting is after that date.
Churchill lost the British general election in July 1945 and Attlee took his place.
Both facts fit only the conference held from 17 July to 2 August 1945.

Answer: Potsdam.

Ask about this

Type what you are stuck on. The helper finds the explanation, worked examples and the notes to read, free and instant.

Keep going

← Bolshevik consolidation of power, 1917-1921 Increasing tensions in a divided Europe, 1945-1947 →Take a History test