Post-war Europe

Double Failure of European States

- Economic failure: Great Depression in 1929

- Military failure: World War II in 1939

Post-War Challenge to the Political Right

- fascist states initiated WWII

- right-of-center parties in many democratic states during the war

Dividing Europe after 1945

- Yalta Conference (Feb. 1945)

§ Eastern Europe as a Soviet sphere

- Victory-Europe Day, May 1945

- Potsdam Conference (July 1945)

§ Occupation zones for Germany

US-Soviet Confrontation and European Future

- ideological clash between capitalist market democracy and communist command authoritarianism

- military rivalry over Soviet v. US security interests

- economic competition over markets and resources