Cold War: Imperial Fallout, Geopolitical Shifts, and Communist Spread

This essay examines the imperial fallout of World War II and the resulting shift in geopolitical powers, focusing on the ideological division between the USA and USSR. It discusses the Soviet Union's geopolitical gains, particularly in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, analyzing the successes and failures of spreading communism. The essay also interprets the spread of communism as a form of imperial expansion, highlighting the reasons for its eventual fragmentation, including the weakening of Russia's economic and military power. Desklib offers a wealth of similar essays and study resources for students.

Running head: COLD WAR
COLD WAR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COLD WAR
What was the Imperial fall-out of the Second World War and the shift in geo-political powers?
The Second World War had led to the redrawing of the map of Europe which was a result
of the division of the continent into two blocs which was based purely on ideological lines. Post
the Second World War the victorious allies USA, UK, France and Russia had met for a
deliberation at Yalta and at Potsdam where the ideological differences arose. Russia was in
favour of disseminating the communist ideology while the rest USA, UK and France were more I
favour of capitalistic ideology, which had been the basis of the division of the continent into two
power blocs as a move to divide the spoils of the war among themselves. The Eastern European
nations and Eastern Germany had come under the stronghold of Socialist Russia and had become
a part of the United Socialist Soviet Russia while the nations of the Western part of Europe and
West Germany had come under the domination of United States of America. The power
dynamics of spreading communism or capitalism was not limited to just Europe as it had become
a tool for becoming powerful in the international sphere by both USA and USSR, and thus the
shift in geo political powers had taken place (Hughes 2007).
What geopolitical gains did the Soviet Union make, and where were those gains relatively
successful and why?
USSR had been successful in spreading socialism in Eastern Europe and in Laos,
Cambodia, Vietnam and North Korea. USSR had been successful in South East Asia as Laos,
Cambodia, Vietnam and North Korea had been successful in overthrowing the influence of
capitalist USA and the nations even today have a socialistic model of governance. On the other
hand Eastern Europe was a failure as the nations had proclaimed their independence from USSR
and some of them had become a part of the NATO in the post cold war period (Hughes 2007).

2COLD WAR
In what ways can the spread of Communism in Post-World War 2 be interpreted as imperial
expansion by another name? And what were the major reasons for Communist fragmentation?
The spread of communism was an imperial expansion as the nations of Eastern Europe
were subjugated by means of force and in the South East Nations there were forces encouraged
by USSR to make the spread of Communism successful by means of deploying people from
within the nation itself. Communism failed because the economic and the military power of
Russia had weakened and economic weakness had made it impossible for USSR to keep up the
armament race with USA (Hughes 2007).

3COLD WAR
References
Hughes, R.G., 2007. Britain, Germany and the Cold War: The Search for a European Détente
1949–1967. Routledge.