Tuesday, March 11, 2014
The Berlin Wall
When the war came to and end the capital of Germany, Berlin, was split into four sections between Russia, America, Britain, and France. The eastern half of Berlin was under the Russian name, while the western half was run by all three of the capitalist allies. The tension between the capitalists and the communists grew as time went on and soon the people of eastern Berlin began moving to western Berlin and never coming back. This angered the Russians, who didn't want their communist citizens leaving their half of Berlin. To combat this movement they built a wall around the entire western Berlin to keep the eastern population from crossing over. This wall was built very abruptly and gave the people little time to escape. Many families were separated and people were trapped on a side of Berlin they did not want to be on. Although some places only had small bits of bared wire acting as a wall, soldiers also stood guard, ready to shoot at any who tried to cross. The public rebelled against it and was astounded that the allies weren't protesting in their favor. The rise of the Berlin Wall increased the tension between Russia and America as the Cold War continued.
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How did the fall of the Berlin Wall affect the Soviets? The Soviets could no longer stand up against the tough American forces and its allies. Therefore this foreshadowed their weakness in maintaining control of a group of people. East German citizens had gone crazy and were striving to escape into the West where they could probably live a better life. But in order to do this people risked their lives in either jumping from windows across the wall or just climbing it,however, not many succeeded and died. So this demonstrates how the Soviets are beginning to lose control of their communism and how the USSR will soon collapse.
ReplyDeleteI think it's also important to mention that the Americans had a reason for not helping. They were afraid that if they gave aid, the USSR would see it as an act of aggression, and it could start WW3.
ReplyDeleteHowever the Americans did try to relieve the citizens behind the Berlin wall. They just did not directly try to force the USSR to tear the wall down because this would be taken as a threat.
ReplyDeleteI think the Berlin Wall helped make the US's job easier because they had a strict line of where the border was. The US also couldn't do anything to stop the wall because it wasn't on their side so I think it made their lives a little bit easier.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't feel like the Berlin Wall was that important. It didn't really have much of an impact in the actual "war". Like so much of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall became a place in which both sides could try and show their devotion to their forms of government. There was so much hype based around the wall, but the reality was that it didn't affect many people negatively and there was very little conflict. It's interesting how these things become so much bigger than they are when tensions are so high.
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