Cold War Timeline

Big Cold War Timeline

1930s- Transnational ideological conflict begins.
1931-32-Japan takes Manchuria.
1936-Italy acquires Ethiopia.
1939-German-Soviet non-Aggression pact signed.
1939-USSR takes Eastern Poland.
1940s – U.S. policy is pro-decolonization
1940s-1950s – U.S. policy is anti-decolonization (supports containment)
June 1940-France surrenders to Germany.
1941Germany invades USSR- non-aggression pact ends.
1941-Britain and USSR invade Iran.
August 1942-February 1943-Battle of Stalingrad
December 1944- Hitler's forces counterattack
1944- Britain stops communist uprising in Greece.
1944- Bretton Woods Conference
1945- US controls half of world's manufacturing, most of food surpluses, and large portion of financial reserves.
February 4-11 1945- Yalta Conference
April 1945- Roosevelt dies
July 1945- Labor Party wins the elections in Britain. (Churchill is replaced)
July 1945- Potsdam Conference
Summer 1945- Bombings of Japanese mainland.
August 1945- Atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima
1946 – U.S. grants Philippines independence
1946 – France grants independence to Lebanon and Syria
1946- Conservatives win both houses of Congress
1945-1947- US forces fall from 12.1 million to 1.7 million. Soviet fall from 11.3 million to 2.9 million.
1947-1948 - U.S. “reverses course” on policy in Japan by emphasizing economic reconstruction and political stability
1947 – U.S. sponsors Rio Treaty, a regional security pact, to secure its influence in Latin America
1947 – U.S. imposed constitution in Japan
1947 – Britain grants India independence
1947 – Britain grants Sri Lanka independence
1948 – formation of the Organization of American States
1948 – British withdraw from Palestine
1948 – Britain grants Burma independence
1948 – Syngman Rhee establishes Republic of Korea
Dec. 1948 – Soviet forces withdraw from North Korea
1949 – Soviet Union successfully tests an atomic bomb
July 1949 – U.S. troops withdraw from South Korea
October 1949 – The Communists proclaim the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
Early 1950 – Soviets and Chinese Communists sign security and economic assistance treaty
Early 1950 – NSC-68: called for the United States to undertake a rapid build-up of the political, economic, and military strength of the “free world”
April 1950 – Stalin agrees to supply the necessary military assistance to North Korea
June 25, 1950 – North Korea invades South Korea
Fall of 1950 – The PRC decides to interfere in the war
Spring 1951 – Battle lines are stabilized
1952- Britain develops atomic capabilities
July 1953 – the end of the war; thirty-eighth parallel is created

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