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Aftermath of World War II

  • Cold WarOn the 16th of April 1947, an influential advisor to Democratic presidents named Bernard Baruch stood before an audience and declared, "we are today in the…
  • Tehran ConferenceThe USS Iowa dropped anchor in the Caspian Sea on the 27th of November 1943. President Franklin D. Roosevelt stepped off a plane at Baku and traveled by…
  • DecolonizationDecolonization began in 1775, when the American Revolution rose against the British Empire in North America. From that single revolt, a chain of independence…
  • Free Territory of TriesteThe Free Territory of Trieste existed for only seven years, yet the legal questions it raised are still debated today. Sandwiched between Italy and…
  • Potsdam AgreementThe Potsdam Agreement was signed on the 1st of August 1945, at Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam, as the guns fell silent across Europe but war still raged in…
  • Potsdam DeclarationHarry S. Truman stood on the steps of the Little White House in Potsdam, Germany, during July 1945. He held a document that would define the end of World War…
  • Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to GermanyOn the 1st of August 1945, the Potsdam Agreement established provisional terms for governing Germany after World War II.
  • Decolonisation of AsiaDecolonisation of Asia began not with a single revolution but with a slow, centuries-long unraveling of foreign control across the world's largest continent.
  • Potsdam ConferenceThe Potsdam Conference opened on the 17th of July 1945, just sixteen days after the most destructive war in human history had ended in Europe.
  • CominformIn September 1947, delegates gathered in Szklarska Poręba, a small town in the Sudetes mountains of Poland. Joseph Stalin called this meeting to address…
  • Chinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War began on the 1st of August 1927 with a Communist uprising in the city of Nanchang and did not end until the 10th of December 1949, when…
  • Korean WarAt 4:40 in the morning on the 25th of June 1950, the Korean People's Army crossed the 38th parallel behind a wall of artillery fire.
  • Iron CurtainFrom Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Winston Churchill spoke those words on the 5th of…
  • Aftermath of World War IIThe Aftermath of World War II reshaped nearly every nation on earth, beginning with a simple fact: by the time the guns fell silent in 1945, roughly 70% of…
  • Greek Civil WarThe Greek Civil War began not with a declaration or a battle line, but with a demonstration. On the 3rd of December 1944, at least 200,000 people marched…
  • Treaty of Paris between Italy and the Allied PowersOn the 10th of February 1947, representatives from Italy and the Allied Powers gathered in Paris to sign a new treaty. This document formally ended World War…
  • Victory over Japan DayThe phrase Victory over Japan Day refers to three different calendar moments in 1945. August 15 marks the day Emperor Hirohito broadcast his surrender…
  • Trust Territory of the Pacific IslandsThe Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was a place measured in ocean, not land. In 1969, just 100 occupied islands held a combined land area of 700…
  • KresyKresy - a word that simply means "edge" in Polish - once described a vast territory stretching across what is now Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.