Factors Responsible for the Cold War

Factors responsible for the Cold War

After World War II, the USA and the USSR, the new superpowers, wanted to establish the supremacy of their position and ideology, and this conflict became the focal point of international relations.

America’s rise to the status of superpower was complete with the possession of nuclear weapons. Very soon Russia emerged as a challenger and rival to America’s position and in 1949 she also developed nuclear weapons and ended the American supremacy.

There was a long history of suspicion and mistrust between the Soviet Union and the Western countries. The Soviet Union never forgot that Western powers—Britain, France, and the USA—had attempted to overturn the Bolshevik Revolution and had intervened (along with Japan) in the Russian Civil War.

During World War II, this mutual distrust grew even stronger. After Germany invaded the USSR in 1941, the Western democracies delayed opening a second front against Germany. Although Britain and the USA promised to do so, the delay reinforced Soviet fears that the West wanted a prolonged conflict between Germany and the USSR, hoping both would weaken each other.