What factors divided the united states and soviet union?
1 Answer
Technology as well as economic policies and governmental systems.
Explanation:
Technology
In WWII, the US and USSR were allied in the hopes of defeating Germany. When the war in the European theatre was over, the powers moved to the Asian theatre. After the Japanese still refused to surrender, the US decided to use its newly developed atomic bomb in Japan - twice - to try to help bring about the final end of the war. It was successful, as the Japanese surrendered quickly after that, but it led to tensions between the US and USSR because although they were technically allied, the US refused to tell the USSR how to develop an atomic bomb.
Additionally, after WWII, an arms race began between the two countries, with both trying to have an enormous nuclear arsenal so that it could defend itself if the other one attacked. This led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was a brief period of time when the USSR tried to arm Cuba with nuclear weapons so that it could quickly attack the US if needed.
Economy and Government
Another way that the two new superpowers differed was their economic policies (capitalism in the US, communism in the USSR) and their governmental systems (democratic republic in the US, totalitarianism in the USSR). These differences led to proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam, as well the Arab-Israeli conflicts, in which both sides provided localized groups with arms and weapons to prevent the spread of the other sides government.
Before any of those proxy wars even happened though, there were also many developments in Europe itself. The US and Britain revived the failure of the League of Nations with the United Nations, as well as worked on the European Union to help defend the rest of Europe from the USSR. In retaliation, the USSR created the Warsaw Pact, which worked as the communist version of the European Union, and in addition, the USSR had several satellite states in Eastern Europe to defend the USSR from Western Europe and the US.
This is just a brief summary of an extremely complicated conflict, and I have a feeling there could be a lot more answers to your question, but I hope this helps!
