1962         


During the last year of the war, a series of conferences was held to decide Europe's future. In Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam the victorious Allies tried to create a new balance of power. Stalin was not about to let the gains of this war slip through his fingers. He created a Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, while the British sought to restore the nations of Europe to their former independent status. Since the Soviets had advanced to a line roughly connecting Berlin, Prague and Vienna, it was inevitable that they would hold great sway over Eastern Europe in the future. The Yalta agreements in which Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt made a deal about the spheres of influence just reflected the existing facts on the ground.

Germany was occupied by Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet-Union. It remained in theory an independent country, but the government was conducted by an Allied control council. Large parts of it were "temporarily" ceded to Poland, to compensate for the Soviet gains of 1939. Poland thus shifted in western direction. The North of East-Prussia was "temporarily" ceded to the Soviet Union. These territories, all in the East of the former Prussia, were ethnically cleansed of their German population, and repopulated by Russians and Poles. The rest of Germany was divided into four zones of occupation. Berlin, deep in the Soviet zone was also divided into four zones

Gradually the Eastern European states, which were in the Soviet sphere of influence, were forced to adopt Communist governments. The names of these  states as seen on the map, signify that.

A new ideological conflict was taking shape. It was a conflict over the future of Europe, between the United States, its western allies, and the Soviet Union. It was called "the Cold War". In Germany Stalin resisted western attempts to revive the German economy and monetary system. In 1948 Stalin blockaded the Western sectors of Berlin. The Western powers reacted with an air bridge. The blockade was given up. In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was set up in the Western sectors. In the Soviet-zone a German Democratic Republic was declared. Germany remained under occupation and in theory, a common Allied responsibility for Germany as a whole, remained. In 1955 the occupation-regime was lifted, but the former Allies retained a lot of their rights including a joint responsibility for Germany as a whole. Berlin remained under occupation. The western powers set up an alliance organisation called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) Communist countries reacted with the Warsaw Pact

Since people tended to flee the Communist controlled areas of Europe, border installations were erected to prevent that. An Iron Curtain divided Europe, Germany and Berlin.

Strangely Berlin remained an open, allied occupied, city, within a Germany over which the Allies still had a direct common responsibility. Its openness constituted a leak in the Iron Curtain. In 1963 the Soviets built a wall between East and West Berlin, closing the leak that was draining the GDR's population.

Both the United States and the Soviet-Union had atomic weapons of mass destruction by 1949 making a new war virtually impossible. So the war would remain a cold one for forty-five years.

Ireland adopted the Republic of Ireland Act in 1949, removing all references to the King and the British Commonwealth from its constitution. An action that made the King change his title. Northern-Ireland had appeared in the name of the state in 1923, now it also became a part of the Royal Title. The West European countries set up a European Economic Community. Integration between the member states gradually became more and more important.