Why did the Cold War begin?

There were multiple reasons as to why the Cold War began.

The first reason was due to the breakdown of the Grand Alliance. Before the Cold War, the USSR and the USA worked together as members of the Grand Alliance. This was an alliance created in order to defeat the Nazis. It was simply a marriage of convenience as the capitalists and communists had only one aim which was to stop Hitler. Capitalists and Communists had completely different ideology and that is why it led to the breakdown of the alliance.

The Tehran Conference also played a huge role in the start of the Cold War. Held in 1943, it was designed to make plans for the reconstruction of Europe after World War 2. The Big Three (Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt) agreed that the USSR should have a 'sphere of influence' in Eastern Europe. This meant that they were allowed a communist respected region to avoid feeling threatened. Therefore this meant that western Europe would be under the British and American 'sphere of influence.' However they disagreed on Germany's future as Stalin believed that they should be punished and have to pay reparations where FDR and Churchill thought that Germany should be allowed to rebuild and grow.

The Yalta Conference was another reason for the start of the Cold War. This marked the high point of the alliance. Here many decision were made. Stalin decided that Russian troops would help defeat Hitler. FDR and Churchill agreed that a communist government could be set up. They all signed 'The declaration on Liberated Europe' which committed that they would work together to achieve democracy in Europe. As well as this, the Allies agreed to create the UN which was established to maintain peace across Europe.

The Potsdam Conference was the final meeting that the three big leaders had. It addressed the key issue of the government in Europe. The big question however was what would happen to Germany. The three agreed that they would ban the Nazi Party and granted a reduction in the size of Germany by a quarter. Finally, they decided that they would split Germany into four zones, America, Britain, France and Russia.