Part SevenEurope in the
Post-War Era
Following the devastation of World War II, Europe
rebuilt under the growing shadow of the Cold War between the
Western powers, led by the United States, and the Soviet Union.
The dawn of the nuclear age added to rising tensions. The Soviet
Red Army, which had liberated Eastern Europe from the Nazis,
became an occupying force. In Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria,
and the other states of Eastern Europe, Soviet-backed Commu
nists pushed other political parties aside until they held unchal
lenged authority in each state. They nationalized industries and
undertook massive forced collectivization of agriculture. Ger
many, devastated by total defeat, was divided into a western zone,
which became the German Federal Republic (West Germany),
and an eastern zone, which became the Communist German
Democratic Republic (East Germany). Berlin, lying within East
Germany, remained divided between East and West, and quickly
became a particular focus of Cold War rivalry. Soviet intervention
in 1956 to crush a revolt against Communist rule in Hungary
further strained relations between East and West. The Cuban
Missile Crisis of 1962 brought the United States and the Soviet
Union to the brink of nuclear war. The United Nations became a
battleground for the Cold War (see Chapter 28). Yet it was an
arena for verbal battles—hostile words and strident denuncia
tions were better than war.
Signs of gnawing poverty were not hard to find in every coun
try in the post-war period. Only half of the houses in France had
running water, and only a third of those in Austria, Spain, and
Italy. Providing decent housing became a goal of governments in
most countries. However, Western Europe did slowly recover