The Cold War was a time of Cold War between the United States and the USSR. The time period was from 1945, the end of World War II, through the early 1990s. The Berlin Wall didn’t start the Cold War, but it became a symbol of it. We will explore the two and the association that exists between them.

What was the Cold War?

The Cold War was a state of political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, coincident with the lengthy official decomposition and partial integration of the two a specifically competing bipolar world systems roaring with two ideological rifts; one featuring capitalist liberal ideologies and being endorsed by the United States and seven other countries, and the other communist ideologic system supported by the Soviet Union and several other developing bloc countries. But it wasn’t called the “Cold War” because it didn’t involve direct armed conflict between the two superpowers. They competed by whatever means, from diplomacy, propaganda, and proxy wars.

The Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a wall built in Berlin that divided the city between East and West, from 1961 to 1989. Built by the East German government to prevent its citizens from fleeing into West Berlin, which was a democratic enclave within East Germany, this was intended to stop that. That wall had become a symbol of the division of worlds, communist and capitalist.

Causes of the Cold War

The Cold War had various causes, including:

• Political Differences: The conflict was based on the fact that the United States with its rooting in capitalism and democracy was a different ideological creature of the Soviet Union, one rooted in communism.
• Competition for Power: There was so much that both super powers wanted to show on the global stage of dominance and thus so many conflicts and power struggles.
• Arms Race: Both sides developed and stockpiled nuclear weapons and the rivalry became fiercer, creating the dimension of fear and uncertainty to the conflict.
• Proxy Wars: For example, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and civil wars in Africa and Latin America, Soviet Union and United States supported opposing sides.

The Impact of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall put the Cold War tensions on high gear. It was a physical symbolization of communist and capitalist separation and the division between East and West Berlin. The mututal distrust and hostility between the two superpowers, and the need for symbolic gestures of good will at all costs, is displayed in the wall.

Human suffering was also caused by the construction of the wall. People living in East Berlin effectively were imprisoned, families were separated. Instead, many tried to escape and with tragic consequences, people risked their lives on the punishing journey to cross the fortified barrier.

Conclusion

The Berlin Wall was a very symbolic Cold War thing, but it didn’t cause the Cold War. In reality, the roots of the Cold War lie more deeply in political differences, power struggles and an ideological clash between the United States and the Soviet Union. However at same time, the wall only exacerbated existing tensions, which are important to recognize, if we want to understand the causes of the Cold War.