Unit 9: Cold War and Contemporary Europe
AP European History: 18 practice questions with detailed explanations.
Unit Study Guide
Executive Summary
Europe split into blocs after 1945, rebuilt through cooperation in the West, and reunified after 1989. The EU and contemporary challenges define the present.
The Cold War in Europe
The Iron Curtain divided Europe. The Truman Doctrine promised containment; the Marshall Plan rebuilt Western economies; the Berlin Airlift answered the blockade. NATO (1949) faced the Warsaw Pact. Crises: Hungary (1956), the Berlin Wall (1961), Cuba (1962), Prague Spring (1968), the Helsinki Accords (1975), and Afghanistan (1979). Detente eased tensions in the 1970s; Ostpolitik opened West Germany to the East.
Postwar recovery and decolonization
The welfare state expanded (Britain's Labour, the NHS); the 1950s-60s were a golden age of growth. Empires dissolved: India (1947), Algeria (1962), and the Suez Crisis (1956) showed Britain and France could no longer act alone. The 1970s brought stagflation and oil shocks.
The collapse of communism
Gorbachev's glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) loosened the system. Solidarity (Poland, Walesa) led from below. 1989: velvet revolutions; the Berlin Wall fell; Germany reunified (1990); the USSR dissolved (1991); Yeltsin led Russia after.
European integration
From the Coal and Steel Community to the Treaty of Rome (1957, the EEC), Maastricht (1992, the EU), the euro (1999), and the Schengen Area. The EU expanded eastward after the Cold War; Britain voted to leave in 2016.
Contemporary Europe
Yugoslavia's breakup brought the Balkan wars and Kosovo. Thatcher's privatization reshaped Britain. Debates over immigration, security, and integration continue.
Exam traps
The Marshall Plan was about recovery AND containment. The Cold War ended through reform from above and pressure from below — not a single event. The EU grew from economic cooperation, not conquest.