When did the Iron Curtain fall?

9 November 1989
How did the Wall come down? It was on 9 November 1989, five days after half a million people gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest, that the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany crumbled.

What caused the fall of the Berlin Wall?

In 1989, political changes in Eastern Europe and civil unrest in Germany put pressure on the East German government to loosen some of its regulations on travel to West Germany. … The fall of the Berlin Wall was the first step towards German reunification.

What happened when the Iron Curtain was lifted?

In late 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved into its component republics. With stunning speed, the Iron Curtain was lifted and the Cold War came to an end.

What was the Iron Curtain descends?

In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered one of the …

What would have happened if the Berlin Wall didn’t fall?

I think for the wall not to have fallen, it would have, first of all, meant that we would have experienced a different Eastern Bloc than the one we had in the 1980s. They would have had to stop the reforms, Gorbachev particularly, and if that had taken place it would mean that the Cold War would have continued.

Why did Berlin get divided?

After a massive Allied airlift in June 1948 foiled a Soviet attempt to blockade West Berlin, the eastern section was drawn even more tightly into the Soviet fold. …

Why did the Iron Curtain speech cause tension?

During the speech, Churchill pointed to the Soviet Union as the greatest threat to peace. He declared that an Iron Curtain had descended across the continent of Europe. … Secondly, the speech significantly increased tension between the US and the Soviet Union.

Why did Churchill call it the Iron Curtain?

Churchill meant that the Soviet Union had separated the eastern European countries from the west so that no one knew what was going on behind the “curtain.” He used the word “iron” to signify that it was impenetrable. …

What was the purpose of Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech?

Iron Curtain speech, speech delivered by former British prime minister Winston Churchill in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946, in which he stressed the necessity for the United States and Britain to act as the guardians of peace and stability against the menace of Soviet communism, which had lowered an “iron curtain” …

What were the effects of the Iron Curtain?

The Iron Curtain and the Cold War surrounding it had disastrously negative effects on the post war economy, especially in Eastern Europe. The people there faced food shortages, economic stagnation and large-scale political upheaval.

How did the Soviets react to the Iron Curtain speech?

In March 1946 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin responded to Winston Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, through the pages of the communist newspaper Pravda: … Hitler began to set war loose by announcing his racial theory, declaring that only people speaking the German language represent a fully valuable nation.

What was the main message of Churchill’s speech?

When the day came, Churchill delivered remarks that would give the press something to write about. The title of his speech was “The Sinews of Peace,” but its primary message was that the United States and Great Britain needed to confront an increasingly aggressive Soviet Union.

How was Germany affected by the Iron Curtain?

The Iron Curtain took physical shape in the form of border defences between the countries of western and eastern Europe. There were some of the most heavily militarised areas in the world, particularly the so-called “inner German border” – commonly known as die Grenze in German – between East and West Germany.

What effect did the Iron Curtain have on countries in Central and Eastern Europe?

This ‘Iron Curtain’ divided the communist lands of East Europe from the West. By 1947, Greece and Czechoslovakia were the only Eastern European countries not controlled by communist governments. After WW2, Greece was threatened with civil war between monarchists and communist revolutionaries.

Why was Yugoslavia not behind the Iron Curtain?

Although Yugoslavia remained a one-party system with a Commnist Party rule, it was not allied to the Soviet Union and was also not a part of collective defence treaty – The Warsaw Block. … According to historians, this was the main reason why Yugoslavia remained outside the Iron Curtain until the end of the Cold War.

How did Hungary create a break in the Iron Curtain?

The first break in the Iron Curtain appeared in May 1989 when Hungary decided to start opening its border with Austria. … More than 600 East Germans holidaying in Hungary at the time took advantage and fled to the West. It was the first massive exodus since the 1961 construction of the Berlin Wall.

What was Churchill referencing when he first used the term Iron Curtain?

He was referring to the boundary line that divided Europe in two different political areas: Western Europe had political freedom, while Eastern Europe was under communist Soviet rule. The term also symbolized the way in which the Soviet Union blocked its territories from open contact with the West.

What countries were separated by the Iron Curtain?

The Europan countries which were considered to be “behind the Iron Curtain” included: Poland, Estearn Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and the Soviet Union. From North Korea to Cuba more countries were separated from the West in the same sense.