The Berlin Blockade and Airlift were significant events that occurred during the early years of the Cold War. Understanding their historical context and impact is crucial for anyone interested in studying this period of history.
1. Historical Background
After the Second World War, The country was divided into four areas occupied by the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain respectively. The city of Berlin also, situated quite far into the Soviet sphere of influence, was also divided into four zones but administered by the Soviets.
Nevertheless, that period was short lived and soon the Western Allies became hostile to the Soviets starting the Cold war. Soviet’s started the Berlin Blockade in June of 1948 by severing all roads and waterways to West Berlin.
2. Causes of the Berlin Blockade
The main reason of Berlin Blockade was that the soviet union could not come to terms over post-war Germany. The Western Allies aspired to restore economy and politics in the country, and the Soviets were determined to keep eastern europe and avoid the formation of a unified Germany under the west.
The Berlin Blockade was an effort from side of Soviet Union to drive out the western Allies from Berlin and establish its sovereignty over this city.
- Importance of the Berlin blockade
The Berlin Blockade had several significant implications:
3.1 Division of Germany
Aberdeen flank during the blockade thus had only air access to food supplies. This led to the formal division of Germany into two separate countries in 1949: The Federal Republic of Germany known as West Germany and the German Democratic Republic also known as East Germany. West Germany and East Germany quickly became one of the major fault lines of the geopolitics around the Cold War.
3.2 Creation of NATO
When the blockade materialized the Western Allies gave a unified response. In the fourth of April in 1949, twelve western European countries together with the United States and Canada sign the North Atlantic Treaty organization (NATO) to provide a collective security against the soviet Union aggression. There was no stronger association as NATO was one of the main alliances during the Cold War.
3.3 Propaganda Victory
While the aim of Soviets was to blockade west Berlin, the western allies started the ‘berlin airlift’, to supply west Berlin. It was a huge operation to ‘airlift’ supplies and that showed the resolve and intent of western countries and powers in defence of their interests and supporting democracy.
The Berlin Airlift certainly made a very significant propaganda point for the western Allies established they could effectively actually push back against Soviet aggression and keep a critical supply line open to West Berlin as it was.
4. The Berlin Airlift
It took place as from June 1948 to May 1949 and at this time, there were continuous air raids in West Berlin. Combined, the 275,000 plus flights moved more than 2.3 million tonnes of food, fuel and other cargo.
During the airlift, the Western Allies fixed Tempelhof and Tegel airports as the leading points of entry. It was a very choreographed event involving a vast airline carrying capacity that had to be constructed and an efficient supply system.
5. End of the Blockade
Coming to the disappointing reality of this blockade the Soviet Union granted permission to West Berlin on May 12, 1949, again to have land and water access. Although the blockade ceased, the hostility and demarcation between East and West continue throughout the Cold War.
Conclusion
The Berlin Blockade and Airlift played a huge role in effecting the political settings of Europe in the post Second World War period. These events resulted to splitting Germany, the formation of NATO alliance and a major propaganda triumph of the Western Allies. Finally, it is hereby understood that analyzing the given events will help to elucidate the main trends of the early Cold War period.