Intro Quiz: How significant were events in Asia for superpower relations?

Video: How significant were events in Asia for superpower relations?

﻿Hello and welcome to this history lesson about why events in Asia was significant for super power relations. My name is Ms Quick, and I'm really looking forward to working with you as we study the Cold War. Now, for today's lesson all you are going to need is a pen and some paper or something to write on. Do you take a moment now as well to make sure that all distractions are removed so you can fully concentrate on our lesson. This includes turning off any notifications or apps or conversations that you might have open, if you know how to. You also want to trying find somewhere quiet to work so you can fully concentrate and at the end of the lesson, do you make sure that you keep all of your notes on the Cold War together, perhaps in a folder or an exercise book? Okay, so when you're ready, let's begin. In today's lesson, we are starting a new enquiry about why did the Cold War intensify between 1950 and 1958. We will be exploring this question over the next few lessons. Now intensify needs to make stronger. So over the next few lessons, we are going to be exploring how and why the divisions between the USA and the USSR, it can even more pronounced. If you want to note down this key word and definition, feel free to pause the video here and resume when you are ready In today's lesson, we are going to start by recapping, where we are in the Cold War? And for point just pause to check that we understand some key concepts. Then we will move on to learning about what was happening in Asia at the beginning of the 1950s. Before pausing again and drawing together, all of our learning to help us answer our lesson question of how significant were events in Asia for superpower relations. If at any point in the lesson you want to pause and go back over anything, then please feel free to do so. Since 1945 tensions has been increasing between the USA and the USSR. They were both in fierce competition with each other, and actively sought opportunities to demonstrate their strength and compete for world domination. So far, this conflict and rivalry had largely been focused on Europe, particularly in that early tensions period, you can see on the timeline. For example, when in 1947, President Truman had announced his Truman doctrine, which promised to help any country that was threatened by Communist takeover. He had primarily been aiding his support at the countries of Eastern Europe. This was because Stalin had repeatedly voiced his desire to control and influence these countries. How about that, from the end of the 1940s events in Asia also started to have a significant impact on the relationship and levels of tensions between the two superpowers and caused the Cold War to intensify. As we will explore today, it soon became clear to Truman that if the USA was going to be successful in preventing the spread of Communism, he would need to expand the policy of containment to Asia Two key events revealed this to Truman. The first was Chinese shift to Communism in 1949. And the second was the outbreak of the Korean war. Today, we will start our story in 1949 to see how these two events and the response of the USA and the USSR Truman affected the relationship between the two superpowers. Now, before we go any further, let's just stop and check that you remember exactly what the policy of containment was. Two of these statements are true. Which ones are they? Pause the video now and resume when you are ready. Excellent, well done. Statements b and c are correct, because containment was a US policy that aid to prevent the spread of Communism. Let's have a look at why Truman felt he needed to extend his policy to Asia and with what results. In October 1949, China became communist under the leadership of Mao Zedong. This was a major concern for the West and particularly to the USA, because it now looked as though Communism may begin to spread throughout Asia. China's size and geographical position made this even more concerning. Not only did China have the highest population in the world, but it was also located next to the USSR, as you can see on the map. This meant that Stalin now had a sizable Communist neighbour and the Communism could spread more easily throughout Asia. In February 1950, the USSR and Communist China agreed they would support each other and signed the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance. So, why was China's move to Communism significant for superpower relations? First of all, the signing of the Treaty of Friendship with China meant the balance of power had shifted in favour of the USSR. This meants that US fear of Communism intensified because they now feared the Communist powers would soon dominate Asia. To increase tensions further, the United Nations refused to recognise the new Communist government of China. As a result, the USSR boycotted the UN in protest, and refused to take part in any UN decisions. It was clear that events in Asia had divided the USSR and the West even further. You may want to pause the video here and read back through this chain of events. Because you'll be writing a summary sentence about this in just a moment. Resume when you are ready. Please pause the video here to complete the following sentence. China becoming Communist was significant for superpower relations because... And then resume was you when you have finished Excellent work, well done. China becoming Communist was significant for superpower relations because it shifted the balance of power towards the USSR and increased US fears of Communism. Now tensions also began to increase because of events in Korea. Before the second World War, Japan had controlled career. How about that? In 1945, the Japanese forces had surrendered to the USSR in the North of Korea and to the American forces in the South Korea became divided at a point called the 38th parallel. This is a natural line of latitude that runs through the country and which became used as a borderline to separate the North from the South. You can see this on the map on the right hand side of your screen. Consequently, when the second World War ended, two different ruling systems emerged. North Korea was controlled by a Communist dictator while South Korea was anti-Communist. Each country claimed to be in control of the whole of Korea. By 1950, tensions between the leaders of North and South Korea had reached their heights, and regime North Korea invaded South Korea. North Korea's Communist allies, the USSR and China supported this move, while the West looked on in horror. The South appealed the UN for help, And the American saw that chance to intervene. The USA approached the UN to gain support for troops to be sent to support South Korea. The USA believed that if North Korean troops could be rolled back North over the 38th parallel, Communism in Asia might be contained. Equally, as the USSR was refusing to take part in any meetings of the UN Security Council, There was no opposition within the UN to the USA's proposal. UN troops arrived in Korea in September 1950. The majority of the troops were American and the troops were led by the US commander general MacArthur. To North Korea, China, and the USSR, this felt like more than just defence of South Korea. It felt like an attack on Communism itself. So why was the Korean war significant for superpower relations? Well, the Korean war lost it for three years and ended in stalemates. This is like a deadlock where nobody was able to win. This was despite tens of thousands of people losing their lives in the conflict. Especially in Korea where enormous casualties suffered, many of whom were civilians. On both sides, destructive weapons and tactics were used. And so the war began to demonstrate the extent of tensions, which existed between the USA and Communist countries. For example, although 18 member countries of the UN had sent troops to North Korea, the USA had taken a leading role in the war. And after successfully pushing back the North Korean troops into the North, they'd even entered North Korea. This was seen by Communist countries as a direct attempt to remove Communism from Korea entirely and provoked China to enter the war in support of Korea, of North Korea. So as you can see, as the war continued, divisions became increasingly entrenched. Note that entrenched means, to establish firmly and unchangeably. So we are saying that the tensions became more firmly embedded between the two superpowers in a way that was likely to last for a long time. By 1953, it was very clear to both sides, the extremes to which the other would go to, to protect or prevent the spread of Communism. Incidentally, the USSR made sure that it never missed an important votes in the UN Security Council ever again. So it can avoid the USA ever again gaining the upper hand. You may want to pause the video here and read back through this chain of events, because you'll be writing a summary sentence about this in just a moment. Resume when you are ready. Please pause the video here to complete the following sentence. The Korean war was significant for super power relations because... And then resume when you have finished. Excellent work, well done. The Korean war was significant for superpower relations because it shows the extent of tension between the two superpowers and caused divisions to become more entrenched. Okay, so it's now time for us to look at our comprehension questions. Let's read through the comprehension questions, really carefully together. Question number one. Why was the West concerned when China became Communist in 1949? Question number two. What were the consequences of the Treaty of Friendship? Question number three. Why did UN troops become involved in the Korean war? Question number four. How did the Korean war affect the relationship between the superpowers? And then our challenge question, which is also our lesson question for today. Why were events in Asia from 1949 to 1953, significant for superpower relations? For this question you may want to look at each event in turn and explain why it was significant for superpower relations. You could use your sentences from earlier in the lesson to help you. If you want to, you can use the sentence starters to help you structure your answer to this question. So please pause the video here, read the slides on the resource worksheet and answer the comprehension questions. When you have finished, resume the video. Well done for working so hard on your comprehension questions. Let's spend some time reviewing your answers. Remember your answers do not need to look exactly the same as mine, but look for common language and to give yourself a tick, when you have written something similar. If at any point you want to add some ideas to your answers, you can pause the video and resume when you are ready. So question number one. Why was the West concerned when China became Communist in 1949? An acceptable answer would be, they were worried that Communism may begin to spread. A good answer might be, the West were concerned when China became Communist in 1949, because it now looked as though Communism may begin to spread throughout Asia. The West was also very concerned due to China's size and location next to the USSR. This meant that Stalin now had a sizeable Communist neighbour and ally. A good answer makes the same overall points, but uses the words in the question to write the answer in a full sentence and also provides some examples of why China becoming Communist made the West so concerned. Question number two. What were the consequences of the Treaty of Friendship? An acceptable answer would be, the USSR and China agreed to support each other. A good answer would be, as a result of the Treaty of Friendship, the USSR and China agreed to support each other and formed an Alliance. This meant that the balance of power had shifted in favour of the USSR and the USA began to fear that Communist powers would soon dominate Asia. Again, in the good answer, more specific examples of consequences have been used and phrases like, it's meant that, show how one event led to another. Question three. Why did UN troops become involved in the Korean war? Now an acceptable answer for this question would be, UN troops became involved in the Korean war because South Korea asked the UN for help when North Korea invaded. A good answer would be, UN troops became involved in the Korean war, because South Korea asked the UN for help when North Korea invaded in June 1950, and the Americans saw that chance to intervene. The USA approached the UN to gain support for troops to be sent to support South Korea. Also, the USSR was refusing to take part in any meetings of the UN Security Council. This meant that there was no opposition within the UN to the USA's proposal. It's great thing the acceptable answer is written in a full sentence, but the good answer does go a bit further by adding in key dates and phrases like, it's meant that, to show how different events connected together to cause UN troops to become involved in the Korean war. Question number four. How did the Korean war affect the relationship between the superpowers? Now the acceptable answer would be, the Korean war made the relationship between the superpower was worse. A good answer would say, the Korean war caused divisions between the superpowers to become more entrenched. For example, the USA had taken a leading role in the war and actions like general MacArthur's decision to direct UN troops to enter North Korea was seen by Communist countries as a direct attempt to remove Communism from Korea entirely. Consequently, by 1953, the relationship between the superpowers had worsened and tensions had increased. In my good answer, We've here used words like entrenched and provided a few specific examples to show the consequences of the Korean war. And this means the more examples we use, the more we can show that we really clearly understand how the war affected the relationship between the two superpowers. Finally, with my challenge question, why were events in Asia from 1949 to 1953, significant for superpower relations? Just to remind you, that you may have worded your answer differently. So look in your answer for the common ideas and language, that are highlighted in pink in the text. If you see any of these points, give yourself a tick or feel free to add them into your answer. The phrases in blue are the sentence starters that you could have used to structure this answer. As an good answer, might read events in Asia from 1949 to 1953 were significant for superpower relations because they caused a rapid increase in tension between the USSR and the USA. For example, when China became Communist in 1949, the USSR gained a new ally. This was significant to superpower relations because the balance of power had shifted in favour of the USSR, which encouraged the USA to expand its containment policy to Asia. Also, after the outbreak of the Korean war in 1950, American troops were engaged in active battle against communist forces, especially after China enters the war in October 1950. This was significant for super power relations because it meant that divisions became more firmly entrenched. Well done for completing today's lesson and for all of your hard work. You were introduced to some really challenging concepts in today's lesson. And so you should be very proud of all of the fantastic learning that you have achieved. If you'd like to, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak, so that I can see your fantastic work too. Next lesson, you will learn more about how the Cold War intensified in the 1950s, by looking at how the arms race increased tensions. Don't forget to see how much you've learned today by completing the exit quiz now. Well, all this left for me to say is thank you. Take care and enjoy the rest of your learning today.

Worksheet: How significant were events in Asia for superpower relations?

Exit Quiz: How significant were events in Asia for superpower relations?

Completed: How significant were events in Asia for superpower relations?

In this lesson, you will learn about events in Asia from 1949-1953. You will consider the impact that China's shift to Communism and the Korean War had on superpower relations and will explore why these events were significant in intensifying tensions.

History

Y11 History

Key Stage 4

Year 11

How significant were events in Asia for superpower relations?

The Cold War: Superpower relations from 1941- 1991

UNIT

Grand Alliance, 1941-1945: Why were they unlikely allies?

Why did tension develop at the wartime conferences?

Why did the atomic bombs damage US-Soviet relations?

Why did the 1946 telegrams increase the tension?

Did Churchill officially announce the beginning of the Cold War?

What were the consequences of Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe?

How far did early tension begin to show in the breakdown of the Grand Alliance?

Why did the Truman Doctrine increase the tension between the Superpowers?

How significant was the Soviet response to the Truman Doctrine?

What was the Berlin blockade?

What were the consequences of the Berlin blockade?

How did the arms race increase tensions?

Why did the space race make US-Soviet relations worse?

Why did the Hungarians challenge Communist control?

How significant was the Hungarian uprising?

Why did the Cold War intensify between 1950-1958?

Why was the Berlin Wall built?

What were the consequences of the building of the Berlin Wall?

Why did the Cuban Revolution change the relationship between the superpowers?

How was the Cuban Missile Crisis resolved and with what significance?

What were the causes and consequences of the Prague Spring?

What was detente and why did it happen?

Why did detente not last?

Why did Reagan's policies increase tension?

Explore the Enquiry

How did Gorbachev's 'new thinking' reduce tensions between the superpowers?

How did the Soviet Union's hold on Eastern Europe come to an end?

What did the fall of the Berlin Wall mean for the Cold War?

Why did the Cold War come to an end?

History

How significant were events in Asia for superpower relations?

Introductory Quiz

Video

Worksheet

Final Quiz

Lesson Complete