14.+Global+Economy+During+the+Cold+War+(Emphasis+on+Russia)


 * Members:** //Kaisha C. Katy M. Lauren Z. Tanner Y.//


 * Synopsis:**

Our chapter that we will be effectively researching will contain various elements of the Cold War, how it all began, and how it effected the entire globe's economy during that vital time in history. Our group has decided to mainly focus on the strained relationship between the **United States** and **Russia** and how all of that hurt the world's economy and trade. We also wanted to discuss the trade of fossil fuels between these two superpower countries during that time too. Utilizing and using this information in our final project will indefinitely produce an excellent product that will be helpful education-wise, but will be very realistic and somewhat humorous.

To start off, the Soviets, victims of invasions throughout history, were distrustful of the Americans, having been invaded by them during their revolutionary period in 1920. The Americans saw their role as leaders of the world, and they took an activist role in shaping the post-war globe, encountering Soviet resistance. This is only a fraction of our information that we will soon continue posting as we gather it.

How was the economy affected by the cold war? Why did the cold war began? Did the amount of trade decrease during this time? Why did the American invade the Soviets?
 * Questions:**

This picture shows all the military assistance and presence during the cold war. It also shows the USA their allies and Soviet Union their allies.
 * Picture:**

Military expenditures in the former Soviet Union were a great burden on the Soviet economy, draining resources that might otherwise have been available to improve the economic circumstances of the people. While Russia's centralized economy could provide the organization for an effective military establishment, it could not efficiently manage the complex distribution system of a consumer-based society. The Soviet Union was a great military power, but its people lived in disadvantaged circumstances throughout the Cold War. Military expenditures in the United States also drained resources and talent that would otherwise have been available to the private economy. By the 1970,s, the United States, once the dominant economy in the world, had fallen behind Japan and West Germany in the competition for high quality consumer goods. Two decades of negative balances of trade caused the United States to become the largest debtor nation in the world. The preoccupation with the military race against the Soviet Union is, in part, the reason.
 * Information:**


 * More focus on economy:**

With the end of the Cold War, a basic shift in the global economy occurred. No longer could Eastern Bloc nations rely upon the Soviet Union to prop up their domestic economies. Moreover, among the Communist community of nations, Warsaw Pact-international trade was no longer regulated/dictated by the Soviet hegemon. Since 1989, roughly, the former member nations of the Soviet Union and its sphere-of-influence have been cast into the world marketplace with no safety net. The impact of this event upon their individual national economies has been extremely felt. Third World nations have been left to fend for themselves as the former enemies lick the economic wounds they inflicted upon themselves during the Cold War.


 * Picture:** Russian flag.




 * Picture:** Nuclear explosion.

The first, and to date only, nuclear war was the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan by the United States shortly before the end of World War II. At the time of those bombings, the United States was the only country to possess atomic weapons. After World War II, nuclear weapons were also developed by the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China, which contributed to the state of conflict and tension that became known as the Cold War. In the 1970s, India and Pakistan, countries openly hostile to each other, developed nuclear weapons. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the resultant end of the Cold War, the threat of a major nuclear war between the superpowers was generally thought to have receded. Since then, concern over nuclear weapons has shifted to the prevention of localized nuclear conflicts resulting from nuclear proliferation, and the threat of nuclear terrorism.


 * Space Program Info:**

The Space Race was an informal competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to see who could make the furthest advancements into space first. It involved the efforts to explore outer space with artificial satellites, to send humans into space, and to land them on the Moon. The Space Race effectively began after the Soviet Launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. The term originated as an analogy to the arms race. The Space Race became an important part of the cultural, technological, and ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Space technology became a particularly important arena in this conflict, because of both its potential military applications and the morale-boosting social benefits.