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NSWModern History

Section IV (Change in the Modern World): The Cold War 1945-1991

14 dot points across 14 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How did the communist victory in China in 1949 globalise the Cold War?

How did the Korean War 1950 to 1953 militarise the global Cold War?

Why was the Berlin Wall built in August 1961?

How was nuclear war avoided in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962?

Why did the superpowers pursue detente in the 1970s and why did it collapse?

How did the Soviet Union dissolve in 1991?

How did Gorbachev's reforms end the Cold War?

How did the Eastern European revolutions of 1989 dismantle the Soviet bloc?

How have historians debated the causes and conduct of the Cold War?

How did the Berlin Blockade and the formation of NATO militarise the Cold War?

How did the Iron Curtain rhetoric and the doctrine of containment frame the early Cold War?

How did the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan formalise containment?

How did the wartime alliance break down at Yalta and Potsdam to produce the Cold War?

How did proxy wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan shape the Cold War?