Exploring Events of the Cold War in Europe Social Studies Skill Builder
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Exploring Events of the Cold War in Europe Social Studies Skill Builder Overview In this Social Studies Skill Builder students create a map and annotated timeline to analyze escalating events during the Cold War in Europe. Working in pairs, students receive 12 cards that contain brief descriptions of Cold War events. Students create a symbol to represent each event, draw it on the corresponding countries on a map of Europe, and summarize each event on an a timeline. Afterward, students work in groups of four to analyze key events of the Cold War, using their maps and timelines as resources. Finally, the teacher holds a class disbussion to evaluate the significance of Cold War events. o fI EI fI fI oo @o oo @@ ET EI ET EI o@ @o o@ @o EI fI fI EI @o @o oo o@ fI EI fI EI o@ @o o@ @@ Procedures at a GIance Before class, divide your students into mixed-ability pairs. Tell students they will learn about and map 72 major Cold War events in Europe. Pass out Student Handout 3.2A to each student, and give each pair one event card from Student Handout 3.28. Have pairs read the event card, create a visual symbol to represent the event, draw it on the coresponding countries on the map, and summarize each event in 10 words or less to annotate the timeline. Continue this until all pairs have completed labeling the map and the timeline. Then, combine pairs into groups of four. Read aloud the Follow-up Questions. Tell groups to use their maps and timelines to determine the answer. Reveal the correct answer, and award points to groups with correct answers. Finally, hold a class discussion to evaluate the significance of Cold War events in Europe. Project Transparency 3.ZAand discuss the Cold War's effects on conflicts around the world. 128 The Rise and Fall ofthe Soviet Union @ Teachers' Curriculum Institute Procedures in Detail t. Before class, divide your students into mixed-ability pairs. Prepare an overhead transparency that shows students who their pafiners are and how to alrange their desks. Project the transparency, and ask students to move into their correct places. 2. Tell students that this activity will help them understand many of the escalating events of the Cold War. Review with students the meaning of the term Cold War. In 1948, Journalist Walter Lippman first used the term Cold War, borrowing from a French phrase, to refer to a " constant war of nerves" between the Soviet Union and the United States. The phrase caught on and came to describe an epoch of enduring hostility between the two nations-ahe two superpowers of the world-with weapons of mass destruction serving as a frightening backdrop. 3. Once students have reviewed the meaning of the term ColdWar, tell them they are ready to learn about and map 12 major Cold War events. Pass out Student Handout 3.242 Map of the Cold War in Europe to each student. Have each pair tape together the two pages of their map. Then give each pair one event card from Student Handout 3.282 Event Cards. 4. Have pairs read the event card, create a visual symbol to represent the essence of the event, and draw it on the coffesponding countries on the map. Have students use they key to the left of the map to show country groupings. For example, they may want to use colors-blue for NATO members and red for Warsaw Pact members-to show which countries belonged to each military alliance. Next, have students annotate their timeline by summarizing the event in 10 words or less. (Option: You may want to have students write their summaries in their notebooks.) Tell students that these summaries need not include proper grammar, but they must define the event accurately. For example, a student might write the following summary for NAIO: military alliance linked United States,Western Europe--feared Soviet attack. Emphasize that the notes and illustrations students write on their map willbe the only resource they will be allowed to use to answer a set of questions in the second part of the activity. After pairs have labeled their map and timelines, have one student bring the map to you. Check the answers for thoroughness and accuracy, optionally award points, and give them a new event card. Before students begin working, you may want to model these steps with the class. 5. When pairs have finished labeling all 12 event cards on the map and timeline, collect the event cards. Combine the pairs into groups of four. Tell students they will use their maps and timelines to compete with other groups to answer a set of follow-up questions about the Cold War in Europe. @ Teachers' Curriculum Institute The Rise and Fall ofthe Soviet Union 129 Read aloud the first follow-up question. Have each group discuss the question and use their maps and timelines to determine the correct answer. Have students record the question and the answer on the back of their maps. 7. Once all groups have finished with the first question, reveal the correct answer and award points to groups who gave the comect response. Address any questions students have about the topic. Continue this process for each of the remaining follow-up questions. Follow-up Questions . Which four countries occupied Germany following World War II? Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Which Soviet-controlled countries make up the Iron Curtain border? East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungarlt, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria. Which Cold War events involved economic aid to European nations? The Marshall Plan and the Molotov Plan. Why did President Truman give economic and military aid to Greece and Ttrrkey? They were resisting communist takeovers. What did the Warsaw Pact and NATO have in common? Both were military pacts. Which countries accepted economic aid from the Marshall Plan but refused to be members of NATO by 1955? Spain, Austria, and Sweden. After the Hungarian uprising failed, which free country would the uprising sympathizers try to escape to by land? Austria. Why was a wall built in Berlin? To prevent citizens from Eastern Germany (East Berlin) from escaping to the west. Why did the Soviet Union invade its own ally, Czechoslovakia? Because the Czech leader, Alexander Dubcek, tried to loosen his country from strict Soviet control. According to your timeline, in which decade-the forties, fifties, or sixties-were there more Cold War conflicts in Europe? The forties: Churchill's lron Curtain Speech, Marshall Plan, Molotov Plan, Truman Doctrine, Berlin Blockade, Berlin Airlift, NATO , and the Soviet development of the atomic bomb. i 30 The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union @ Teachers' Curriculum Institute 'l 3.2 Wrap Up 1. After you have completed the class competition on Follow-up Questions, lead the class in a discussion about the Cold War, centering on the questions below. Have students refer to their completed maps and timelines during the discussion. What were the major fears of the superpowers? Motivations? . Which Cold War event do you think brought the two superpowers closest to the brink of World War III? . How could the superpowers have prevented the Cold War from escalating? . How might the Cold War have affected the rest of the world outside Europe? 2. ProjectTransparency 3.2A, a map of Cold War conflicts around the world. Ask students to carefully examine the transparency and answer the following questions: What do you see here? In which regions of the world were there ColdWar conflicts? Why might the ColdWar have spread to all these countries throughout the world? What does this map tell you about the effects of the ColdWar? Use the following information to summarize what the map reveals about the influence of the Cold War throughout the world. From the 1940s through the 1980s, ColdWar tensions were felt throughout the world. The conflict that began in Europe soon spilled over to many countries, from newly independent African nations to developing nations in Asia and Latin America. The two superpowers sometimes used their military power to intervene directly in the affairs of other nations, as the United States did inVietnam and the USSR did in Afghanistan. More often, however, Cold War battles were fought indirectly, with both sides using economic, political, diplomatic, and covert means to gain influence in or control of a region. For example, the United States refused to trade with Cuba in an attempt to destabilize its Soviet-backed economy. Most of the superpower battles were fought as proxy wars in which political groups or nations----aligned with either the Soviet Union or the United States--fought to achieve the superpower's foreign policy. Therefore, any tensions between communist and non-communist nations were considered Cold War conflicts because they reflected the ideological battle between the two superpowers. Even tensions within a country were considered part of the ColdWar if they represented a struggle between communist and non- c ommunist .factions. Idea for Student Response: Pass out a new copy of Student Handout 3.1A to each student, which shows Uncle Sam and the Russian Bear playing poker. Have students integrate the European Cold War events they just studied with the metaphor "the Cold War was a poker game." For example, students might show a pile of money near Uncle Sam-labeled Marshall Plan-with a note attached that reads, "For friends joining the game." Or students might have the Russian Bear concealing an ace labeled "Soviet nuclear weapons." @ Teachers' Cuniculum Institute The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union l3 I I Map of the Directions: For each event card you receive, carefully read about the event, create a visual symbol to represent it, and place the symbol on the corresponding countries on the map.