Potsdam conference (16 July 1945 - 2 August 1945)

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Potsdam conference (16 July 1945 - 2 August 1945)

Causes

  • Open disagreements between the Big Three
  • Arguments about the details of occupation zone boundaries
  • Disagreements about German reparations
  • What would happen in the Far East (Manhattan project, nuclear weapons)
  • "Buffer-zone"
  • What would happen to the countries occupied by the Red army
  • (What would happen to Greece)

Effects

  • Rise in tension between USA and USSR
  • Beginning of arms race between USA and USSR
  • AGREEMENTS:
  • The Potsdam agreement partitioned Germany and Austria into four occupation zones (previously agreed in principle at Yalta)
  • Further agreement on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals (trials held at Nuremberg in 1946)
  • Reversion of all german occupations in Europe (including the Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, Austria and the westernmost parts of Poland)
  • Demilitarisation of Germany
  • The Potsdam declaration outlined the terms of surrender for Japan in the Far East
  • DISAGREEMENTS:
  • Stalin wanted to cripple Germany, but Truman didn't want a repeat of the Treaty of Versailles (1919)
  • Reparations - Over 25 million Russians died in WW2, and Stalin wanted compensation from Germany. Truman was determined not to make the same mistakes that had been made in WW1 (resisted Stalin's demand)

Overall summary

Germany defeated by this time. Hitler and Roosevelt dead. Churchill lost 1945 elections. Roosevelt replaced by Harry Truman. Churchill replaced by Clement Atlee. By this stage a puppet regime was established in Poland. 

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