MEPX
Chapter 8 of 10All chapters
  1. 1The age of revolutions
  2. 2Industrial society
  3. 3Empire and nationalism
  4. 4The First World War
  5. 5Between the wars
  6. 6The Second World War
  7. 7Building a new order
  8. 8The Cold War
  9. 9Decolonisation and civil rights
  10. 10Since 1991

Chapter 8 of 10

The Cold War

Rivalry without direct war.

How it worked

Two blocs competed through alliances, proxy wars, espionage, propaganda and a nuclear arms race that made direct conflict unthinkably costly.

  • Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan were among the deadliest proxy conflicts.
  • The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 came closest to nuclear war.

Inside the blocs

Uprisings in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland were suppressed or contained, while western states experienced their own upheavals over civil rights and Vietnam.