Causation in the Age of the Cold War and Decolonization

The end of World War II marked the beginning of a new world order as the

nations of Western Europe no longer dominated the world stage. The United States and the Soviet Union took over as the superpowers. In Western Europe, however, countries were free from domination by a superpower and retained their political independence and democratic governments. The Marshall Plan had helped them rebuild and achieve a level of economic prosperity that was unknown among the countries of Eastern Europe.

However, during this time, Western European colonial empires began to crumble as anti-imperialist sentiment fueled independence movements in Africa and Asia. Resentment of European and American economic imperialism also rose in Latin American countries, leading to revolutionary movements that aimed to overturn the political and social status quo in these countries. The United States and the Soviet Union regularly supported opposing sides in these clashes, projecting their own differences onto regional conflicts.

The Cold War also influenced economic, social, and cultural aspects of global events, providing further evidence that this conflict had far-reaching effects that affected the latter half of the 20th century.