The Cold War

and the Third World

Initial Questions
• What was the Cold War?

• Who was part of the Cold War?

• Was it just the US and the USSR?

 Global Cold War view – Duara, p.457

Prasenjit Duara (2011)The Cold War as a historical period: an interpretive

essay, Journal of Global History 6, p. 457.
 Cold War and ‘New Imperialism’

“In its ideal expression, the Cold War represented a logical culmination
of the new imperialism. Two superpowers sought to gain the loyalty of
theoretically sovereign nation-states that would be militarily dependent
upon the hegemonic power and subject to its political, economic and
ideological strategies.” (Duara, p. 461)
Cold War and New Imperialism

• End of WWI led to “imperialism of

nation states” – imperial powers set
up authorities, rather than directly
control vast territories
Cold War and New Imperialism

• The new imperialism of Japan,

US and USSR (but after WWII,
only the last two) preferred to
indirectly control institutions

• This allowed them to avoid the

charge of colonialism, because
territory under their influence
was nominally still sovereign
 • Hegemony means control without coercion or force – with consent

Hegemony • Duara says here that he also thinks that hegemony means ‘to
constrain the imagination’ – in other words, that in the blocs
dominated by the US or the USSR, it was very difficult to imagine an
alternative
Cold War and New Imperialism - USSR

• Eastern bloc
• a shared anti-imperialist
and anti-capitalist ideology
• a centralized economic and
political system
• USSR often subsidized
economies of Eastern
European countries with oil
and raw materials
 USSR in Global South

 Egypt (lukewarm political support cotton and base rights vs military vessels,
planes and tanks, arms and training)
 Syria (lukewarm political support base rights vs military vessels, planes and
tanks, arms and training)
 Iraq (lukewarm political support vs military vessels, planes and tanks, arms and
training)
 Cuba (base rights and tank crews to Syria vs and military vessels, planes and
tanks, arms and training, trade, education etc.)
 Indonesia (aid for political support and oil)
 Vietnam (aid, economic support)
 Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Congo, etc.
Cold War and New Imperialism - US

• Western bloc
• Monroe Doctrine –
opposed Communism in
the Americas
• US hegemony through
creating ‘reliable emulators
subject to external
economic and military
constraints’
• After 1959, US tried to
foster development
The Global South
 Decolonisation
after WWII
• 1922 – Egypt
• 1932 – Iraq
• 1943 – Lebanon, Syria
• 1945 – Indonesia, Vietnam, North and South Korea, China
• 1947 – Eritrea, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
• 1956 – Sudan, Tunisia
• 1957 – Ghana
• 1960 – Cameroon, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, DR
Congo, Somalia, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire,
Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Nigeria,
Mauritania, Cyprus
• 1962 – Rwanda, Algeria, Uganda
• 1963 – Kenya, Zanzibar, Malaysia
• 1964 – Malawi, Zambia, Gambia
• 1965 – Zimbabwe
• 1966 – Botswana, Lesotho
• 1968 – Mauritius, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea
• 1974-1977 – Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Cape Verde,
Comoros, Angola, Djibouti
 The Cold War?
• In Latin America and other parts of the world, US
interventions and ideological conflict caused a lot of
violence
• US assisted or supported military coups in Iran
(1952) Guatemala (1954), Paraguay (1954),
Indonesia (1957-1959) Brazil (1964), Bolivia (1971),
Chile (1973), Argentina (1976)

• The US also invaded global south countries that were in

danger of going Communist
• Korea (1950-1953), Vietnam (1964-1975)

• USSR also intervened or invaded countries

• Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), Afghanistan
(1979)
Crisis of Hegemony
• Cuban Revolution, 1959
• Broke away from US dominance
• Nationalised economy and brought people out of poverty
• Inspired and supported further guerrilla struggles elsewhere
(including Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique)
• US imposed economic embargo and tried to overthrow the
revolution
• Cuban allies with the USSR - Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
• USSR puts atomic weapons in Cuba, which almost brings the
world to a nuclear war
• One wider response to Cuba was the US’ turn to focus on
development of Latin America and other global south
countries
 Third World Movement
• Bandung Conference, 1955
• Newly independent Asian and African
countries meet in Indonesia to promote
cooperation and oppose colonialism and
neocolonialism

• Non-Aligned Movement, 1961

• Initiative of Jawaharlal Nehru (India), Kwame
Nkrumah (Ghana), Sukarno (Indonesia), Gamal
Abdel Nasser (Egypt) and Josip Tito
(Yugoslavia)
• Wanted to avoid the bipolar world and unite
former colonies

• Tricontinental Conference, 1966

• Led by Cuba, to unite liberation movements in
Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America
 End of the Cold War
• In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General
Secretary of Soviet Communist Party
• Faced with stagnant economy and fall in
foreign currency because of drop in oil
prices
• Tries to make some reforms that allow
some foreign investment – ‘perestroika’
• Chernobyl disaster in 1986 accelerates
USSR’s problems

• 1989 – fall of the Berlin Wall

• 1991 – dissolution of the Soviet Union