Conference participants also agreed to revise the Montreux Convention, which gave Turkey sole control over the Turkish Straits. Stalin, however, was already well-informed about the U. This situation made negotiations challenging. The leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, who, despite their differences, had remained allies throughout the war, never met again collectively to discuss cooperation in postwar reconstruction. Menu Menu. However, Stalin was offered a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe where communist ideals would dominate.
Again, Stalin committed to joining the war against Japan, once Germany had been defeated. This was important to the Americans who were suffering heavy losses in the Pacific, despite the fact they were gradually pushing back the Japanese. All the leaders made a commitment to pursue, and put on trial, suspected Nazi war criminals. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the best way to go about punishing Nazi Germany, and to build upon decisions made at the Yalta Conference.
So, what was agreed at Potsdam? It had been agreed at the Yalta Conference in February that Germany would be divided into four zones and the same applied for the capital. Berlin was of symbolic importance and none of the parties involved in the Potsdam Conference were willing to relinquish their claim to Berlin.
As a result it was agreed that, like the rest of Germany, Berlin was to be divided into 4 zones. Each leader sat down at Yalta with specific goals in mind. The US president also wanted the Soviets to join the UN — a new global peacekeeping body — which it did, remaining a member until the collapse of the Soviet Union in The Soviet Union, whilst crushing German forces on the eastern front, had been devastated by the war, with an estimated 27 million Soviet citizens around one in seven killed during the conflict, and vast swathes of industry, farming, cities and homes obliterated.
Stalin needed money to rebuild his battered country, and pressed for huge reparations from Germany, as well as spheres of influence in Eastern Europe to prevent further invasions, and ensure that Germany could never threaten world peace again.
Churchill, too, was keen to see an end to any future German threat, but he was also concerned about extending the power of the USSR and wanted to see fair and free government across Eastern Europe, especially in Poland, in whose defence Britain had declared war with Germany in Both he and Truman were worried that inflicting huge reparations on Germany, as had been done after World War I, could, in the future, create a similar economic situation in the country that had led to the rise and acceptance of the Nazi Party.
With differing priorities and world views, it was clearly going to be difficult for the Big Three to reach an agreement. De Gaulle, by unanimous consent from all three leaders, was not invited to Yalta, nor to the Potsdam Conference a few months later; it was a diplomatic slight that created deep and lasting resentment. Stalin in particular felt that decisions about the future of Europe should be made by those powers who had sacrificed the most in the war.
If France was allowed to participate at Yalta, other nations, too, would arguably have had an equal right to attend. Listen: Richard J Evans responds to listener queries and popular search enquiries about the Third Reich. The decisions made at Yalta demonstrate the extent to which power had shifted between the Allies over the course of the war.
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