What is the hisorical significance of....?

Question: What is the hisorical significance of!.!.!.!.!?

the Berlin Crisis of 1948!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Do you mean the Berlin Blockade!?

America and Russia had different Aims for Germany!. Stalin wanted to destroy Germany, and was stripping East Germany of its wealth!. Britain and America wanted to rebuild Germany’s industry – in January 1947, they joined their two zones together into Bizonia!.

On 31 March 1948, Congress voted for Marshall Aid!. Stalin (rightly) saw this as an attempt to undermine Russian influence in eastern Europe!. The Russians started stopping and searching all road and rail traffic into Berlin!.

Finally, on 23 June Britain and America introduced a new currency into Bizonia!. The next day the Russians stopped all road and rail traffic into Berlin!. The Americans thought Stalin was trying to force them out of Berlin!. Stalin claimed the new currency was an attempt to wreck the East German economy!.

Berlin Airlift -
To supply West Berlin, the Americans had only 100 C-47 transport aircraft in Europe, and the RAF could add 150, mostly Dakotas with a few Avro Yorks!. This meant that against the daily requirement of 13,500 tons of food for Berlin, the USAF and RAF between them could probably airlift in 700 tons at the outside!.

The beginning of 1949 saw the tonnage of supplies flown into Berlin surpass all previous records, and the Russians began to realize that they had involved themselves in a dilemma from which there was no graceful retreat!. They could do nothing about the airlift, short of shooting down the aircraft in their legally allowed access routes, and that would have constituted an act of war!. They did however try to harass and intimidate the Allied pilots by running firing practices around and below the air corridors!. They even buzzed the Allied transports!. Sometimes the transports were also greeted by carefully placed barrages of anti-aircraft fire!. The Russians also tried jamming the Allied radio frequencies, firing flares, using searchlights and laying chemicals!.

The Russian blockade of Berlin had failed lamentably, and left the Russians in a dubious position!. With the fall of China to Communism, the Russians could afford to lose the Battle for Berlin, and on 4th May the four powers (Russia, Britain, France and the United States) reached an agreement!. All restrictions imposed on traffic to and from Berlin by all parties were to be removed on 12th May 1949!. On 8th May, the Parliamentary Council in Bonn adopted a constitution for the new Federal Republic of Germany!. It was four years to the day since the end of World War Two!. Twelfth May 1949 was a holiday in Berlin as power returned, refugees trapped in Western Germany came home and the land supply routes were reopened!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

the fight between communism and democracy!.!.!.

however, i think you should specify what crises exactly, there were many crises in Berlin at that time!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The Berlin problem was an accident, the result of bad planning and Cold War tensions!. On the wrong side of the Iron Curtain and a victim of the inability of the East and West to agree on German unification, Berlin was caught in a recurring cycle of crisis and resolution, pitting the legality of Western rights against the reality of Soviet power!. In fact, the history of Berlin--the Berlin Blockade, the East Berlin uprising, the Berlin Quadripartite Agreement, and the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall--reflects the history of the Cold War itself!.

The cycle began in June 1948, when the Soviet Union instituted a blockade of Berlin to protest Western efforts to integrate their zones of occupation in western Germany!. By restricting access to the city, the Soviets hoped to force the Western Allies to abandon a recently undertaken currency reform and possibly Berlin itself!. The United States and its allies responded with a massive airlift that delivered supplies to the people of Berlin and generated overwhelming popular support in return!. By the time the blockade was lifted in May 1949, the Allies had established not only the Federal Republic of Germany but also the North Atlantic Treaty Organization!. The Soviets suffered a major defeat in the first Berlin crisis (1948-49), and the division of Berlin became a permanent picture of Cold War geography!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The East Germans (read, Soviets) cut off all ground access to West Berlin (which lay inside the Eastern, or Soviet-controlled zone)!. They hopd to force the Western nations to relinquish control of West Berlin!. Instead, the US Air Force flew in supplies, at great risk and great const and kept the city from starving!. The significance is that it showcased the growing tension and rivalry between former allies over the division of Europe, and it made the division of Berlin an essentially permanent aspect of the Cold War structure of Europe!. It also humiliated the Soviets, who had expected to win an easy, cheap victory and humiliate the US and West!.Www@QuestionHome@Com