Social Studies 30: Clash of Ideologies

This excellent video, created by an Alberta teacher for Social Studies 30, discusses how disputes about Germany impacted the Cold War.

Created by an Alberta teacher for Social Studies 30, this excellent video explains how Berlin can be seen as an example of expansionism and containment.

In this video, students will learn how the wars in Korean, Vietnam, and Afghanistan can all be seen as proxy wars. This video was created by an Alberta teacher for Social Studies 30

Students will learn about the Cuban Missile Crisis and how Canada was pulled into the nuclear arms race between the US and USSR. This excellent resource was created by an Alberta teacher

This excellent resource, created by an Alberta teacher, covers events leading up to the Hungarian Uprising, Prague Spring, and Solidarity Movement in Poland.

Let's look at a map and retrace a summary of the history and evolution of the Cold War, a conflict that pitted the United States against the USSR for nearly 45 years.

A close look at how the cold war and space race along with rising consumerism eventually led to affordable personal computers in the 1970s.

After WWII, the USSR was expanding its sphere of influence, as was the US. Eventually these former allies clashed and the Cold War began.

After WWII, the Soviets occupied Eastern Europe and the US-supported western Europe. This setup began to spill across the world.

How did fighting happen during the Cold War? It was not traditional warfare -- it was fought propaganda, the prestige war, deterrence, brinkmanship, and the proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.

The United States and the Soviet Union, fueled by their fundamental ideological differences, embarked on a Cold War starting in the post-WWII era.

As the Cold War goes on, Khrushchev tries to revamp the country's image by hosting a huge party for the world's youth.

Berlin becomes the Cold War under a microscope - East and West in close quarters battle about ideology.

In the 1980s, new voices change the rules of the Cold War: Ronald Reagan and John Paul II have a profound influence on Lech Walesa; and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto created this beautiful, and scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which took place between 1945 and 1998.

Without oversight, Senator MacCarthy conducted a crusade against "enemies of the state". A chilling campaign against freedome of thought was marked by groundless accusations.

A student created video that examines the impact of McCarthyism on the entertainment industry in the US.

In the 1950s, as part of a campaign to expose suspected Communists, thousands of individuals were aggressively investigated and questioned before government panels. But how did this episode of political repression take off?

As the US fell under the spell of anti-communist McCarthyism, Canadians were investigated by the American government.

This article explores the persecution of thousands of gays and lesbians during the McCarthy Era. A 10 minute video is included in the article.

An eye for an eye, a missile for a missile -- that was the thinking in the US and USSR in 1962, kicking off a 13-day staring contest that terrified the world.

Imagine knowing that, at any given moment, you and everyone you know could be wiped out without warning at the push of a button. That was life during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A Wikipedia article that examines the role that Canada played in the Cold War and explores a timeline of events Canada was involved in.

The Cold War lasted from the end of WWII to 1991. Learn about Canada's role in the Cold War here.

During the Cold War, the Canadian government interrogated and fired thousands of civil servants and soldiers who were suspected of being LGBT.

Entangled in Vietnam prior to the war, Canada tried and failed to prevent it.

Mr. Hughes explains the basics of the Vietnam War from the American perspective.

Students will learn about détente, ping pong diplomacy, perestroika, and glasnost, as well as how the Cold War ended. This excellent resource was created by an Alberta teacher for Social Studies 30.

An article from the Economist in 2009 that looks back at the end of the Cold War

An article written by the US Office of the Historian that documents the American perspective on the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A BBC website that provides a timeline of events that lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Eyewitness accounts document what happened and how life changed.

A video that documents the fall of the Soviet Union that began in the 1980s and collapsed in 1991

The aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact had a huge impact on the countries of Eastern Europe. As the former satellite states turned away from communism and Soviet influence, some of them shifted toward democracy in an orderly way, and some descended into violence and bloodshed and ethnic recrimination.

In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, protests and unrest continued across Europe, and the Soviet Union was having increasing trouble holding its sphere of influence together. Today you'll learn about the labor strikes of Poland, the dissident punks of East Germany, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the breakup of the Soviet Union

An timeline of events, documented by Free Radio Europe, that documents the fall of the Soviet Union from a European perspective.