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← European History syllabus

United StatesEuropean History

Unit 9: Cold War and Contemporary Europe

14 dot points across 14 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How did European culture, society, and population change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries?

How did 20th-century feminism transform the rights and roles of women in Europe?

How did western European democracies become stable, prosperous welfare states after 1945?

What world did the Second World War leave behind, and how did it set the stage for the Cold War?

How do historians reason about what changed and what stayed the same across the contemporary era?

Why did Europe's overseas empires collapse after 1945, and with what consequences?

How did globalization tie Europe into an interconnected world, and what tensions did it create?

Why did nationalism and ethnic conflict persist and erupt in postwar Europe, even after 1945?

How did Europe rebuild after 1945, and why did western and eastern Europe recover so differently?

How did technological change transform European life and raise new ethical questions after 1945?

What was the Cold War, and how did it divide and shape Europe without direct war between the superpowers?

How and why did Europe move from war toward integration and the European Union?

Why did communism collapse in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War?

How did the United States and Soviet Union come to dominate the postwar world, and how did Europe align between them?