History

What was Yalta conference Consequences development Resolutions

Yalta Conference

Meeting between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Iósif Stalin, towards the end of World War II. In this article we will let you know What was Yalta conference?

The Yalta Conference, also called the “Big Three” Conference, was a meeting between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin toward the end of World War II .

The Yalta Conference was held on the shores of the Black Sea at the Livadia Imperial Palace, in the city of Yalta, Crimea ( Soviet Union ), between February 4 and 11, 1945 .

The objective of the summit was to coordinate the war plans of the allies , at a time when operations against the Axis powers had entered a decisive stage. It also sought to reach an agreement on the political future of a Europe practically already liberated from Nazi domination .

Enhance your reading: Which countries formed the axis powers/definition/WW2

Background to the Yalta Conference

Yalta was the continuation of a series of meetings between the leaders of the allies that began with the Moscow Conference (August 1942) and continued with the Casablanca Conference (January 1943), the Cairo Conference (November 1943). 1943) and the Tehran Conference (December 1943).

French General Charles de Gaulle tried to have France included in the Yalta Conference, but was met with opposition from both Stalin and Roosevelt. The American president thought that a country that had been liberated by the United States and Great Britain should not be involved. Stalin, for his part, believed that France had done very little in the war.

Before traveling to the Crimea, on February 2, 1945, Roosevelt met Churchill in Valletta, on the island of Malta. The objective of this meeting was to agree on a common position to face what they supposed would be Stalin’s demands.

At the time when the Yalta Conference began, the war situation was favorable for the Soviet leader, since his troops were only 70 kilometers from Berlin and occupied practically all of Eastern Europe. The Western Allies, on the other hand, had delayed their advance east due to the German counteroffensive in the Battle of the Bulge , between December 1944 and January 1945.

Development of the Yalta Conference

Ten Soviets, ten Americans, and eight British participated in the Yalta Conference. Besides Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, the main negotiators were the Soviet Commissioner for Foreign Relations Viacheslav Molotov ; the US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr .; United States Chief of Staff George Marshall and British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden .

Roosevelt and Churchill traveled from Malta in a military plane. Stalin arrived by train and first visited Churchill, to whom he expressed his conviction of German defeat. Later, accompanied by Molotov, he met with Roosevelt, with whom they discussed the role of France in the postwar period.

The “Big Three” held 3 plenary meetings:

  • In the first plenary, the situation in Poland was discussed ; both its territorial extension and the composition of its future government.
  • In the second plenary session, the treatment that would be given to Germany in the postwar period , the amount of compensation that it would have to pay and what participation would be granted to the French in the different zones of occupation were debated .
  • In the third plenary session , the United Nations organization and the role that the great powers would play in it were discussed . The situation in Poland was also discussed again.

Enhance your reading: Allied powers in world war 2/Main members/detail

Resolutions

The main resolutions of the Yalta Conference were as follows:

  • Germany had to pay heavy financial compensation and would lose East Prussia, Silesia and part of Pomerania , leaving its eastern border fixed on the line marked by the Oder and Neisse rivers.
  • The German territory would be demilitarized and would be divided into 4 zones of occupation  by the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain and France, respectively.
  • An international court would try the main Nazi war criminals  .
  • Poland would be displaced to the west , annexing the territories that Germany lost in the east and giving up in the east the territories that had been under Soviet rule, after the German-Soviet non-aggression treaty of 1939.
  • The Lublin Committee , made up of Polish communists, would constitute the nucleus of the future Polish government , although members of the London-based pro-Western provisional government would also participate.
  • With regard to the United Nations, it was agreed what role the great powers would play in the future Security Council .
  • A declaration on liberated Europe was approved, in which the “Big Three” pledged that postwar governments would emerge from free elections representing the popular will. However, Stalin did not accept international control over the territories liberated by the Red Army .
  • The Soviet Union promised to declare war on Japan , in exchange for the cession of the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

Consequences of the Yalta Conference

The main consequences of the Yalta Conference were as follows:

  • The map of Europe was modified in relation to 1939, due to the displacement of the international boundaries of Germany and Poland, and the acceptance by the Western Allies of the annexations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to the Soviet Union. These modifications were confirmed and expanded by the Potsdam Conference , which was held in Berlin between July 17 and August 2, 1945.
  • The process that led to the Nuremberg Trials began , which tried and convicted the Nazi hierarchs responsible for the Jewish Holocaust and other war crimes.
  • The foundations of the United Nations were laid , whose founding charter was signed by the representatives of 50 states on June 26, 1945.
  • The limits that were drawn to divide the zones of occupation of Germany and the refusal of Stalin to accept an international control over the countries liberated by the Soviet troops, marked the beginning of the Cold War ;  that is, of a world divided between a western and capitalist bloc, led by the United States; and an eastern and communist bloc, led by the Soviet Union.

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