Okuzeka
History vocabulary · Wars, Treaties and Diplomacy

Cold War

Meaning in history, with examples

nounCore term

In history, Cold War means: The long rivalry between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies, from the late 1940s until 1991, without a direct full-scale war between them.

In Turkish: Soğuk Savaş

How it is used

Written with capitals. Historians discuss its origins, crises such as the Berlin Blockade and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the arms race, proxy wars and its end with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Phrases: the Cold War era, Cold War politics.

Example sentences

  1. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was one of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War.

  2. Turkey joined NATO in 1952, in the early years of the Cold War.

Common collocations

  • the Cold War era
  • the end of the Cold War
  • Cold War politics
  • the arms race
  • Cold War tensions
  • world warA war in which most of the world's major powers take part and fighting spreads across several continents; in practice, the wars of 1914–1918 and 1939–1945.
  • allianceA formal agreement between states or groups to support each other, especially in war, or the group of states that make such an agreement.
  • propagandaInformation, images or ideas spread in an organised way to influence public opinion, often one-sided or misleading, especially by governments in war or political struggle.
  • decolonizationThe process by which colonies became independent states, especially in Asia and Africa in the decades after the Second World War.

More terms: Wars, Treaties and Diplomacy

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