Question

What was an unintended outcome of the three conferences held by the Big Three at the end of WWII?

Answer 1

The answer is Eastern Europe was annexed by the Soviet Union.

Answer 2

These were the results:

• The return of all European territories annexed by Nazi Germany since 1938 and the separation of Austria.

• Objectives during the Allied occupation of Germany: demilitarization, denazification, democratization and descartelization.

• The agreement of Potsdam (in: Potsdam Agreement), established the division of Germany and Austria in four zones of occupation (already agreed in the conference of Yalta), and a similar division of Berlin and Vienna.

• The persecution of Nazi war criminals.

• The temporary establishment of the Oder-Neisse line, which would be the border of the territory administered by the government of Poland (the final border between Germany and Poland was to be discussed at a final peace conference).

• The resettlement of "human and orderly form" of the German minorities of "Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia" within the new borders established for Germany and Austria.

• Agreement for the reconstruction. The allies estimated their losses at 200 billion dollars. Germany was forced to pay only 20 billion in industrial products and labor. However, the Cold War prevented this debt from being paid.

• The Potsdam declaration, which underlined the terms of the surrender for Japan.

• Ultimatum to Japan that should surrender without conditions.

• Stalin initially wanted the rupture of all relation with the government of Franco. Finally the agreement was reached that the United States, the USSR and England opposed the entry of Spain into the United Nations Organization.3

• This would later lead to a bipolar world in the Cold War, where for the first time communism and capitalism would be separated in a physical way.

• The rest of the issues had to be dealt with at a final peace conference as soon as possible.