The duration of the Cold War is difficult to determine because it was a geopolitical conflict that lasted for many years and involved many countries, but it is generally considered to have lasted from the end of World War II in 1945 until the early 1990s, a period of approximately 45 years. The exact end of the Cold War is also difficult to determine, but many consider the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to be key turning points that signaled the end of the conflict.