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KS update 1.4
When the Allied Powers met at [[Potsdam]] they agreed to divide [[Germany]] into four occupation zones, American, British, Soviet, and French. They divided Berlin into four zones as well. Berlin was surrounded by the Soviet occupation zone, so the only way to get to the three western controlled sectors was driving through Soviet-controlled territory.
When the Allied Powers met at [[Potsdam]] they agreed to divide [[Germany]] into four occupation zones, American, British, Soviet, and French. They divided Berlin into four zones as well. Berlin was surrounded by the Soviet occupation zone, so the only way to get to the three western controlled sectors was driving through Soviet-controlled territory.
== Causes ==
== Causes ==
The Soviet Union began the blockade because they thought the western half of Germany (controlled by the UK, USA and France) was becoming too strong, because one currency had recently been introduced throughout the entire western half - the [[Deutsche Mark]]. The Soviets were worried that a single currency would help the economy of the western half recovered quickly from the damage caused by the [[Second World War]], and that this stronger western half would eventually develop into a country (it eventually did, called [[West Germany]]). The Russians wanted one Germany, without an army, that they could easily control. The [[Operation Barbarossa|Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union]] had killed one in seven Soviet people, and the Soviets feared that Britain, France and America might try to launch their own invasion at some point in the future. They therefore wanted as much land between them and France as possible, so that any major war would be fought in central Europe, and not in the Soviet Union where Soviet civilians might be killed (which is what had happened during WWII).
The Soviet Union began the blockade because they thought the western half of Germany (controlled by the UK, USA and France) was becoming too strong, because one currency had recently been introduced throughout the entire western half - the [[Deutsche Mark]]. The Soviets were worried that a single currency would help the economy of the western half recovered quickly from the damage caused by the [[Second World War]], and that this stronger western half would eventually develop into a country (it eventually did, called [[West Germany]]). The Russians wanted one Germany, without an army, that they could easily control. The [[Operation Barbarossa|Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union]] had killed one in seven Soviet people, and the Soviets feared that Britain, France and America might try to launch their own invasion at some point in the future. They therefore wanted as much land between them and France as possible, so that any major war would be fought in central Europe, and not in the Soviet Union where Soviet civilians might be killed (which is what had happened during WWII).
File:Berlin Blockade-map.svg|Map showing sectors of occupation of Berlin
File:Berlin Blockade-map.svg|Map showing sectors of occupation of Berlin
File:Germans-airlift-1948.jpg|Germans watching supply planes at Tempelhof
File:Germans-airlift-1948.jpg|Germans watching supply planes at Tempelhof
File:Sunderland 201 Sqn on Havel during Berlin Airlift 1948.jpg|An RAF [[Short Sunderland]] moored on the [[Havel]] near Berlin unloading salt during the airlift
File:Sunderland 201 Sqn on Havel during Berlin Airlift 1948.jpg|An RAF [[Short Sunderland]] moored on the [[Havel]] near Berlin unloading salt during the airlift
File:Wiesbaden Air Base during Berlin Airlift 1949.jpg|C-54s stand out against the snow at Wiesbaden Air Base during the Berlin Airlift in the Winter of 1948–49
File:C-54 dropping candy during Berlin Airlift c1949.jpg|A [[Douglas C-54 Skymaster]] dropping candy over Berlin, c. 1948/49
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== Related pages ==
== Related pages ==