How did the collapse of communism affect the European Union? It caused the European Union to expand as more nations joined. It caused the European Union to change its economic policies. It caused the European Union to contract as nations broke away.

The Collapse of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev’s decision to loosen the Soviet yoke on the countries of Eastern Europe created an independent, democratic momentum that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, and then the overthrow of Communist rule throughout Eastern Europe.

The collapse of the Berlin Wall was the culminating point of the revolutionary changes sweeping East Central Europe in 1989. Throughout the Soviet bloc, reformers assumed power and ended over 40 years of dictatorial Communist rule. The reform movement that ended communism in East Central Europe began in Poland.

The GDR was experiencing an overwhelming financial crisis. Moreover, the refusal to pursue perestroika and glasnost was not well-received by the people. In early 1989, these socio-economic factors caused the people of East Germany to flee to the West, a movement that the East German regime was powerless to prevent.

East Germany

World War I This still left Germany with debts it had incurred in order to finance the reparations, and these were revised by the Agreement on German External Debts in 1953. After another pause pending the reunification of Germany, the last installment of these debt repayments was paid on 3 October 2010.

The Potsdam Agreement was made between the major winners of World War II (US, UK, and USSR) on 1 August 1945, in which Germany was separated into spheres of influence during the Cold War between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc . Their German populations were expelled to the West.

The German Democratic Republic, or GDR, also simply known as East Germany, was founded as a second German state on October 7, 1949 — four years after the end of World War II.

United States recognized East Germany officially in September 1974, when Erich Honecker was the leader of the ruling Socialist Unity Party.

When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, however, Soviet troops were in complete control of eastern Germany and all of Berlin. However, on July 11, 1945, the Russian government announced that it would hand over all civilian and military control of West Berlin to British and American forces.

On 31 December 2006, Britain made a final payment of about $83m (£45.5m) and thereby discharged the last of its war loans from the US. By the end of World War II Britain had amassed an immense debt of £21 billion.

After the Potsdam conference, Germany was divided into four occupied zones: Great Britain in the northwest, France in the southwest, the United States in the south and the Soviet Union in the east. Berlin, the capital city situated in Soviet territory, was also divided into four occupied zones.