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In February 1945, ‘the Big Three’ – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin - met at Yalta in the Crimea region of the USSR.

Objectives:

With an Allied victory looking likely, the aim of the Yalta Conference was to decide what to do with Germany once it had been defeated. In many ways the Yalta Conference set the scene for the rest of the Cold War in Europe.

Outcome:

1. Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation with the USSR, Britain, France and the USA each controlling a zone. France had been liberated from Nazi Germany and was included at the conference partly due to pressure from the French leader, General de Gaulle, but also because Britain wanted a European ally with whom it could share the cost of the post-war reconstruction of Germany.
2. The German capital, Berlin, was deep inside the Soviet zone and it too was to be divided into four zones, each controlled by one of the Allied powers. Berlin would be a source of tension throughout the Cold War.
3. All countries freed from Nazi control were to be guaranteed the right to hold free elections and choose their own governments. However, Stalin was offered a ‘sphere of influence’ over Eastern Europe.
4. Stalin once again promised to join the war against Japan, once Germany was defeated.
5. All the leaders made a commitment to hunt down Nazi war criminals.
6. The Allies agreed to the setting up of the United Nations, an organisation with the objectives of ensuring international cooperation and preventing future wars.