Module 5 focuses on the origins of the Cold War, and U.S. foreign policy from the mid-1940s to the 1970s. Europe, particularly Western Europe, was the center of world power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. European powers plunged themselves and other countries into two suicidal world wars. In doing so, they diminished their own power on the world stage. Even the victorious countries of Britain and France lost economic power and their dominance over their colonies. The wars created a power vacuum on the world stage that the United States and the Soviet Union, both rising continental land-based empires, hoped to fill. In addition to the traditional power struggle for first place, the Soviet Union and the United States viewed their competition as an ideological battle -- Soviet Communism versus American capitalism. The invention of nuclear weapons meant that the two new powers could not, or rather should not, fight a direct war, or hot war, against one another. Instead the two superpowers competed through propaganda about which way of life was superior. Each side also sought to influence other countries to follow its lead, which, at times, led to covert actions and proxy wars. The Cold War lasted almost half a century. Although the beginning and the end of the Cold War is debatable, it will be helpful to think of the Cold War as beginning just as WWII was ending and of lasting until 1989 - when the Berlin Wall came down - or 1991 - when the Soviet Union collapsed. Considering the length of the Cold War, this Module will focus on the origins of the Cold War and early Cold War foreign policies through the Nixon years. The next two modules will continue the story.