The Cold War, 1945–1991
Cold War timeline and maps
The Cold War, 1945–1991 told in 12 chapters on an interactive situation map, with 18 dated maps and 46 battles, turning points and sites of memory, each drawn where it happened. This page is the index: every chapter, map and place as its own page.
Open the interactive atlas →
WW2 is free — every chapter. Try chapters 1–2 of any 2 other atlases (3 with a free account). Opening a new atlas uses one of them. Membership opens all 21 — Join.
The chapters
Origins of the Cold War
CHAPTER 1 · MAR 1946
Marshall Plan and Berlin Blockade
CHAPTER 2 · MAY 1949
Soviet atomic bomb and Mao’s victory
CHAPTER 3 · OCT 1949
Korean War
CHAPTER 4 · AUG 1953
Hungary 1956 and the Berlin Wall
CHAPTER 5 · AUG 1961
Cuban Missile Crisis
CHAPTER 6 · OCT 1962
Vietnam War
CHAPTER 7 · AUG 1968
Cold War in the Third World
CHAPTER 8 · NOV 1975
Détente and Nixon in China
CHAPTER 9 · JAN 1977
Afghanistan and the Second Cold War
CHAPTER 10 · NOV 1983
Gorbachev and the 1989 revolutions
CHAPTER 11 · NOV 1989
End of the Cold War
CHAPTER 12 · DEC 1991
Cold War maps by year
AUG 1945OCT 1949JUL 1953NOV 1956OCT 1962AUG 1968NOV 1975DEC 1979NOV 1989DEC 1991MAY 1945MAY 1949MAY 1955AUG 1961AUG 1968DEC 1979NOV 1989DEC 1991
Battles, events and sites of memory
● Able Archer 83✕ Angolan Civil War● Assassination of Patrice Lumumba● August Coup● Bandung Conference✕ Battle of Dien Bien Phu✕ Battle of the Pusan Perimeter✕ Bay of Pigs invasion● Belovezha Accords● Berlin Airlift◆ Bombing of North Korea● Building of the Berlin Wall◆ Cambodian genocide◆ Chernobyl disaster● Chilean coup d’état● Communist coup in Czechoslovakia● Dissolution of the Soviet Union● Fall of Saigon● Fall of the Berlin Wall● First Soviet atomic bomb test● Helsinki Accords◆ Hungarian Revolution✕ Inchon landing● Iron Curtain speech● Khrushchev’s Secret Speech● Korean Armistice Agreement● Long Telegram● Marshall Plan● Monday demonstrations in Leipzig● Nixon’s visit to China● People’s Republic of China proclaimed● Polish Round Table talks● Potsdam Conference● Reykjavík Summit◆ Romanian Revolution✕ Sino-Soviet border conflict● Solidarity strike in Gdańsk✕ Soviet invasion of Afghanistan● Soviet missile sites in Cuba● Soviet submarine B-59● Suez Crisis✕ Tet Offensive● U-2 incident◆ US bombing of Cambodia● Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia✕ Yom Kippur War
The places, chapter by chapter →
Study and test
Cold War questions and answers
Cold War quiz
The printable study guide
IB History notes: The Cold War
THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
Join the Dispatch — a short welcome series, then a letter when a new atlas opens — and the printable study guide for The Cold War is yours now, free.
NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME