The world wars ended the pre-eminent position of Britain , France and Germany in Europe and the world . At the Yalta Conference , Europe was divided into spheres of influence between the victors of World War II , and soon became the principal zone of contention in the Cold War between the two power blocs , the Western countries and the Communist bloc . The United States and the majority of European liberal democracies at the time ( United Kingdom , France , Italy , Netherlands , West Germany etc. ) established the NATO military alliance . Later , the Soviet Union and its satellites ( Bulgaria , Czechoslovakia , East Germany , Hungary , Poland , and Romania ) in 1955 established the Warsaw Pact as a counterpoint to NATO . The Warsaw Pact had a much larger ground force , but the American-French-British nuclear umbrellas protected NATO
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
History of Europe