After the end of World War Two, the city of Berlin was divided into four zones of control: American, British, French, and Russian; however, the city itself was located in East Germany and thus under direct control of the Soviet Union. The American, French, and British sections were combined to form West Berlin. As the Cold War began to dominate global politics, the Soviet Union tried to control the entire city of Berlin and closed off the city to trade with the Western world. The French, British, and particularly American authorities, under the leadership of General Marshall, airlifted supplies into the Western areas of the city to keep the population from starving and also to keep them from turning in desperation to Communism.

The Eastern Bloc was established in the years immediately following World War Two when most of Europe was being divided between Western (American-influenced) Capitalism and Eastern (Soviet-influenced) Communism. Poland, East Germany, Romania, and Czechoslovakia were all incorporated into the Eastern Bloc under the Warsaw Pact. Finland and Switzerland were the only countries to remain neutral—neither Western- nor Eastern-aligned.

The Warsaw Pact was an agreement signed in 1955 between the various Eastern European and Soviet-bloc countries of the Cold War. It aimed to provide for mutual cooperation and defense and was essentially created as a foil to the American- and British-lead NATO Pact, which West Germany had joined the year before.

Yugoslavia is a somewhat unique case in the history of the Cold War in Europe. Although essentially a Communist nation, the government of Yugoslavia, led by Marshal Tito, sought to distance itself from Soviet hegemony. Tito was an ardent Yugoslavian nationalist.

The Truman Doctrine was the primary foreign policy of President Harry Truman in the years immediately after World War Two. The Truman Doctrine stated that the United States would provide economic and military aid to those countries facing a communist uprising to stop the spread of socialism and Soviet hegemony. The first two countries to be given American aid under the Truman Doctrine were Greece and Turkey, in 1947. Both countries were facing threats of Soviet hegemony and communist uprisings, so they were given financial and military support by the United States.

During the Cold War in Europe, the vast majority of countries fell into one of two groups. Western Europe was primarily capitalist and allied, through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), with the United States. NATO included France, Austria, Greece, Great Britain, West Germany, and several other countries. Communist Eastern Europe primarily fell under the influence of the Soviet Union, and was allied under the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact included Poland, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, and several other countries. Yugoslavia, itself a Communist nation, resisted the Soviet hegemony and, along with India, Egypt, and Indonesia, formed the non-alignment bloc of independent nations.

The Geneva Convention was organized in 1955 with the stated aim of reducing global tension and beginning the process towards world peace. It failed in this mission, but it represented the first of many attempts during the Cold War to try and find an entente between the East and the West. It was attended by the political leaders of the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union.

The Velvet Revolution can be seen as part of the wider trend of European history, in 1989 and 1990, when the communist regimes all over Europe and in the Soviet Union were crumbling and being replaced by capitalism and democracy. The Velvet Revolution took place in Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia and the Czech Republic) in the winter of 1989. It was an almost entirely non-violent revolution, inspired by student protests that led to a very swift resignation of the communist government.

The European Coal and Steel Community is generally considered as the initial step in the integration of European markets and politics under one umbrella organization, now called the European Union. It was initially proposed by the French government in 1950 as a means to prevent any future war in Europe between France and Germany. The aim was to make it so war was not just improbable, but rather "materially impossible" by integrating the economies of France and Germany so much that they were dependent on each other. By 1951, the ECSC was ratified by six countries: France, West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Luxembourg.

The French Fourth Republic was formed in the aftermath of World War Two, but immediately ran into the same problems of the French Third Republic: an Executive Branch that was too weak, with too many diverse political parties. The government was unable to rule effectively, and the Fourth Republic crumbled after just a decade. The wartime hero, Charles de Gaulle, was called back to office to preside over the transition to the French Fifth Republic, which has continued to this day.