NATO, many people will see this organization in the news. For example, when was NATO established, what kind of organization is it, which member states it has, how many times it has been expanded, etc.

NATO , many people will see this organization in the news. Although everyone often sees NATO, many people do not know much about NATO. For example, when was NATO established, what kind of organization is it, which member states it has, how many times it has been expanded, etc. Let’s take a look at the general status of NATO today.

The full name of NATO is North Atlantic Treaty . Looking at this name, you know that the main member states are the member states surrounding the North Atlantic . The member countries here include , North America, and European countries. NATO was founded in 1949. Under the initiative of the United States, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands , Belgium , Luxembourg , Canada, Denmark , Norway , Iceland , Portugal, and Italy 12 The country signed the North Atlantic Treaty, and then NATO was formally established. NATO is a complete military organization. The treaty stipulates that " When any party to the contracting party is attacked by an armed attack, it shall be regarded as an attack on all contracting states." It seems to be an ordinary military treaty, but under the circumstances at the time, this treaty was obviously It was aimed at the Soviet Union.

After Japan surrendered, World War II officially ended. After the war, due to reasons and national interests, the United States and the Soviet Union gradually turned from allies to opposition. Churchill 's Iron Curtain Speech kicked off the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union for hegemony . At that time, the Soviet Union had very strong influence in Europe. Many places in Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe were within the Soviet sphere of influence. Moreover, the Soviet Union's military strength was very strong. It could be said that it crushed all European countries. Only the United States could compete with the Soviet Union. Under this situation, in order to curb the Soviet Union's westward expansion, European countries wanted to sign a military treaty with the United States. The United States also wanted to curb the power of the Soviet Union and was willing to win over European countries. Thus, NATO was born.

After the birth of NATO, the Soviet Union later united with Eastern European countries to establish the Warsaw Pact , which is also the Warsaw Pact . Two opposing military organizations were formally formed, which also marked the official beginning of the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union. But what we don't know is that the Soviet Union did not want to establish a new military organization to confront the United States when NATO was first established. Because the Soviet Union was severely damaged by the war, its strength has not been fully restored, and its overall strength is not as good as that of the United States. Therefore, the Soviet Union initially wanted to join NATO, in which case NATO would lose its founding role. However, the United States never agreed, so the Soviet Union finally decided to establish a new military organization to formally compete with Western countries led by the United States. In 1955, the Warsaw Pact was established, and two major military organizations officially emerged.

After the establishment of NATO, its member states are not static. Many countries later joined NATO in order to fight against the Soviet Union.

In 1952, Greece and Türkiye joined NATO. The reason why these two countries joined NATO is very simple. Greece was undergoing revolutions at that time, and Greece wanted to use the power of Western countries to resist the Soviet Union's power in Greece. The West is also willing to support Greece. After all, during the Second World War, in the treaty signed between the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, Greece was the British sphere of influence; and Turkey had even more reasons to join NATO. This country and Russia were feuding, and the two countries had fought for more than two hundred years. Facing the Soviet Union after World War II, Türkiye was obviously no match for it, so it needed to find a backer. At this time, NATO had a total of 14 member states.

In 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany joined NATO. After World War II, Germany was divided into two, namely the Federal Republic of Germany and the Democratic Republic of Germany. These two countries were established with the support of the United States and the Soviet Union respectively. When the United States and the Soviet Union were fighting for hegemony, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Democratic Republic of Germany became the front line of confrontation. That's why the Federal Republic of Germany joined NATO at this time. Of course, I personally feel that the reason why the Federal Republic of Germany did not join NATO when it was first established was not because it did not want to join NATO, but because the United States did not agree. After all, the United States and the Soviet Union initially planned to rebuild Germany, one Germany, not two Germanys. If the Federal Republic of Germany had been allowed to join NATO when it was first established, it would have clearly broken with the Soviet Union. The United States does not want to bear such a reputation.

In the more than two decades since then, NATO has not expanded. In 1982, Spain officially joined NATO. is still very special. After all, Spain is a standard Western country. Many people can't figure out why Spain joined NATO so late. Although Spain turned to the United States after World War II, it was Franco who ruled Spain at that time. This person carried out fascist rule in Spain and established a fascist government, just like Germany during Hitler's period and Italy during Mussolini's period. The main reason why the Allies did not overthrow his rule was that the country had remained neutral. However, in 1975, after Franco's death, Spain began to carry out democratic reforms and became a democratic country. In this way, NATO took over Spain.

In 1990, NATO announced the end of the Cold War . Many people think that the disintegration of the Soviet Union and marked the end of the Cold War. In fact, it ended in 1990. The reason for this was that drastic changes had occurred in many countries in Eastern Europe before that, and many of the Soviet Union's allies in Eastern Europe had all changed their social nature. Moreover, the Warsaw Pact it established existed in name only. The following year, the Warsaw Pact officially announced its dissolution. However, after the end of the Cold War, due to the existence of the Soviet Union, NATO's existence still has a certain significance.

At the end of 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and the bipolar pattern officially ended. NATO was originally established to fight the Soviet Union, which had already disintegrated. It stands to reason that NATO's mission has been completed and it is time to disband. But in fact, NATO did not disintegrate. Not only did NATO not disintegrate, but it accelerated its external expansion. In 1996, NATO published the "Research Report on the Eastward Expansion Plan." The report means that NATO has begun to accept some countries in East Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe. These countries were previously the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, but now the United States wants to take them over. North Vietnam then expanded very rapidly.

In 1997, NATO received Poland , Czech , Hungary three countries. There were coups in the three countries during the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, and the regimes also changed. At this time, NATO already had 19 member states.

In 2004, NATO admitted Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Slovakia , Slovenia , Romania and Bulgaria seven countries. This is the largest expansion of NATO since its founding. NATO expanded to 26 countries. These seven countries were also former allies of the Soviet Union.

In 2009, NATO admitted Croatia and Albania two countries. In 2017, NATO accepted Montenegro . In 2020, NATO accepted Macedonia . This is the last expansion of NATO to date. At this time, NATO already had 30 member states. originally started in Western European countries and now has more than half of Europe.

This is the general expansion status of NATO. It is obvious that before the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO expanded very slowly. The reason for this is that NATO expansion at this time will bring many problems, so the United States does not dare to expand easily. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, no one could restrict the United States, so the United States actively expanded. It may seem that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO has no reason to expand, but in fact this is not the case at all. Although the Soviet Union has collapsed, the United States can find other reasons to expand, such as terrorism, and this problem is difficult to deal with. In this way, NATO can expand openly. Another point is that the United States can also use Russia as an excuse to expand NATO. After all, Russia is the country with the largest military strength in the world after the United States and has a great influence on the entire Europe.

NATO is currently the largest and most powerful military organization in the world. This organization is currently involved in more and more things, and its scope is getting wider and wider. It can be said that it has become a tool for US expansion and is no longer a simple military alliance organization. Moreover, this organization is not just a simple defense, it often sends troops to the outside world, which is equivalent to a disguised invasion.