戰後歐洲將分為兩個主要領域：受美國影響的西方集團，和受蘇聯影響的東方集團。隨著冷戰的開始，歐洲被一道鐵幕分割為二。“鐵幕”這個詞在第二次世界大戰期間被德國宣傳部長約瑟夫·戈培爾使用，後來在戰爭的最後幾天被Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk伯爵使用；然而，它的使用被英國首相溫斯頓·丘吉爾廣泛推廣，他於1946年3月5日在美國密蘇里州的富爾頓的威斯敏斯特學院發表了著名的“和平的力量”演講：
^Delanty, Gerard. The Westernisation of Europe. Inventing Europe Idea, Identity, Reality. 1995: 30.ISBN 978-0-333-62203-2.doi:10.1057/9780230379657.Until the late fifteenth century the idea of Europe was principally a geographical expression and subordinated to Christendom which was the dominant identity system in the West. The idea of Europe as the West began to be consolidated in the foreign conquests of the age of 'discovery" (...) "Europe then begins to shed itself of its association with Christendom and slowly becomes an autonomous discourse.
^Ricci, Matteo. On Friendship: One Hundred Maxims for a Chinese Prince. Translated by Timothy Billings. Columbia University Press. 1610: 19, 71, 87 [2009].ISBN 978-0231149242.
^"Too much writing on the region has – consciously or unconsciously – clung to an outdated image of 'Eastern Europe', desperately trying to patch together political and social developments from Budapest to Bukhara or Tallinn to Tashkent without acknowledging that this Cold War frame of reference is coming apart at the seams.Central Europe Review: Re-Viewing Central Europe By Sean Hanley, Kazi Stastna and Andrew Stroehlein, 1999互联网档案馆的存檔，存档日期31 October 2017.
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