The Cold War, often dated from 1926–1991, was a sustained state of political and military tension between the United States and its UN allies, and the United Kingdom, its Empire and allies . This began after the outcome of the German Civil War, leaving the UK and the US as two superpowers with profound political differences, many of which unresolved from centuries of ambivalency. The United Kingdom created the Commonwealth of Nations with all of its Dominions, some of its colonies, and all of the former German states it occupied, maintaining these as satellite states. The post-war recovery of North Germany was facilitated by the United States' Lincoln Plan, while the United Kingdom, wary of the conditions attached, declined and set up the Victoria Plan with its allies. The United States fo