During World War II, which conference laid groundwork for the postwar order including plans for the United Nations and the occupation of Germany?

• A. The Potsdam Conference
• B. The Tehran Conference
• C. The Yalta Conference
• D. The San Francisco Conference

Answer: (C)

During the war, the Allies used their big conferences to shape what would come after. At Yalta, the leaders agreed on building a new framework for international peace—the United Nations—to replace the League of Nations, including ideas about a Security Council with major powers. They also laid out how Germany would be handled after defeat: the country would be divided into occupation zones under Allied control, with demilitarization and reparations as part of the plan. This conference connects the creation of the UN with the practical setup for governing Germany after the war, making it the moment where both strands of the postwar order were first put on a concrete path. (The UN Charter was finalized later at another conference, and Potsdam dealt more with implementation terms, but Yalta is where these two threads came together.)