Chapter 37 : The World in Transition In the mid-1980s, the huge cost of its military commitments forced the Soviet Union to loosen its tight control of Soviet bloc nations. This led to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war. The transition to free enterprise brought hardships to many Soviet citizens. The new freedom also revived ancient ethnic and national rivalries that sometimes resulted in bloody encounters. Other disagreements, such as those in Czechoslovakia, were settled peacefully. In the United States, consecutive presidents of both political parties carried out a military role in world trouble spots while reducing government spending on social programs at home. Western Europe moved toward economic and political unity in the European Union. The world's nations began to recognize that rapid increases in population and industrialization had created environmental problems that would require global cooperation.