The two sides in the Cold War were the Western Bloc, led by the United States and its NATO allies, and the Eastern Bloc, led by the Soviet Union and its satellite states. The Cold War spanned from the end of World War II in the 1940s to the early 1990s and was characterized by political tension, military rivalry, and ideological conflict between capitalism and communism. While it did not lead to direct large-scale warfare between the superpowers, it resulted in proxy wars, an arms race, and significant geopolitical influence across the globe.