The ideological conflict that primarily characterized the Cold War era was the struggle between capitalism and communism. Initiated after World War II, the Cold War involved the United States and its allies promoting democratic governance and free-market economics against the Soviet Union and its satellite states, which advocated Marxist-Leninist ideology. This conflict manifested in various ways, including military alliances like NATO and the Warsaw Pact, proxy wars, nuclear arms races, and significant cultural and technological competition. The ideological divide shaped global politics for several decades and defined the geopolitical landscape until the Cold War's eventual conclusion in the early 1990s.