What was the Potsdam conference and what did it seek to accomplish?

The Potsdam
Conference was the last of the three conferences that were held in which the Big Three leaders
of the main Allied powers met during .  This conference was held in Potsdam, Germany, in July
and August of 1945.  The main participants were Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, Joseph
Stalin of the Soviet Union, and Harry Truman of the United States (President Franklin Roosevelt
having died in April of that year).

The main goal of the Potsdam Conference
was to get the Allies to agree on how to set the world up after the end of the war.  The major
agreement that came out of the conference had to do with Germany.  At the conference, the Allies
agreed to break Germany up into occupation zones.  Each zone was to be occupied by one of the
Allies (France was also given a zone).  The other major result of the conference was the Potsdam
Declaration.  This was a statement by the Allies that was transmitted to Japan informing the
Japanese of the terms on which they were expected to surrender.