the Collapse of communism

Communism was the belief that everyone should be equal and the goverment should own everything. Commuinism was basically in russia and parts of germany that was owned by russia. In the 1980's, russia broke down the berlin wall in Germany seperating the West germany and East germany. This allowed germany to be its own full country again. this was also called the lifting of the iron curtain.

This was all done because of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms for Russia making it from totalitarian communism to democratic free capitalism. In 1991, the soviet union collapsed and was renaimed russia.

Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev is the president of Russia. He was the youngest president at age 54. Mikhail decided that since the russia was a totalitarian state, and nothing was getting done, he thought that he should open up russia more so that free fresh new ideas will come and make Russia more economic and new with social reforms. This was called the "Glasnost". This was to promote Openess in Russia.

In 1985, Gorbachev decided to make something new called "Peristrokia". This was to make economic reforms. Local managers gained full rights to their farms and property and people were allowed to own privately owned small buisnesses.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

The apartheid was a racial segragation policy in South Africa. Much similar to the one in the United States. But they were segragated from 1948-1990. This policy stated that white people were above everyone else and can vote, while the "Bantu" which is everyone else that is black mixed or Indian is nit able to. Nelson Mandela was put into jail because of this.

Nelson mandela fought for the independence of South Africa. He was in the ANC's fight to promote non-violence methods to get freedom and justice and to stop the Apartheid. He was a hero because he did this. He was in jail for 26 years and he got out, wrote a book, and still continued to fight for his country and the people admired that and when elections came in 1991, he was elected over the other person with 61% of the votes.

African Independence

Africa is a continent in the world. Africa is filled with over 20 countries. Africa didn't have its independence. The Europeans basically imperialized the continent and took it for themselves. Until recently 1955-1970, Afrida had been gaining their independence. The French, Spanish, English etc. took over them for a long time. They used them for their natural resources and cheap labor.

Ghana was the first country to gain their independence. Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of this. He was a teacher who spent time studying in the united states and came back to get more rights for his country, but ended up becoming the president of Ghana and the English left.

Another nation was Kenya. This country was special because their leader/president was in prison then he was elected as the leader. This is one of the two countries that did this. The leaders name was Jomo Kenyatta. He led the Mau Mau's so he can scare the white men away without any war.

So during this time of fighting for independence, Africa changed alot, they gained all of their independence from the European countries except for a select few and most of them got to eliminate their country's names and change them to something more african and create a flag. For example Zimbabwe was Rhodesia, then they changed it and created their own national flag to show their independence.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

" The Right Stuff " was a movie made in the 80's about how the USSR and United States were competing against each other non-violently. In the movie, they were competing on who could get to mach 1 speed ( speed of sound ) and mach 2 ( which is 2x the speed of sound).

Then they showed how the USSR launched their first satellite into space. Then the US heard about this and then they choose 7 experience pilots with college degrees to be the first astronauts . They did not choose the main character of the movie that went mach 1 because he didnt go to college. The USSR was winning because they launched the first satellite into space but then the US was trying to put men on the moon. They were not successful at first because all the testing had failed, but in the end they got them up there.

The scenes that will help me remember the cold war and what they did during the competition were breaking the sound barrier and how it was a great achievement and when they did the rocket testing and how they all failed and exploded and crashed. Also when they were training the people because it shows the determination they had to get there and how they were gonna beat the USSR.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

The NATO pact was and intergovernment joining of military forces incase of foreign attacks. So lets say someone attacked US, Canada would be there to back us up because we are both apart of NATO and we were created to protect each other. Also they had to watch each others backs because of the cold war and all the tension between those countries and USSR and US nuclear weapons.
The warsaw pact is a similar treaty where the 8 communist countries in Europe signed a treaty where they will be there for each other incase of an attack from a foreign nation. They made this after the non-communist countries created NATO.
The ones who created warsaw pact were USSR and 8 other communist countries. The ones who created NATO were France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

Schindlers list was a great way to express and illustrate the holocaust. it showed alot from liquidating the ghettos and the ending of the war. It showed many things such as the selection, what they did to the sick (poison their medicine, shoot them.) It also showed the hidden places where jews hid like secret compartments in the ghettos and the sewers. Also in the camp rooms where they would hide in floor spaces or tied under mattresses.

The liquidation of the Ghettos was more powerful to me because the way they went and took them out by brute force. they killed many people because of their age or if they tried to run away. Also The Germans knew all the hiding spots and went and killed people in sewers or hidden places in buildings. Also the sick things they did was killing people no matter how skilled they were just because they were jewish and didnt follow orders.

Schindlers List was more powerful because it showed the sick and twisted side through acting and visuals. Such as people getting shot or tortured or gased.