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.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

I thought the film lesson Night And Fog was really interesting. it showed the destructions of the holocaust and showed what it looked liked 10 years later. I felt this was powerful because it showed clips of things really happenining,such as the hiding and burning of the bodies, all the skulls and corpses everywhere. Things that have been seen cannot be unseen. If you think about it, its also powerful because you realise that the bodies in the movie does not compare to the years of murder that went on in Poland And Germany and the rest of Europe.

It Kind of was the same as the other film lesson, Schindlers list because at the end it showed the bodies and stuff being buried and burned at the end of the war. Also it showed people dying and the camps and the barracks and all those buildings, also the bathrooms which were about the same. For me, the HollyWood version of the holocaust was more interesting and it showed alot more of the things that happened. Such as the Hair being cut off to prepare the women for the gas chambers and the selection was more in detail.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty that was signed at the Palace Of Versailles in Paris, France. This was a Treaty to end World War One. It Ended the war between Germany and the Allied Powers . This treaty hit the Germans hard. It made their emperor a war criminal and a few other germans aswell. The Germans had to pay billions of dollars as war dues because of all the destruction and deaths they have caused. The Germans also lost alot of land in the treaty. They gave back lands like West Prussia back to poland. Also they lost territories they had overseas. I dont think the treaty was fair because of all the billions of dollars they had to pay back.

I Think historians say the Treaty of Versailles led to the rise and power of hitler because the Germans were in a slump/depression and Hitler was a strong smart person who was a military leader. He gave them the hope and fought back against the Associated powers. He wanted to make Germany Stronger again and he promised to that that because of what the Treaty of Versailles did.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal, was a military leader who successfully took a group of the nations nationalists and over through the ottoman sultan who was weak and corrupt. He succeded in reforming Turkey and making it more modernized and more secular.

One thing Mustafa Kermal did was seperate Islamic Laws From the Nation laws. He basically sepereated rules of religeon from the laws of the country. Also in the attempt of modernizing Turkey and making it more European, He removed religious courts and made an english system of court. Like the ones with have today. He also made it so women had rights, such as voting / official jobs. He also made government funded programs.

Kemal also banished old traditions. Instead of government officials going to work with a fez and whatever else they wore, He made them wear suits and ties. He wanted them to look like European buisness men and workers. His influence was so strong they followed him and when he died they gave him the name father of the turks because of what he did for his country.

Film Lesson: "Gandhi"

Mohandas K. Gandhi was a political and spiritual leader in India. He was born October 2nd 1869 and he was assassinated January 30 1948. Gandhi had a nick name, it was Mahatma, which meant Great Soul. Gandhi did many things for his country. He led protests, which were friendly. He spoke of non-violence because he thought that if you did not use violence against the police or the English, they would be at fault for hitting them if they didnt do anything. He used this method effectively because the less violence that the indians did, the more it made England look bad when the press from the United States arrived. Gandhi helped them gain their independence with all the protests and then what ended it all was the salt marchn which made an impact when most of india walked to the sea and made salt for their own use, or to sell instead of using the salt made at the salt works.

I think Indias indepence was highly influence by Mohandas Gandhi. This is because Gandhi gave them the hope and will power to avoid using non-violence in the protests and to never give up. As shown in the movie , he never gave up on his people. He went to jail alot for his people because of the little laws they broke when they protested ( burn travel pases, make salt etc. ) Also he didnt buy any of the governments clothes which was a big influence to the independence of India. I think the Indians without gandhi would of got their independence, but not for a while because not many people believe in non-violence until Gandhi promoted it to the people for decades.

The Russian Revolution

Like The american revolution, and the French revolution, There was the Russian Revolution. The russian revolution included only its own people. The Causes of this revolution were world war I and because of the Czars and their ruler. But after the ruler died, a new government took over called the bolshevik and their ruler was lenin. They were communist rulers and they are the government that they have today.

Causes of WWI

World War I was a war that was started by an assassination of a prince. A serbian person came and killing prince ferdinand. The war started because there was alot of tension between the countries in eastern europe. The countries consists of the germans, russia, serbia. Another factor that started the war is imperialism. This war was only between two countrys. But since some countries were friends of other countries, they joined the fight and then it was a war between most of the continent

Opium Wars - Imperialism in China

The Opium wars was about china not wanting to trade with anyone from the west. So the western countries sold them opium from india and the chinese got addicted to it. So they had to keep trading for more opium and while they bought opium they bought alot of other goods also.