Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the Soviet Union by adding more churches. Gorbachev wanted more people to start talking about their society. Basically he started to make things better. One of his ideas was called glasnost. Glasnost was established in 1985. Glasnost is when the people talked about Soviet Union's issues, such as economy and political problems. Gorbachev wanted his people to come together and be open about their society, he wanted to hear their opinions too. Another one of Mikhail Gorbachev's ideas which was created was called peristrokia. Peristrokia was an idea to reform the economic system, and also the political system. This is how Mikhail Gorbachev paved the way to the end of communism for the Soviet Union.

The Collapse of Communism

Communism failed in Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R because nobody believed in it anymore after Stalin. Also not many people were living happily and they were basically struggling to survive.
At first they tried to knock down the Berlin wall to make a private road for people that would like to go to the other side of the wall.Next, they decided to make several border crossings so more people could travel across. Some people came to the wall with rock hammers to gather souvenirs of the wall. Soon, hundreds of people stormed the wall. They came with sledgehammers and attacked the graffiti-coated structure till they knocked it out.

In 1991 the Soviet Union split up to many different countries. It become a Democratic Nation as well as all of the other parts that split up. They even changed the red hammer and it became the original flag with with three stripes. In conclusion America won the Cold War because Communist proved to be unsuccessful.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid was used in South Africa for many years. Apartheid is a social policy or racial segregation involving political and economic and legal discrimination against people who are not White. It was basically what was going on in America where all the colored people were separated from the white people. This was going on in South Africa from 1948 to 1990.

Nelso Mandela was such a hero because Mandela along with 150 others were arrested on December 5 1956 and charged with treason for speaking out against Apartheid. He also fought many violent acts to gain freedom in South Africa. He then was in jail for a very long time because of committing treason.

He is loved by many people including the people who wrote these articles and sites because he stood up for what he believed in and did a lot to free his people. He took the pain mentally and physically by being in prison and by getting beat up by the people in charge in South Africa. He was a brave and courageous man.

African Independence

Africa changed in the 20 year period from 1955 to 1975 by it becoming more educated. During the two major World Wars, the European countries weren't economically stabled enough to run a country hundreds of miles away.

Some of the African leaders to gain independence Kwame Nkumah. He used techniques such as Jazz and Negrative movement. The Negrative movement was a way to make the African people believe that they can be independent and also it gives them pride and something to raise there spirits.

Some of the leaders that freed countries are Fulbert Youlou who helped Congo get its independence, another leader was Kwame Nkumah who helped Ghana get its independence. Jomo Keneyyta helped Kenya get its independence also. These are all important people to African people.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

The United States and the U.S.S.R were competing in the movie "The Right Stuff" to get Mach 1, which was the faster then the speed of sound. The first person to do that was an American pilot, the competition had only begun. The next competition the U.S and the U.S.S.R had was the first person into space and the U.S.S.R came out on top, the U.S. was always playing catch up to keep up.

The scenes that will help me remember the Cold war are the pilots and all of the rockets trying to fly up but failing. Another scene that will help me remember the Cold War is when the United States pilot broke the Mach 1. The last very important scene that i will remember is when the Russians sent the first man into space and the United States pilot said at least well be the first free man in space.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO is an organization that the countries in Europe and North America formed to try to stop communist nations. One major reason that NATO was formed because  countries involved wanted a mutual defense alliance so that if one of them were attacked all of the other countries in NATO would come to their aide, just like as if World War I.

 The Warsaw Pact consisted mostly of the Soviet Union and other Communist countries.  It was supposed to be another mutual defense alliance like the one that NATO had, and was created in response to it.  The Soviet Union was the biggest and most powerful country in the alliance.  The Soviet Union kept part of their military in the other countries in the alliance to make them socialist nations.  

The countries involved in NATO were Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom, later followed by the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

The Warsaw Pact included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovak, Hungary, Poland, Romania, West Germany, and the USSR.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

Schindler's List illustrated the Holocaust in a very unique way. It was different from "Night and Fog" because it didn't illustrate most of the areas were there were camps just one camp in Poland. The scene that was most powerful was when the Nazis went to the ghetto and they cleared all the homes. One other powerful scene that affected me was when all the little kids were getting sent away and when the little kid went into the toilet, it was really sad and disgusting.

The images from the movie will stay in my mind forever is when all of the dead bodies are getting burned that made me get the goosebumps. Another scene that was really sad was when they were killing everybody and all of the little kids were crying watching their loved ones getting shot that was a really sad moment in the movie that would probably be in my life and my mind forever.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

"Night and Fog" had me really thinking. It made me really sad, and wondered what if that happened to me and my family. After I saw that movie it felt like my life had changed forever. I found the film very powerful, it almost made me tear. The scenes were sort of similar to as some of the senses from Schindler's list, but the ones on "Night and Fog" were way more powerful. "Night and Fog" illustrates the Holocaust more deeply and detailed and it shows most of the murders and the dead just laying around, that was really sad and it moved me it showed how cruel the Holocaust really was.

The Hollywood version of the film isnt as deep as the documentary is. The Hollywood version of the film is sad but does not make the Holocaust look as cruel as it truely is.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

The Treaty of Versailles affected Germany because the winning side of the war, put the entire blame on Germany. Land was taken away from Germany, and also all of their colonies. After all that, they even piled up a whole bunch of fines on Germany, but Germany didnt have any money to pay it because all of its colonies were taken away, and they couldnt produce and sell natural resources.

I think that this treaty was unfair because they put the whole blame on Germany. The cause of the war wasnt even because of Germany and the Allies put the whole blame on the Germans. I agree with what the Historians say because if they didnt put Germany in an economic breakdown, and looking for someone who can fix their struggling situation. So i agree with the Historains that the Treaty of Versailles was the cause of World War II.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal modernized Turkey by making laws about how there people dressed. He banned people from wearing the fez on their head. He also made it illegal on wearing the robes, the people now had to dress more European. They now had to wear regular shirts and pants.

Mustafa Kemal also made Turkey more Secular. Secular is of or relating to the doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations. He did this by the separation of religion from educational, cultural and legal affairs. That was independence of thought and independence of dominance of religions.

The Kemalist principle of secularism did not go agaisnt atheism. It was not an anti-God principle. It was a rationalist, anti-clerical secularism. The Kemalist principle of secularism was not against an enlightened which Islam was opposed to modernization but against an Islam

Film Lesson - "Gandhi"

Gandhi helped his nation of India gain Independence by a non violent act of powerful speaking. Some of the things that he did was refuse to get off the train because he bought a 1st class ticket but they made him go to 3rd class and he refused so they concluded to kick him off the train. He also refused to buy British goods. He believed in what he did by even spinning his own clothes, and not buying any British clothes.

He used non violence by getting arrested and getting hit and assulted that way he got more followers. He also never fought back every time he got hit by British soldiors. When he threw away the Identification Cards, he was getting hit and he didnt fight back the only thing he did was continue burning them, he was a great man who believed and fought for what he wanted.

I think Indias independance didnt happen just because of Ghandi. I think if it kept on happening for more time then

The Russian Revolution

The Russians had a revolution because they were all unhappy. The winter of 1917 was a very cold winter. It was horrible for the Russian people and they were all very hungry but the czar wouldn't do anything about this. Instead he would waste all of his money on sending worthless troops out to fight World War I, while they would just get killed anyway. The Russian people were furious. They thought that they needed a change in their governemnt and all of these events triggered it.

The Revolution was all about someone saying that they can change the way the country is to make it better place. The people during that time were all hungry and desprete and they just believed it and voted to keep their country a cocmmunist nation. The leader of the Revolution was Lenin. He was in the Bolshevik group as well as Joseph Stalin.

The quote "Peace, land and bread"means that the Russians wanted Peace in the country no wars, land for them to have farms and bread for them to feed their children. They wanted these aspects to have a better Russia and communism promised them that.

Causes of WW I

During the late 1800's throughout the early 1900's there were still empires that were formed. Many of the people that were being taken over were very unhappy with that and wanted there own country. The people thought that in one empire they spoke over three different languages, then why would they even be a united country. One major reason why World War I happened was because of Nationalism.

For many years each country had their military strongly prepared and ready for the war. They spent millions of dollars to help prepare their military. They were trying to prepare themesleves to have a very powerfullly millartaty. There was one problem about all of this and that was that they didnt have anywhere to use it. This made them start tension and conflict within eachother. Miliratism was a really important factor in starting the war.

Another reason why the "Great War" started was because of Imperialism. There was a lot of rivalries because of the economic income for each country. What triggered the war though was when the archduke of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian, Austria declared war on Serbia which then cause Russia to join the war on Serbia's side.

All of these caused promises between the natoins to be broken. This was the collapse of the alliance system. This war caused the people of all the nations they belonged to felt pride in the fact that their country was the dominate one.