The Collapse of Communism

Between the years of 1989 and 1991 the warsaw pact began to negate communism. This led to communism beginning to collapse in almost all the communist countries in europe and the Soviet union. It was like a series of dominos one regime fell and the next one and so one because in june 1989 the wall of berlin collapsed and west germany and east germany were united after years of separation.

Then after that same year Czechoslovakia resigned to the communism regime and a bit later a revolution was occurred kicking out the ruler of Romania, followed by the bulgarians in 1990-91. Mikhail Gorbachev was a big influence on this collapse because he changed his policies that made the soviet union stronger while he really didn't care much about other and communism. So when this happened other countries just got "attacked" and were switched to democratic/ capitalist countries.

Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

From the moment Mikhail Gorbachev this sparked the start of a second russian revolution. With Mikhail Gorbachev party’s new general secretary his ideas where not to follow stalin's ideas but his owns. Since before russia was a totalitarian place ideas and economic ideas did not flow so he decided to induct the Glasnost.

This policy allowed to open ideas to society so they can discuss and give ideas on how to make a better society. This man really wanted to help is country rise from a deficit that was unknown before because no one would tell the people and russians would be told they had the best life possible. Also that they were living so much better than the americans when in the end they were living worse, maybe ten times as worse.

This was a great success and helped the russians but still the people complained about waiting hours for a few rations of food and Mikhail Gorbachev blamed the Soviet Union for not be able to plan well so he inducted Peristrokia which allowed people to build their own factories and open small businesses.

Then he mad a third policy named democratization which was a spark for people to vote for their leaders and also he realized the arms race was to much for russia to handle and was a big part of their slump so the signed a Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with president Regan. Due to all these changes in policies the collapse of communism came to russia and soon to other parts of europe.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid is a form of Racial segregation in South Africa. Kind of like in america with the segregation of blacks and whites. Even thought the conquering of this helped for africa to gain more technology skills and make new products for their better life. This form negated the africans the right to act as citizens of their own land. They would be separated the non whites and whites into two parts for bathrooms, restaurants etc and anyone that opposed this way of life was killed.

One man who never stopped for the independence of his people and country was Nelson Mandela. Mandela started his strive to regain his territory as a African National Congress but was soon cut when he was caught by the whites and was sentenced to life sentence in prison. Many of his followers where inspired by what he tried to do to save his country that they kept fighting.

Finally after a rebellion started and africa was finally independent from rule, the africans rescued the influential leader of this rebellion after 27 years in prison. He was awarded the nobel peace prize in honor of how he never gave up to abolish Apartheid. Soon after he was named the first black president of africa and is still alive to host the fifa world cup 2010!

African Independence

Between 1955 and 1975 Africa started gaining their independence from European Nations. The only countries liberated at this time were Libya, South Africa, Ethiopia and Egypt. This time period was also called the Scramble for Africa. African countries had no say in what the Europeans were doing because they were more dominant in weapons. Their purpose for being in this continent was for natural resources even though africans some africans had no problem in foreign countries taking over their homeland. By 1975 Africa broke through and gained their independence. A very important figure in Africa during this time period that impacted this independence was named Jomo Kenyatta. Jomo gained a good education while growing up and soon studied politics while he worked as a carpenter. He was put in prison for trying to prevent the British from turning the Government system in Africa into communism and after Africa had gained their independence and Jomo became the president of Kenya. Some other important leaders during this time period was Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes was a racist British leader who tried instill British control over Africa. The famous picture of him standing over Africa with puppet strings really shows his character during this harsh time. Two other important figures during this time were Nelson Mandela who soon became president of South Africa and Kwame Nkrumah who was the leader of Ghana.

Film lesson:"The right stuff"

This movie was very entertaining due to the back and forth competition between the U.S. and Russia. The competition after WWII the americans and russians terminated their alliance and started competing against each other called the cold war. The movie starts off kind of confusing thinking it might be about airplanes but as it gets in the middle its starts to be about russia and USA and the space race. This was a race between the power house of communism and democracy to see who could get to space quicker.

Very soon once the Americans felt confident about their progress the Russians launch the first satellite and were intimidated at that time by the Russians. To be superior once again the start building spaceships. This is where the movie gets funny because the americans started testing the space ships and the would fly like 3 feet and den crash. Or make a u turn and then crash that was hilarious to me, but anyways finally the americans succeeded and send to space a monkey and we were the center of it all until russia made us look like and sent the first man to space called Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin.

After this event is when america invested tons of dollars on the space program to launch finally the first man to land on the moon. His name was Neil Alden Armstrong. This was the last of this space race but to me it seems like russia won but on history and books USA is the hero and the victorious.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

NATO stood for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The countries within this organization were mainly the United States, Canada, and several Western European Countries. This organization was made after World War II and it was to provide aid for countries in need and defense.

Due to the NATO alliance the communist nations in Eastern Europe formed the Warsaw Pact, having the Soviet Union like the powerhouse of Communism. As the dominant force in that allied side the Soviet's kept supplied the communist countries with weapons to protect themselves from the democratic countries. Due to this also USA and the Soviet union started the cold war. It is called the cold war because these two countries never used violence to settle this war. Although the Pact was formed 6 years after NATO it started to lose its power as countries went away like Eastern Germany formed back with Western Germany.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

In the film of schindler's list hollywood uses its ways to show the horror on the era of the holocaust.The holocaust was an evil event that had claimed the lives of so many innocent people and they were murdered and killed. Some of the things you will see in a film like this are very disturbing as well such as see people killed on the spot. Its sick how the officers don't even care as long as they are gone. One part of this movie that was like sad and touching was when they showed the kids, while the young adults and adults were in the selection stage the kids were being taken away. This was also touching because the kids didn't have a clue what was going on.

When they were on the big truck like vehicles being driven away they just waved bye and smiled. Shows you how innocence kills. Some of the kids did figure it out and tried to hide anywhere they could. I do have to say some kids were clever to hide under floorboards but the place is still a death camp. That was very sad to me because even if they did survive what would does kids do with their families probably dead and with no one to go to for refuge.

Oskar Schindler though being a German business man he saved the lives of thousands of Jews by employing them in his factories. The ending got sad because at the end he tells how he appreciated their help and that he had to leave because the americans would be looking for him. Also how at the end people went around his grave leaving rocks in gratitude of saving their lives. In my opinion this movie was better because it had more feeling and more emotions to it, it made the holocaust seems so realistic even though its a old movie.