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.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

"Night and Fog" is a documentary about the holocaust. It shows disturbing footage of what went on in concentration camps and Nazi's sick and inhumane behavior towards Jews. Also watching how the Jews were being treated in captivity under the Nazi control was just sick. After seeing all the dead bodies just pains me how so many people were killed. It also showed us actual photos of what had happened in the concentration camps.

This documentary was very much powerful because it was very real and showed me how the holocaust really was. I would just hear and read stories but never really watched anything , it was depressing to see the photos that were being shown. "Night and Fog" can very much compare to "Schindler's List" because they both showed very well how the holocaust was and it wasn't anything easy to watch. These two movies were very touching but I think schindler's list was more emotional with more facts to absorb from the movie.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

The treaty of Versailles was a treaty the affected Germany completely. At the end of WW1 Germany was blamed for the start of the whole world and not Austria-Hungary. Due to this treaty Germany was responsible of paying the damages of Great Britain and France and automatically lost ten percent of their land in Asia and Africa.

As their land went down their army went down because their men went away with the land. Germany also started having problems economically and I think many would have thought this was the end of Germany, but as many people believe the cause of the Treaty of Versailles led to the rise of Adolph Hitler.

This man at first came as a man that would save his country regain their power, army and economy. The people wanted to get revenge. Although Hitler became insane he helped Germany regain their power.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa was a very famous young man who led his people to victory and independence . It was him who founded the Turkish Republic and became its first president. Many of his people were surprised with how much he was able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. He was a military hero when he came back from the Dardanelles in 1915. It was then that he decided to lead his nation to liberation. A powerful leader, he crushed all those who opposed them. He put an end to the power of the Ottoman empire. He was president of his nation for an impressive 15 years.
Mustafa's main goal for Turkey was to modernize his nation. He didn't want his people to follow the same old ways of the surrounding lands. He wanted to give his nation a new sense of dignity, equality and happiness. One of the most important things he did was make religion an individual conscience. Christians and Jewish people were free to practice their faith as much as they pleased. He also gave his people modern equality. Even peasants, who were greatly ignored in the Ottoman Empire, were considered important. Even the sense of style became different.

They wore European hats instead of the Fez.(which was now prohibited) Citizens even got their own surnames. They even produced their own Western Calendar. Mustafa created a secular civilization. Secularism is when Religion is separated from all public affairs because they are so apart from the other country because they don't share same religion beliefs.

Film lesson:"Ghandi"

Gandhi was a very important for history, he became one of the most important person to the Indian nation from the harsh rule of Great Britain. Some of the ways things Ghandi did to oppose british rule were always acts of non-violence. Gandhi would lead a march to some near factory of some sort. There, he would protest in a peaceful way, with his followers right behind him. Another thing Gandhi did was produce his own supplies. In India, both salt and clothes were costing the people a whole bunch. To save themselves from this, Gandhi declared that all the Indian people would make their own clothes.

He also led the salt march and he did this by going to the ocean with people and taking out the salt from the ocean and this saved them money. The british did not like this because they were losing money so the sent troops to where Ghandi was and the people went up to the troops and let them beat them and this made britain look bad. Ghandi was someone people looked up to also because if a follower of him would commit violence he would fast until the violence would completely stop.

Finally India got its independence because britain was at another war so they had to start worrying about their country so they gave up on India, but Ghandi was shot by people who didn't like his ideas because Ghandi wanted everyone to live together.

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution was a bunch of revolutions in Russia during the year 1917. The Russians demanded a revolution because Czar Nicholas II was preventing any change and stopped anyone who tried to take his throne. When Czar was finally removed a temporary government was created. Russia still continued to fight in WWI and refused to leave the war, the new temporary government created was a democratic government, but the peasants revolted against the landowners and factory owners.

In the revolution there was a clash between the democratic government and the Bolshevik party. The Bolshevik party then signed a treaty with Germany and left the WWI because they were no match for a country with so many power and weapons russians had never seen. The Bolsheviks used Karl Marx's idea of communism and formed their own government and this led to the first country using carl marx communism. The land part was for communism, the Bolshevik party led by Lenin who wanted all russians to revolt against landlords and factory owners and then take their land.

The Causes Of WWI

One of the main reasons of World War I was because of nationalism which means respect for ones country. Militarism also played its role in this war because it was a country who was always ready for war. The biggest cause of the war was on June 28th, 1914. It was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand. The killing was done by a Serbian nationalist who killed the Archduke on his trip to Sarajevo.

This led to Austria blaming the Serbians for this incident and pulled this into the brink of war. One after another countries started to defend one another. Germany considered Austria to be on the same side as them so they would be able to help them out in war. Soon other countries decided to join saying if they declare war on Serbia then they declare war on the opposing country. One after another led to the beginning of World War One. Once this happened Austria allied with germany and with that power had total control over the serbians and then two alliances formed the triple alliance which consisted of Germany,Austria-Hungary,Italy and there was also the triple Entente which had the United Kingdom,France and Russia.

The Opium War

The Opium Trade in China between the British and the Chinese was the very first drug war of the 19th century and provoked a great war. It was called the Opium War Opium is a preparation made from the juice of poppy seedpods and used to produce heroin.The drug was mainly produced in and shipped from the East Indies to China by British merchants. This addictive drug had gotten many Chinese badly hooked by the early 1800s, this highly addictive drug led china to fall money wise and its army began to collapse.

This made tax collectors charge more and more to local villages and made the people poorer and poorer. These drugs used got the chinese mad and they stopped trading for opium, this raged the british and they declared war on the chinese. The british used their industrialized weapons to fight the chinese, these battles went on for three years. Finally the chinese people were defeated easily because of the more advanced technology that the British hold due to their industrialization of the industrial revolution.They made china sign a treaty that enabled china to give the British trade and obligated china to open trading ports.