Melanie's Blog

Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

2009-05-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

Mikhail Gorbachev opened up to the Soviet Union by being a communist leader and concentrating on his own ideas. He didn't like the ideas of Stalin on government. Russia was led by totalitarian leaders. The collapse of communism started to happened when Gorbachev brought glasnost and peristroika. These were policies in Russia when it was still a communist country. Glasnost was a, "policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union." Peristroika was a "political and economic reform." These policies was to reform communism. Gorbachev wated to improve Russia's society by the policies and communism was losing control. Russia was becoming more of a democratic country because of the glasnost and peristroika policies and Gorbachev's ways of making Russia a better country. People started to own small businesses ad the economy was starting to be better too.

The Collapse of Communism

2009-05-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

Communism collapse in eastern Europe and the USSR because of the economy, couldn't keep up with the United States, many people turned against communism, and statues of Lenin and other communists leaders were torn down. Before people tried to escape the Berlin Wall no one couldn't cross the wall and whoever did would get killed. The wall separated East and West of Germany. Many people teared down the Berlin Wall into large groups because they wanted to cross the border. The Soviet Union

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

2009-05-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation in Africa between 1948-1994. It was enforced by the National Party government. Nelson Mandela was such a hero because he he didn't like the idea of apartheid and wanted to abolish it. He freed South Africa from the government that used apartheid. He was against the white people ruling the government and not the white people in South Africa. Mandela was in trial called the Rivonia Trial so he can go to jail for being against apartheid and the government. He went to prison and was freed in 1990 when the apartheid was ended. He is admired by authors and articles written about Mandela in sites because he fought something that people weren't happy with and gave freedom to Africa. He sacrificed a lot things for Africa. His books influenced many people and is known as a freedom fighter.

African Independence

2009-05-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

Africa has changed so much in the 20 year period from 1955 to 1975 by having more independent countries in Africa. There had been more independent countries in the 20 year period because some countries in Africa fought to be independent against colonists. Africans wanted to show the world and other people that they can run its own country and industrialized Africa. Some of the leaders in Africa was Leopold Senghor who was the first president of Senegal. Another leader was Jomo Kenyatta, who was a nationalist leader of Kenya. Then there was a leader named Mobuto that ruled the country Zaire.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

2009-04-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

The United States and the USSR were competing of who come first and set a world record of breaking the sound barrier by making an airplane that was called MACH I. Another one was when which country would bring the first man to space. Russians were ahead of America and they built space ships. So America came together to gather a team of astraunauts which were really good and smart pilots that can take the job. America was the first ones to put a monkey to space when they were testing the spacecraft. Russia finally were two weeks ahead of the U.S and they were the first ones to bring a man in space. The first man to go to space was a Russian. The Russians were the first to also put satelites in space. After this the Russians won the competition. The scenes that will help me remember the Cold War was when Russia and the U.S were competing against each other of whose the best country to break records like when the U.S broke the record of the sound barrier. A second scene that I'll remember was when they broke the sound barrier they didn't want the press to write a report on it so that the Russians won't ghet ahead of them. America weren't friends with the Russians because they were a communist country and that they've only helped the in WWII. Another scene was when the U.S wanted to be the first ones to go to space and they got seven of the best smart pilots to go to space.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

2009-04-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

NATO was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which is a military alliance. NATO was an organization of countries that were involved in a mutual defense alliance. This means that if one them were attacked the countries allied to them would help them. The Warsaw Pact was another mutual defense alliance like NATO but an organization of communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. The NATO's alliances were countries in Western Europe and North America. NATO was formed by these alliances because they wanted to stop the spread of communism and if one their alliance countries were attacked the other countries would come and help them. The alliances for the Warsaw Pact were communist states in Eastern Europe and Central Europe. Warsaw Pact was formed by these alliances because the communist military alliance wanted to maintain power over Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union gained both control over its neighboring European nations.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

2009-03-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

The film, "Schindler's List," illustrated the Holocaust by showing how cruel and upsetting of what the German soldiers did to the Jews. In the film, it showed when the Jews were forced to move to the ghetto and they had to share the houses in the ghetto with other Jews even though they were rich. The scenes that were most powerful to me as a viewer watching the film was when the German soldiers would line a few Jews behind each other and shoot only one bullet and that one bullet killed some of them and the Jews behind them that didn't get shot would get shot one at a time. Then there was this other scene that was very sad to me was when the little children from one of the camps were being separated from their families because they were going to get killed and some of the kids that ran away went into hiding especially hiding in the disgusting toilets.
Another scene that was messed up was when a Jewish architect woman came up to the German Commandant and said if they wouldn't take down the building and rebuilt it again then the building will collapse because the foundation on the other side wasn't good. The commandant said to her that she was very smart like the Karl Marx himself and he made one of the German officers to shoot her. At the labor camps, after lots of Jews were dead and cremated, the Jews had to bury the bodies and burn the buildings so that no evidence was left. The images that will stay with me was the little girl with the red dress, the Jews that worked for Schindler in the factory, and Schindler because he was a good man and saved many Jews.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

2009-03-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

Some of my reactions from the film, "Night and Fog," was shocking and depressing. I did find the film very powerful because it showed where the concentration camps and it discussed how horrible it was and what happened in the Nuremburg Trials. It described how the land was in Poland before Germans built concentration camps. The scenes from the other film, "Schindler's List," and comparing it to "Night and Fog" they both showed how the concentration camps looked like and how bad the conditions were.
I think that the hollywood version of about the Holocaust explained it more effectively. I think that because the hollywood film, "Schindler's List," showed more action and went more in detailed than the documentary film. In the hollywood version gave more feeling into it and I saw how the people which were Jews, were treated and what actually happened during WWII and that the German took advantage over the Jews.

The Treaty of Versailles(ended of WWI)

2009-02-24T06:55:00.001-08:00

The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty to end WWI between Germany and the Allied powers. The Treaty of Versailles affected Germany in alot of ways by paying compensation which was to pay for the war, ten percent of German lands were lost, their overseas colonies were taken away, and 12.5% of Germany's population were separated and were outside the borders of Germany. Germany's economy was ruined and they were getting broke. Many people in Germany lost jobs and supplies of food.
There are 440 articles in the Treaty of Versailles. Some of the rules of the treaty were that article 227 says, "charges former German Emperor, Wilhem II with supreme offence against international morality. He is to be tried as a war criminal." Article 228-230 says that, "many other Germans are war criminals." Another article; Article 231 states that, " the War Guilt Clause lays sole responsibility for the war on Germany, which would be accountable for all the damage done to civilian population of the allies."
I think the treaty was fair because it stopped Germany to gain more control and helped other people to be free and when Germany's land was broken apart, part of the ten percent of it's land became other countries. Historians say and believed that the Treaty of Versailles led to the rise of Facism and Adolf Hitler because Germany had lost some its land and were getting poor so lots of Germans believed in Hitler. Hitler wanted get Germany back into power and get back what they've lost. But the Germans didn't know he would wipe out the Jewish people.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

2009-02-11T07:06:00.000-08:00

Mustafa Kemal wanted to modernize Turkey to have a nation of, "dignity, equality, and happiness." He modernized and made it more secular in Turkey by having European hats replace the fez, women stopped wearing the veil, citizens took surnames, and made a truly secular system in Turkey that had a majority of Moslem and some Jewish and Christians were free to practice their faith.
Secular is the state of being separated from religion. The changes that Mustafa Kemal made was he had a political revoloution which was Republican because he believed it was the only republic regime which can best represent the wishes of the people. Another change was Reformism which meant that traditional concepts were eliminated and modern concepts were adopted. Other changes were also Nationalism and Statism. Nationalism preserved the independence of the Republic of Turkey. Statism is that the state was to regulate the country's general economic activity.

Film Lesson- "Gandhi"

2009-02-10T06:54:00.000-08:00

After watching the movie "Gandhi," Gandhi helped his nation of India gain Independence from Great Britain by protesting without violence using civil disobedience. Some of the things he did was he protested on land tax, eased poverty, helping the woman's rights, and protested on British-imposed salt tax. HIs idea of nonviolence was to require strength and courage in a nonviolence way. It was a strategy for social change that rejects the use of physical violence.
I think that India's Independence was not all about Gandhi. I think it was more about coming together as people and going against the British because it was Indian people's country and they wanted rights. Gandhi wanted the same as for his people and after the Independence, Muslims and Hindus came together. In Great Britain about the time of Indian Independence that may have influenced events was World War II. It influenced World War II because during the war Britain spent a lot of money to provide the army.

The Russian Revolution

2009-01-09T06:34:00.000-08:00

The Russian Revolution started in 1917 and was also called the Bolshevik Revolution. There were two revolutions called the October Revolution and the February Revolution. The February Revolution was about Czar Nicholas II losing power and the people having riots in the streets. The October Revolution was about a small group of people which were the Bolsheviks that led them and represented themselves as dictators of the proletariat. The Russians had a Russian Revolution because they wanted change the Russia Empire and after WWI broke out Czar collapsed and then there started a revolution.
Some of the major causes of the revolution were that so many soldiers died, starvation, less supplies and on food, and peasants grew rapidly. The Revolution was all about the people wanting a new government and they didn't like Czar since he was leader. People hated him so much when they heard the quote, "Peace, land and bread" by Lenin, they liked the idea of communism. The quote meant that there'll be no more problems and trouble and communism came from the idea of Karl Marx. Russia use to be a communist country, but now it's not a communist country anymore.

Causes of WW1

2009-01-07T06:34:00.000-08:00

There were many causes of WW1. Nationalism was one of the primary causes of the war. Nationalism that had made a settlement of peace on the Congress of Vienna was ignored. Countries like Austria-Hungary and the Balkans(from Europe) became a "posed problem" from Nationalism because it conflicted many national groups. There was an alliance system that Bismark made which were Germany, Russia, and Austria Hungary to defeat France.

Another cause of WW1 was militarism. Militarism increased, strengthen, and increased in cooperation to gain more power for the army. Germany was one the countries that had this strategy to gain more control and try to win the war. Germany worked with Austria and Britain worked with the French. Germany and Austria had military agreements and so did the British with France.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was also a cause of WW1. Franz Ferdinand was an archduke of Austria-Hungary. He was assassinated in Sarajevo that declared war on Serbia starting World War 1. Alliances collapsed because of this when Ferdinand was assassinated and made Austria-Hungary mad at Serbia. The alliance system contributed in the war and Austria-Hungary was in war with Serbia.

The Opium Wars

2008-12-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

The Opium wars were about when China and European countries fought over a drug called opium that took about 3 years from 1839 to 1842. Opium was a drug from India. Opium was one of the first drug wars in the world. The reason of the Opium wars were because China wanted to isolate themselves outside their country. Europeans especially Britain wanted to trade with China. Europeans saw that tea from China was a great product and they liked the China's tea. China only let the Europeans access to the port and that's when China adapted from Western civilizations. Europeans gave the drug opium to them.

China was so addicted to opium that it was a heroin and morphine and the Chinese made a law that it was illegal because the drug affected many people in China. The Chinese would confiscate it and destroy the opium and buy no more of it from the Europeans. During the Opium wars China would get defeated a lot because of the highly equipped Europeans. It was called Opium wars because China got mad at the Europeans for bringing a drug to their country and they stopped trading the Europeans tea. Europeans got mad also for not getting tea from the Chinese. All because of a drug it was called the Opium wars.

In the war Europeans attacked the Chinese with their gunboats and cannons. The Chinese were not prepared for the war and only had swords. The Chinese's weapons were no match for the Europeans advanced technology and weapons. The British defeated China. China signed two Treaties called Treaty of Bogue and Treaty of Nanjing. They finally got peace and China was able to legalize opium. Also Europeans were able to have five ports in China.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

2008-12-03T06:34:00.000-08:00

The film, "Mountains of the Moon," was a great movie and I can see now how the Europeans traveled in Africa finding the Nile River. As the Europeans explored Africa, some of the hardships they faced there were when robbers robbed most of the explorers supplies and food. Europeans were short on supplies and food. Rare animals like lions would get in their way, bugs like mosquitos at night, they met tribes on the way and had to give presents to them to stay or pass in the tribes' land or turf. Also the Europeans were ambushed from a bad tribe because they didn't like them and wanted to take any valuables they had especially gold.

It's strange that the Europeans named the Nile River,"Lake Victoria," after a British Queen because after they found the Nile River they wanted to name it after their British Queen in honor of her. Along the expeditions of the Europeans, the primary technological advantage they had over African people were weapons like guns. The guns they had were hand guns and shotguns. The African people didn't have any weapons like what the Europeans had, instead they had spears but it wasn't effective.

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

2008-11-26T06:37:00.000-08:00

Matthew Perry bullied the Japanese into signing a trade treaty through a display of military might. To impress the Japanese, Perry amazed them by ships with no sails. When Perry came to the ports he intimidated the Japanese with their high technology.

Japanese's economy has changed during the Meiji Era by a production of labor intensive goods, handicrafts, and a lower quality of machine from the absence of the Industrial Revolution. The Japanese modernized and industrialized by having two ports after a treaty was signed and trading helped them to get what they needed. Archipelago means a chain of islands. Japan is an archipelago because they had many small islands.

Karl Marx and Communism

2008-11-06T06:36:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx's idea of Communism was to have workers share wealth in a communist society. He didn't like that landlords and factory owners were being in control and making a lot of money for themselves. Communism is a system of social organization in which all property is vested in the community and each person contributes and receives according to his or her ability and needs.

Karl Marx wanted Communism to take over the world because he didn't like that peoples' jobs were unfair and the worker were getting paid less. He saw the conditions of workers' jobs. He saw that since the workers work so hard with less money, he saw them as the good guys and he saw the landlords and factory owners as the bad guys because the way they treated the people that works really hard and they were being greedy making more money.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

2008-11-05T06:36:00.001-08:00

When the Industrial Revolution came around, Karl Marx felt that the treatment of the workers were harsh and unsafe. He didn't like it. He was arguing about thatworkers should be in control of factories and farms rather than landlords. He wanted workers to unite in a "worldwide revolution." The Industrial Revolution inspired Marx to invent Communism because workers would share wealth in a communist society.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

2008-10-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

Nationalism is the belief that one's greatest loyalty should not be to a king or an empire but to a nation of people who share a common culture and and history. I'm nationalistic because in the United States we have a holiday called the American Independence which is on July 4th. I watch the television and and see the fireworks go up in the air. I speak the language English, watch the Olympics and cheer on the American Olympic team. I'm such a nationalistic, you can see I'm an American and I show pride.
Nationalism was used to create the nation of Italy because it was one of the countries to form from the territory of crumbling empires. Austria ruled the Italian provinces of Venetia and Lombardy in the north and several small states after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Before Italy became it's on country it was a nation state. Italy wasn't a country until they fought, got freedom, and became Italy.
The country is called Italy because a ruler named Giuseppe Mazzini that supported the nation states. When this man helped people and other nation states, they got seperated. Italy got it's name, started to make it's own food, culture, and it's own tradition.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolution

2008-10-10T06:37:00.000-07:00

Simon Bolivar was born on July 24, 1783. After his parents died when he was young, his uncle don Carlos Palacios was taking care of him. Simon Bolivar's uncle brought to Spain to continue his education. When he grew up he became general. He accomplished a lot of independence for winning his victories and becoming a "Liberator" which were Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. In 1804 he married Maria Teresa Rodriguez.

Bolivar is famous because is was one of the greatest leaders of the Spanish American Independence. He was also famous for his victories. The country Bolivia was named after him because of the influence he brought to South America. He helped General Jose de San Martin to defeat the Latin American Revolution and fight for freedom and independence for South America. In his quest for revolution, he was influenced by the people of South America. On December 17, 1830, he died suffering from tuberculoses.

Robespierre and The Reign of Terror

2008-09-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

"The Reign of Terror" was a period of violence that happened fifteen months after the French Revolution. Maximilien Robespierre was one of the twelve members of "The Reign of Terror." The twelve members including Max Robespierre wanted to raise new armies, eliminate counterrevolutionary elements and supply food for the armies and and the cities.

"The Reign of Terror" happened because the people in France didn't get what they wanted. So, Robespierre, his members, and the army were still fighting for rights and a new government. They went against the King and the clergy. The nobles and the clergy were losing power. From the Reighn of Terror, 16,ooo to 40,ooo people were killed. Since the people of France didn't listen to the nobles or clergy, the nobles and clergy were taking action to use the guillotine for those people going against them.

The people of France were scared that a lot of people were getting killed. They fought against the Robespierre and the army he put together. The people took a lot of courage and didn't fear no more. At the end for The Reign of Terror, the people of France finally took control and cut Max Robespierre's head off.

The French Revolution

2008-09-22T06:36:00.000-07:00

1. Many people in France were critical of the clergy and the nobility because they had privileges that the third estate could not. The clergy, nobility, and the king were the richest. The clergy and the nobility did not have to pay taxes and they were also the only members in society who could not hold positions of importance such as officers in the army.

2. A French peasant might have grumbled about in 1789 is the high taxes, the food prices got high, they were forced to do military service, they could not hunt or fish on nobles' estates, and peasants had to use the lord's mill, oven and wine press, and pay for them.

3. Looking at Source A, the point I think the cartoonist was making was that the peasants hope for a better change than having to serve the upper classes. They don't want to be on the feet of the feudal lords and the clergy. The cartoonist is trying to say that the peasants want to be doing things they thing is better for everyone.

4. The author of Source B describes the lives of French peasants by how the taxes were killing the peasants and being more poor by not having to give what the taxes want. Even though the peasants complain, they have to find a way to pay their taxes by giving away their animals and other foods.

5. By studying Sources A, B, and C, these sources does explain why poor people in France resented the rich because they didn't like how each estate had their own thing especially when the first and second estate were rich and the third estate were poor and paid higher taxes.

6. The person that would be most influenced by his words is John Locke, because they both agree with each other that people should be equal. People should be treated by rights and not by being on the knees of the powerful people.

7. The pamphlet in Source D was banned in 1775 because the top estates like the king, clergy, and the nobility didn't want people to know. They were afraid that the people would go against them and they would lose their power.

John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

2008-09-18T06:37:00.000-07:00

John Locke is the most famous person out of all the Enlightenment thinkers. The ideas of John Locke influenced Thomas Jefferson which helped him write the Constitution. In the second paragraph of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson is talking about that we should all be equal. If the form of government becomes powerful, the people have the right to abolish it. The people want a government that's good and organized so that it would be safe and secure. The government comes from a powerful group that they organized themselves to control the people by their laws. The government's powers didn't come from the people but they kept it from themselves and chose a government without the peoples votes. John Locke did a good thing writing about these ideas and helping the people with the Declaration of Independence.

Copernicus and the Trial of Galileo

2008-09-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

The two theories of the Solar System are helicentrism and geocentrism theories. The heliocentric, "is the theory that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System." Heliocentrism opposes the geocentric theory. The geocentric theory is that the Earth is at the middle of the Solar System. In the 16th century, a Polish mathmetician and astronomer named Copernicus presenting that the heliocentric theory is correct and even modeling the heliocentric. Copernicus defended Galileo that the Sun was the at the Center of the Solar System.
The theory that came first in the Scientific Revolution was the geocentric theory that was made by Copernicus. Scientific observers were surprised that their conlusions did not match up to the real truth about the world around them. Later in the 17th century, there was progress with the subject of algebra, trigonometry, and geometry that these subjects linked to the numeric values of, "Rene Descartes."
The trial of Galileo is that people didn't believe in his theory. After hearing that Galileo believed that the Sun was at the center of the Solar System, the Catholic Church put him on trial for not believing that the Earth was at the center. The Church examined his observations and models and compare it with the bible of the old and new testament. The Church wanted him to be in pain and death for his ideas in the doctrine and scriptures.

The Scientific Revolution

2008-09-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

In the 1500s people thought that the planets revolved around the earth. It is actually that all the planets revolves around the earth, so that means that the sun is at the center of the universe. A scientist named Galileo tested Aristoltle theory and he was wrong that bigger objects fall down faster than smaller objects. Galileo proved that bigger objects and smaller objects fall down at the same speed. They called this part of science the scientific method.

The scientific method, " is the process by which scientists, collectively and over time, endeavor to construct an accurate representation of the world. The scientific method has four steps that explains how to do an experiment. The first step is to do observations, the second step is to form a hypothesis to be ruled out, also the third step that uses the hypothesis and predicts what would happen next. The last fourth step performs the experiments.

Evolution vs. Creationism

2008-09-05T07:06:00.000-07:00

Evolution is a theory by Darwin. This theory of evolution is said that species were descended from ancestors. It is creatures that are genetically mutated by a process called "natural selection." "Natural selection" is advantages that make species compete in the wild. This changes animal population to breed. The theory of evolution is in the subject of molecular biology.
Creationism is a religious belief that all life, humanism, Earth, and the universe were created by a deity. Creationism's evidence was found in the Genesis. The Genesis rejects the theory of evolution. Creation is supported by religious people that believes deity. In the 1960s evolution was ommitted fro school textbooks. It's believed that the origin of the universe and all life was by creation.
I believe in creationism because I'm a Catholic and I believe in God. I believe that all life, Earth, and the universe was created by deity. I don't believe in evolution because it's just a theory and most theories aren't correct. Evolution shows many evidence but I'm going to stick with creation because it has evidence that shows that it is more right than evolution.

Melanie's Test

2008-09-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

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