Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

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

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

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

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"

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

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

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

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)

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

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"

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

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

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.