The Collapse of Communism

The reason why communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and and in the USSR is because of multiple reasons. One of them is that the people were opposed toMikhail Borbachecv becasue he wanted to send troops. Gorbachev also advised that the government should be open to the ideas of their people. Communist countries were also losing power. A revolution took place in Romania to overthroe the government. Basically people didn't like the way they were living. People also tore down theBerlin Wall because people in East Germany wanted reform. This allowed the unification of Germany. Eventually more people overthrew communist governments which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then the USSR collapse at New Years of 1991. The western part of the world was surprised because they didn't expect communism to collapse because they saw it was spreading. Most of the world nations became capitalist nations.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

In my own words, apartheid is a policy in which black people and colored people are seperated from non colored people. That meant that they were segregated, and there couldn't be inter racial marriages. Nelson Mandela is a very important man of Africa. Why? Its becasue he helped to get rid of apartheid in South Africa. He did this by using civil disobedience, boycotts, strikes, and demonstrations. Why did Mandela do this? This is because he was in jail for 27 years, and during those years he wished there would be a time South Africa lived happily. When he got out of jail he started to get to work and he became leader of ANC.

African Independence

Africa has changed a lot from 1955 through 1975. A lot of areas ion Africa gained independence. One of those countries was the Belgian Congo now known as Zaire. This was very serious because Belgium got copper and rubber from there. Patrice Lumumba eventually became prime minister of the Belgian Congo when Belgium grant them independence. Moise Tshombe then declared independance to the south eastern province of Katanga. There was also Jomo Kenyetta. He tried to unite some parts of Africa. He was also the leader of African Independence.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

The way the Soviet Union and the U.S.A. were competing against each other was who could reach furthur into space and he could break the sound barrier. This was called the "Space Race." The nation that was currently winning is the Soviet Union. Why. It is becuase the Soviet union had succesfully launched a satallite into space. Before that happened, the U.S.A. broke the sound barrier. Before the sound barrier was broken a man died becuase he tried to break the sound barrier. When the U.S.A. found out that the Soviet Union launched the first satallite into space, they tried to make rockets too that could be lauched into space having a man in it. The U.S.A was constently doing lauching experiment and failed a bunch of times. They finally lauched a succesful rocket into the air. They then launched another rocket into space that contained a chimpanzee. A weel later, the Soviet Union laucned a rocket into soace, but with a man inside it! This made the U.S.A. look bad.

Nato and the Warsaw pact

After WW2 ended, and organization called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed. NATO's nations were the nations that believed in freedom.NATO was composed of the USA and the western nations of Europe. NATO was formed to help the unstable Western European nations. The USA helped these western European nations with there economy and distribution of food. It was also formed to protect western European nations from any attacks from the Soviet Union. In response, the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw pact. The Warsaw Pact was composed of the Soviet Union and its satellite nations which it took control of. So what happened between them was the arms race and space race. Both of them competed to see who had bigger, better weapons and who could first go to space and reach furthur into space.

Night an Fog

The movie really made me think more about how the Jews felt during the Holocaust. It also made me think how I would feel like if I were a Jew during the Holocaust. This was a very powerful, and it made me think a lot. I think this movie was able to portray a more powerful message than Schindler's List because the movie showed real video footage of what was happening to the Jews.
The video footage that showed dead bodies on the floor and cut off people's heads was very sickening. I kept saying to myself " How can these people do something unacceptable and disgusting?" When I saw how skinny the people were it looked like they were just all bone, and it was very disturbing to me. Especially that they burned and gassed people while they were alive. The movie "Night and Fog" really gets the message of what happened to the Jews through your head.

Schindlers List

The movie really surprised me after watching it. They way Schindler's List portrayed the way Jews were treated is mostly by shooting the Jews and making them slaves. In the movie the Nazis were kicking Jews out their homes to put them into the ghettos. Ghettos were the small living places the Jews would live in where Hitler thought they would die of disease and starvation. When Schindler saw how the Jews were being treated, he got some Jews to work for him so they wouldn't be killed in the death camps. One scene that was very powerful for me was when the Nazis were cleaning up the labor camps to destroy the evidence. They way the cleaned the Jews up was disrespectful. They threw them away as if they were garbage and not humans. It was also sickening when men carried the skinny people and when they burned them. I think the movie that was able to portray the Holocaust better was "Night and Fog" . It's because "Night and Fog" was showing real evidence of what happened to the Jews like heads being cut off from people's bodies and the disposing of humans.

The Treaty of Versailles ( Ended WW1 )

When the Treaty of Versailles was made, WW1 ended as a resut of the treaty. The Treaty of Versailles affected Germany on a huge scale! The rules were very harsh on Germany. One of the rules was that Germany had to pay all damaged of WW1. This made Germany have a bad econmy. Another rule was that all German collines outside of Germany had to be removed which made Germany lose a lot of land. Another rule was that Germany had to drasticaly reduce its military power. They had to make sure they din't have more than 100,000 men. They also banned the use of heavy artilery, tanks, or any other type of machines used for war. This made Germany embarrased and insecre about their military. While Germany was under the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression came. America was helping pay Germany pay for the reparations, but since America's econmy was also in bad shape Germany's economy greatly suffered. I think that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh for Germany. The Treaty basically blamed Germany for everything that happened in the war. The people of Germany were so angry at the treaty that they wanted a leader who would bring Germany back into that shape. That man was Adolf Hitler. Hitlers words and books impressed the people of Germany. He explained why Germany had lost the word, and becuase of this Hitler was able to gain support and power. He told people that the only way for Germany to gain power is to only let the Aryans , true Germans, rule Germany. He blamed the Jews that Germany lost the war. Eventaully, Hitler became the dictator of Germany. After that Germany basically tries to conquer the world, which didn't work out well for them. If the Treaty of Versailles wasn't so harsh, Hitler would probably not rise to power becuase the German people wouldn't have anyone to look up to bring Germany back into good shape.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal a.k.a. Ataturk was a very important man in the history if Turkey. He was the very first president of Turkey! He was also the person who formed the Turkish Republic. When he was president of Turkey, Mustafa made a lot of types of reforms. Mustafa did his best to make his country like Europe and the United States. One of the ways he used to change Turkey was to abolih the use of fez hats. Fez hats where a part of the Muslim religion. He told the people that wearinf fez hats were wrong. He stated that people who wore fez hats were the people who were uuncivilized. Mustafa did a lot of things to seperate religion from everything else. He abolished churches, the education of religion, and the way they dressed. Mustafa did his best to make Turkey a secular nation and a more Westernized nation.

Gandhi

Ganhi was one of the most important person of the history of India. He was an extremely great man of India. He was the person who liberated the Indian people from British rule in 1947. Another name for Gandhi was called "Great Soul." He was also a lawyer when he was in Africa. When Gandhi came back to india, Gandhi had done many things to provoke the British Empire. He influenced many of the Indian people, and he was popular among the poor. he got a lot of people to be on his side. Gandhi was give speeches to his people, and he would help lead protests. He preeeched to his people about what the government wanted. One of the most famous things he preeched was the policy of non-violence to achieve goals. When Gandhi lead protests, he would use the policy of non-violence. There was a public meeting that the Indian people had about the British Empire. According to the British Empire, Indians couldn't have public meetings. in response, the British Empire massacred almost every Indian in the public meeting. This was called the Amristar Massacre. This made the British Empire look bad, and Gandhi was very dissapointed. One of his most famous demonstrations was the Salt March. Everyday, Gandhi and other people walk for a long time until they reached the Indian Ocean. From there Gandhi and his people would make their own salt instead of buying the salt sold by the British. The Indian people were to only use British salt, but they rebelled. This is one way Gandh provoked the British Empire. When Gandhi was arrested for making his own salt, his followers walked into the salt factory. They used the policy of non-violonce while they walked to the salt factory. They were beaten by the British soldiers. While this happened, American writers were there and they wrote down what happened. This made news all over the world. The British Empire really looked bad after people had read articles of ewhat the British Empire had done to the Indians. Two years after WW2, India finally gained it's ndependance from the British Empire. In my opinion, I don't think that Indian Independance was all about Gandhi. I'm sure Gandhi didn't lead his people just to gain popularity, but it was becuase he cared for India and he wanted India to be treated good. While the fisht of Indian Independance was going on, britain was also having a food shortage.

The Russian Revolution

There was once a revolution in Russia, and it was called the Russian Revolutionof 1917. it wasn't just one revolution. It was a series of revolutions. Poor workers kept moving from place to place trying to find jobs. A lot of workers went on strike. The people didn't like their way of life, and the government was unfair. they didn't like the fact that their government was corrupt and an autocracy. There was ask a shortage of food. The people were sick of their government and wanted reform. People then overthrew Nicholas 2 from the government. This was called the Feburary Revolution. There was another revolution called the October Revolution. It reformed the interem provisional government and made the Soviet Union. Germany than took over Russia which mean Communism ruled it.

Causes of WW1

There were multiple factors that caused WW1. One of then was when Francis Fernidad was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. After that Austria-Hungary was able to find an excuse to make Serbia an enemy and declare war on them. Even the Germans pressured Austria-Hungary. Other factors that caused WW1 was imperialism. The Industrial Revolution forced European nations to go overseas and search for raw materials to make products. European nations got some of their raw materials from Africa, and the European nations competed for land in Africa. Britain and France talked things out, but later on there were tension between Germany, Britain, and France. Even becoming allies were one of the factors. The Triple Alliance was formed which was composed of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy. While they were allies Germany and Italy were suspicious of each other because of the Balkans.