The Collapse of Communism

After WWII the USSR and the U.S. were the leading superpowers of the worlf. this caused them to compete in a race to see who was the better power. They never had any actually fighting but tried to out do each other. The U.S created a group called N.A.T.O and this group tried to stop communism from spreading. The USSR created a group called the warsaw pact. This group tried to stop capitolism from spreading.

The USSR could not keep up with the U.S. Their economy soon collapsed and so did communism. When the USSR collapsed the communist countries that supported them also collapsed. Their main source of money from the USSR was now gone so they had no choice but to change the way their economy was run.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

In Africa, segregation was a big problem. In South America the government there used a policy of apartheid. Apartheid was segregation. This was to stop the majority of people (non-white) from voting and having a say in their country. Southern Africa was lead by Nelson Mandela and others in their fight for a freedom. Nelson Mandela is considered a National Hero, not because he had freed his country of South Africa but rather because he did not give up.Nothing could stop them from gaining their freedom because their will was too strong. He was of big importance to the people of South America and was elected President in South Africa's first free election in 1994.

African Independence

A huge reason that African began to gain its independence is because the Europeans had to much to handle. They would have to handle Africa and Even more countries as well as their own. Especially after WWII hit. They were in economical trouble and had to worry about themselves. Another reason that they gained their Independence was because they slowly began to modernize and the people of Africa slowly began to become smarter. The African many learned many American cultures and went to schools and studied hard. Most Africans defended freedom for Europe in WWII and they demanded the same for them when they went back to their colonies!

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

The U.S. and the USSR were in a space race. The movie showed the battle between U.s and Russia. Russia launched the first satellite into space and this worried the U.S. After this the U.S. decided to send the first man to space. They started to look for the perfect person to send. He had to have "The right Stuff". They put men through a series of painful and dangerous test to make sure they were the one.

The scenes that I will remember from the movie is the scene where they were testing the pilots. The type of machines they were in and the things they did to them were very painful. But eventually they found 7 men to go to space.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO was a group formed by the Americans. It was made to keep communism from spreading. Americans were capitalist and thought that they had a better system than communism and wanted it to stop. The Warsaw Pact was the Soviet Unions version of NATO. They wanted to stop capitalism from spreading since America and the Soviet Union was the 2 major super powers at the time.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

Schindler's list portrayed the Holocaust in a good way. It showed it as everyone following orders and not having a problem with what they had to do. One scene in schindler's list that I will remember is the burning of the bodies scene. People saw ashes falling from the sky but they did know what it was. It was the ashes of dead burning bodies. They were shutting down the camp and had to remove all the evidence so they burnt all the dead bodies and moved them to another camp.

Another scene that will stay with me forever is the Moving the jews out of the Ghetto. It was a brutal and violent process. They killed everyone who was still there after they moved. Another scene that will stay with me is the scene where Schindler saved the children of his workers. I thought it was very noble and brave.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

The film Night and Fog was very grusome. It showed real scenes from the Holocaust from the carrying of dead bodies to dead bodies being stacked up. It showed us the gas chambers and how people would scratch the waslls and try to get out. Schindler's List was not as grusome as the documentary. It showed some true and hard to watch parts but it was not as bad. I found the film very effective. Both movies portrayed the Holocaust effectivly. The hollywood version had more scenes but the documentary was more real.