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.

Film Lesson - "Gandhi"

Gandhi was a very influential man. He led India to their independence. He used non violence and passive resistance. That means you can resist something without laying harm or violence to anyone or anything. He thought fighting would get you no where and did everything without violence. He would rather get beat, hit and bruised to prove his point instead of violence.

When his own people used violence he fasted. He did not eat anything until they stopped. All he did was sip water. I think India's independence was all about Gandhi. He was the one to act first. He did not like the way his people was being treated and he put a stop to that. All the other revolutions that were happening at the time may have influenced them to revolt. But Gandhi was still the first person to take the initiative.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

World War One ended with the treaty of Versailles. The treaty of versailles was an unfair treaty. It really attacked germany. It hurt their economy badly. They even lost 12% of their Population. They also lost their land over seas. They had to pay compensation to the winning side of the war. The german economy was unable to recover itself.

The treaty of versailles led Germany into a recession and this led to Facism and the rise of hitler. They had no idea Hitler was as crazy as he was. They saw a man who could lead their country out of the situation they were in. I think that historians say that WW2 started because Germany wanted revenge. They were upset that they took out everything on them even though they didnt start the war.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization

The Ottoman Empire was a huge empire. But like all empires this one came to an end. It ended after world war 1 and their power was divided into many parts. One of these parts was turkey. Mustafa Kemal modernized turkey in a major way. 

He made them remove anything that didnt make them fit in. He made a law that they could not wear a "Fez" which was a tall hat with no brim. He made sure that everything was seperate. An example would be religion. He made sure religion strictly dealed with religion and didn't interfair with government things. 

The Russian Revolution

Everyone has had a revolution and now it is the Russians turn. The Russian revolution is really a series of Russian revolutions. Russia was a part of WWI but dropped out. They had a very low weapon supply so when the people with guns died, the people without guns would have to use theirs. The Russians had a revolution because they did not like their leader at the time. The Russians had many people but their army was not that great.

Some causes of the revolution was the huge defeat of Russian by Germany, the lost of their land, food shortages, fuel shortages and high prices. Vladamir Lenin led the revolution. He followed the Ideas of Karl Marx and communism. He was the leader of the Bolshevik party. The Bolshevik was a communist party. In the revolution, the Russian people Killed Czar (Their old king) and his whole entire family which means everyone from his blood line.

Causes of WW I

There were many causes for WWI. One major cause was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. A Siberian assassin shot him in the neck and his wife in the back. Austria Hungary declared war on them for doing this. This is how alliances started. Germany and Italy helped Austria Hungary in the war, while Britain, France and Russia helped Serbia. Italy and Russia dropped out of the war. America later joined the war to help Britain, France and Serbia because the Russian's were sinking American passenger ships.

Another cause of the war was Nationalism. Each country in the war believed that they were better than the rest. They all had a sense of pride and believed that they should be victorious. Even on that Christmas when they stopped fighting they thought they were better than each other. They played soccer against each other and cheered their country on.

Another cause of the war was Militarism. Every country thought that their country had a better military. They fought long and hard to prove that.