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.

The Opium Wars

The opium war was an important war. It showed that the europeans got what they wanted when they wanted it. It was also the worlds first drug wars. The British would trade opium with the Chinese for tea. As you know, any drug can be addictive and opium sure was. At first opium used to be a drug used to cure diarihha but then they mixed it with tobacco so they could smoke it. Tea was in high demand and the chinese had it. The chinese were self sufficient and didnt want anything from the Europeans or Americans.

When the British ran out of things to trade, they started to trade opium mixed with tobacco so they could promote smoking. They would bring in nearly 2 million pounds of opium a year. This weakend the chinese population. It even weakend the economy because they were giving away pounds of silver to pay for opium. They tried to ban opium but it didnt work. All the government officials were corrupt and accepted bribes. the Chinese tried everything to stop the british from smuggling opium into the country but nothing worked. The chinese were fed up with this so the opiums wars began.

China was easily defeated because they lacked the technology. Europe was too advanced for them. They made the chinese sign a treaty that was "unequal" and it exploited the chinese resources. The Americans and Fench also made an "unequal" treaty.

Film Lesson "Mountains of the Moon"

This was a good movie. In this movie it showed two Europeans trying to find the source of the Nile river. They had many hardships trying to do this. Their first attempt was not very successful. They were attacked by a local African tribe. While John Speak was out hunting, he was being followed by some of the members. Richard Burton (another explorer) had a spear thrown through his mouth during the ambush. John Speak was captured and then escaped. He found Richard Burton and they escaped and returned to Europe. A couple years later they met back up and decided to go back to Africa again. In this trip there were even more hardships. a lot of there supplies were stolen and they were captured twice. John speaks had a bug go in his ear and killed it by shoving a blade in his ear. Richard Burton was almost killed by a Lion and he had obtained a disease in his leg that made him unable to walk.

They found the source of the Nile and Named it Lake Victoria. The problem was, that they didn't really discover it. The African tribes have been using it way before they came. The main technology advance that the Europeans had over the Africans were there guns. A simple handgun was a great advance. The Europeans were eventually able to capture Africa so easily because they had developed machine guns. They brought machine guns and even more Europeans to conquer Africa.

The meiji Restoration of Japan

Mathew Perry bullied the Japanese to sign the treaty. He came to japan with huge navy ships and advanced technology. The japanese would have no chance if they fought back. So it was either get destroyed or trade with us. The japanese were very impressed with the navy ships. japan's war ships were nothing compared to them. The Economy of Japan went up because of the Americans. The Japanese started to trade with the United states and that brought more money for Japan. They industrialized and modernized because they traded more. They were able to see all the new technology that everyone had. Japan is an archipelago and an archipelago is a chain of islands.

Karl Marx and Communism

Communism is when everyone lives in an equal. Everyone has equal pay no matter what job they have. Communism took over the world becuase people thought it would be a good idea. Some people worked hard for little pay and some people did nothing for a lot of pay. People didnt think that was fair so they believed in Karl Marx idea. Karl Marx saw that the working conditions of people were bad. They had to do dnagerous jobs with no sleep and food. He thought that the workers were the "good guys" and the rich people or factory owners were the "bad guys".

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx did not like the Industrial Revolution. He felt that the working conditions in the factories were un safe for the workers. He urged for people all over the world to unite in a big revolution. Marx had his own ideas and his idea was called Communism. Communism is when workers share the wealth in a communist society. He Belelieved that money should be distributed "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

The Industrial Revolution inspired Marx because he thought the workers were treated unfairly. He thought that the rich got a lot of money for no reason and that the common people got a little bit of money for a lot of work. he didnt think this was fair. He thought that everyone should share money and get equal amounts.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

Nationalism is when you have pride in your country. When you defend your country to the fullest and never dis honor your country. I am Nationalistic For my parents country, Barbados. I love Barbados and go there practically every year. When i go home i listen to the music from my island and talk like people who live there around my family. I have a lot of Bajan clothes including flags, hats, bandannas, wrist bands and even a tie.

Nationalism was used to create Italy. They formed their territory from other crumbling territories. Italy was ruled before it became its own state. They were apart of another country. Italy became Italy because it was united with other countries and made its own.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco was a good man. He was a South American general and he won independence for Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Equidor, Peru and Venesuela. He was born in July 24th 1783, Caracas Venesuela. He has a country named after him because he conquered Peru. Upper Peru became a seperate estate and it was named after him. Somin Bolivar helped defeat the Spaniards and was fighting for Independence. His dream of a united colombia influenced him.

Robespierre and The Reign of Terror

The reign of terror happened after the French Revolution. It was a period of violence and death for 15 months ( September 5 1793 - July 28 1794). It happened because of a rivalry of politics and 16,000 to 40,000 people died during this period. They used a tool called a guillotine to kill people. The executions happened because the leaders of the reign of terror period used dictator like power to instigate mass executions.

Robespierre was a leader in the Reign of Terror. No one in the government was trusted so everyone was in danger of being sent of the guillotine. He took full control of this reign and he tried to wipe out all of the monarchy leaders. Even the faces on cards, kings, queens and jacks were removed and then replaced with revolutionary faces. Robespierre went mad with power so they created a conspiracy against him and arrested him. They cut off Robespierre head and then appointed a new young leader named Napoleon Bonaparte.