Collapse of Communisim

Communism collapsed in East europe mainly because of the cold war, and events following shortly afterward. the communist were fading as more and more countrys were turning toward capitalism and the communists were trying to keep up. the people tore down the berlin wall because it was seperating communist east germany and capitalist west germany. In November, 1989 people thought that they could get privat trips ther efor a visit, then they decided to make border crossings so more people could travel across, then they were cutting holes for pedestrians. after a while people got sick of the seperation and tore down the wall. the collapse of the ussr changed the world because all of the communist countries that it controled became capitalist and got spit up into the countries we know today.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid is a racial-segregation policy that the south african government used from 1948 to 1994. Under this system, nonwhites, colored, or Indian-did not share full rights of citizenship with the whites. The term apartheid has also been used in similar movements and other forms of racial separation, social, and educational, in other parts of the world.

Nelson Mandela was born in south Africa under the apartheid rule of goverment. he started out as the leader of a underground political group called the ANC, the african national congress. the group led demonstrations agenst the white ruled govermant and it made them quite unpopular with them. in fact, they tryed to shut him up for good in 1964 when he was sentenced to life in prison. the trial was called the Rivonia trial, and it was notorious for being one of the most racist trials in all of history. It was mainly just something to slow down the progress of the south africans, and to shut up one of its leaders for good, or so they thought. it dident last for long, as in 1990, after 27 years of inprisonment, Nelson Mandela was freed. no less then 5 years later, he was given the nobel peace prize and was elescted president of south africa.

African Independance

Read the link below. Study the map on page three. Explain how and why Africa changed so much in the 20 year period from 1955 t0 1975. Who were some of the leaders of African Independence and what

Africa changed in the time period of 1955-1975 because of african independace. The africans, who were ruled over by british goverments, saw from india and other countries getting there independace, and wanted theres aswell.
the gold coast, which was the first to gain independance from great britan, had a leader that lead them ot that. his name was Kwame Nkruma. he organized non violent protests and boycotts and was often imprisioned. but after all of that he finally achevied his goal, and also became Ghana's first prime minister.
another country that got its independace was Kenya. its leader in the fight for independace was jomo Kenyatta. he was non violent, even though a group called the mau mau was. they scared and killed thousands of kenyans, and eventully they died out. Kenyatta was elected president soon after.
then there was Zaire and Algeria. they also got granted there independace soon afterward.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

Explain the Cuban Missile Crisis. What happened and why is it considered “the hottest moment in the Cold War”? What did Kennedy do to combat the crisis?

the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded.

In 1962, the Soviet Union was behind the United States in the arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had the idea of placing missiles in Cuba. if they had missiles in Cuba that would double there arsenal and that would deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO stood for the North Atlantic Tredy Organization. this was formed by tyhe eurpoean nations and the united states. since they all had a democratic system of goverment. the major reason for NATO was that the countries involved wanted a defense alliance so that if one of them were attacked NATO would come to help them.
Also, since the western European nations were unstable econiomicly at the end of world war 2, the agreement of the nation included the Marshall Plan. this was when the east, (the united states) would send economic aid to the euopean countries who needed it.
Up until 1950, NATO dident have a military structure so at the beginning of the korean war, they made one and NATO expanded.


The Warsaw Act was the exact opposite of NATO. This pact was made up mostly by the Soviet Union and other little countries. It was supposed to be in response to NATO. The Soviet Union kept military personnel in the other countries of the alliance and kept them running socialist governments. This was undertaken by Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolay Bulganin after they gained power in 1955.

"the right stuff"

the us and the ussr were competing in the film the right stuff for space. they belived that the first people to control space would have an advantage over the other countries. the ussr was winning the race for space, when they put the first satalite into space. we responded by putting a monkey into space, then they put that first man into space. when it seemed like they won, we put the first man on the moon, Neo Armstrong.
the sceans i will remember is when they are training the astronauts, only taking the best into space. i will also remember the sceans where they test the rockets, and many failed to take off or stay in the air for very long before blowing up.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

i think that the most powerful sceans was when the nazi's were invading the ghettos trying to gather up all the jews, and most of the jews were killed, or seperated. it hit me harder then the other sceans because the nazis were so harsh, and the jews went threw extremitys to save themselfs and there riches. the little children hid in the toilets, jews hid under beds, in cabinets and hid there dimonds in there teeth, ate them with bread, anything not to give the nazi's what they wanted. they were so desprate, and it was sickening to watch the way the nazi's treated them. this film helps explain the holocaust very well.