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.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

My reaction to "Night and Fog" was that its a very imformitive documentary. i have seen it before in 7th grade and even now im still astonished at the grusome events of the holocaust. compared to the scenes i viewed from schindler's list, they were somewhat similir. the scean were the children hide, and one little boy goes into the holes in the ground that they use for going to the bathroom, in the documentary they showed what they were used for so we knew exactly what the little boy was going through. In the movie, they showed dead bodies and the creamatorium. In the documentary they showed the dead bodies and how they disposed of them. like the creamatorium and they also showed the gas chamber.
I think that they both illustrate the holocaust well, but the documentary only showed facts and footage and horrifying people, the movie put in characters and fear and we followed each of there journies and it there pain made the movie more real to us. so in my opinion, the movie was more of a influence on my mind then the documentary.

The Treaty of Versailles (Ended WW I)

After the first world war, the Triple Entente was held victorious. In Versailles, The Big Four, (representivives of United states, France, Great Britian, and Italy) met to discuss a peace treaty. Since Germany was one of the most powerful countrys and they did the most damage in the war, the blame of the whole war was placed on Germany. The treaty said that Germany had to give up 10% of there land. They also had to pay reperations over a few years, totaling up to billions of dollers. Also, because germany had such a big army, they were now limited in the millitary and navy. Also concerning land, they took Alsasa Lorraine and gave it to France, and after four years it could decide if it wanted to go back to Germany or stay with France. All in all, Germany was blamed for the whole war and was held responsible for all the damage and pain and loss, and was punished.

Lots of historians say that the Treaty of Versailles led to Fascism and the rise of Adolph Hitler. I agree with the historians 100% because WWI was a world war, it was not just Germay fighting the world. Remember, Austria-Hungary and Serbia started this war originally, and they were the ones who even called Germany in to fight, and then France joined the Serbians and eventually every country in Europe, and the United States got dragged in. But the beginning of the war was not on Germanys shoulders. Yes Germany was very powerful and had a great impact, but it was not the only ones fighting. If Germany was getting punished, then every country should have been getting punished just as hard as the Germans. And i do belive that its because the treaty was so unfair in punishing the Germans, that they did let Hitler and Fascism rise to power. They felt that they were treated unfairly and the got angry and WWII began. If the Big Four and the Treaty of Versailles were just fair and gave every country equal punishment, i dont belive WWII would have even started.

Mustaf Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the founder of the turkish republic and its first president. He used a theory of kemalism to modernize turkey. He used various things known as the 6 arrows to do so.
One of them was republicanism. The Kemalist reforms was known as a political revolution. They wanted a change from the ottoman empire, and wanted to be individually reconized as their own country. They dident want to be known as only a part of the empire but its own republic. Ataturk believed that it is only the republican regime which can really respect and honer its people and did what it needed.

Another thing he used was populism. The [kemal] revolution was also a social revolution. This part of the revolution was lead by people who really cared about the people insted of just the rich people or the goverment. This lead way to womens civil rights and evenully the swiss civil code. this gave women the right to vote in 1934. ataturk also stated that the true rulers of turkey were the peasants. the principle of populism it was stated that Kemalism was against class privileges and class distinctions and it recognized no individual, no family, no class and no organization as being above others.

anoter important thing that he used was secularism. this was when he wanted to seperate religion from education, cultural and legal affairs. the reson for this was that he wanted everyone in turkey to make up there own minds about religion and how were they to do that if religion was a part of everything and anytrhing they. it would eventully lead to dicrimination and thats not what he was trying to accomplish. he just wanted them to be free to do whatever they felt and belived.

he did alot for turkey, including outlawed some hats, made them were suits and ties, making them look less islamic and more modernized like the europeans. this eventully lead to a independant modernized turkey.

Film Lesson: Gandhi

Gandhi was a peaceful political leader who lead his country to independance. He belived in non violence, and used civil disobedience in order to show great britian that the people of the indian nation would not tolerate the injustice that was being served to them. he belived that if they did not use violence, it would be more effective then fighting fire with fire. he had a famous quote. "an eye for a eye only makes the whole world blind."
One of the things he did, and did often, was protests and marches. One of the most famous marches was the salt march in 1930. Britian controled the salt trade in india, and the people of india were only aloud to buy salt from the british. since it was so hot in india, salt was a crucial part of there diet. so insted of buying salt from the british, Gandhi marched to the sea, along with millions of protesters, and made his own salt in a protest the british.
Another protest he did was not buy british cloth. Gandhi influenced the people of india to make there own clothes. that also took alot of power and money from the british. this and the salt march together made britian realize that india was to much trouble and was a waste of money to have and in 1947, two years after world war 1 ended, India finally became its own country. Gandhi, wanted india to become one, the Hindus and the Muslems but it did not work out that way. but all in all, because of Gandhi's efforts India became its own country.


EXTRA CREDIT: Do you think India's Independence was all about Gandhi? Or do you think it would have happened anyway? What was happening in Great Britain about the time of Indian Independence (1947) that may have influenced events?