Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

In 1985, the assumption of power in the Soviet Union by a reformer, Mikhail Gorbachev, paved the way for political and economic reforms in east central Europe.Gorbachev’s supporters praised his youth, energy, and political skills. Soon he was voted as the the political secretary. Gorbachev abandoned the "Brezhnev Doctrine". Which was the Soviet Union's policy of intervening with military force, if necessary, to preserve communist rule in the region. Instead, he encouraged the local communist leaders to seek new ways of gaining popular support for their rule. In Hungary, the communist government made reforms in 1989 that led to the banning of a multiparty system and competitive elections. In Poland, the communists went in a round table talks with discussions of Solidarity.Solidarity formed the first non communist government within the Soviet bloc since 1948.In 1985, he announced a policy called "glasnost".It meant openness. He encouraged Soviet citizens to discuss ways to improve on their society. In the same year, Gorbachev introduced the idea of perestroika or economic restructuring. In 1986, he made changes to revive the Soviet economy.This allowed changes to come pouring in. Churches were opening. Book that were banned were brought back into the country.Many of the citizens were finally able to complain about all the economic problems. People were able to state their mind and give ideas of how things should be done.The revolutions of 1989 marked the death knell of communism in Europe. As a result, not only was Germany reunified in 1990, but soon, revolution spread to the Soviet Union itself.

The Collapse of Communism

213434 Americans thought that them being involved in the arms race was mostly what helped bring down the curtain on communism. But it was much more then that. In the 1980s, many people started to reject communism. That was the problem, no one believed in it anymore. communism was like a vision to change society that needed followers which it didn't have anymore. Everybody who went to communist party went there for career choices, not to spread to spread communism So in the end, there was nothing to back up communism.
12323Germany was split into four sectors-the Soviet, American, French, and English after WWII. Germany had fallen apart. The Soviets ran their part of Germany as a communist section.The wall was built in 1961 to prevent the Soveits' people in the east from escaping into the West which was better. There were about 5000 escapes. Ronald Reagan had came over to the Brandenburg gate to give a speech to the Soveit Leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the West Berliners. East Berliners heard the speech through their radioes. He wanted the wall down since their was tension between the US and USSR with the Space Race and Nuclear Weapons that had happened in the past. He wanted to be on better terms with the Soveits and realized the struggle of the people. He wanted Germany reunified. Finally in like Nov they started to take the wall down. Families that were separated were reunited after not seeing each other for years.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

32323The Africans word meaning separation or segregation was called Apartheid. Apartheid was the racial policy brought about by the National Party government of South Africa in 1948. Everyone who wasn't considered whites didn't have the same rights as those who were white. That included black people,mixed, and Indians. African Americans weren't able to do a lot of things in Africa, their own country. They weren't able to vote, use many public facilities, including bathrooms and institutions until 1990. It was because these places were restricted to the use of one race only. Which was usually the whites. If you failed to follow these rules, then you would probably be killed if you were black.
22t2But there was this man that Africa considered a hero because of the results he brought to the table. His name was nelson Mandela. He helped them in the fight for freedom. He lived in the streets of South Africa were if you don't abide by the rules of apartheid you would be thrown in jail.He began as a leader in the African National Congress, but he was work to fight for freedom was cut short because he was sentenced to death. His trail is now seen as nothing more than a cruel and evil plan used by the white South African government to silence Nelson Mandela. Even though he was in jail for a few decades, the hope he left helped his people to fight against the struggle of Apartheid while he was gone. He was thanked for that and was given awards for it. Plus his people were so happy that they finally received freedom from apartheid

African Independence

2343Well based on the map, Africa has changed way then a little. It changed dramatically. In 1975, like 95 percent of Africa was taken over by the colonies. The Europeans ruled most of Africa. The only places that were taken over was: Liberia,Libya,Egypt,Ethiopia, and the union of south Africa. But the fight for independence started 1951.Some leaders who lead the fight to freedom were, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Nelson Mandela of South Africa. The leading country in the independence was Ghana in 1957. But prior to the independence, it was the British colonies gold coast. Once countrys gained their independence, the changed their name and the gold coast changed theirs to Ghana. This name honored a famous West African kingdom of the past. Ghana became the first nation ruled by Africans to join the British Commonwealth. They were ver excited to be free but the wasn't prepared to rule yet. The Africans weren't educated on how to govern properly. They were being ruled for over 20 years so what do you expect?

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

23In the movie "The Right Stuff", it was a fight between America and Russia which took place in 1947. It was more like a race then a fight though. It was called the space race. It was a race seeing who can get to outer space first. The Americans thought they were winning the race when they built a air plane that was able to pass the sound barrier.So the americans got excited when this happened. They got confident that they were the strongest.But when the russians had built a space ship ti go in space, the Americans were afraid. they were afraid that the Russians could just drop nucks down from space or something. Then the Americans caught up and got into space but was ridicualed when the first American i n space was a monkey. So we lost the war for the first to space. But we won the race which was getting to the moon first.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

324324NATO means "North Atlantic Treaty Organization". The organization included countries in Europe and North America. The organization was established on April 4, 1949 with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty. Since America was the country leading the race of nuclear weapons, Western European powers relied on their massive nuclear arsenal to keep the evil soviet union away.After a while, the soviet union realized that they cant do anything because of the united states' nuclear weapons.After this, communism fell and the need for military assistance was over,so it turned into a political organization.
5435The Warsaw Pact formed six years after NATO.The Warsaw Pact included the Soviet Union and its satellite countries.Which were: Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania, and Bulgaria. The act was created because of NATO.It was signed in Poland in 1955 and was called 'The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance'.Even thought it sounded like a nice name, it was a military treaty that stated that the country's included in the treaty will come to each others aid in case it was attack by country's outside of the treaty.By 1991, the pact was over with.

Film Lesson :" Night and Fog"

Between the two movies, i think that night AND fog was more of a powerful movie. I say this because it showed some graphic stuff. It was actually footage of what happen. So actually graphic footage would give a better message then a movie based on something that happened then. Because the footage would make you really understand. Like Night and fog , it showed the actual dead bodies. How the Jews were really treated. How hen you look at the dead bodies, you could see how the were deprived . You would see the body super skinny showing that they didn't have food. That their hair was basically bald because their hair was shaved off. Alot of the bodies were decapitated and just so sad looking. You would see the field of dead bodies because they had no more coal to burn them. I felt bad for the soldiers and others who had to see, smell, and to carry the dead bodies I just thank God i wasn't living at the time to see these horrible actions. I especially wouldnt want to be a Jew at the time!

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

Schindler's List showed a great deal on important information about the holocaust. It showed how barbaric and horrible the Nazis were. Especially to the Jews. They did the most cruel things to the jews. the drove them out of their homes. It was from their homes, to the ghetto, to the working camps, to the death camps. which was the last stage when they were losing the war. It showed how they divided the jews acording to gender and age. if your old enough to work, they would take you to work. if your old, a woman or a child, they would kill you off. They woman and childern ahd a same chance of living depending on the camp , but the old was killed regardless. The ones who died died from starvation , being shot, burned or gassed. No mercy was being shown.
Some of the most horrible , cruel things i saw was when the people were hiding in the town after the raid. When they thought they were safe then started to come out, only realizing that the Nazis were waiting for them. The soliders killed them in cold blood. With no mercy. They didnt care if you were young,old,man, child, woman, pretty or ugly. They killed you off regardless. They felt like it was the right thing to do and that it was their job. They thought of it as fun and amusing. The most powerful film out ofnthe two of them was night and fog. it had actual footage and showed the acutal terrors that happened. It made you feell like you were actually there.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

When War War 1 was all said and done, it affected Germany a lot. One of the problems Germany faced after WWI was having to pay back all the damages done by them. Many European countries demanded huge sums of money from Germany, and as they were unable to fill those demands, the country's economy suffered. Germany also lost a lot of land to surrounding countries (such as the Polish Corridor, etc.)
Germany faced the Treaty of Versailles, which was an agreement signed with France, Britain and America. It stated that Germany had to pay reparations for causing the war. They had to cut their army, armaments and they also lost land, including Alsace Lorraine to France. It had a huge impact on their economy as well as their morale, which is why the German people were so keen to believe Hitler and the Nazis when they said they would better Germany and make it like it was before the Treaty.
The terms of the treaty of Versailles were somewhat harsh, but not out of the ordinary for that time period. In 1871, Germany had forced France to accept similar terms (losing Alsace Lorraine and paying heavy amends).One year earlier, Germany had made Russia sign a treaty that went far, far beyond what Versailles would ask of Germany. If anything, the terms were actually less harsh than what France and Britain had originally wanted; they had wanted to break up Germany, so that it would never again be a military threat...

Mustafa Kemal ( Ataturk) and The Mondernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal ( Ataturk) founded the Turkish Republic and became its first president. He was one of the few great leaders who had managed to accomplished a lot in a short time. He was the president as well as a military leader/hero. He was Also the spiritual leader of Turkish people, according to the worth of his efforts and revolutions. in the early 1920s he continuously emerged a triumphant commander who crushed the invaders of his country.Ataturk became known as an very capable military officer by being the only undefeated Ottoman commander during world war 1. He came out victorious through many battles and when he won at the Dardanelles in 1915, he decided to lead his people to liberation. He won it for them because he destroyed all those who opposed him.
His successful military campaigns led to the liberation of his nation and to the establishment of Turkey. During his reign as president, Ataturk started upon a program of political, economic, and cultural reforms.He didn't want his people to be just like the surrounding lands. Being far behind then the more advanced nations. He wanted to modernize his people.Then he made it happen.
He gave his people modern equality like in a lot of other country, like Christians,Jews or even Muslims can worship as they please.Kemal separated the laws of Islam from the laws of the nation.Under Kemal, women gained more freedom. He granted women the right to vote and to hold public office. Kemal also launched government funded programs to industrialize Turkey and to begin economic growth. At the time he made it illegal to were a fez hat. If you were going to were a hat it would be hats like the hats the people in England were wearing. Secularity (secular) is the state of being separate from religion.

Film Lesson: "Gandhi"

Gandhi is very well known to be one of the important historical figures throughout history.Mahatma Gandhi was born in 1869 and he died in 1948.Gandhi was born in Porbander in western India.Gandhi influence changed India's history and way of life up to its independence in 1947. He helped the indian people gain their independence. Gandhi helped get India freedom from the British. The way gandhi fought against the british was through nonviolence. He thought that if the Indians were nonviolent towards the British then it would make the Indians look better than the British and make british look bad. His plan ended out being very effective because it worked. Gandhi did marches, peaceful protests, and even started to make his own clothes and salt. he had his people buy nothing from the british to show that they weren't in favor of them. But the granting of the independence wasn't all because of gandhi. It was also because that the british went through so many wars after another. they lost so may men in the process. They didn't fell like dealing with the indians so they gave them the freedom they wanted. This was what gandhi wanted, but not everything turned out the way he wanted to. He wanted all the people in indian to be unified in india. But instead the were separated. This upsetted Gandhi-G but hey you cant get every thing you want....

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution started in 1917. They were ruled by their king called Czar. He put them in Wold war. They had lost many people and many battles. They had lost over 4 million people to the war. The Russian people was tired of those who ruled over them. They sucked at ruling over them. Their were things like diseases and famines. The people begged Czar of food during the famine in the winter, but instead he send soldiers to deal with them. This are reasons why the revolution was started. So then he was eventually assassinated. Then the russians were taken over by the Bolsheviks which was lead by Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was the leader or the revolution. The Revolution was about fighting for their rights and so they could be treated better. also to change their government. And thanks to the revolution, their home land changed and communism spread all threw their land. "Peace land and bread" was a quote used by the Bolsheviks a lot. It was the promise lenin made to russia.He had promised peace, love and bread to Russia and its people after the war. Eventually, the land of russia started to flourish.

Causes of WWI

World War One was a great big war. A very deadly one also. Tons of people died during the war. Those who hoped to return home to there family was killed like flies. Many people only had one drive and that was waiting to see their family. But there were a lot of reasons why the war was started. Some of the causes included: Nationalism, Militarism, and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand .

Nationalism is the pride,loyalty, and devotion in ones nation. Most of the nations was full of nationalism. For example; italy unified in 1870. It was very weak and didn't have much power at all. It could barely be counted as a great power. Even there industrial progress was slow. But they still and ambition and aimed high. Italy wanted Tunis and Tripoli in northern Africa. Thus created problems with france because that land was basically there territory. So everybody had conflicts with each other because most of them were territorially ambitious. so most countries would put up posters and have speeches about who the favored and supported. Schools would teach their kids that their country was better then their enemy and that they must kill them in till there gone.

Then there was militarism. Militarism is a strong military spirit or policy. The policy of maintaining a large military establishment. Many of the countries had a tendency to deam military efficiency to the extreme importance. When they put their military before anything else. So they kept their military ready for war at all times. Before the battle would happen, the militaries of each country we drawn out a battle plan.

Another cause of the world war was the assassination of king Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. He was killed by the someone from the land of Serbia . Austria-Hungary saw they had a right to punish Serbia for the killing of their leader. Because of of the assassination they decided to declare war and joined up with germany so they could have a part in hurting Serbia. After this decision, the event lead to the beginning of WW1.