Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the Soviet Union and paved the way for the end of Communism.the people that had Communism now liked the way he knew his way in politics and yet was so young for his age and were interested in their youth and energy and political skills he was the youngest ruler since Joseph Stalin. He wanted to give new ideas and by By the time he was 54 he was voted as Soviet leader. He didn't want to be exactly like Joseph Stalin but he wanted to give new ideas. He wanted to encourage the citizens to give him new ways of improving their society. Because of this, many new changes were made. He took innocent people out of jail, released books that were banned and opened churches so that the people could follow their religion.he did many great things and by that people started liking him and they way his ideas were.
he mad a policy that was called Galsnost. "Glasnost" meant that openness like that allowed the people to say what ever they want that were in the soviet union. This mad a lot of change to society. Some goodand even some of it bad. The chain of complaints caused him to make a new policy that was called the Peristrokia which was the idea of economic reconstructing.

The Collapse of Communism

Communism collapse in Eastern Europe and the USSR because the people were getting tired od communism and didn't want it anymore. They didn't like their rules so they didn't want to obey them anymore. So because of the people that didn't want communism anymore it started to collapse and it broke the soviet union apart so then later on the western and eastern side together again. Even the USSR broke apart because many of the people rebelled against them to a point where the government couldn't control the people anymore.The people even teared down the Berlin wall because it was built to prevent people in the east side of Germany to escape communism so like the people didn't want communism they teared it down. In the 1991 the soviet leaders were no longer more and they were kicked out by their own countries.Even Party officials were killed for personal gain, weakening the party.It changed the world because they are barley any communism countries expect for Cuba etc. Also because it was a huge relief to some people.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid s the racial segregation policy of South America. This meant that people that were not white did not have the same rights as the people that were white. Like for instance they could not use public toilet cause it was only reserved for white people in parliament African American were not allowed to vote in there. So this technically meant that the non white people were separated from the white people and who ever did not obey this law or opposed were banned or even the leaders were killed so that no one could change what was going on and unite the non white with the white. Nelson Mandela was one of the people that was against apartheid. He was a hero because he a leader in the African National Congress. So because of that he was sentences to death but still he gave people hope and after 27 years he was finally released and then was awarded the noble peace prize and voted as president of South America. He so admired by the authors of these articles and site because of his courage and because of what he did kept giving hope to the people even if being in jail.

African Independence

Africa changed so much in the 20 year period from 1955 t0 1975. Africa changed because Africa was practically overthrown by the European nations. Almost all its countries were ruled by the European people.It wasn't fair that the European nation takes over Africa and making it theirs, they just took everything from Africa and made it theirs. By 1975 the Africans were tired of it and fought to gain their independence, yet there were few who didn't mind because the Europeans gave them new things and made Africa better. One of the most memorable leaders of African independence was Jomo KenyattaHe went to Europe to try to persuade them to give his people their well deserved freedom then he went to jail and after he became president of Kenya.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

The US and the USSR were competing for something in the film lesson The US was the United States and the USSR was the Russians and they were both competing to see who goes to space first. The first person to go to space was a guy named Yuri Gagarin who was Russian so the first man was Russian and they put the first satellite but the first to go to the moon was some from the Untied states. So technically who won the space race was the United States. The Russians had a head start so they were winning the competition but then we beat them the moon so we won the competition.The scene from the movie that made me remember the cold war was the part when they broke the sound barrier. Once Russia sent up their rocket, America tried so hard to send rockets up to space until they finally succeeded. Eventually they caught up and won the space race.

NATO and the warsaw pact

The NATO stand for Nation Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO was a intergovernmental military alliance.that consisted of several countries in North America and Europe. The NATO was formed by Europe and The United States so that they could have defense alliances.If one of the countries were to be attacked by a nation the other NATO countries could come to their aid. Europe still had many economic problems so the United States were able to help them out and give them supplies.

The Warsaw pact was formed by the USSR and the Communist Easter European countries. Its was Like the NATO, it was a mutual defense alliance made to maintain power in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union ran the Warsaw Pact and they gained control of the nations beside them.It was formed by Soviet Union and its satellite countries They renewed in 1985 In the 1980's the organization weakened severely.In 1991 the Pact decided to stop their existence.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

The film Schindler's list was based on the holocaust. It was a great movie because it illustrated the Holocaust. The film illustrated the holocaust because the scenes were very much like what was said that happened in the holocaust. The most powerful scene for me was when the families were taken apart and when they died little by little and got burned.When the moms tried to get their children when they were taken away and put in the trucks and drove them away.The labor camps were also horrible because the Jews died in a horrible way they were either cremated or died slowly in the cold and sickness. i must say that the images from the film that stayed with me were the sad face of there families being pulled apart and when people were dying and were thrown and burned underground. They were nearly bones and sick and uncovered. the way they got shot and they had no compassion when they shot the children.For me i think the film that was more powerful was this film because it showed more action and horrible that but in the other one it just showed pictures and not the way they were killed made it more powerful.This movie showed the people getting shot dying crying and burned so for me this movie was more powerful then "Night of Fog".

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

"Night and Fog"was also another movie about the holocaust. some of my reactions to the movie where that it was a strong movie that showed a lot of terrible things that happened in the movie and it made me sad the way all those innocent people died in a cruel way. I found the movie to be very powerful because of the images they showed and what happened in the holocaust when they showed parts of Auschwitz. The scenes from this film where almost the same to "Schindler's List" because when they showed scenes about the death camps and the way they dead where almost similar to each other.They were very similar when it came to the parts of the death camps, Auschwitz, and when some people were forced to get on the trains and separated from there families. The movie that illustrated the Holocaust more effectively was the hollywood version because of the Jews when they were being brutally tortured by the Nazis. Innocent people were being shot just for running away from them or disobeying a single stupid order. i really felt bad when some babies and children were taken away from there family especially their mothers that they would never see them again because they were going to be killed and when they went happily in to the trucks because the children did not know they were going to die but there mothers did but they couldn't do anything about it.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

The treaty of Versailles was the cause of war world 2. The treaty of Versailles happened
at the end of war world 1.Although it was a pact to end a war and and to cause no more wars it eventually lead to another war.The treaty of Versailles affected Germany at the endbecause they were held responsible for the cause of war world 1 and they lost some of there land which was Turkey.They had to clean up the mess of war world which was not far at all because they were held responsible for the war and had to give up some of there land. The treaty of Versailles was also called the treaty of peace which was suppose to be a treat of peace but in this cause it was not. It was one of the peace treaties that stopped the war.Some of the rules of the treat of Versailles was that they had to give some of there land up also the in there army therre could not be more then 10,000 men.
The rules were the following:

* German army – no conscription 100,000 man limit
* Saar coal mining area controlled by France
* German coal to France, Belgium, Italy for 10 years
* German naval fleet to be surrendered to Britain and restricted in size (the Germans surrendered the fleet by sinking in at Scapa Flow Scotland).
* Germany surrendered all colonies, which would welcome Mandates
* Alsace and Lorraine restored to France (had been taken by Germany, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1878)
* Poland created with territor from West Prussia. Polish Corridor – Danzig – Baltic (created Germany and East Prussia).
* Allies occupy the west bank of the RhineI to French border for 15 years (would become a demilitarized zone)
* Germany must pay reparations (money and/or goods) to the Allies
* Clause 231 – Germany must admit full responsibility or guilt for the war (would be called the war guilt clause).
* The league of Nations would be formed from Wilson’s 14 points

This rules were unfair to the German because they could not win a war with only 10,000 men in their army.The war was not entirely there fault.It was also unfair that they had to give up there navy army and more.It was unfair that they had to pay for all the damages caused by the war.Also that they had to give up and that they had to return Alsace and Lorraine which Germany had taken form France.Some of the historian lead to to the rise of Fascism and Adolph Hitler because Germany need a ruler to lead them out of France unfair treaty so then Hitler got to powerful that he became dictator and cause ww2. Historian say this because the treaty was unfair and it was the cause of ww2.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Musta Kemal Atuark was the first president of Turkey. He was president from octoberr 29 1923 through November 10 1938. He was in office like about 15 years. Kemal (aka: Ataturk) modernized Turkey and made it more secular because he had made it less a religious. Secular meant that having objects that are not religious in any kind. Mustafa Kemal was a very famous young man who led his people to victory and independence. Mustafa found the Turkish Republic and became the first president. He also before he became president he was in the military and was a hero and he was also 1st prime minister of turkey, he was the 1st speaker of the parliament of turkey, he was also the 1st leader of the republicans people's party.He also stopped the ottoman empire and then he was president for 15 years. The other changes that he made was that he modernized Turkey by the new legal system in Turkey that all citizens that are men and women and even rich and poor and they all had equal rights.
Even peasants were considered important. The style and fashion became different and he made the Turkish men wear hats instead of the fez. Men wore clothes like the Westerners suit, tie, pants, and shoes. Then he also made women stop wearing a veil that covers the face.

Film lesson "Gandhi"

Gandhi was born in October 2 in 1869 in Porbandar, Kathiawar Agency in British India.His full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi but all over the world he was mostly known as Mahatma Gandhi and Mahatma meant " Great soul". He is also honored in India for what he did for his India as "The Father of the nation" because of what he did for his country India. What Gandhi did for his nation was that he gain independence from Great Britian by using non-violence. In the movie when they used non- violence they would be hit in the head and body and they would not fight back so by using that the British people would get a little angry because they wanted the Indian to fight back to there mistreatment and they would boycott British goods like the cloths and the salt. They made a salt march that was the would march to the ocean to get salt they would make their own salt. He protested in a peaceful way . So he told the Indian people that if any of them used violence he would fast so his followers were scared that if he would fast again he would die. So they stopped . So Gandhi used non - violence to get India's independence because Gandhi used non violence and the British used violence so it made British look bad and Indians good. India's independence was not only about Gandhi because they all used non - violence to get there Independence because if it was not for all off them that made India look good they would have not gotten there independence . What happened in great Britain during India's independence was that that wanted to be free because they were mistreated because they werre not allowed to sit in first class if someone wanted that seat. So all Indians worked together to win India's independence from Great Britain.

The Russian Revolution

The Russian revolution is not a only the russians that fought it was also other country.In which the result of that out break the war destroyed the tsarist autocracy and because of that event it ended up being a cause to creation of the soviet union. Then they changed the government for another in the 1st revolution they changed the first government with another government that was Provisional government. Then in the second revolution they also changed the government and now this time they changed it with a government that was Bolshevik and this government was communist and this happened on October. The king during that time was czar Nicolas II. The leader of this Revolution was a man named Lenin. The Bolsheviks also had a very famous quote called "Peace land and bread". It meant that the peace that Lenin wanted to make Russia have. He had a group that was small of followers called the Bolsheviks. It was he who overthrew the Russian government and became its new leader. Like a dictator running his country, Lenin ruled and once again brought peace to the people of Russia.

Causes of WWI

WWI began in 1914 it was cause because of many reason. Many innocent people were murdered brutally. The improvement of machine guns, poison gas, and other deadly weapons of war contributed to the a lot killings.One of the biggest causes of this world war, was nationalism. Nationalism was the love for one's country. Because of this, it fueled the hatred that one country to another country. The revolution happened because of the Czar Nicholas II had left the throne. Czar Nicholas II was the one who made Russia into WWI and he kept sending troops to fight while people of starving. He was being a bad Czar and was abdicated from his throne.Another cause of the world war was the assassination of king Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. He was killed by someone from Serbia. Austria-Hungary realized they had a right to blame Serbia for the killing of their leader. Because of this they decided to declare war. This event leaded to the start of World War I.