Mikhail Gorbachev and The Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorachev was a young leader to the old and conservative Soviet Union. His new ideas and vision as opposed to the old views of Stalin were considered to be a way out of their situation. He introduced a policy of glasnost which was a policy of openness or freedom of speech. Under the old government there was no right to speak. With the thoughts of his people in his mind he had passed the policy of perestroika which gave people to own and open small private businesses. This was the plan of Econmical Reconstruction or like a communist industrial revolution. Gorachev unknowingly opened the door to the collapse of communism. With this policy Gorachev also was able to lossen the elections and lost many satellite states.

The Collapse of Communism

During the Cold War the USSR and the U.S. were the world's leading superpowers. After WW2 these two world powers were competing in a race. Both of them being world powers and armed with atomic weapons they did not get in to any actual fighting. The mere cost of keeping up with each other was high for both countries. For the USSR it was to much. Their economy soon collapsed at the high price of competing with the U.S. With the collapse of the USSR the communist countries that they supported soon also collapsed due to the fact that their main source of money came from Soviet Russia. The collapse of the USSR destroyed many economies around the world. The collapse of the USSR gave a response out to the world. The fall of the Berlin Wall raised the iron curtain that had fallen on Europe ever since WW2. Cuba which was one of Russia's allies due to it's location near Florida. The collapse made the U.S. the world's only leading superpower and reshaped Europe again.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

There is no place in the world today where segregation has not hit. In the Continent of Africa, segregation was a major issue. In South America the government there adapted a policy of apartheid. This was a policy of segregation which was similar to the Jim Crow Laws in the Southern U.S. after the civil war. This was in the common sense to stop the majority which were 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 free and equal South Africa. Today Nelson Mandela is a symbol of hope like Dr.King and Gandhi who have become the peoples voice wherever there is apartheid or racial injustice. 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. He and many others were the immovable objects that nothing as strong as European Imperialism could move. He was the cornerstone of the South African people and was elected President in South Africa's first free election in 1994.

African Independence

Africa was not always into the many countries that it is today. Before during the gold rush and European imperialism the European countries came to Africa and started making their colonies. This upset the African people because their borders were being defined by the will of those new to their countries. The African people also had no say in their government. This was one of the more critical parts that had affected the African people because they were supposed to abide by laws that they had no say in which were created by a government in which they had no voice in. Many new African nations were formed after WW2 mainly because of the fact that the European countries had no money left to control these countries.

Many African countries demanded thier independence. These countries had many fighting for their freedom. Some of who include Leopold Senghor, Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Nelson Mendela and mony more. All these leaders felt the need to free their country and to do it without the use of violence like Gandi. In the end many of their efforts had worked and their countries were free.

Flim Lesson:The Right Stuff

The U.S. and the USSR were competing in a space race. In this movie it shows the early days of the U.S. space program or NASA. This was made in response to the communist country Russia's launching of the first satellite, Sputnik. This was the first satellite launched to space. Seeing this the U.S. decided to send the first man to space. They began searching for the perfect candidates and found the test pilots. While they tried all of this the also tried to launch a rocket into space. The USSR had already launched a rocket and this meant that the U.S. were behind the Russians.

The test for the rockets took many months and each time the had failed. While doing all this NASA decided to send a chimp up to space. The first American up was a monkey while the first Russian up was a man. The U.S. and the astronauts felt threatened and felt like a joke that they were behind the Russians. The U.S. would then succeed in passing the USSR by sending the first man on the moon Neil Armstrong. This was part of the many Apollo Missions.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

The Hollywood version of the Holocaust directed by a Jew Steven Spielberg. It tell the true story of the people saved by a member of the National Socialist party, the Nazis. The man was Oscar Schindler. He was a factory owner who made ammunition's for the German army. This was hugely profitable to him because he did not have to pay the people who worked for him because they were Jews. The most striking scene in the movie was the one with the girl in the red dress. This was the most striking because the entire movie was in black and white and through the confusion of the transportion from ghettos to the camps. A young girl gets lost looking for her mother. Later on she ends up in a wheelbarrow with other girls all of whom are dead. This was the most striking because it showed innocence being punished for doing nothing wrong other than being born in the wrong house. Oscar Schindler who saw the girls dead body felt a chill going through the course of his entire body. The scenes from the movie that were the disturbing were the killings in cold blood. Cold blood killings like that are the kind of killing that stay and change you forever. To kill someone like that with no emotion is savage. Oscar Schindler saw this and didn't want blood on his hands. The Hollywood version was the one that was more describing of the holocaust.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

The documentary Night and Fog which was made by the French is a documentary on the Holocaust. The documentary showed the concentration and death camp know as Auschwitz. This camp was the mass murderer of millions of jews. The scenes of the camps buildings and the facilitys there were the most striking. The dormatories were one of the most shocking ones. The other scenes which showed the gas chambers in which millions of jews were killed. This documentary was more efffective at telling about the Holocaust rather than the hollywood version Shindler's List. This is because in hollywood everyone likes a happy ending. The truth is there was no happy ending.

The treaty of versailles (ended WW1)

The Treaty of Versailles ended WW1. It was signed at the palace of Versailles in France. The winning side which included the French, British and Americans made this treaty to punish Germany and blame the Germans for everything. This treaty forced Germany to give up any thing it had. Its colonies were seized by the British and French. This treaty forced Germany into a recession. This led to Facism and the rise of Adolf Hitler. Hitler provieded the people of Russia the one thing that the needed, revenge. He started building the military, which was unathorized by the treaty.Hitler provided the people of Germany with what they wanted, they want'ed to hurt the people that made them lose everything.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

The Ottoman Empire was one of the biggest empires ever. It stretched from Northern Africa to the Middle East and Southern Europe. This was a Major Muslim dominated empire. Like all great Empires this one was doomed to end. It ended after World War 1. The Ottoman empire was on the losing side(Germany). With this the Ottoman empire broke up and was split up into many countries. One of those was Turkey.

Turkey was led by a man named Mustafa Kemal. He asked the people of Turkey if their country in any way was a bit civilized. He was named Ataturk. This was a title given to him by the people of Turkey. It meant the father of the Turks. His principles were stated as the "Six Arrows". This was his drive, his purpose and his values which defined everything he did and was reason behind everything he did. The Six Arrows were republicanism, populism, secularism, reformism, nationalism, and statism. He made sure that all the aspects of the Turkey government was separated. This was called secularism. This meant that religious affairs were not to interfere in government affairs. This can also be found earlier in the subcontinent of Asia in the Mughal Empire. Their leader also used simpler ideas and redefined the Mughal empire. This was the most important thing that Kemal could do. This is because by keeping religion and government apart he modernized Turkey.

Film Lesson "Gandhi"

The map of Asia was changed forever in 1947 when the East India British company left India for good. India was split up into 3 countries Pakistan, India, and East Pakistan(Present day Bangladesh. This began the biggest migration in the history of the world. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims went to Pakistan. This move of Independence can be credited to many people but the one that was quite possibly the most influential was Gandhi. This leader was most recognized for his acts of non-violent civil disobedience. He encouraged the people to get their independence through non-violent means.

He defied British rule on many occasions. One of them was the salt march. This was when Gandhi along with a hindered men walked 200 miles to the edge of India to the sea and made salt. While this may sound like nothing, salt had a huge importance in everyday life in India. In the harsh climate like India's food cannot survive because of the extreme heat. He also stopped wearing British made clothes and made his own cloth. He encouraged the people to do the same. He was also sentenced to jail many time and all those times that he was sent to jail he came back stronger and more determined than ever.
This also had an effect on the people because it made them more determined. He believed that nothing can be achieved through violence and that if the people would want their independence then they would have to prove it not to him but to the empire. He once said that "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind". This ment that violence was never the anwser and that the only thing violence bring is more violence and death with bloodshed.

The Russian Revolution

World War 1 had changed Europe but not for the good. It gave the Germans land, Russian land. This caused the people of Russia to be mad and angry with their government which back then was a monarchy and the king who in Russia was know as the Czar. The people being unhappy they revolted under the leadership of Vladmir Lenin. The people were tired under the leadership of Nicholas II. The people were tired for being so far behind to the rest of the world. They lost the Russo-Japenesse War. The Germans declared war on Russia after Russia chose to stop Austria-Hungary from invading Serbia. This was the start of World War 1. With this nearly all of Russia's men were dead. Russia had given up and chose to sign a treaty with Germany by which it gave up land to Germany. This was the last straw to the people of Russia. This was the start of Communism in Russia under Lenin. He believed that this was the right idea for Russia. The people wanted change and that change was found in Lenin. This alloweed him to control the people in anyway he wanted. One thing that he and the Bolshevik party(communist party) came up with was "Peace, Land and Bread". This was the most know party chant. This ment the people wanted peace, land and food. There were however people that opposed them too. This caused Russia to go to civil war in which 15 million Russians died. There were two armys the Red(communist) and White(capitalist) army. The U.S. and other western nations supported the white army. In the end however the Red Army was the victor. This however caused Russia's economy to collapse into a depression.

Causes of WW1

The Great War was the one that is now know as World War 1 or WW1. This war was a war that was waiting to happen. No matter what happened this war was to happen. The cause that started it all was the assassination of Austria-Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Sebian Nationalist. The assassination of the archduke was caused the nationalism. The people that lived in the Austria-Hungary empire were now realizing the fact that they don't speak the same language with their rulers. They only thing that they shared was the land that they lived on and were always fighting over. These countries also started funding their militarys in the previous years because of the anticipation. This was one war that could not be prevented because it was one that all the nations of Europe saw coming. This war also created new countries. It also caused promises between the natoins to be broken. This was the collapse of the alliance system. This war caused the people of all the nations they belonged to felt pride in the fact that their country was the dominate one.