Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev was a young leader with new ideas to offer for his country. Gorbachev realized that he couldnt just change things right away, he had to enforce a policy known as glasnost. Glasnost means openness. This include releasing books that were banned, freeing people from jail who did not actually do anything against the law, and the most surprising was that churches were opening. For the first time im many years, the Soviet Union was allowed its people to practice religion. With newly given freedom of speach, citizens now could share their opinions on the economic and political structure on the government. Gorbachev found out that the source of most economic problems was that the government told buisnesess what price to sell products and how much they get paid. Gorbachev now let people start their own buisnesess free from the controll of the government. He soon realize that the only way to fixthe economy completly was for Communism to lose its grip on the Soviet Union completly. Slowly by slowly starting in areas such as Poland and hungary, small reforms starty to take place and democracy slowly takes over. More events such as the fall of the Berlin wall and the unification of Germany also brings communism to its end. Eventually Communism completly collapse due to the revolutionary efforts by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Collapse of Communism

There are many reasons for the collapse of Communism. Many say that it's economics and military system could never stabalize. Gorbacev was the new Communist leader. He decided to open the Soviet Union for more trade and tried to reconstruct the Soviet Union. This ended up with the collaspe of the conomy due to many communist countries abandoning dictators and adopting democratic movements. This was a major turning point in history. the Berlin Wall was finally took down and East and West Germany once again joined both economically and politically. Jobs such as farming were no longer high paying jobs and people had to start doing more modern jobs. This also ended the Cold War because the fall of Communism ment there was no longer a threat that war will start between the Soviet Union and the United States. This was a relief and a time to celebrate for many Americans.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid was a system that the government of the Africa used from 1948 to 1994. This system segregated blacks from whites and did not grant blacks full citizenship. Black people could not vote and many places were restricted to only one race. Blacks and whites could not have relationships with one another and were separated in schools. Africans could not vote. This caused many Africans to start a boycott. One man wished to unite blacks and whites rid Africa of Apartheid. This man is Nelson Mandela. Nelson spent 27 years in prison simply for trying to make a better life for his people, a life where they could live freely. The white South African government's plan to silent Nelson backfired. Instead Nelson's followers stood by him and continued to fight for freedom. Apartheid was soon abolished from Africa after the release of Nelson from prison and he recieved the Nobel Peace prize and was elected president of the United States within five years of his release in 1990.

African Independence

Africa fought hard to win it's own freedom and win its independence from Europe. When Africans returned home from WWII they refused to still be apart of the British colonies. Both the Europeans and the Africans fought in WWII to win their freedom, so why should they return home to see that they are still being ruled by the Europeans? The British let more Africans be nominated to the legislative council but this was not what the Africans wanted. They wanted a chance to have their own electives and the freedom to rule their own countries. Kwame Nkrumah studied the United States and felt that Africans should have the same freedom. Nkrumah started to organized boycotts. The British government felt threatened and put Nkrumah on trial for going against the British empire. After many years he was found not guilty. Even thought he won the trials he was thrown in jail many times. This did not stop him from trying to gain freedom for his people. The British empire finally came to a economical conclusion that Africa should have its independence. Nkrumah spent many years as the president of Africa and is still living today.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The horror of a nuclear war never came closer than during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Photos were taken from a plane that showed Cuba building nuclear bombs. This was on October 15, 1962. Long debates on weather or not the U.S. should invade Cuba went on for days. On October 27, Cuba demanded nuclear U.S. missiles to be taken out of Turkey in exchange for the Soviet missiles in Cuba. Just one day later, people start to cool down after hearing that Cuba would return the missiles to the Soviets. This meant that they were putting a great deal of trust into the U.S. President John F. kennedy honored their trust and the crisis was over.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO is a group of countries in North America and Europe that formed an alliance with one another. If one NATO country was attacked, all NATO countries would come to that countries aid to help them. This also allowed Russia to recover after WWII. The Soviets were becoming an increasing threat towards the NATO. The military of the Soviets were becoming just as powerful as the Western Powers. This made many Europeans members start to doubt weather the U.S. would defend them if they were attacked by the soviets. As the U.S. was fighting a war in Vietnam, Europeans were afraid that the soviets were building up their military force. NATO managed to prevent getting attacked by the soviets although communist governments were forming in the alliances.

The Soviet Union and its satellite countries formed a organization of their own called the Warsaw Pact. This was created in response to the NATO. Warsaw was a attempt to strengthen the soviet's control over satellite countries. This was a organization where all the communist countries united. Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union made up the Warsaw pact. East Germany got out of the pact to join West Germany and unite once again. The USSR started to withdraw troops to aid other countries part of the Warsaw pact. With only six countries left in the Warsaw pact, the organization soon decided to disband.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

This film showed the competition between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.. Americans lived in fear that the Joseph Stalin would try to spread communism across the world. The U.S. felt it had the advantage after they dropped the atomic bomb because they were the first country to have a atomic bomb. This glory did not last long, soon the Russians made even more powerful bombs called hydrogen bombs (H-bomb). The Americans then made H-bombs of their own. The Russians then made the first satalite to go into space, this start the competition of the astronauts. We put a monkey into space and they put a human. We were determined to get ahead of the Russians. We put a group of astronauts into space who became American heroes, which is what "The Rights Stuff" is about. We eventually got ahead of the game by being the first to put a man on the moon.