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.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

"Schindler's List illustrated how horrible the Holocaust really was. Jews were treated inhumanely and killed by the millions. They moved all Jews poor and rich into ghettos. Jews were forced to live in small crowded buildings. One of the more powerful scenes for me was when the children were separated from their parents just to be killed because they wanted to kill the next generation of Jews. Many Jews hoped to be put in labor camps because it was the best chance they had at living. Auschwitiz was the one place where Jews felt that they would live. Schindler did not let many of his workers get killed. The pictures of the killing of Jews for no reason at all will never leave my mind. Schindler knew that there was no justice to the killing of the Jews, he tried to save as many Jews as he could.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

"Night and Fog" showed just how inhumane the jews were treated. Im sure many people were surprised to find out how serious the holocaust really was. This is one of the worst cases of genocide of all time and it was done in such orginized manor, as if the nazis truly felt they were making a better world. "Schindler's List" was a more hollywood version of the holocaust and some of the events were not true, but for the most part it showed a good historical demonstration on the everyday hardships the jews had to face. "Night and Fog" showed more effectively just how harsh the jews were treated but "Shindler's List" showed how much they had to go through for mant years. Both of these films give a deep understanding to what it was like to be jewish back then and made me feel that such things should of never happened and should never happen again.

The Treaty of Versailles (Ended WWI)

The Treaty of Versailles was thought of as many as what caused WWII. Germany lost WWI and was blamed and punished for it. They were forced to pay millions to other countries and lost many resources and land. When the United States stop loaning Germany money, nearly 30% of Germany got unemployed. All hope seemed lost and the German people were looking for a leader to bring Germany back into power. This is when Adolf Hitler got the attention of the German public, he promised to give Germany more living space and bring them back into power. What the German people did not know was that Hitler had plans of his own to dominate the world. The people were so desperate for a new leader that they looked right through Hitler's true plans. Hitler did make Germany more stable, and helped the economy greatly. The more he helped Germany, the more the German people wanted him to have power. This is when facism got involved, and the Hitler started his rampage which resulted in WWII. This is why many historians thinks that the Treaty of Versailles caused WWII.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal was one of the first leaders ever to separate religion from government and educational affairs. Ataturk felt that no person, group, or religion was any better then the other. His goal was to make every citizen equally important and that they should work hard everyday to feel united with their country. Ataturk saw the peasants as the true rulers, so he let woman vote in 1934. Kemalism is much like daily life in the United States. This was a revolution that not only modernized Turkey but let the world see how a country can be ruled with fairness, happiness, and in the best interest of the people. It did not matter what religion or race you were, and it did not matter what you practiced, Ataturk made a society where all could peacefully live together in a free world.

Film Lesson "Gandhi"

Gandhi used many methods to help his nation of India gain independence from India. He was most famous for his non-violence ways. He even fasted when he saw his followers using violence, violence ended almost entirely after he fasted Gandhi believed that if they did not fight back, then the British empire would be the ones who look bad. Gandhi told all his followers to make their own cloth and to burn all British cloth. It became a common sight to see a Indian making their own cloth. Many looked up to Gandhi as a new hope for freedom. Gandhi was not just a politician, he was one of them. Gandhi told his followers to boycott all British goods and to only buy Indian goods. He also marched on the beach collecting salt with his followers. It was very important to have salt in order to live in such heat. The British soldiers used violence and hit the Indians with clubs.

Gandhi was put in jail many times to try to prevent him from leading his followers. This did not stop his followers from making their own salt and cloth and from boycotting the British. Gandhi was taken to the round table conference to discuss the independence of India. Independence was finally rewarded to India and was greatly sue to Gandhi. I believe that the independence of India was greatly due to the actions of Gandhi. I also think that even without Gandhi's help, India would have most likely won it own independence sooner or later because history has proved that when the governed does not agree with the government, the government is usually to fall. In this case one man helped trigger a non-violence fight against the government and helped an entire nation gain independence.

Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is when the government controls almost every aspect of public and private behavior. Stalin used Totalitarianism to rule the Soviet Union by killing anyone who were a enemy of the party. Stalin executed nearly half of the entire communist party including the very people who got him into power. Stalin had a "Five Year Plan" for the purpose of making the Soviet Union a major industrial power in five years time. This came at a huge price, workers were forced to work 16-18 hours a day and working conditions were not safe. Stalin became very paranoid during the "Five Year Plan". He killed anyone who rivaled him in political power and it became clear that Stalin was not killing enemies of the party but the party itself. Stalin made atheism the official policy and executed all priests or forced them to work. There was no freedom at all and not even any religion. Living conditions were better and unemployment was down but this did not make up for the 40,000 plus deaths and forcing religion away from the people.

Film Lesson: Doctor Zhivago

Dr. Zhivago did not like the way the Czar was treating the people. The Czar was killing all who opposed him and many were starving. Many people were dieing in war. Dr. Zhivago wanted a change in the government which is why he supported the revolution. At first, Zhivago thought that the revolution was a great idea for a new form of government. Russian people wanted a change because they were sick of the way the Czar unfairly treated people and sick of all the people dieing in war. Soldiers started to ignore their generals in the battlefields and just walked home, this was the start of the revolution. A civil war among the communist and non-communist was created. The communist won the war and soon took over the government. Dr. Zhivago now knows the full extent of the communist government when he came home and saw that his house and all his property was being shared among strangers. He did not like what was going on and thats when he realized that communism was not going to work.

The Russian Revolution

The Czar was not treating everyone fairly and many were starving. When Russia went into WWI, it showed how weak the Czar's military was. Soldiers were dieing by mass numbers each day and they soon they started to just ignore their generals and walk home. This was the start of the Revolution. More and more people started abandoning the battlefields and joined the fight for Communism. Communism appealed to many people because there would no longer be a ruler such as the Czar again, instead the workers would control the government and everything would be shared among everyone equally no matter what your job is. This means that there will be no middle class or upper class, there will just be one class where everyone gets the same money and property. A civil war between communist and non-communist was formed. The communist won the war and took over the Russian government. The communist succeeded in creating a communist country.

Causes of WWI

WWI had many different causes. Nationalism was the cause of the rivalry between the countries. Countries competed with each other in making weapons for war because they didn't want other countries getting too far ahead of them. Each country wanted to expand their land and with Germany having the most power, many countries felt threaten by Germany's goals of taking over countries from all around the world. A German chancellor named Bismarck made the alliance system which included The amount of weapons in the military each country had increased each year. With so many new weapons being made and strong nationalism between countries caused many countries to feel that they must be ready for war at any moment. Years went by and countries were just waiting for a reason to strike. The assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand and his wife gave reason for Austria-Hungary to give an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia refused the ultimatum and soon Austria-Hungary waged war against Serbia. Allies of both Serbia and Austria-Hungary joined in the war ans soon became a four vs. four country war. The assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand is known as the trigger for WWI.