Runelvi's global history blog

The Collapse of Communism

2010-05-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

Communism collapse in Eastern Europe and the USSR because since people got paid the same no matter what people start to become lazy and there was less work done , business went down and prices went up.then people were inspirited to become capitalism , they saw how other countries enjoyed capitalism. Demands for reform spread across East Germany in the fall of 1989 and led to the end of the Berlin wall .
basically communism ended with the help of the cold war since people weren't trying hard enough in communist countries the economy went bad and Russia had no more to keep on with the cold war.
Mikhail Gorbachev, He wanted to be on better terms with the Soviets and realized the struggle of the people. He wanted Germany reunified. And later in 1989 things heated . East Berlin
held demonstrations against their communist government. Authorities had to handle the situation with matters of force. East Berliners were beaten and arrested that night, some even took sledgehammers and tried to break apart the wall to get into east Berlin. Finally in like November they started to take the wall down. Families that were separated were reunited after not seeing each other for many years.

Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

2010-05-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the Soviet Union with the support of the people that loved him because of the fact of how he knew his ways and was also very young to be in politics.He knew his way through politics and knew what was right from wrong and still did not accept communism he didn't think it was right or fair. By the time he was 54 he was voted as Soviet leader.With communism, there were suppose to be no economic problems because everyone was paid the same ; even with this nobody liked the idea. Now that Mikhail changed the rules the people were now able to complain about the problems and what they would want to change and have back. He brought the things that were banned from the society before . He took innocent people out of jail, released books that were banned and opened churches so that the people could follow their religion.And this was he follow his plan to end communism.

"Glasnost" meant openness by this he basically meant that for people to not be scared to complain , or say what they wanted or ideas ,ways to improve their society.
"Peristrokia"meant economic restructuring he made changes to revive the Soviet economy.managers gained greater control over their farms and factories, and people
were allowed to open small private businesses. Gorbachev’s goal was not to kill to exterminate
communism, but to make the system more efficient and productive.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

2010-04-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

Apartheid means a racist government who had preferences for the white people . white people had more advantage in African than an true African. Growing up in South Africa under the Apartheid system of government meant these things, and worse, were part of daily life

Nelson Mandela is such a hero because he was one of those who stand up for their people and tried al the best he could to stop Apartheid and so that africans can get their indepence and be free again.So african can be able to control their own country.he was then arrested But even while in prison, Mandela continued to be a hope for his people who struggle against Apartheid in his absence. In 1990, after 27 years of imprisonment, Mandela was freed. His release marked the beginning of the end for apartheid. In less than five years after his release, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and elected president of South Africa.

Nelson Mandela is one of the world's true freedom fighters, and his life and personal triumphs will be remembered long after the world has forgotten the evils of Apartheid.

he used the 5 year in jails to transform South Africa from a racist government

(apartheid) to a genuine democracy.

Mandela was so admired by the authors because Mandela never gave up he was hope for his people and after he was arrested . prison for 27 years after he got out all he want was peace and he didn't blame or fought the European instead he became friend with the Europeans.

African Independence

2010-04-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

The map of Africa describes how overtime Africa became independent little by little. In the side 1955 most of the countries were colonies, but then in 1975 there was very little countries who were colonies.BY 1975 more than half of the continent became independent . after that only south west Africa ,Rhodesia , Spanish Sahara were still colonies.

During 1955 Africa was not independence and was being being controlled by European nation. The Europeans would came to Africa took over and African had no wright , or any time of control over their country. the European nation took over Africa and made it theirs own , Europeans took everything without asking for permission , vote or any say of Africa Europeans just took it and said this is our land.By 1975 the Africans were tired of it and fought to get their independence, there were a few Africans that didn't mind because the Europeans gave them new things and made Africa better in their eyes. But the majority of Africans hated the Europeans because it was their country and had no say into whether they allowed the Europeans to come into their land and take their natural resources. They still fought for their independence and were able to get it over tthe time the hard work paid off. Some of the leaders who fought for Africa's independence was Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Nelson Mandela of South Africa.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

2010-04-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

The US and the USSR were competing in the film "The Right Stuff" for better technolgy, fastest airplane, and who ever gets first moon. They are competing for whos better than the other.The winner of the competition was the United State. But at first Russia was ahead of the United States
Russia was the first to setup a satelli on the space and they had fast planes like USA too. The scene i remember from this Cold War event is when the United states tried and tried and tried to get the rocket to go to space and at the end it happened also when they showed what the Russians were doing.I also remember when the monkey went to space and how they were preparing the man and the monkey to go to space.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

2010-04-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This group included countries in both North America and Europe. The main reason for this group was defense. If one of the countries were attacked by another nation the other NATO countries could come to help. Europe still had many economic problems so the United States helped them out and gave them supplies. This could help both countries, if they cooperation with each other, to rebuild their cities faster. Many of them felt threatened by an attack from the Soviet so the importance of the NATO grew.

The Warsaw Pact included the Soviet Union and its satellite countries. It was supposed to be another defensive group but was created against the NATO. Here, they dominated the alliance. They kept their military personnel and kept on running socialist governments. They renewed in 1985 for another 20 years. In the 1980's the organization got severely weak . Troops were being removed from countries.In 1991 the Pact decided to disappear.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

2010-03-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

"Schindler's List" illustrated the Holocaust by showing step by step from how they got to the death camps also how he tries to save some people also shows he does cares for the jews he tried to help an he saved a few. In "Schindler's List"he show a pretty good illustration of how badly the Jews were treated.
The liquidation of the Krakow ghetto was a powerful scene which i can still picture in my head. Also i can still remember when they were burning the bodies of people and how it looked like it was snowing but it was smoked flesh of people body burned.
i liked the Hollywood version,better the documentary because the documentary was just like pictures or short clips or pieces of clips and didn't really show a lot of the thing they really did to the Jewish but in the Hollywood version they showed how kids hid anywhere to be safe with their parent to not be killed , how they cut the women hair and how they changed them from camp to camp and ghettos .

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

2010-03-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

My reaction on "Night and Fog" was scary i felt sad, mad it made me think what kind of people would have the heart to do that to people. To kill people for fun to hurt innocent people . This film was very powerful it show how evil people can be, how much the Jewish suffer and went through just because Germans didn't like them ."Night and Fog" and "Schindler's List" were very similar they talked about same topic showed how peopel were transfer from camps and how they were kill only that in "Schindler's List" they show how Schindler saved some peoples lives by saying he needed workers for his factory .I think both films were very good but i think
"Schindler's List"show more about the holocaust and how people were really push on and hurt.
i liked the Hollywood version,better the documentary because the documentary was just like pictures or short clips or pieces of clips and didn't really show a lot of the thing they really did to the Jewish but in the Hollywood version they showed how kids hid anywhere to be safe with their parent to not be killed , how they cut the womens hair and how they changed them from camp to camp and ghettos .

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

2010-02-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

the Treaty of Versailles affected Germany at the end of WWI because since Germany lost the war they had to pay money to the countries that won and give up land they had in Asia.
some of the rules of the treaty was thatgermany had to give their coal to France and Belgium for 10 year,Germany must pay reparations (money and/or goods) to the Allies, germany was blamed for everything and made them pay for everything , it wasn't fair that they blame Germany for everything OK maybe they had something to do with it but everything wasn't their fault every country contributed to the war .
Some historians say that the Treaty of Versailles led to the rise of Fascism and Adolph Hitler. i thin historians say this because since Germany economy was on the floor had no money owed a lot to other they were desperate for some help so Hitler took advantage and said he was gonna make Germany strong again and he actually started to help and prove to Germany he was able to make Germany stronger but after a while people notice he was a little crazy.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

2010-02-24T11:08:00.000-08:00

Mustafa Kemal (aka: Ataturk) modernized Turkey and made it more secular bye using these terms Republicanism , populism , secularism , reformism , nationalism , statism. The changes he made were that he changed how people dress and made them more modernized , he gave women right to voted . secular means non religious for example public schools are secular because they don't teach religion in the other hand private school do teach religious so they are not secular. also he said about clothing he wanted people to dress like europeans

mans to wear pants ,shirt ,tie and no wearing the hat called fez instead wear those hat the europeans wore .

Film lesson: "gandhi"

2010-02-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

Gandhi helped India's struggle for independence from Britain through a campaign based on nonviolence and civil disobedience. "Nonviolence and truth are inseparable and presupposes one another. There is no god higher than truth." Some things Gandhi did was he encourage people to not be violence, also when some Indians hurt police man he went on a strike by fasting for a long time he was dehydrated and sick but until people didn't stop violence he's strike wasn't over. Gandhi also wasn't wearing any British clothes and he encourage people to burn it and not wear it. He went to jail for burning a past that Indians need to carry around, he was arrested for trying too over throw the government, and many more, but never for being violent.

his philosophy of non-violence was that violence leads to more violence so Indians should be strong and not hit but with violence but with peace. he didn't believe in the saying of an" eye for an eye". he though that eye for an eye was gonna let the whole world be blind.

i think India's Independence was all about Gandhi because he didn't give up he was arrest and abused many times but he didn't give up. He encourage the Indians people to not put their foot down to not give up of being colonize and having no right, or being govern by the British. i think if he didn't tell the people to fight for their right they would just keep leaving the same way.

about the time of Indian Independence 1947 the cold war going on with middle east and south Asia . this might had an influenced on India independence.

What was happening in Great Britain about the time of Indian Independence (1947) that may have influenced events?

The Russian Revolution

2010-01-13T09:27:00.000-08:00

The Russian Revolution was all about political problems and government . The Russian revolution was divide into 2 part the February revolution and the October Revolution. The February revolution was during 1917 and was about the collapse of czar Nicholas 2 . October Revolution was about the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the workers' soviets, overthrew the Provisional Government in Petrograd. The Russian had a revolution because they were tired of the way their government treated them. The major cause of the Revolution was Because czar made Russian get into WWI and alto of soldier were lost because russia didn't have enough equipment.The Revolution was all about fighting for their right to be treated better and to change their government. Lenin was the leader or the revolution

he made the Bolsheviks party he took control. The quote "Peace, land and bread" mean what everyone in russia wanted the reason why russia went on a revolution they were miserable so they got tired , they starved, they wanted food and peace. Lenin took his idea of communism from karl marx.

Cause of WWI

2010-01-11T09:13:00.000-08:00

The cause of world war I was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the Habsburg throne, on June 28, 1914. That's when everything started. Then people started to get alliances just in case they needed back up. United states was the last one to get involved . Because USA dint want to get no enemies or get in to danger .

The primary causes of the war was Nationalism, Militarism, Assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the collapse of the alliance system. Nationalism happened with Germany and Italy . Italy didn't wanna be cool with Germany they didn't want to be become one because they felt different they were loyal to their country they didn't want to change things. assassination of Frankz Ferdinand contributed to the cause of this war by Austrian people wanting to punish Serbia for killing their leader so Austria joined alliance with Germany to do whatever to Serbia. Also Militarism was a way to countries used to solve problem and the bigger the military the more powerful you are and the more money. also this game more jobs to people it increased jobs .

Opium Wars - Imperialism in China

2009-12-18T09:26:00.000-08:00

The Opium war was from 1839 to 1842, it was between Britain and china. it all started when Europe wanted to trade with different countries. So when Great Britain went to India they found this plant well this drug. so then they went to china and since china didn't wanna trade with them. Britain though if we get them addicted to the drug then they gonna want ti all the time and they would agree trading with us. That actually worked but then the Chinese government notice what they were doing so he prohibited selling opium or using it. so then Britain got mad but they kept trying so they went to war with china and took over Hon Kong and that's how China and USA ,etc they trade with china now. It also helped china getting out there to learn from other and new things. And not only that's one of the reason why china is so advance with technology now . This war was called the Opium war because the opium plant was what stared the Chinese and Britain to fight since Britain wanted to trade so bad with china , but china didn't. But at the end Great Britain won because they had china addicted to the opium and they convinced china. Also they had better technology and weapons.The British had firepower . and they took control of the important island of Hong Kong. And China was also forced to legalize the selling of opium.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

2009-12-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

The film " Mountains of the Moon " was about finding the source of the Nile river it basically talk about exploring Africa where no white people had ever been before. it showed imperialism in many. Some of the hardships that Europeans faced as they explored Africa was the diseases, bugs, the weather type, the wild , trying to get to the source of the Nile by walking , also by being attack many times by different tribes in Africa. But at the end they found the source of the Nile and when they found it they named it lake Victoria and this was really weird because they didn't discovered the lake people in Africa knew it was there but they didn't really cared about that but John speek and Richard Burton named it Victoria because they were superior then Africans they had more power . And that's how imperialism work . Also Europeans had way better technology than African and one of the primary technology was guns this was an advantage Europeans had over Africans. Europeans eventually were able to conquer Africa very easily because they had guns , they had machines to make the guns too, Europeans also found the cure for malaria.

Imperialism Project

2009-12-07T09:36:00.001-08:00

We did the Imperialism project to see how overtime countries owned others. a lot of countries were starting to trade . they started to bring slaves too, gold, silver, copper, coal , making factories in different part of the world to spread different ideas and trading help each other learn new thing.

Not everyone would come back a live though a few would survive their journey. One person that went on a journey to find an easier way to get spices from India was Christopher Columbus. They would go to India to get spices, cotton and opium but spices was important for Europeans. Instead of ending up in India Christopher Columbus ended in America what he called the New World. Finding the New World was better because now Europe was earning more money with the crops they grew in the New World.

Karl Marx and Communism

2009-11-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx was a communism who studied philosophy. Marx made up a way of government he had an idea of communism in paper is sounded great but it wasn't practical . communism was a way to be fair with people. communism is when a country is govern by one person that the government control everything and owned everything in the country. people were paid the same salary even if they worked indifferent thing everyone had equal pay same pay. People had no ownership.
Karl Marx's idea of Communism was to be fair , equal and not let people ever starved again.He didn't believe in social classes.
According to Marx, capitalism contained the seeds of its own destruction. Communism was the inevitable end to the process of evolution begun with feudalism and passing through capitalism and socialism.
Marx wanted Communism to take over the world so people wont be taken advantage of and so thing would be fair and equal.Marx believed that workers would control government, but communist governments were strict and dictatorial. Workers were often forced to work on huge collective farms and factory workers often had to fulfill quotas. In most Communist nations, the press was censored. They were not allowed to print news stories that criticized the government. People who spoke out against the Soviet government were treated harshly. Marx believed that the good guys were the people/ the workers(the proletariat) and the bad ones were the owner of factories(capitalists) because the capitalists took advantage of the worker mad them work for a lot for hours for cheat salary.

Karl Marx and The Industrial Revolution

2009-11-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

Marx was a German guy who use to be a Jewish but changed into christian.Marx was alive around the time of the industrial revolution. Marx felt that the industrial revolution was bad that workers were treated badly , they were controlled, worked and really bad condition and were unsafe. he was so against the industrial revolution that he stared to think of the idea about communism. he felt that the industrial revolution people were treated like machines not like people . The Industrial revolution inspired marx to invent communism so everything can be fare and so people wont be taken advantage of because he saw how people were treated in factories and how hard they work and so little money they got . people were being taken advantage of and he felt like that needed to be changed so he came with the ideas communism.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

2009-10-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

Nationalism: is when you protect your country when you have pride for your country and you don't let no one put it down. it also means how u represent your country and to be proud of where your from . An example of how i am nationalistic is that i represent my country where ever i go , make sure people can tell i am Dominican, i let people know where i am from because i am proud of being Dominican.

what i do that show i am nationalistic is the way i speak, i have an accent but i don't let my accent come out on purpose it's just natural. Also by telling people i am Dominican, my attitude, the way i speak Spanish, i have a flag in a window of my room so everyone can see it. And since i was born there my culture just comes out , the way i was raised, how loud i can be and how fast i can speak.

Nationalism was also used to create the nation of Italy. Before a long time ago Italy used to be a part of the Austria-Hungary empire. But when other countries started to declare independence Italy was very influenced by them. So, then Italy wanted their independence they had a war of independence. They're were disorder all over Italy which also triggered many other disorder in Europe. They named their nation and slowly broke apart from the Austria-Hungary empire. Then they made a flag for their nation . So this is how Italy used nationalism to gain independence.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

2009-10-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

what Simon Bolivar accomplished.

He was one of the south America greatest general.
He fought the Spaniards and won independence for Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
In Haiti he gathered a force that landed in Venezuela in 1816, and took Bolivar. He also became dictator there.
he became a dictator in Peru.
all the countries he helped honored him .

Simon bolivar was so famous because he helped a lot of countries in south America to win their revolution and free themselves from the Europeans.he was also famous for its collections on the physical sciences, history, philosophy and politics.
there is a country named after Simon bolivar in South America. because he helped them get their freedom from the Europeans.

Bolivar help defeat the Spanish control on most of the South America.Bolivar was fighting for the independence of the countries we know now as Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia.What influenced Bolivar was the French and the Scottish Enlightenment and also the Greek.

John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

2009-09-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

The Right that Jefferson is talking about is Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.since every man is equal everyone should be treated equal. and man was also born free and it should be kept that way too.Also, according to the Declaration of Independence, the government comes from us from the people , anyone of us normal people could become a government you don't have to be born as a president or your dad doesn't have to be a president for you to be one . also the government doesn't just do what he wants he get his power from the people that vote for him we have the power to get him out if he is not doing the right thing. The people have power on the president.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

2009-09-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo
In the 1633 trial of Galileo Galileo started , two worlds come into conflict. Galileo's world of science and humanism were against with the world of Scholasticism and absolutism that held power in the Catholic Church.And since Galileo was against absolutism the end of his liberty and the end of the Renaissance came.
Galileo was very smart he had two theories about the solar system which were the geocentric and the heliocentric. Geocentric-that the earth is the center of universe and other objects go around it. heliocentric-is the theory that the Sun is stationary and at the center of the universe.
the first theory he had was The Geocentric theory , then he made another theory which was The Heliocentric theory .Also the theory hat came out of the scientific revolution was the heliocentric one that Galileo believed that the sun was the center and that the earth was one of the planet that was around the sun or revolved around.And the correct theory was the heliocentric theory.
The trial of Galileo was basically about him and his theory and the fact he didn't support the absolutism and church, because he had a different way of thinking about science , earth ,etc.
Dominican friar Niccolo Lorini files a complaint with the Roman Inquisition against Galileo's views. Included with the complaint is a copy of Galileo's 1613 letter to Castelli.Then Galileo travels to Rome to defend him self and prove them his theory. Galileo was prohibited to teach his theory so they put him on trial he ask for his trial to be moved to Florence but the Romans didn't move it . the catholic church was putting him in trial because they prohibit
Galileo to not teach his theory because they didn't though it was true they didnt believe it and Galileo didn't pay much attention to what the church prohibited him to do. Galileo believed in his theory that that sun was the center and that the planet revolved around it. but the Catholic Church didn't believe that , because it was opposite to a literal reading of the Bible . But at the end when Galileo was dead they admitted that Galileo's theory was correct.

Scientific Revolution: The Scientific Method

2009-09-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

Scientific Revolution was a new way of thinking about science and experimenting. At this time scientist would be experimenting and trying to prove their theory or proving another's scientist theory . Scientist argued about who was right or not and to prove if is true. Also scientist got eager to find important information , to investigate, to make up theories and prove them. It took them time to find about the world around us.

Scientific Method was the way to observe and prove you theory. there are step for this too. first you need a theory, then test your theory,make a hypothesis , observe, write down predictions ,have data and consistent, then you would see if your theory is right. And example of a scientific method could be something about DNA example-genetic inheritance.

Evolution Vs. Creation

2009-09-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

Evolution- The theory of evolution is basically about natural selecting and Darwin's theory.natural selection talk about how nature select who is gonna live and if an animal has genetic advantages there is a greater chance of survival. with genetic variation, advantages help evolution and when mutation occurs for good , for animal benefits helps the evolution of an animal .sometimes because of that an animal/living organism can totally change .

Creation- is a religious belief that human/living organism were created by gods , god , or a superhuman .and how man and women were created and human evolution.

well i cant really choose which one i believe in because i do believe in god but there ain't really no prove that he made us , or that he had supernatural powers, or that he created all of this the only prove is a book written during that time which is the bible but there are so many story and so many religions that believe in it and some don't so I'm not really sure about that . but then again i cant say i believe in the theory of evolution even though it makes more sense and they have some proves. but i still can't choose.