The Collapse of Communism

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

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

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

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"

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

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"

"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 .