Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev was a new and youngest leader of USSR at 54 since Stalin. In 1985 he became a politburo and started implementing his ideas in the society. He introduced glasnost or openness. He encouraged people to come up with ideas to make the society better. The government opened churches, released innocent people from jail and unbanned the books which were previously banned everywhere. Because the constant complains of consumers, Gorbachev introduced perestroika which was a policy which let people open small businesses and gave local managers greater control over their farms and factories. He wanted to make this political system more productive and actually make people happy with the way they live. He also knew that if the economy was to be excellent, the government would have to loosen a grip on politics and Soviet society. He came out with a third policy called democratization. People now chose the government officials in elections. Further reforms and policies led to the collapse of USSR, and a country now known as Russia formed. Russia is a capitalist country like the US. 

The Collapse of Communism

A series of unexpected events between years 1989-1991 led to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and put end to the Iron Curtain and its symbols like the Berlin Wall. Country after country people were sick of living the communist life. There were rebellions everywhere, USSR government couldn't do anything to stop it. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and from there pretty much everything went negative for the USSR. In August of 1991 the USSR disbanded.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid was a policy of segregation enforced in South Africa for the people who were not white. It was enforced by the National Party government between 1948-1994. Nelson Mandela was the leader of movement against apartheid. He was convicted of several charges including sabotage. He was put in jail for 27 years, and was released February 11, 1990. He immediately started acting again to get the colored people equal rights. In 1994 he was elected president of South Africa in the first truly democratic election. Mandela received over 250 awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for his contribution to world freedom. He will always be one of the greatest heros of civil rights movements. 

African Independence

After World War II the British colonies in Africa said no more to being controlled by the British. They started by collecting money and sending their sharpest people to Europe to learn how to run a country and also to get to know their culture and be more "up to date". Also those people pleaded the British constantly for more rights for Africans so they can improve their lives and reach the goal which was independence. Something like that has been done in Kenya, its people sent Jomo Kenyatta to Europe for that purpose. But some Africans thought if they acted with violence they would scare the British off and be independent that way. The people that believed in those way were called the Mau Mau in Kenya.  

Even though many African countries got their independence back they did not know how to RUN a country much less how to make the population function like those in Europe. Most of the Africa's countries are maybe 50 to about 70 years old, they're still developing their government and because of that those countries are very poor. Poverty, war, and famine exist in most of those countries. 

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was formed by the countries that opposed communism and were on the west side of the iron curtain from West Berlin and any country west of that in Europe, also U.S. and Canada. It was an alliance of those countries to help each other in case of a military conflict. Same exact thing for the Warsaw Pact it was just an alliance of communist countries under the influence  of the Soviet Union. Two groups of countries working against each other just because they believe in a different political systems.  

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

Schindler's List clearly illustrated the steps that took place during the Holocaust. From the ghettos to death camps. It also illustrated what it took to survive the holocaust and the circumstances and events that the Jews went through on every step of their journey to survive another day.  Of course the Death Camp of Auschwitz made the biggest impact on me, and it's because its on my countries territory (Poland). Millions of Jews were murdered in Poland especially in that camp. Even that this movie may have more detail than the documentary, but in my opinion documentaries are always a better/more believable source of information than a movie.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

The film Night and Fog is a very powerful picture of the Holocaust. It illustrates what really happened during the Holocaust and proves the steps of it. I think this documentary is a better; more believable and realistic version of picturing what happened from simple blame of Jews for everything bad to death camps and mass extermination of  Jewish people. The hollywood version of it I think is more of an opinion than the reality of what really happened. For facts andevents I'd always pick a documentary over a "Hollywood" version of the event.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

The Treaty of Versailles took a lot from Germany. They were blamed for the whole World War, and forced to pay compensations to the allies because they were found guilty of starting the war. Germany lost 10% of its land, which was now shared between the allies. They also lost all their colonies, about 12.5% of the German population was now living outside their countries borders. The huge payments that they had to make to the allies ruined their economy, and there was no way they could fix it back up under the rules they lived. Germany was also excluded from the league of nations, and were forced to live under the treaties rules.

I don't think this treaty was fair to Germany because technically the guy who committed the assassination was from a country that was part of the allies, and Germany declared war because their allies person was killed. I also think that  the historians are right because the Treaty triggered Germany's hatred for the rest of the Europe, their country was a total mess because of what the treaty did to them.

Film Lesson: "Gandhi"

Gandhi used non-violence to help India gain their independence. He meant it to be used so much that he starved himself almost to death so the violent protests that the natives started stop. He organized several meetings, gave many speeches. He was the leader of the salt march which send a message to the British empire that Indians can make their own salt, same thing with cotton. He encouraged the people to make their own products so Britain doesn't make anymore money off of them.  

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey.

Mustafa Kemal, the leader of Turkish nationalists overthrew the last Ottoman sultan. He passed laws based on the European system. He developed a program to modernize Turkey and catch up with other countries. He also gave more rights to women.  The clothing wasn't controlled anymore,itbecame more European. Ataturk basically made"westernized" Turkey. He made Turkey "secular" which means to separate religion from state, education, culture and legal affairs.

The Russian Revolution

The russians had a revolution because the czar was a very cruel ruler. He didn't care about his people. Russia was behind all other countries in economy and industry. People couldn't take it anymore after WWI. The war completely destroyed the economy, it sparked up the building up tension between the czar and his people. Lenin was the leader and mastermind behind the revolution. His signature quote was "Peace, Land and Bread", it meant that he wanted everyone to have those things, no one more than the other. He followed the ideas of Karl Marx with ways of controlling the country and economy. Those ideas are called Communism. After he took over the country from the temporary government, with a group of his supporters called the Bolsheviks he tried to fix Russia's economy and eliminate his rivals.

Causes of WWI

The main causes of WWI are Nationalism, Militarism, and Imperialism.  The nations were racing each other in basically everything, every nation thought that they were better than the others. This nationalism created conflicts between nations in Europe. The nations also raced between who gets the most land for their territory. Conflicts were created over colonies in Africa and Asia (imperialism). Also militarism was another cause. The Europe nations were all building up their military to be ready for war. Everything in Europe was very tense and one thing was needed to start the war. The actual spark that set the fire of war was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, which started the chain reaction of alliances attacking each other. Soon the whole Europe was at war.