African Independence

Africa had changed a lot in the 20 year period because there were many great leaders who were trying and working hard to lead their nation to freedom. One of the reasons that this was possible was because the people that were governing them were staring to lose power because of the 2 world wars.
Another reason that Africa had changed was because some changes were necessary such as boosting up the economy and trying to fix what the white people had ruined for them. One major driving force that led these people to their independence was their national pride.
There were a couple of leaders to help their country gain independence. Kwame Nkrumah helped Ghana gain independence. Like many great leaders, he had to be arrested a countless of times but he managed to accomplish many things this way.
Jomo Kenyatta was also another great leader. He helped his country gain independence which was named after him for recognition and being a hero.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

In South Africa there was a policy known as apartheid which was racial segregation by the government. Black people were not allowed to vote and were stripped from other rights that the white people had. This policy came from the white people who were a small percentage in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela was a great leader who was one of the people to end apartheid in South Africa. He had to go through jail and be imprisoned for 27 years to become president right after his release. Nelson Mandela fought hard. He believed in non-violence but he was tested and when he had to fight he fought hard. Nelson Mandela was arrested many times but the white people could never slow him down. This is why people admire him. Nelson Mandela never gave up and he freed his country almost single-handed.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The communist rulers in the Soviet Union were coming to an end when the leaders started getting older. The Communist Party had to choose someone else to take charge because the previous leader, Leonid Brezhnev had died. Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen to take over which is when he started to improve the Soviet Union. One of the things that Gorbachev did was put a Glasnost policy into action. Glasnost means openness which mean that Gorbachev encouraged other reformers to bring in ideas to improve the political and economic systems. Many Soviet citizens took advantage of this policy and started to complain about many things that they wished would be improved or fixed.
Another action that Gorbachev did was introduce the idea, Perestroika. Perestroika means economic restructuring. During this time Gorbachev started making changes to the economy and the way things work such making people put up small businesses in an effort to improve the economy.
Gorbachev also introduced a third new policy known as democratization. This was meant to loosen up the hold on the political system so that it can improve. This policy called for a new legislative body which allowed people to vote from a list of candidates instead of them being chosen by the communist party.

The Fall of communism

Communism in Soviet Union started to fall in 1991. Communism fell in Eastern Europe because people started to abandon dictatorial communism. Communism collapsed in Soviet Union because the economy started to go down and people started to get a sense of nationalism. Soviet Union was over.
The Berlin wall was torn down as a cause of the fall of communism. People wanted to tear down the Berlin Wall to form a democratic Germany. After it was torn down, Doctors and scientist' were able to go to east Germany.
The fall of communism changed many things around and affected many places and people. The fall of communism ended the cold war and people no longer had to worry about MAD. People who were farmers had to get better paying jobs and had to do more for themselves. Soviet Union split up into many countries each with their own flags.

The Cuban Missile crisis

The Cuban missile crisis was the hottest part of the war because it was the closest we came to an actual war. The two nations were ready to destroy each other because they all had their armed forces and defenses ready for a nuclear war.
The Cuban Missile crisis started by this man called Nikita Khrushchev who wanted to install missiles in Cuba. Fidel Castro approved of this because he feared that the U.S would attack them because of the Failed Pig Invasion. John F. Kennedy heard of this from his specialists. He said that an attack from Cuba with the missiles would be considered an attack from the Soviets themselves. Nikita eased the crisis by stating that he would take out the missiles form Cuba.

NATO and Warsaw Pact

The NATO and Warsaw pact were two alliances formed during the cold war. NATO was formed in the United States because the Americans were scared of an attack from the soviets. NATO was a defensive alliance against any military attacks from the Soviets. The Warsaw Pact was sort of an anti-alliance formed by Josef Stalin. He made the Warsaw Pact because he found NATO as a threat toward the Soviets.

The Right Stuff

In the movie "The Right Stuff", The U.S and U.S.S.R were competing in a technological race. The movie starts off with the 2 nations competing to break the sound barrier with an airplane. The United States broke the sound barrier first when they reached Mach 1. Then The Soviet Union beat us by going a lot faster. Then the Soviets put the first satellite in space which angered the Americans so the U.S started to build a space program and tried to send someone or something in space. The U.S managed to put a monkey into space. Then the Soviets managed to put an actual man into space beating us in the space race.

Schindler's List

Schindler's list looked like a very good representaion of the holocaust. It shows the holocaust as a very dark and horrible time which is what the holocaust was. However compared to Night anf Fog, Schindler's List was not as graphic and disgusting. Schindler's list was still a very powerful film because it shows all the hardships and tough times that the jewish people had to go through.
One of the scenes that i will remember is the scene where the jewish people are all listening to the radio hearing the reporter that the war is over and that Hitler was defeated. Even though the jewish people didn't look very happy, they must have felt like a rush of joy and victory for surviving those horrible times.

Night and Fog

Night and Fog was a very disturbing film. I always new that the death camps were horrible but seeing it visually was still surprising and frightening. In my own personal opinion, the documentary was more graphic than the scenes from Schindler's List. Schindler's List was more dramtic and saddening, while Night and Fog was scary and disturbing.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WWI)

The Treaty of Versailles heavily affected the Germany because it punished them severly. The Treaty of Versailled used Germany as a scapegoat by putting the blame for World War I on them.
The Treaty of Versailles made Germany pay for reparations for the war, and they took territory from them such as Alsace-Lorraine.
The Treaty of Versailles is belived to have sparked the anger in Germany to start Wold War II. It is known as one of the main causes for WWII. many histroians say that the Treaty was not fair fair becuase WWI was not all Germany's fault but everyone's fault. They aslo say that it was easy to blame Germany because they were known for being ruthless army heads.
The Treaty of Versailles left the German people with no homes, a poor army which made them insecure, and with a lot of anger. They were also no allowed to go into the league of nations and were forced to live under the rules of other people which they resented.
Hitler was easy to accept after this becuase Hitler kept on promising the people that they would get revenge. Hitler came in at the right time when peolple needed someone to lead them make their country as good as it was before. Hitler took advantage of his power.
As you can see, the Treaty of Versailles did have a big negative impact on the people of Germany. It left them ruined and a really good reason to start yet another war. This is also thought to be why Hitler was so easily accepted.

Mustafa Kamal

Secular - of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal.

Mustafa Kamal made many reforms to his country. Turkey was at first under the control of the ottoman empire. When the ottoman empire was crumbling down, he took advantage of it and started to fight back.
Mustafa Kemal made his country go through many reforms. One important reform that took place was the secular reofrm. This means that everything became seperated from religious means. It does not mean that they were athiest, but they didn't want their government or institsutions based on religion.
Many reforms took place such where as old concepts and ideas were taken out and new ideas were accepted. Turkey's economy improved much better because they changed their system. More woman were allowed to vote becuase of the reforms.

Ghandi and Indian Independence

Ghandi helped India by doing acts of non-violence. He was doing what was called civil disobedience. He boycotted products that came from Britain, which slowly but efectivley hurt Britain.
Ghandi beleived that by receiving all the blows from Britain and giving back none, that the British would see the evil that they were doing as the rest the rest of the world. The massacre is the best example that made the British look evil and they realized what they were doing was bad.
I think that the Indian independence would have happened anyways. Ghandi was a very big help but there were also other people that led India to Independence.
Great Britain were in World War I at the time and they often used many Indians to help their side.

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