Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of Communism

To answer that question, Mikhail Gorbachev had actually let the people decide instead of deciding himself. The way he opened up the Soviet Union was with a policy known as glasnost. For anyone who does not know, glasnost is the way he (Gorbachev) encouraged the people to discuss the various ways to improve their society. They modernized it for instance by allowing churches to reopen, they released their ancestors and descendants from prison, and also they had the reporters investigate their social and economic problems. (They also criticized the government officials.) Now as Gorbachev solved the political system, the economical system was still messed up a little bit. For instance, the citizens were forced to wait on long lines for several items like food, soap, clothes, etc. Now Gorbachev seen this problem and decided to introduce the idea of perestroika. Perestroika was a way to reconstruct the economic society better. For a few examples, local managers had a greater authority (control) over the farms and factories and also people were allowed to open their own little private businesses on the side. All that Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to do was make the system more productive and efficient. So Basically, this was all that Gorbachev wanted to do to better his society.

Collapse Of Communism

The reason communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and the USSR was because the ending of the cold war. This was probably the main reason why it had ended. The Diplomats had entered the Soviet Union without the help of the military. Because of this, the Berlin wall came crashing down splitting East Germany from West Germany. Both sides were forbidden to cross over. As for anyone who attempted to cross over, was either instantly shot down or had suffocated. After all of this confusion, the Soviet Union had split into fifteen different republics. (They were

Creation Of Israel

The term Zionism means a major Jewish movement. This movement resulted in the making of Israel. The British were also known for support for this movement. The only problem was that the Arabs took this as offense. Basically, the Arabs did not want any of the Jewish people in their territory. After that day of happiness, it quickly turned to madness when the day after Israel was made they was attacked by six other countries. (They were Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and Palestine.) Even though Israel had modern weapons and they had won the war, they were still not satisfied because they wanted to make piece with the Arabs. The main reason why the Palestinians did not like the Jewish people was because they did not want the Jews to take over any of their land. This explains why the Palestinians and the Jews have clashed a lot of times. Also, remember that the British and the United States had much to do with this whole feuding era.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid - means the separation of different nationalities. For example, Caucasian people would be on top of of everyone else because they are the ones who are mostly in control. Next would come African people because in south Africa there are mostly African people there. Then would probably come the indian people because they are about one half of all of the Caucasian people. Finally would come Asian people because there are not much of them found in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was a great hero or leader because he would go through anything for his people. For example, he went through 28 years of prison, he became the president for his country, and he also to top it all off had won independence for his country. He also had worked with the ANC for a time. This means he did not try to use any type of physical tactics. This is why he is admired by many of the authors who have written about him in several articles. A few of those reasons are that he fought for his people in numerous accasions. He gave his people freedom and his country it's independence. It is not hard to see why he his so honored and respected. It's because he led apartheid to it's demise. (Decline, downfall, or outlawed it.)

African Independence

During 1955 and 1975, Africa has changed very much during those inspirational years. With people like W. E. B. Du Bois (Influenced many African Americans) , Blaise Diagne (Has lead and organized the pan - African congress in 1919 and 1921) , Leopold Senghor (Was a legendary politician and also a poet) , Kwame Nkrumah (A teacher who studied in the United States and represented something similar to what Gandhi had which was Civil Disobedience) , and so much more. Anyway, one of the major achievements that has changed Africa was gaining independence and changing the Gold Coast's (A place where Nkrumah has worked and also liberated this place from the British) name to Ghana. (This special name honored a west African kingdom known from the past.) He tried and later on did modernise Ghana into a new piece of art, changing everything. A few years had past since that time and there was something else called the Kenya and the Mau Maurebellion. Basically, the British had taken over parts of Kenya and strong leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta, and the Mau Mau (A secret organization of Kikuyu farmers) had been forced to rebel against them. Some of their tactics were to scare the white farmers, refusing any of the British commands, and so on. The effect of this however, was the imprisonment and the killings of these people. Now I guess the last person I could talk about is

9th Grade Review - Neolithic Revolution

The Neolithic Revolution was mainly a fundamental change in how the way people lived before. Before this dramatic change happened, things were a lot different for people. For one, they would live in groups of twenty to thirty people. For two, they would do hunting and gathering. This is where the males would hunt for the animals, and the females would hunt for fruits like berries and cherries instead. Before these people would have a taste of agriculture and permanent settlements, they use natural items like stones, wood, and also bones to make fine hunting weapons such as an axe or spear. They soon changed the way things worked. For example, things went from just being male and femake to being social classes invovled. (These classes involved people such as the farmer, craftsman, warrior, chief elder, a single leader, and even a priest. This happened in about 10,100 BCE. So basically what I am trying to say is that the way things changed like the technology and even the regular social life was the significance of that time.

The European Union

Basically, the European Union was about Europe forming with other countries so that they can live together peacefully. European leaders did not want France and Germany fighting anymore. So they wanted to unite them together economically and politically. Mainly, the European Union consists of not one, not two, not three, but twenty nations. The euro was great too. In fact, now people can travel much easier because Europe was now a all in one package. This was a good thing for several reasons. Some of the reasons were that now people are trading the Euros instead of the United States dollars, people can now live in Germany and France the same way they do now in america, they can also travel around Europe without having to change the pass ports. So basically, it helped prevent any other types of conflict between Europe's countries and leaders. The only thing that was not so good about this was the fact that the United States was the only ones that they had trouble with.

Film Lesson - "The Right Stuff"

Basically, the US and the USSR were competing by traveling to the moon to see who could gain control over the satellite. You can also call it the "space race" because if you read your global history textbooks, this in fact explains little more about what happened between the United States and Russia. The two have accomplished much while I was watching the film. For instance, The United States have completed beeing the first ones to break the sound barrier. (This was the first scene I remember watching in the film.) Now Russia on the other hand, was the first to accomplished gainning control over the satellite. This was a huge problem for the United States because who ever had control over the satellite, was the person who was mainly in control of everything. Now just because Russia was winning the little race doesn't mean that they had won either. (The United States did manage to travel up to the moon because they had to pick the "perfect astronauts" to do hundreds of physical tests and not only that, they also had to test the rockets to make sure that they was in top condition because they (The scientist or the government) didn't want to lose any human lives.) Now, what special scenes from the film will help me remember it? Alot of them but some were the first one as I have mentioned before with the U.S breaking the sound barrier. Another was the physical test that the astronauts were put through. (Testing their lung capacity, their body, and how much pressure they could take which is also known as the G-Force.) The one I couldn't though was that the "first man" ever to travel to the moon was actually a monkey and the fact that he was on the cover of one some of the newspapers was outstanding to me.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Basically, The Cuban Missile Crisis was almost a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. I think the Soviet Union saw the U.S as a threat because they were the main ones prepared to first use the nuclear bombs if the U.S were to ever invade or attack their territory. As you can see, the Soviet Union only had the power to take out Europe on impact but, the U.S on the other hand, had the power to take out the Soviet Union with one blow. Premier Nikita Khrushchev had the idea of placing intermediate range missiles in Cuba. A person named Fidel Castro had also wanted to defend his island nation from U.S invasions or incoming attacks. They probably was afraid that after the failed Bay Of Pigs attack in 1961 that they would probably do it again soon. The two of them had quickly worked together in the summer of 1962 to secretly build and store these missiles. This upset the U.S greatly. This infamous crisis began on October 15, 1962. Soon after like the next day, the president (John F.Kennedy) had found out about this and informed a specialized group consisting of twelve members called the EX-COMM to handle this crisis. This plan had worked impressively because while doing this, the president had also demanded that the Soviet Union would immediately remove all of their range missiles from Cuba. As both of the countries tensions began to rise and lower down, they both finally came to an agreement with each other. (The agreement was that the Soviet Union would remove the missiles if the United States would not invade,attack, or interfere with the Soviet Union.)

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO was an organization that involved countries in Europe and North America. The term "NATO" stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Now, the Warsaw Pact was mostly made up of the Soviet Union and other satellite countries. The main people who are responsible for forming the alliance called NATO is the United States. Now on the other hand, the people who are responsible for forming the Warsaw Pact are obviously the Soviet Union. Even though both of these countries had a lot of allies, the main purpose for this was to build a mutual defense so that if one country was to be attacked, the other countries would immediately aid them in battle.

Film Lesson "Night and Fog"

My reaction to "Night and Fog" was that I was very shocked to see that "that" was happening after all of the killings. Yes, I did find the film as powerful as you did. Most of what saw was beyond con traversal for me because I saw how they were killed after they were killed. I would say that even though I couldn't understand what was being said because it was being read in French, I still got a pretty clear image on what was happening in the film. The brutalizing tactics were horrible because after the people were killed, they were either chopped up, buried underground, and some people were not lucky enough so they have gotten burned up and thrown into a pile of other bodies. The way both of these movies compared are that they both explained that causes and effects of the Holocaust thoroughly. They explained what would happen to anyone who would disobey or not follow instructions correctly in both of the films to me. The film that I think illustrates the Holocaust more effectively is the Hollywood version for the simple fact that "that" film was longer and it started from the beginning so that we can get a glimpse or idea on what it is was like or what it must felt like to be like in those dangerous situations. Even though the movie seemed kind of fake as far as all of the violence, the Hollywood version was still more effective in my opinion.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

I think that "Schindler's List" was much more than just con traversal because there were million's of ways showing how all Jewish people were being tortured. Some of the brutalizing tactics that the Nazi's have used were to shoot them, strangle them, cut them, made them suffocate,
die of starvation, exhaustion of the heat, die from spreading too much diseases, the very cold winter, and so on and so on. I know that know one should have to live like that because that's way worse than being in jail. Just imagine it, you have to do whatever your master tells you to, you always have to move from place to place, and some people will go as far as having sexual intercourse with you because they can. This is what the film "Schindler's List" tried to show you. The scene that was the most powerful for me to watch was all of them but mainly Auschwitiz because thats where things were really heating up. Can you also imagine being separated from one or more of your family members? That's what really hurt me the most because of the fact that you as a child or adult had to watch your own brother, father, mother, sister, etc be taken away from you and it was not like you did not know where they was going either. EVERYTHING thing will stay with me. I say it like that because all of those scenes are just that you can forget easily. It goes from the Krakow Ghetto, to the labor camp, back to even Auschwitiz. All of the traveling, killing, slaughtering, torturing, that for sure will be memorable for me. As I have said before, can you think or even wonder what it was like for them?

US Bombing of Japan in 1945

Yes, in much ways do I think that the United States Bombing Of Japan deserves to be the number one news story of the century. So yes, I do agree with that specific statement because that story talks about how life was live like before and after the bombings. If you think about it, it's kind of like cause and effect. As I think about it, one of the documents that I have read while taking my test in global history talks about life in Japan after the war was over. Some of the things that the document said I completely agree on. For instance, "This war is useless because what is this bombing going to solve?" and also another document talks about how things went from bright and sunny to dark and hazy. Back to the real question though, Could I think of a new and better story? Well, honestly I do not know. There are lots of things to talk about now like the War In Iraq. As far as the 100 top stories list goes, I would probably not change anything but I would add and give opinions on the stories so far. Well, the only reasons why I would do this is because the people have the right to know what is going on in the world. That would be like waking up in the morning and not have a newspaper to read or even watch the news either. Think about it.

Germany at War - WWII

The word propaganda means the thought of details, ideas, or rumors that deliberately spread to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, country, nation, etc. in any way. This poster talks or is trying to tell us (The Readers or Viewers) about Germany and Great Britain. This poster says Eucopas Siea Dien Wohlstand. Well Germany (Adolf Hitler) or "The Huge Fist" has turned it's attention to Great Britain "The Huge Head" after the failed attempt to conquer the British Empire for himself in 1940. Now "The Huge Head" represents Great Britain after a few attempts by Germany. Also, as you can see "The huge fist" is connecting with "The huge head" because this poster is also trying to tell you that Germany has destroyed Great Britain. This is why "The Huge Head" looks sort of in a knocked out position. (It just looks that way to me.)

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW1)

The treaty of Versailles affected Germany blow after blow after blow. The reason I say this is because after Germany had lost the war, they had also lost 100% of her pre-war colonies, 80% of her pre-war fleet, 48% of all iron production, 16% of all coal production, 13% of her territory, and the most terrifying, Germany after all of the destruction had lost 12% of her population. This by the way is much to lose in just one World War. Also, from the articles I have read, I have learned that Germany had many of their privileges such as they couldn't maintain or construct any fortifications from the line drawn 50 kilometers to the east or west of the Rhine.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal (aka Ataturk) modernized Turkey and made it more secular by abolishing the fez. The fez is hat worn by turkish people to express themself's. Another way Mustafa Kemal modernized Turkey was that he changed the style of the people and the way they dressed. One more useful way Kemal modernized Turkey was by getting the turkish people to adapt to a new language. In other words, the people had to learn how to read, write, and speak the new language. Also, secular means pertaining to worldly things that are not reguarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred in some sort.

Film Lesson "Gandhi"

I have learned much from seeing the movie "Gandhi". One of the main things I have learned was that you don't have to solve all your problems using violence. The tatic that I liked best was the effect of Gandhi's civil disobidence. I respect that tatic because Gandhi still won the war between India and Great Britain without reacting or even thinking about using physical force. I actually loved the quote "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" because this explains that attacking someone after they attack you solves or accomplishes nothing. You can also still overcome conflict by being respectful about it. Even though the physical pain was terrifying, he still managed to get back up on his own to feet and accomplish his goal or objective. By the way, which was to gain independence for India. What India mostly wanted was freedom from the control of Great Britain. In various ways, India has gained independence from Gandhi. I would also say that the indians has also played a big part in this as well. Although Gandhi influenced most of the Hindu, Muslim, and Seeks to work together in various situations, they all have managed to play a huge role overall. So overall, I would say no because with the people, that would of probably be a attempt for Gandhi. India's Independence probably would of happened without the helpful actions of Gandhi. Indian Independence was gained during 1947. Also the separation of all of the religions was the main event that was happening during 1947. So even after all of the events happening, there is still much be learned from Mahatma or Mahatmis Gandhi.