Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of Communism

Milhail Gorbachev became the communist party leader. He was the youngest Soviet leader ever since Stalin. His opponent for the title of communist party leader was Victor Grishin. Gorbachev wanted to pursue new ideas for the Soviet Union. In 1985 Gorbachev announced a policy named glanost. Glanost means openness. He decided to follow this policy because he realize that the ecomomic and social reforms would not happen if the Soviet Union did not have free flow of ideas and information. With the new policy people were allowed to publications of books and reporters could talk about social and government problems, which were not allowed when the soviet Union was a totalitarian state. With this law people began to complain about the economic sitituation of the government. Gorbachev blamed those problems on how efficient the system of central planning was. Gorbachev decided to make another policy this time to fix the complianing of the people. The policy was called perestroika which was an economic restructuring.

Gorbachev plan was not to over throw communisn. His plan was to make the system efficient. To make his plan work Gorbachev had to losen the grip that the Communist Party had on the Soviet society and politics. He then mad a policy called democratization that would open the political system of the Soviet Union. This plan had to make a legislative body. With the new ideas that Gorbachev had, the Soviet Union became less and less Communist.

Collapse of Communism

After the end of the Cold War people were afraid of having Nuclear wars. With the new reforms made people from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe had the chance to make decisions on economic and political systems that governed their lives. With all the changes there was a major one, the fall of the Berlin wall.
The Berlin wall was made to keep the Eastern and Western Germany from crossing the border. Anyone that would pass the wall would get shot. In November 1989 demolition work began on the Berlin wall. The people first tried to make a road for private trips. Then the decided to make several borders that would travel people across the wall. Later the cut a holes for pedestrians to go across the wall. The wall was taken out completely one November 9, 1989.
As for the Soviet Union they collapse last. Some of the groups in the Soviet Union wanted to become free like the other countries that were in Eastern Europe. They began to protest. Gorbachev made his army go into the capital of Lithuania. There the army killed 14 people and injured 150.People began to support a man name Boris Yeltsin rather then the former president of the communist party, Gorbachev. Gorbachev was forced to resign. Which ended communism in the Soviet Union. More and more countries were trying to get their freedom from communism.

The Creation of Israel

Zionism is the worldwide Jewish movement that resulted in the establishment and development of Israel. When the country of Israel was created there was a lot of conflict. The Jews and the Palestinian had many conflicts with each other. They fought about who would get the country. Long before that the Jewish and the Palestinian had hatred towards each other. They had many religious feud.
At first the Jews would join the Palestinian people to fight the British mandate on Palestine. In 1947 the British ended the Palestine mandate and let the United Nation deal with the rest. The United Nations thought of the idea of making Palestine into two states. One of the states would be for the Arabs and that other would be for the Jews. The Arabs rejected the United nations partition. The Arabs believed that the land was theirs. However the Jews agreed with the United Nations partition.
On May 14, 1948 the country of Israel was made. The next day the Arabs and the Palestinians attacked Israel. The Jews had been having problems with the Arabs and the Palestinian people ever since Israel was made.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid is another word for segregation. It was made in South Africa. The Whites, Bantu, colored and, Indians were not treated fairly. The people of Africa wanted there independence from the imperialist countries. One of the leaders to fight for the right of his people was Nelson Mandela.
Mandela was a man of peace. He was one of the leaders of ANC. ANC is a campaign to stop apartheid acts. He fought nonviolence fight to win the independence of South Africa. Mandela and other leaders of ANC were sent to a life time in prison after he was convicted of sabotage and treason. Mandela was in prison for 27 years. The South African were sacred that if Mandela died in person the South African people would have a revolution. So in 1990 The South African government gave Mandela his freedom. In 1994 Mandela became president of South Africa
Mandela was admire for his courage. People liked him so much because he was a man of peace. he used none violent ways to achieve his wishes. He liberated many South African from being treated like dirt. He lead his people to their freedom.

African Indepence

Africa would be having a hard time to gain their independence. The European inperalist would not want to give the African countries independence. They wanted them for their natural resources. It was not until World War 2 in which some African people would be sent to Europe to help out in the War. There in Europe the Africans realized that the Europeans were not as strong as they appeared to be.
After World War 2 the Europeans realized that the cost of keeping their colonies in Africa was to much. The Europeans were ready to give up the power to the African people. However they did not know how they would be able to give the power to the African people.
Some leaders of the African movement for freedom were Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Zaire. Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of the Ghana. Jomo Kenyatta was leader of Kenya. Lastly Zaire was leader of the Congo.

9th Grade Review- Neolithic Revolution

The Neolithic Revolution happened long ago. In the Neolithic Revolution the Nomads learned to settle in one place to keep from having to move from place to place. The Nomads would haunt and gather food. Part of the Neolithic Revolution was the changes in the way they got their food. The Nomads began to plant seeds. The seed would grow so they had no reason to move from place to place to gather grains, vegetables and fruit. They also would domesticate their animals. Domesticating the animal was easier then haunting them.
The Neolithic people would leave close to river and water, so they could get water to drink, bath, clean, and water the crops. Also they would use the waters for means of transporting themselves from one place to the next.
The Neolithic people also sit up a government. The Neolithic Revolution of the beginning of a modern civilization.

The European Union

Some of the european countries were having war with each other. There were a lot of life being lost. Some of the European countries leaders wanted a way to end the fight. So then they created the European Union. The European Union is an alliance of 25 nations. It became another superpower.
The European Union became a superpower because of the political and economical systems. People that would travel were able to travel from country to country without having to have their passaport check in each broader of the country. People in which would live in a country from the EU would be allowed to work for another country that was in the EU. The EU would prevent any more wars from happening between European countries.

Film Lesson "The Right Stuff"

In the movie "The Right Stuff" the competeing of Russia and US was shown by showing the Space race they were having. At the first the Russians were winning the space race. They were the first to lanuch the a spacecraft to outer space. Also they were first to send a man to space and make him come back safely to Earth.
One event that I would remember was when the man would run to the building and tell the men what the Russians did and the other men would say we know. Also the scenes shown of the Russians. The scene that I remember the most was the scene when the US broke the sound barrier.

Cuban Missle Crisis

During the Cold War Russia and the United States had an arm race. This was a race to see who had the best nuclear weapons. Russia was way behind the US to win the arm race. In 1962 Russia's Premier Nikita Khrushchev made a plan to create an installation in Cuba so that the missile would be able to reach the US. Fidel Castro agreed with this plan of the Russians. In the summer of that very year the Russians began to make the installation secretly so that the US would not find out about it.
How ever on October 15, 1962 the US received photographs of the secret base. The very next day President John F Kennedy made the announcement of the base in Cuba. He got advise for what to do from 12 advisors. He blockaded the ships that went to Cuba to send supplies to make the base. Nikita would tell his commanders to get the missiles ready. How ever on October 26, 1962 he announced that he would be taking out the base from Cuba.
The Cuban missile crisis was considered the hottest moment in the Cold War because it was the closest to having a nuclear war.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

NATO and the Warsaw pact were both alliences to help back up countries. The countries that were part of the NATO were North America, and some countries in Europe. For the Warsaw pact there were Russia and Easterned Europe. If one of the countries would be in dangered the other countries in the alliences would have their back. They wanted Mutal defense. The NATO felt threatened by Russias communist ways.
The Warsaw Pact was made in response for the NATO. The Russians wanted to have other countries to back them up. They took over the countries next to Russia. The countries were called the Satellite Conuntries.

Film Lesson " Night and Fog"

I think that the movie Night and Fog was eye wakening. Some of the scenes in the movie were very disgusting. They showed human bodies. The movie was extremely powerful. Some scene did match with those shown in Schindler's list. The think that the hollywood movie illsturted the holocaust better. The movie showed more of a personal account of what on in the holocaust. Also the hollywood movie showed what actually happened with the Jews as a visual which I like more then with words.

Film Lesson: "Schindler List"

Schindler List illustrates the hololcaust by showing the story of Schindler. It showed how most people hated the Jews, however it showed that some actually helped the Jews get out of getting killed. The scene that I remember is the liquitation of the Krakow ghetto. This scene showed how people would eat their jewlry. Also the scene in which the nurse and the doctor posioned the sick so the Nazi would not kill them and they would not die a painful death. The scene that stuck with me was the scene in which there was a man holding a women asking for help to a Nazi and he just shot her in his arms. This scene would always stay with me because it was one of the scene that was the sadest it made me mad.

US Atomic Bombing of Japan in 1945

I do believe that the bomb dropping in Japan is the top news of the century because it shows there so death in the event and it created such a big debate that even until this day people don't agree on whether the droppings of the bombs was a good idea. I don't think that there was a bigger event then the dropping of the bomb.
One thing I would change is the placement of the Cuban missile crisis. I would have placed this news as 14. I think that this is way more important because it could have started another World War. That would go done in history as the start of WW 3. Most of all it involves that many countries making it news of various opinions and importance.

Germany at War - WW2

Propaganda is information used to spread to harm or helps someone. This poster has to do with Germany taking contorl of the European countries. This poster says that German had a lot of power and wanted to rule all of Europe and any country they could get a hand on.
The poster show a graveyard with a cross saying Churchhill which shows the failure of England. Then theres a fist punching some Russian person which indicates that Germany was tring to take contorl over Russia as well. Then a baby in a cradle which is to indicate that the German's reason to wanting to invade Russia was for security reasons. Lastly the Germans say that they also invade Russia for prosperity which was indicated by a living space of Germany.

The Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was held in the palace of Versailles ( on the right). In the treaty of Versailles Germany was blamed for the entire WW1. Germany and their allies had lost the war. In the treaty Germany had to pay the other countries for the cost of the war. Also they lost many things. Germany was not allowed to have colonies on other countries. The countries Germany had during the imperialism were taken away from them. Germany was not allowed to have a greater number of people in the army. The treaty members decided to control this just in case the Germans wanted to rebel. Germany had lost the power they had for many years before the World War started.
I think that the historians say that the treaty led to the rise of Fascism and Adolph Hitler because the Germans were mad because they had to pay for the World War. Also Germany at that time were looking for a leader. They wanted to get out of having to do what the treaty said they had to do so it they would needed someone to believe in and to get them out of doing what they had to do because of the treaty.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal modernized Turkey by trying to make them change their way of living. He said that they should try and be like the other people in the world. He told them they should wear ties and shirts and not the little fez they wear. The fez was not international he would say. He wanted the people from Turkey to wear hats. Also he wanted women to stop wearing the cloth in their head. The cloth would cover their hair. He wanted Turkey to change into a modern country.
Secular means worldly more than spiritual.

Film lesson Gandhi

Gandhi lead India to its Independence from Britain. Gandhi made speeches so that the people of India would have some knowledge of what was going on in India. He would gather people and speak the truth of the British doings. Gandhi would give the Indians advice to so they would not be helping the British and yet they would not use violence against the British. Gandhi would say to the Indians that they should not use violence against the British because he believed that he told them that the British would change when they would see their pain. One of his famous quotes have to do with not using British method as their own. The quote was "An eye for an eye, and soon the world is blind". Told the Indians to make their own clothes and not wear the British manufactured clothes. This would make the British have less money given to them from the Indians. He also made the Salt March in which he walked for 200 miles to the sea and made salt. He said that the Indians should make their own salt since Britain had tax the salt. He always told the Indians that they should not fight back. He was starving himself just because he heard that the Indians had killed some policemen.
I think that Gandhi had a great part in the independence of India. He was called to be the father of India's independence. However I believe that India would have gotten their independence with or without Gandhi. Maybe it would have taken longer and they would have different methods on how to gain their independence, but they would still gain it. Their were a lot of other people that longed for the independence of India. Either way Britain was having a heard time back home. With the end of World War 2 just two years before it would have been harder for Britain to control everything like they usually did.