The Collapse of Communism

There were many factors that led to the fall of communism but the main ones were the greed and corruption that it caused. Under Communism, Millions of soviet citizens were executed because they failed to follow the rules that were made. Also the leader of the soviets, Stalin was trying to convince his country as well as Eastern Europe that Communism was the right thing and he tried to force people to accept that but he only made things worse. The fall of the Berlin Wall was necedssary because the exile it caused between East and West Germany was tearing the country apart and the only way to end it was to bring the Wall down. The fall of the Soviets marked the end of Communism for Eastern Europe and that is why it was so important.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid to me was just another form of racial segregation against another race that was non-white. Nelson Mandela was a hero because he helped liberate South Africa from segregetion and other acts of hatred against Black people. During the 1950s Mandela played a key role in the ANC's non-violent campaign to undermine apartheid, South Africa's system of racial segregation, through strikes, civil disobedience, and demonstrations. But when he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison he became the symbol of the struggle for Independence for the Africans and that is why the prison guards believed that if he died in prison a major uprising would occur and that would be chaotic so they let him out nafter only 27 years and he immediatly became a hero. He is admired by the Authors and article because he went through many hardships and suffring to open the door to opputunities for the People of South Africa and he helped abolish Apartheid and he will be remembered forever because of that.

African Independence

There were many changes that ocurred in Africa in the 20-year period from 1955 to 1975. Some changes were Independence for alot of the African nations and Africa became more modernized with new schools and roads and a better government. There were more opportunities built for the African people to be the leaders of their own countries and some of those people were Leopold Senghor, Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, and several other people that helped shape Africa to what it is.

Film Lesson: The Right Stuff

The U.S. and Soviet were competing in the movie because the soviets had launched their first satellite into space and their space program was going well and the U.S. felt that they were falling behind in terms of technology. So the U.S. tried to catch up by making their own space program but theirs was struggling so the Soviets were winning the space race and the U.S. became so desperate that they sent a chimp as their first American in space. One scene that will stay in my mind was when the Americans were testing out their rockets and it was just a disaster because every rocket they sent up just blew up and they failed and failed but they never gave up because they refused to fall second place to the Russians and that just shows the determination of the U.S. at that time and their refusal to give up.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

During the Cold War tensions were high and even though there was no actual fighting involved there was still a threat of war that the U.S. and the Soviets could not afford to ignore. It was that threat of war that prompted the U.S. to form an Alliance with several other countries who were also against Communism like France and Great Britain and named this Alliance NATO which stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Soviets, having heard of this Alliance felt threatened and formed there own alliance with countries that supported communism and they named there Alliance the WarSaw Pact. So basically the NATO and WARSAW PACT were precautionary Alliances that were made to feel more secure during the threat of Nuclear war in that time but of the two only NATO still runs today.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

My reaction to Night and Fog was that I was not that surprised for what I was seeing because I had been studying the Holocaust for years and I even read a book on it so I already knew what I would expect to see from a Holocaust documentary and it just furthered my disgust for the Nazis. I do think the film was pretty powerful in that it was not a book or a movie but real life events that were being shown and you could see for your self what they had done and even though Schindler's List was pretty accurate in their views of the Holocaust the scenes from the Documentary were more powerful because there were no actors or directors to say cut but real life people. So overall I think the documentary showed the Holocaust more effectively because they were showing the murders and burning of bodies and the madness of the Holocaust in action and it was not full of actors with fake blood or anything but real life people that were being slaughtered like animals.

Film Lesson: Schindler's list

There were many ways that the movie illustrated the horrors of the holocaust because that is what the movie was intended to do. But the scene that stuck to me was when the nazis were burning the bodies and one of the nazis started screaming and laughing and then he started to shoot at the already dead burning bodies. That showed me just how sick and cruel they were and they showed no remorse or guilt for what they were doing and it also ruined them phsychologically.