African Independance

There was a major change in Africa during 20 years. Many countries gained independance during these times. Some major countries within this revolution included South Africa, Zimbabwe, Algeria, and Sudan. The leaders of the revolutions were different in different countries. Nelson Mandela was responsibke for South Africa's independance, and Jomo Kenyata was the main headfigure in Kenya's independance.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

Competitions were about with first man on moon and first nation to have a satellite in space. The competition was between the United States and Russia. They wanted to see who could land on the moon first.. The russians in this competition where winning only because they were ahead of the United States in technology. The Russians were the first to be in space, but United States had the first person to land on the moon because the NASA got funded a lot so they made a better spaceship to land before Russia did. The part of this film that helped me remember this cold war event is when America found out that russia had a man on space; they were devistated. That's one of the things I wouldn't forget. Also the Russians set up the first satellite in space. Something else they competed was they wanted to see who can brake the sound barrier first.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO stands for the (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The NATO was created by The United States and various European countries. If a country would attack a country that was with NATO, all of those other countries would defend the country.

In response to this, the Warsaw pact was created. In May 1955, the USSR (Old name for Russia) made the Warsaw Treaty to the scare of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO in October 1954. This pact would not be powerful unless the Soviet Union was part of it. Back then, the only two superpowers in the world was the United States and the Soviet Union. Unlike NATO, the Warsaw Pact was getting weaker because of the political scene of Russia towards the 80s and it fully dissolved in the 90s.

The ones who created Warsaw pact were USSR and 8 other communist countries.

The countries in NATO were France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

Schindler's List showed a great deal on important information about the holocaust. It showed how barbaric and horrible the Nazis were. Especially to the Jews. They did the most cruel things to the jews. the drove them out of their homes. It was from their homes, to the ghetto, to the working camps, to the death camps. which was the last stage when they were losing the war. It showed how they divided the jews acording to gender and age. if your old enough to work, they would take you to work. if your old, a woman or a child, they would kill you off. They woman and childern ahd a same chance of living depending on the camp , but the old was killed regardless. The ones who died died from starvation , being shot, burned or gassed. No mercy was being shown.
Some of the most horrible , cruel things i saw was when the people were hiding in the town after the raid. When they thought they were safe then started to come out, only realizing that the Nazis were waiting for them. The soliders killed them in cold blood. With no mercy. They didnt care if you were young,old,man, child, woman, pretty or ugly. They killed you off regardless. They felt like it was the right thing to do and that it was their job. They thought of it as fun and amusing. The most powerful film out ofnthe two of them was night and fog. it had actual footage and showed the acutal terrors that happened. It made you feell like you were actually there.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

When i saw the movie "night and fog" it seemed like any other holocaust documentary. Showing the dark and gritty camps. But when the pictures of the dead bodies started to pile up, it all just opened my eyes EVEN MORE on how much death and destruction came out of the holocaust. These nazis conducted sick, repulsive, experiments on the jews in this camp. and the way to dispose of the bodies was completely inhumane. Mass graves of people, women and young children included, were also shown in the film. There are many scenes in this movie that are similar to a movie called "Schindlers list", which deals with the same topic. I think that "Night and Fog" illustrates the holocaust more accuratley because it shows actual scenes of the holocaust.

The Treaty of Versailles (Ended WW1)

The Treaty of Versailles was the single document that put an end to World War 1, known as the Great War at the time. But with this document, came forth more hate and controversy. This document stated that Germany was the main cause of all loss in WW1, so they had to pay heavy reparations and practically all of their foreign colonies were taken away from them. This devastated the German government and economy, practically eliminating them. In my opinion, I think this was a reasonable arrangement, instead of eliminating their entire country, they let them be in shambles. But as people say, when all is lost, there is always that one cockroach that survived, or something like that. Well anyway, that was the case in Germany after the Treaty of Versailles. Adolf Hitler, a Austria-Hungarian, started to make speeches on how the entire country can rise again, by eliminating anybody that is not part of the 'superior race'. Many historians bicker that the Treaty of Versailles was the main reason for the rise of Hitler and Fascism.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

The word secular means of or pertaining to worldy things, basically non-religious. Mustafa Kemal (aka Ararurk) was a turk who was basically the first president of modern turkey. Think of him as a George Washington figure. He wasnt really fond of the Turkish way of life at the time, which was almost completly circled around religion. When he became the leader he passed various laws and promoted several different styles. To rid of the religious influence in Turkey, he showed the Turks how to dress as their neighbors the Europeans. Instead of a robe with a fez, he said to wear a shirt, jacket, pants and a brimmed hat. Not only did he change the Turks' fashion sense, but he also changed some of their laws. He actually banned the wearing of a fez, a religious sort of headgear. He applied new governmental ways to the current Turkish one. He applied more secular themes to these Coesxisting laws.