Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

The Apartheid was a racial segregation policy which stated that white people were above everyone else and can vote, while on the other hand the "Bantu" which were everyone that is black mixed or Indian is not able to vote and were below everyone else. This system was almost the same as the one is the U.S, but there segregation lasted till the 1990's.

Nelson Mandela had a big impact on the people of South Africa. He fought for the independence of South Africa and his country is still healing from the Racism and Apartheid. Mandela was part of a group to enforce non-violence methods to get freedom and justice and to stop the Apartheid. He was in jail for 26 years. When he got out he wrote a book, and still continued to fight for his country and the people admired him for this and when elections came in 1991, he was elected over the other person with 61% of the votes.

African Independence

Africa was one of the countries in the world that didn't have its independence. Filled with over 20 countries Africa was a very "hot" spot to control. The Europeans were the first to imperialize the continent so they had it for themselves. During 1955-1970, Africa were fighting for their independence. The French, Spanish, English had control over them took for a long time. During that time they just used Africa for their natural resources and labor.

Kenya was one of the countries to gain their independence. Kenya was a special country because of the fact that their president was in prison during the time. He was later elected President. His name was Jomo Kenyatta. He had leaded the Mau Mau's in order for him to "scare" the english away without any war.

The first country to gain its independence was Ghana. They were lead by Kwame Nkrumah. Kwame was a teacher who for a short period of time studied in the U.S. He came back to Ghana to help his people get more rights in their country. He winded up becoming the president of Ghana and gaining independence from the english.

Africa changed alot during all of this. They sucessfully gained all of their independence from European countries except for a selected few. Many of them got to change the name of their country to something more of their african culture and create a flag.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

"Schindler's List" was another powerful and illustrative movie that greatly express the holocaust. The film managed to show everything from the transferring the Jews to the ghettos and the ending of the war. It showed how the sick and non working Jews were selected and what they did to the sick like poison their medicine or shoot them. Another thing showed was the hidden places where the Jewish kids hid like secret compartments in the ghettos and the sewers.

The part when they transferred the Jewish women to Auschwitz was one of my favorites most descriptive parts in the movie because the women were so excited to get out of the ghetto but then they get sent to the concentration camp. In Auschwitz they killed many people because of their age or if they tried to run away. The Germans knew all the hiding spots so there was really no hiding or escaping there.

Id say that "Schindler's List" was equally as powerful as "Night in the Fog" because they both showed sick and twisted parts in the holocaust.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

The movie " The Right Stuff " was a movie made in the 80's about the USSR and United States competition against each other non-violently. In the movie, they were competing on who could reach the speed of sound witched they called mach 1. and mach 2 ( which is 2x the speed of sound).

The film showed how the USSR launched their first satellite into space. The US heard about this and then they decided to choose 7 well experience pilots with college degrees to be the first astronauts. That's why the movie is called "The Right Stuff" because those pilots had the right stuff. The USSR was winning because they launched the first satellite into space but then the US was trying to put men on the moon. They were not successful at first because all the testing had failed, but in the end they succeeded in getting someone up there.

One of my favorite scenes was what they did during the competition were breaking the sound barrier and how it was a great achievement and when they did the rocket testing and how they failed and winded up exploding and crashed. Another scene was when they were training the people because it showed how determined they were to get there and how they were gonna beat the USSR.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also known as The NATO pact was and intergovernmental joining of military forces in case of any foreign attacks. So for example lets say someone attacked the US, Canada would be able to back us up because Canada is apart of NATO like us. Since NATO was formed during the cold war to stop communism from spreading there was fear in Russia so they made an alliance like us.
The Warsaw pact is a similar treaty where the 8 communist countries in Europe signed a treaty where they will be there for each other in case of an attack from a foreign nation. This was made after the NATO was created to stop communism spreading.
The ones who created NATO were France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland The USSR and 8 other communist countries were the ones who created Warsaw.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

"Night and Fog" was a very powerful film. It really captured all the details of the holocaust and even though the movie was in french you still were able to understand all that was going on in Auschwitz even without the English subtitles. It shows everything, from where they slept to how they were treated. One scene in the movie really stood out to me, when they had a pile of dead jews just lying there. It was a very disturbing scene. "Night and Fog" compared to "Schindler's List" I believe was more depicting. I would recommend both of the films to anyone. They really show everything vividly.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty that was signed at the Palace Of Versailles in Paris, France and was also a Treaty to end World War One. This Treaty is what Ended the war between Germany and the Allied Powers. The German were effected greatly by this. This caused many other germans to rebel as well. The Germans payed billions in war dues because of all the damages and civilian casualties they have caused. The Germans also lost many of land in the treaty. Germany eventually gave back land to countries like when they gave Poland, West Prussia back. Germany lost many territories they had overseas as well. I believe that this treaty was not fair because of all the billions of dollars they had to pay back.

Many people say that the Treaty of Versailles led to the rise of Adolf Hitler because the Germans were in a great depression and Hitler being strong smart person he was felt that he had to lead Germany out of this. He gave them the hope they needed and fought back against the Associated powers. He wanted to make Germany Stronger again and he promised that by what the Treaty of Versailles did.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

One if the most successful military leader was Mustafa Kemal. He successfully took a group of the nations nationalists and over through the ottoman sultan. He succeeded in reforming Turkey, making it more modernized, and more secular. Mustafa Kemal separated Islamic Laws from the Nation laws. He separated rules of religion from the laws of the country and in an attempt of modernizing Turkey and making it more European like. Mustafa also removed religious courts and made an english system like court (Like current day court). He allowed women to have rights such as voting and getting jobs that only men could acquire.

Kemal banished many old traditions as well. Government officials didn't go to work wearing their fez. (Kemal believed that the fez meant that you were living backwards) Instead they were going to work wearing suits and ties. He really wanted them to look more modernized and like European business men and workers. His influence was so strong they followed him and when he died they gave him the name " Ataturk" which meant father of the turks because of all he did for his country.

Film Lesson: "Gandhi"

Gandhi was a very inspirational man. He inspired one of the most famous man in the world, Martin Luther King Jr. a leader of the Civil Rights Movements. Gandhi main goal was to try to bring together the Hindu and Muslim people. Using many non-violent protest, he proved to be a pain to the British. Gandhi used non-violence because it made them in control. If the British tried to attack or use force on them then it would make the British look bad. This method proved to be effective because the less violence that the indians did, the more it made England look bad when the press from the United States arrived. One of Gandhi most memorable protest was the Salt March. The Salt March was basically Gandhi marching with hundreds of other indians thousands of miles to the ocean in order to make there own salt. Gandhi did this with many other items such as clothes, and yarn. He did this in order to show that he did not approve of the British and there items, which is why he did the Salt March so he could make his own salt.

Indias indepence was highly influence by Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi gave them hope and will power to use non-violence in the protests and to never give up. As shown in the movie , he never gave up on his people. He went to jail many times for his people because of the little laws he broke when they protested. Also he didn't buy any of the governments clothes which was a big influence to the independence of India. I think the Indians without Gandhi would of got their independence, but not for a while because not many people believe in non-violence until Gandhi promoted it to the people for decades.

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