Nelson Mandella

When Nelson Mandela walked out of prison on Feb. 11, 1990, South Africa's future walked with him. If Mandela had raised a clenched fist and said, "We must purge this land with blood," an uprising would have surely ensued, and South Africa would have disappeared into the sea of anarchy that has engulfed so many other African nations. A lesser man would have felt justified in calling for a violent upheaval to bring down the white supremacist government. Anger is a powerful emotion and Mandela had reason to call for revenge. He had spent 27 years in prison, 18 of them on Robben Island, an inhospitable chunk of rock sitting in the cold Atlantic, off the coast of Cape Town. In his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom," Mandela reflected on his years in prison: "It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their own humanity.

The Collapse of Communism

A stunning series of events between 1989 and 1991 that led to the fall of communist regimes in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Faced with massive popular opposition and the unwillingness of President Mikhail Gorbachev to send Soviet troops to their rescue, communist governments lost power, first in Poland, where the communists agreed to free elections that swept into power candidates endorsed by Solidarity in June 1989. Demands for reform spread across East Germany in the fall of 1989 and led to the end of the Berlin Wall and the unification of East and West Germany. In November 1989 the communist government of Czechoslovakia  resigned, and in December a violent revolution led to the overthrow and execution of Romania's communist boss, Nicolae Ceausescu.

Mikhail Gorbahebv

 Mikhail Gorbahebv is the president of russia. He was the youngest president to be in office at the age of 54. When Gorbahebv came in office he wanted a complete stop to communism. He had great political skills and was soon elected Leader. When stalin was in office Mikhail was nothing more then a child.

African Independence

Between the two world wars, an educated middle class had begun 

to emerge in African cities. Young men went abroad for college 

and graduate studies. They listened to American jazz musicians 

and read literature of the Harlem Renaissance. They were influ- 

enced by African Americans such as W. E. B. Du Bois as well as by 

such older Africans as Blaise Diagne, who organized Pan-African 

(all-African) congresses in 1919 and 1921.  The british soon after started to come to africa. Kwame Nkrumah led the first major rebelion against the british.

Film Lesson: The Right Stuff

The Film "The Right Stuff" was about how The Russians were starting to get ahead of the americans by being the first to send a satellite into space. When the americans heard about it they were scared because they thought that who ever controlled space could control the world. They immediately started testing test pilots with college degrees to be the first man in space. While they got their space programs fired up they started getting there space crafts built. Over 6 months there was nothing but failures and lift offs that ended in shear disaster. However after months of training and planning they finally did it. They created a space ship that had 0 failures. The first american in space was a monkey. They sent up a monkey first for a test flight to insure that everything was o.k and good to go. The americans were the first to break the sound barrier at M.O.C.K 1 however 2 months later Russians beat them at M.O.C.K 2, totally destroying our record.

NATO and the Warsaw pact

The NATO is a treaty that was created and signed a long time ago back to when North America & Russia(Soviet Union) were in serious dispute. A dispute so serious that it seemed like a war was inevitable. NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The countries that agreed to and signed the NATO consist mostly of all the atlantic bordering countries.

 

The Warsaw Pact was a treaty between all of the countries that bordered the Soviet Union. The Warsaw pact was similar to the NATO but just for the Soviet Union. When North America and its allies found out about the WarSaw pact they knew that action would have to be take to avoid another World War. 

Night and Fog

Night and fog was a documentary primarily describing the holocaust and all the horoific things that happened at the time. During the holocaust hitler pretty much wanted all the jews dead. So he had built concentration camps to put them all in. NIght and fog also involved "Schindlers list. For instance when Schindlers Female workers were sent to Auchwitsz they arrived on a foggy and misty night. Night and Fog was basically the beginning of the holocaust when Hitler decided to move all the jews into the ghettos.