Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

             The Apartheid was a system of government where you might have the same same job as someone else but because of the color of your skin, the other person would get paid more in a week than what you would get paid in a year. Also, they would underestimate your ancestors and their way of life. Nelson Mandela is such a hero because he sacrificed himself in order to achieve South Africa's freedom. Mandela at first was the leader of a political movement called the African National Congress (ANC). As the leader of this political movement, he fought for the rights of colored skin people in Africa which he knew were been unfairly taken away from them. He was sentenced to life in prison, unfairly, since the government didn't want him around to influence people to realize what the government was doing. After 27 years in prison, he was freed and was elected president of Africa. Mandela is so admired by the authors of these articles and sites because he freed so many people, including himself, from the injustice the Apartheid government was offering them. He saved a lot of people from continuing with that lifestyle, which they didn't deserve, by being in prison for so long, sacrificing himself in such a brave way. i Think he had a lot of courage and was a very kind person to do this. 

African Independence

            Africa changed so much in the 20 year period from 1955 to 1975 because most of Africa gained it independence from the Europeans. They realized that it was unfair to them having to live under the rule of people that only exploited these "colonies" natural resources and not only that, also the fact that most of these rulers were racist. Some of the leaders that encouraged African independence were Kwame Nkrumah, who achieved Gold Coast now know as Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta and Mau Mau, who got Kenya's independence, Mobutu Sese Seko, achieved Zaires independence. Ahmed Ben Bella, helped to achieve Algeria's independence, and Angola got it's independence by the cost of the rebellion that was formed by the civilians that cost half of the Portuguese budget and forced the Portuguese to leave without handing power to anyone specifically. These were the six leaders that helped achieve Ghana's, Kenya's, Zaire's, Algeria's, and Angola's independence.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

In the film "the Right Stuff," the US and the USSR were competing in getting people in shuttles out into space. The first ones to send a shuttle into space to leave a satellite were the Russians(Sputnik) and when the US found out, we sent a shuttle as well. Then, the Russians sent a person into space while the US sent a monkey, just in case things didn't work out well. I think that the Russians were winning this competition because they were the ones that were actually one step ahead of us, but we where the first ones to have a man actually stand on the moon. The scenes where the Russians would send up a shuttle successfully and then the US was trying to come up with a good shuttle as well.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

the NATO was an organization formed so that the 12 nations in this organization could have mutual defense that when one of them needed help, the rest could help. The Warsaw Pact was a pact formed about 6 years after the NATO was formed. The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance to maintain power, or control, over Eastern Europe. These alliances were formed in order to prevent the spread of the "iron curtain" nationally when Western Europe found themselves too weak politically and militarily. Also, it was formed to have total control.

Film lesson: "Schindler's List"

      
The film "Schindler's List" the Holocaust from both the Jews and Nazis point of view.  It illustrated how the Nazis deeply enjoyed killing the Jews, with the exception of very few, and the things that the Jews had to do in order to survive the Holocaust. For me the scenes of the children and the scene of Auschwitz were the most powerful to me as a viewer, it was so sad to see all those innocent people dying and the children being taken away from their mothers and these not being able to do anything about it. There are two scenes that will stay with me FOREVER are the one where the little boy jumps into the toilet, and the scene where all those bodies were being burnt. "Schindler's List" was most powerful to me as a viewer because i was in a way able to feel the frustration and sadness of all those people that didn't know what was going to happen to them or their children. Also the fact of hearing rumors that you're going to get killed and that a few have already been killed, it was horrible for them and now that we see this, there are a lot of feelings to why anyone could be able to do this massive killing to so many people specially innocent children that had nothing to do with anyone. =(

Film lesson: "Night and Fog"

  

when i saw the film "Night and Fog," it was actually very touching and sad. I put myself in any of the Jews position and i just don't know what i would do in that case. The imagery was very amazing. I found it very powerful, it made me feel so many many emotions and not only that it also gave me goosebumps. The film "Schindler's List" was more first person while "Night and Fog" was more third person. Also "Schindler's List" has a few of the scenes from the documentary "Night and Fog." I think that the Hollywood version "Schindler's List" was more effective because we got to see what actual survivors of the Holocaust went through and we also saw things from their point of view and how hard it was. We were also able to see a lot more pictures and scenes from what actually happened. I was able to feel a little bit what Jews went through.

The Treaty of Versailles ( end of WW1)

The treaty of versailles affected Germany in many ways. First of all, they could only have an army no bigger than 10000 men. They also had to give up some of their land and not only that, they also had to pay for reparations. This made Germany go through a really bad a time because they could barely do anything, and they were basically left without any money. I don't think the treaty was fair because the war was maybe started by Germany but they weren't the only ones that fought in the war. They all attacked each other and that made all the damage in the country. I think that historians thought that this treaty led to the rise of Fascism and Adolf Hitler and i agree with them because since this treaty was so hard for the Germans, someone had to help rise Germany again from this war. And also because the Germans had nothing to lose, they already had barely any money left so they got their hopes up when Adolf Hitler came up and promised so many good things that the Germans felt they need after all their lose in ww1.