Thursday, April 29, 2010

African Independence

 In the twenty years that Africa changed from 1955 to 1975 the changed was mostly about power. During those years Africans were rebelling and becoming "free countries". They had leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta. Jomo Kenyatta spent some timein prison because the british believed he was controlling the Mau Mau. They were a violent group who killed many whites and Africans. After the Mau Mau scared off the british Kenyatta became president of Kenya. So for the 20 years africans were gaining independence in their country.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

In the film the right stuff, the U.S and the soviet union were competeing to have a space program. The Russians were having more going on in there program so they were winning. They had the first satalite in space. They had the first human to ever go to space. All the U.S sent was a monkey. The movie showed how during the cold war the U.S. didn't wanna let the russians know what they were doing. Like when the guy broke the sound barrier they didn't want to let media know so the russians wont see. Thats what I learned from the movie.

Monday, April 12, 2010

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

 NATO is an organization with United States and European countries. It was basically a protection policy. If any other NATO member was attacked the rest would come to aid it. NATO was important because the soviets were trying to promote communism. They weren't afraid to use force so the other countries needed protection. The Warsaw Pact was made up of the Soviets and their satellite countries. But in the Warsaw Pact the Soviets ran everything. They kept the other countries in the pact socialist governments and kept their own military there. The Soviets attacked other members of the pact then created a new pact in 1989. 

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

Night and Fog was a great documentary. The footage was almost like Schindlers list but the commentary was more descriptive. A lot of the things shown in the documentary were shown in Schindlers list like the burners and the gas chambers/showers. The document was more in depth of the events of the holocaust in Auschwitz. So I think the documentary was better than the hollywood film. 

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

Schindler's list illustrated the holocaust good. It was very descriptive on the events that took place during the holocaust. I think the most powerful scene for me was when the nazis were taking away the children. Then the kids started hiding anywhere they could. They hid in burners and toilets and under the floor. Another powerful part was when the nazis started killing everyone and burning the bodies of the jews. Though this was a great film I liked the documentary "Night and Fog" better due to the fact that the footage was first hand.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

The treaty of versailles made germany give up a lot of there land. They also had to pay reparation to other countries. Everyone blamed germany for everything. By them losing so much they had to live under other countries shadows. They barely had any resources or any armed forces for protection. Then they couldn't keep up with the reparation payments and french troops were moved in. I don't think the treaty was fair and i do believe that it is was led to fascism in germany. I also believe that the treaty sparked the rise of Adolph Hitler. I think historians say it did because he was such an angry guy and the treaty pissed him off. 

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Secular is being separate from your religion. Mustafa Kemal made the country of Turkey secular. He did it by getting the muslims of the country not to where fez's or different clothes then everybody else. He thought they should dress alike with the Europeans. Mustafa Kemal was also known as Ataturk. That means father of the turks. He was the president of turkey for 15 years then he died. But he was the one to modernize Turkey. Because of him Turkey is the most modern muslim country in the world!!!