Anthony's Global Blog

Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of Communism

2008-05-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

Mikhail Gorbachev was the youngest leader of the Soviet Union since Stalin himself. He gained many supporters with his youth, energy, and people skills. He started making big changes in the Soviet Union very fast. He opened the door, and paved the way for the end of Communism. He was making many changes, but other countries weren't doing the same, so after a while the system of Communism collapsed.

"Glasnost," was openess in the Soviet Union. Gorbachev knew he couldn't run his nation without a free flow of ideas and information. Glasnost brought remarkable things, churches opened, and people were realeased from prison.

"Peristrokia," was an economic restructurement of the Soviet Union, by this he was trying to revive the economy.

Collapse Of Communism

2008-05-02T05:12:00.000-07:00

During the Cold War, many years passed by and the USSR was trying to keep up with US in the nuclear arms race and the space race. Communism itself proved to be a weaker economic system, compared to capitalism and eventually it collapsed. The collapse of Communism started with Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika. He thought these policies would help the USSR in the long run.

The Berlin wall was a symbol of Communism in Germany, and it came crashing down because the people in Germany were tired of being stewed into two seperate parts.

Finally, on November 9th the wall came down. People with sledgehammers had at the wall and eventually it collapsed, just Communism. After 28 years, East and West Germany could finally form new diplomatic relations.

Thanks to the Collapse of Communism, other countries stopped following the ways of Communism, and that's ultimatly what the US wanted in the first place.

African Independance

2008-04-16T05:18:00.000-07:00

The continent of Africa had many drastic changes over the 20 year period of 1955-1975. The African people were trying so desperatly to gain independance and be like the United States of America, it backfired. A man by the name of Kwame Nkrumah was elected Prime Minister and tried to build better roads, better schools, and to expand health facilities. These upgrades soon crippled the country, his intentions were good, but the costs were too high.

Some of the African Independance Leaders Include

Jomo Kenyatta- Strong Kenyan leader who helped his respective nation gain independance from the British.
Patrice Lumumba- First leader of the Congo after Belgium granted then independance. Was murdered due to a rebellion.
Ahmed Ben Bella- Leader of FLN, named Prime Minister and first President of Algeria. He estasblished national order, began land reforms, and developed new plans for education.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

2008-04-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

The Soviets had nuclear weapons, but they were far less superior to the nuclear weapons of the United States. They wanted to be prepared for a bombing of Russia by the U.S. but their weapons wouldn't be able to reach the U.S. from Russia. So in the summer of 1962, the Soviets and Cuba banned together and started the missile installation.

Reconnaissance photographs revealed Soviet missiles under construction in Cuba. Early the next day, President John Kennedy was informed of the missile installations. Kennedy immediately organized the EX-COMM, a group of his most important advisors to handle the crisis overseas in Cuba. After a week of guarded and intense debate within the higher authorities of government, Kennedy decided to impose a naval quarantine around Cuba. He wished to prevent the arrival of more Soviet offensive weapons on the island. On October 22, Kennedy announced the discovery of the missile installations to the public and his decision to quarantine the island. He also stated that any nuclear missile launched from Cuba would be regarded as an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union and demanded that the Soviets remove all of their offensive weapons from Cuba.

The two sides came to an agreement and the Russians agreed to taking their missiles out of Cuba. This is mainly why the Cuban Missile Crisis is considered the "hottest moment in the Cold War."

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

2008-03-31T05:28:00.000-07:00

NATO, is the "North Atlantic Treaty Organization" which is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4th, 1949. With headquarters in Belgium, Brussells the organization established a system of collective defense which its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. The members of NATO were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxuemberg, Netherlands Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

The Warsaw Pact, was an organization of communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. It was established on May 14th, 1955 in Warsaw, Poland. This treaty was modeled on the NATO treaty, in that there was a political organization of communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. Also, in that there was a political Consultative Committee, followed by a civilian secretary general, while down the chain of command there was a military commander in chief and a combined staff, although the similarities between the two international organizations ended there. The members of this pact were the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania.

The countries chose sides for percautionary reasons. Just incase they got bombed, other allie countries would help then out for the better.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

2008-03-31T05:13:00.000-07:00

In the movie "The Right Stuff" the United States and Russia were fighting over space dominance. Russia succesfully launched "Sputnik" a satellite into outerspace. The U.S. didn't like that idea, mainly because the "Cold War" was going on. We wanted to have the first person in space. At first they considered a chimpanzee, but that idea didn't fly, so the United States picked seven men to go into space. At first, the Soviets were winning, but when the United States put the first man into space, that sealed the deal and put us ahead of the Russians.

The one scene that will stick with me will definitly be the scene when the Senators and President are all sitting in the White House, and they are discussing the space situation. The U.S. actually thought that Russia could possibly drop nuclear bombs onto the U.S. form outer space. That one scene just shows how nervous and scared the head leaders of our country were during the "Cold War."

2008-03-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

I AM THUMPER I THUMP AND I THUMP AND I SQUISH YOU BECAUSE I AM THE OFFICIAL ONE AND ONLY THUMPER I WILL THUMP YOU YOU WILL THEN ME THE THUMPIED

Film Lesson: "Schindlers List"

2008-03-20T05:23:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, "Schindlers List" depicts the Holocaust more of a way for the big screen, for people to grief, but feel good in the end because of how Oscar Schindler saved all of the jews. That is a hollywood type ending for the big screen, compared to "Night and Fog" which was just brutal and didn't choose sides. It just told the story how it was, nothing extra. That's probably why most people like the 1993 movie better.

The two scenes that will stay with me will be when Schindlers women arrived at Auschwitz, and i personally though what was falling form the sky was snow, but then saw the creamatory burning, then realized it was jews. The last scene that will stay with me will most likely be the Krakow Ghetto, and how everyone was hiding in the floors, that how badly they didn't want to be took by the Germans. That is some powerful stuff, and after these two movies, I will most likely pick up "The Diary of Anne Frank" and actually sit down and read it.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

2008-03-20T05:13:00.000-07:00

My reactions to the movie "Night and Fog" were probably the same as many other people who have seen the documentary as well. What went on at those Concentration Camps, was 100% not right, and what happened at the killing camps (Auschwitz) was even worse. This was a horrible time in history and it will never be forgotten. It was a very powerful documatary that made me think a lot, probably more than any other movie. Just the pictures alone gave me a sick feeling to my stomache, but when the narrarator started describing things that went on, i wasn't sure if I could handle it. You could tell the movie "Schindlers List" took parts from the documentary "Night and Fog" but that dosen't even matter because of how well the hollywood movie did. It won multiple Academy Awards, including "Best Picture."

In my opinion, "Schindlers List" illustrated the Holocaust better, mainly because the length of it, being more than 2 hours long, compared to "Night and Fog," only being 30 minutes.

The Treaty of Versailles (Ended WW I)

2008-02-11T05:07:00.000-08:00

The Treaty of Versailles was peace treaty that ended World War 1, between the Allied Powers, Associated Powers, and Germany. The war had put on hold, due to and armistice on November 11th, 1918, but it took about 6 months to finally sign a peace treaty. This treaty affected Germany is many ways, one of the ways is the treaty stated that "Germany and its allies accept full responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-248, disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers."

I agree with most historiansm, and personally think the The Treaty of Versailles did lead to the rise of Hitler and Fascism. When Germany could not pay off the war debts to Great Britain and France, they suffered a depression. German money became close to worthless, and the German people were angry with the Treaty of Versailles; they felt the terms were unfair. Many Germans believed a strong leader could return their nation to power again. Adolph Hitler believed the country of Germany got "stabbed in the back," and he thought that pure Germans, or "Aryans" controlled the destiny of Germany, it would return to greatness.

Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) and the Modernization of Turkey

2008-02-08T05:09:00.000-08:00

Mustafa Kemal, other wise known as "Atatürk" main goal was to modernize Turkey and create a secular system, and giving his nation a new sense of dignity, equality, and happiness. After more than three centuries of high achievement, the Ottoman Empire had declined from the 17th to the early 20th Century and they were not able to keep up with the new times, and were helpless. Mustafa Kemal lead his people out from a dark past, and into a bright future.

Kemal's program of modernization, secular government and education played a major role in modernizing Turkey. By making religious faith a matter of each person personally, he created a truly secular system in Turkey, where the large Moslem majority and the small Christian and Jewish believers are free to practice their faith. As a result of Atatürk's reforms, Turkey unlike other countries had fully secular institutions.

To make Turkey more modernized, Atatürk introduced many reforms. European hats replaced the fez, women stopped wearing veils, all citizens took surnames, and lastly the Islamic calendar gave way to the Western calendar. A major change took place in the city and rural life. It has been said that few nations have ever been through anything that can compare to the social change in Turkey with Mustafa Kemal there.

Secular, basically means having nothing do to with religon. The school I attend, Information Technology Highschool is non-religous. On the other hand, a school like St. Francis Prepattory School is a catholic school, so that would be non-secular.

Film Lesson "Gandhi"

2008-02-07T05:06:00.000-08:00

Mohandes Gandhi helped his country of India to gain independance from Great Britain by using a philosophy that is largely concerned with truth and resistance to evil through active, non-violent resistance,which led Indian to independance and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Some specific examples of how Ghandi helped India gain its independance was the Salt March, Cloth boycott, and believing anti-violence. The British were big providers of cloth, so Gandhi expressed the urgency to stop buying the British cloth, and spin their own. Also, salt was also very important to the British, and Gandhi stated using their salt didn't make sense, so they should go on a march to get their own salt. Lastly, anti-violence was a major part of India gaining it independace, and that whole idea was Mohandas Gandhi's, one of the most influential people in history.

I personally think India would have gotten its independance eventually, mainly beacause Great Britain had so much rule of many parts of the world, and being in World War 1 and 2 wasn't helping either. The wars costed money, and i couldn't picture Greta Britain maintaing rule over India.

Test Blog

2008-01-31T05:23:00.000-08:00

Blah Blah Blah