Afrida's Global Blog

Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of Communism

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

in Russia, by 1990, Communism collapsed in Russia. By 1960, Russia faced many problems such as poverty. people in Russia wanted their own choices and wanted to earn what they deserve. Then Russia was completely broke. So Mikhal Gorbachev came in leadership. He wasntent like the last leaders who wanted to make the country communistic, he wanted to make soemthing that will help the people. He started to change the original idea of communism and later on, he started another new Russian revolution. He introduced Russia with a new economic system which was called, perestroika. He wanted to revive the society and wanted a productive economic system. In 1985 he discribed a system of society which is called glasnost.

Collapse of Communism

2008-05-02T05:04:00.000-07:00

The collapse of communism was a grate event in history. Its the time when the cold war ended which was being continuous for so long time. During the cold war, there was a wall called The Berlin Wall which separated the communists countries and the democratic countries. later in the collapse of communism, the Merlin wall was broken down. In 1989 the wall started to break down. First there was only one purpose where the people wanted to make a road. Later on regular people took it down completely. There was many reasons for the collapse of communism, the government system wasn't appropriate enough to support the idea of communism. It became close to dictatorship. the government leader had too much power and started to take all the money of the country. So the country faced many poverties. Later on they couldn't keep up with the capitalists finance so the people decided to tore down the idea of communists. Another reason was that the people wanted to have more choices to their life. They didn't wanted to be same to each other, they wanted to be their own individuality. so they wanted to ban the idea of communism. They broke down the Berlin bridge, the symbol of communism.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

2008-04-18T04:59:00.000-07:00

Apartheid system is where the nation and all the national system is divided by race and color. In this system through 1948 to 1994, black, brown, Indians or any other non white people didn't have enough rights in society. They were always payed small amount of money even though its their country. But the white and the European people earned all the money of their country. After world war II, the people in these countries started to fight for their freedom. They no longer wanted to be ruled by these European country. they wanted their own country and wanted own nationality. Almost every country had their own strong leader. Nelson Mandela was one of them who fought for their own country among African nations. He was sent to jail for 27 years just because he was working against the government. Finally when he was released from jail, people of his country wanted to make him president and later when he was released, his people voted him leader of his country. Today his country works as an idle to show the fight against racism.

African Independence

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

around 1955, Africa realized that The British countries were controlling most of Africa. But the European countries were also fighting among themselves. They figured that they no longer want to be controlled by these European countries who can't stop fighting among themselves. The countries began to grow the feeling of nationalism in them and wanted to form their own country. So they started to fight their way to independence and later on when the European countries left Africa, they successfully created their own country. They needed someone to help them which almost all country had, a strong leader. Suck as, Leopold Senghor. Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Mau Mau, Mobutu Sese Seko, Ahmed Ben Bella. They all fought to get their own country and finally Europe left the African countries and gave them their own freedom.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

2008-04-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

This movie shows the Space Race that was held in the Cold war. During the cold war, the two major superpowers, the U.S. and the Russia help the most advanced space program and they had a race against who can go to space first. The U.S and the Russia had proper space technology. But they were still struggling to find who can put the first men on space. Russia managed to put the first man on space when the U.S. put a money instead so in that term the Russia won the race. But later on the U.S. put the first man on the moon and Russia couldn't go that fur. so eventually, later on the U.S. won the space race later on.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

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

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the time when the world got closest to having nuclear war. The Soviet Union missiles were less stronger then the U.S. army. so they were desperate for military in 1962. Fidel Castro was looking for a way to prevent the attack from U.S. to Cuba. So when the Soviet Union wanted a way to defeat the U.S. the Cuba let them build missile in Cuba. Later on the U.S. found out that there were missiles hidden in there by reconnaissance photographs and prepared missiles. The U.S. got ready to lunch missile and sent agreement to remove those missiles in Cuba. The Soviet Union first sent an agreement that they will remove if the U.S promises to not invade Cuba, and later on they promised that they will remove if the U.S removes their missile in Turkey. But later on the soviet Union removes their missiles and after that the U.S promised that they wont invade Cuba. Thus the crises ended in October 28th in 1962.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

2008-03-31T05:04:00.000-07:00

The countries in north America and Europe made up the organization called NATO. This organization was mainly formed to help the member countries to help in war. If one country get attacked then the other member countries of NATO can jump and help in war. Up until 1950, the NATO was an agreement for the U.S. to protect other countries.
Warsaw pact: This pact includes most of the countries of the Soviet Union and the satellite countries. It was created in the response of the North Atlantic Treaty. It was created in may 14th, 1955. It was also created to help the member and alliance countries. The member countries were, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. but later in 1991 the Warsaw pact was canceled.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's list"

2008-03-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

In the movie, "Schindler's list" had lots of powerful scenes as well. This movie showed the three parts of holocaust: ghetto, concentration camp and the Auschwitz. Obviously the Auschwitz will be more powerful where all those people were first killed and then burned. But i think that the part where the Jews were taken from ghetto to the labor camp were more powerful int eh movie. It showed how who ever tried to escape were killed without any hesitation. how all those people were hiding throughout the whole day and later at night how all the German killed everyone of them. Mostly those who were in the Schindler's list survived. But we saw other people were taken into the concentration camp and later to the death camp and almost all of them never came back.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

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

Night and Fog was a strong documentary about the holocaust and Auschwitz. It effected us all very much and showed us the real truth, it brought the actual evidence of the holocaust that were left after the world war II was over. The movie showed us how Jews were killed and and also how all their stuff were taken away. But instead the Hollywood version shows step by step of what happened one after another and how the victims were affected. waht kind of protest they did but still couldn't escape. I think the Hollywood version was much better to see and understand because it showed step by step, but even though the documentary was very powerful, it only showed what happend after the end of war. It didn't show what happened at that moment.

The Treaty of Versailles (Ended WW I)

2008-02-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

When the world war I ended, German had been defeated. German had lost a lot of soldiers and military powers. At the end German was forced to sign a treaty and had also lost a lot of land. The treaty was called the Treaty of Versailles, which was very effective to the German people. The treaty limited the rights of the people. German couldn't make big ships or build any king of military power. Another of the laws in the treaty was to pay the damage of the war to Great Britain and France. United States couldn't lend money to Germany during the depression of America. As a result German faced several depressions. the German people thought that the treaty was unfair and also wanted a fair government that can save them from the situation that they are in. Thats the time Hitler came in and wanted to overthrow the government.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

2008-02-08T05:25:00.001-08:00

Kemal reforms made a political revolution. He represented the modern Turkey. Republican regime is the only thing that best represents the wished of the Turkey people, which Kemal believed. The Ottoman Empire controlled Turkey through 17th century to 20th century.
In his 15 years when he was president until his death, he changed and modernized Turkey. He created a modern secular system where the all the religion are free to participate their own way and which is the way Turkey reformed. As a result, he created a secular country which is very unlike to other countries.

Film Lesson: Gandhi

2008-02-07T05:03:00.000-08:00

The main person that led the work of India's independence was the mahatma Gandhi. He led the whole nation to aright path that helped everyone in India and also tough the main point in humanity, how to be proper human who never uses violence to accomplish what they want to accomplish. Gandhi led a lot of peaceful protest. One of the protests is that Gandhi didn't buy any cloths from British, he made his own cloths and encouraged the whole India to do the same. That way British lost the cloth market. Another famous protest was when he and a lot of other people marched to the sea to make their own salt. But it was illegal to make salt. everyone had to buy salt from British. The people protested outside the gate and the British police kept injuring Indian people, but no one fought back. When the people thought of fighting them back, Gandhi started to protested to the people as well by fasting because he believed that fighting back is only going to make things worse. his famous cote is "an eye for an eye will end up making the world blind"
Even if Gandhi weren't there to lead the Indian people, the independence would have came anyway. At the end of all the protests, right before the independence, the British got involved in the world war I and then the British didn't have time to control India and also stop their protests.

Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

2008-01-11T07:46:00.001-08:00

totalitarianism: Totalitarianism is the state of government where the government holds complete control of the world. In this state of government, one person holds absolute power over the whole country and all the citizens. After Lenin's death, 1924, Joseph Stalin took over power and created a power which is absolute and called totalitarianism. He was determined to turn the soviet union into a powerful industrial state. He used totalitarianism to control the soviet government. He became the dictator of the soviet union. Later on His forced collectivization of agriculture caused a lot of lives and the economy suffered as well.

Film Lesson: Doctor Zhivago

2008-01-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

The film described about the Russian civil war and how the Russians quit from the world war I. Right after the beginning of the world war, the Russians lost a lot of people and thousands of people were wounded. The people got tired of the war and wanted to go home to their family. So they argued with the political leader called the czar and took over. The czar was sent to jail and there were no more king or master for the citizens. The people were free and do which ever job they wanted. In that way no one had to starve when they aren't capable of earning. That is how communism was born. In the movie the doctor wants to help the people that are wounded in the war and later on he had different problems in the communist society.

Causes of World War I

2008-01-04T07:42:00.000-08:00

The world was the first war which was mainly between the Europe Continent. There were many causes which led to the world war.
The Industrial revolution was the starting point which led to the imperialism where the Europeans needed resources and were competing to each other about the lands of other countries and also competing against each other in terms of power. They were trying to find as much as resources as possible, and a better land then the other Europian countries.
Another reason is alliance which is the major reason and the immediate result was the world war. There were two groups which made up by alliance. The two alliance dveloped by Bismarckian diplomacy were the triple alliance and the triple entente. In the triple alliance was the Italy,Germany, and Austria Hungary. In the triple entente was Russia, France. Britain.

The Opium War

2007-12-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

The first thing that comes to mind hearing the word opium is drugs. The opium was was all about the time when the British imported massive amount of drugs to China.
The Chinese were isolated from the whole world during 14th century and they thought that they were better then any other nations even after the isolation time period. They thought that they had everything that ever needed. British wanted to trade with China because China had a lot of natural resources, but China did not wanted to allow British to get their resources. So the British supplied a massive amount of opium to China. millions of people in China got addicted to this opium, and needed more opium. The Chinese emperor ordered China to stop importing opium but British did not stop the importation. The opium war was about China vs British in order to stop the opium importation and exportation.
The outcome of the war was predictable. The Chinese people lost miserably. China was no match for the British technology and better weapons.

"The White Man's Burden"

2007-12-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

The poem "white man's burden" was written in the 1899. Back then the England had a lot of power and invented many different weapons. So England took over many different places of the world which is called the imperialism. This poem was about the time of the British imperialism. The poem was writes about how England was more powerful and superior of all of the land and places. Every one should thank the England for taking over a land and bringing technology to the land. But instead the people think that England is taking over the land and torturing the regular people. So eventually the poet of this poem is thinking that educating these people is the white man's burden.

"The Scramble for Africa"

2007-12-05T07:45:00.000-08:00

The scramble of Africa is all about the time when different nations and different leaders tries to take over different countries of Africa. In 1400s the Portuguese started to trade at the coastline of Africa. In 1600s the Dutch established trade in the southwestern tip of Africa. In 1870s Belgium started a trade with Africa in Congo. After that many European countries such as France, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Portugal tried to invade Africa in order of trade the natural resources that almost every country needed. That is called the scramble of Africa. The countries were able to take over Africa so easily because of how weak the Africans were in terms of technology. African people couldn't defend them self from westernized technology such as guns and cannons etc. The people in Africa were forced to work for the foreign countries and turned into slaves in their own homeland.

Film Lesson: "Mountain of the Moon"

2007-12-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

The movie, "Mountain of the Moon" is about an event right after the industrial revolution. In this time period the people of British runs out of resources and looks at Africa for natural resources. The movie shows two people looking for the source or the river Nile in the Africa. The people in Europe had to first face the Sahara desert. They had to travel with resources like water and foods. They had to go through a lot of hardship where it was very hard to survive.
The British found the source of the Nile river, so they named the river after the queen.
The time was right after the industrial revolution. So Europe had a lot of technology that Africa never thought about. The Europe had guns and other inventions that the African people were so afraid of. So later on when the two European people returned and the told about the African disadvantage they had. later they went to Africa with better and bigger technology.

The Meiji restoration of Japan

2007-11-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

In Japanese history, between 1639 to 1858 Japan was isolated from the rest of the world. So Japan always fallen behind in terms of technology and modernization. The Meiji restoration was all about when the Japanese people got in touch with the outside world and the western country's technology.around 1868 to 1912.
Matthew Perry was a leader in the ships that came to Japan. the American ships needed many supplies, so they wanted to trade in Japanese ports. The Americans brought a lot of heavy ships, guns and cannons etc. The Japanese were scared of the technology and how they were staying behind, and they did not have any power at all. So the Japanese signed the treaty of Kanagawa, which allows the America to enter two ports in japan. After that the Japanese became modernized and thought that they needed to adapt the technology of the western civilization. The Meiji restoration is the adaptation of technology and how Japan became modernize.

Karl Marx and communist

2007-11-16T07:44:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx is the inventor of the communist society. He observed the industrial revolution and found out that poor people in the industrial revolution gets more and more poor and rich people gets more and more rich. So he tried to find a society that serves all kind of people equally. He wanted a society where all the people will live happily.
Marx straggled through his whole life, to find a job, to establish his thoughts of communism etc. Later on he became involved with political study. He got some idea from his friend, Friedrich Engels. They both tried best to establish this system. He invented the communists system.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

2007-11-15T07:46:00.000-08:00

Karl max was a German person who was involved to the industrial revolution. He believed in a communist world. He fought to make a place better where all the people would work together and get the same amount of money. Then no one will be poor or rich. During 1921 he became the second communist nation. Marx was Jew but later he was turned into Christian. But he never believed in god. He only believed in peace of people. He observer the industrial revolution, how it was so cruel. in the industrial revolution, the rich people get richer and the poor people get more and more people. So he discovered that the communists society would help the people by sharing the society income to everyone by same amount. By the end of the world war II, he manged to make many country to be communist. But their communist was a little different then his idea. He believed that the workers would control the society but the usual society is very dictatorial.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

2007-10-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

The nationalism is a county's specialty. Long time ago the people believed on only their king or the empire. but time by time that changed. The first change toward the nationalism was made after the French revolution. After the French revolution, people started to understand the meaning of pride, the meaning to be ruled the proper ruler that the middle class choose, and also the meaning to protect others or being protected be the others that share the same nationalism.
The first people to win the self-rule was the Greeks. Greek was always a part of he Ottoman Empire but later they got out of the empire and created their own land and nationalism.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

2007-10-15T07:43:00.001-07:00

Simon Bolivar was a very famous Latin American hero who helped gain their independence. The vocabulary was hard and the test was hard. The hole south and central America was under Spain's control after Columbus, Cortes, and Pizzaro was bitten up by the Spain.
Simon Bolivar is a traveler that visited many places of Europe, Spain, Italy, France and the countries in Latin America. Bolivar was thrown into prison many times but in the end he gained army and won battle against Spain. Because he brought independence from the Spain and made new countries, The Bolivia was named after his name.

Robespierre and The Reign of Terror

2007-10-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

Assembly reform France: After the revolution, everyone got together and created the law that said that everyone is equal and everyone gets the same amount of rights by the time they were born. It was called THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN
When Louis XVI became a monarch, and his life became unsafe. When he realized that he was unsafe he tried to escape but he was discovered and brought back to French. Then he and his wife was killed at the
After the French revolution, the French looked for a political leader. There were many political parties that came seeking power. some of them got a place in politics and others didn't.

The French Revolution: Social Causes

2007-09-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

The French revolution was held at 1989 to 1999. It was a revolution that no one was responsible. In this revolution, everyone in the second class rose at once to get their proper rights.
The age of enlightenment brought the French revolution to life. The thinkers of the enlightenment. thought a new way of governing them self that allows the citizen to govern them self, and select someone that will only care about the people. During the French revolution, the people gained the power of the king, queen and nobles, and the nobles, king, queen lost their powers. The people created their own rule and replaced the recent government with new rules and new leader.
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Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

2007-09-11T07:43:00.001-07:00

The scientific revolution is the time where people created theory based on the ancient Greek or Romans and then they tried to prove the truth. Sometimes they found that they were right and sometimes they were wrong. For example these are two theory about the sun one is an ancient thought and the next is a theory that was proven after testing and searching for the truth. They are: the geocentric theory and the heliocentric theory.

THE GEOCENTRIC THEORY: The geocentric theory is the theory that say, the earth is the center of the solar system and the Universe. It also say that the sun revolves around the sun. It was first found by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the catholic church believed it strongly.

THE HELIOCENTRIC THEORY: The heliocentric theory is the theory that proves the truth and what the science has proven. This theory has replaced the geocentric theory. People wanted to know the truth and wanted to sea beyond the stars and found out that the sun is the center of the universe, Earth and all the planets revolves around the sun.
The heliocentric theory proved all the tradition of the hole catholic church wrong. It was a great shame for the church and their religion. The catholic church kept this theory from fully accepted to the world. Copernicus is the first person to discover the heliocentric theory. But son there was a lot of new discovery about this theory and all new theory of physics. Galileo was very famous among them. he proved that the gravity accelerated all the objects toward the earth at the same rate, and further explored the laws of motions. The Catholic church didn't like some of Galileo's theory that went over Cristian theory. so Galileo was forced to agree with the church. then later on when the church found prove and a lot of other physicians argued and finally the church was forced to take what was the truth.

Scientific Revolution: Scientific Method

2007-09-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION: The scientific revolution is the discovering of different things over time to time. In the beginnings people didn't know the truth of different and they would believe any theory that anybody would say. But over time people did not wanted to take what everyone would say. They wanted prove. Overtime people tried testing the theories that was known and they even tried to prove the Bible wrong. For example the bible said that the sun revolved around the earth but science proved that the earth revolved around the sun.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD: The scientific method mainly is to prove a theory or legend either right or wrong. Over time people wanted to know the truth and for that they tested what they were looking for. They tested their hypothesis over and over again and finally they came to a solution that proved the truth. The process of scientific method is described below:
First there is a theory or method or an observation. Then by that observation or theory, a hypothesis is created. To prove that hypothesis, we maintain a group of process. After that in the scientific method we collect data and observe what ever that is true and white the solution either right or wrong.

Evolution vs Creation

2007-09-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

EVOLUTION: Evolution is the process where world changes to something new. For example, from the time the earth was created to this time that we live in now. A lot has changed is this time and all of that are part of evolution. In the earth simple creature or item evolved into complex creature and thats how today we live in a new complex world. Hume's today has changed time by time. Darwin's theory of evolution describes evolution a lot easier. He explains that evolution is occurred by natural selection. Simple creatures evolved to complex creature by random genetic mutation and pass that on to the next generation.

CREATION: There is no actual proofs that can show the theory of creation. All the things that are told about creation are mostly people's thoughts and beliefs. Today the world we have and everything we know are creation but where or how was these things created nobody knows. People beliefs is religion such as Christianity, Islam, etc and they beliefs that the God is the creator of everything.