Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of Communism

As a result to previous Soviet leaders shouting for totalitarianism,Mikhail Gorbachev found that these social and economic reforms brought about new ideas and information. In 1985, he called this "glasnost", which means openness. An openness to new ideas and thoughts. He used this new term to encourage Soviet citizens to improve their civilization.

This simple term brought creative new changes into the society. Churches were opened. Dissidents were released from prison. Books were published by previously banned authors. Reporters were free to broadcast their opinions. It was as if the constitution freedom of speech was suddenly released and everyone was taking what they could get.

In 1985 again, Gorbachev brought in another term called "perestroika", which means economic restructuring. This gave local managers more power to take care of their farms and factories and people more freedom to open up their own shops to provide profit for themselves. Gorbachev's focus wasn't on exterminating communism but with this new process of economic restructuring, that exactly what started to slowly happened.

Collapse of Communism

Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and the USSR because concern about nuclear annhilation was thought to have not been needed.

The people tore down the Berlin Wall because the oppurtunty to invade the Soviet Union without the military close by had arisen and the diplomats took it. They wanted to profit from the financial situatrions.

Many individual flags were put up to replace the Soviet red hammer-and-sickle flag as the newly formed countries declared sovereignity. Russia itself changed its flag back to the tricolored horizontal stripes. The economic took a direct hit from all of this conflict and chaos. Under the rule of communism, people were provided for as they worked. When capitalism came to Russia, the countries split up. This separation caused people to become more dependent on themselves than others.

Creation of Israel

Zionism is the establishment of a Jewish state which gave the belief that Jews have a national privilege on Palestine, and the State of Israel has a right to discriminate against non-Jews (or against Jews) in order to maintain the Jewish nature of Israel.

Since most Arabs had rejected the U.N. partition because they wanted to keep their land as their own this then led to the acceptance of the Jews. On May 14, 1948, Israel was declared as an independent state. President Truman alongside the Soviet Union seemed to have supported this declaration but not all seemed to take this new change so lightly.

The Palestinians found it humiliating that the Jews had just come and taken their land. They found it wrong how they had been forced out of their homes. The Palestinians showed their disapproval with a vengeance.

The day after their independence was declared, Israel was ambushed by the Arab states and Palestinians. After this brutal ambush came a major Middle Eastern war that existed between the Jews and the Palestinians. The Jews stood alone in their fight against the many for the Holy Land. Upon hearing the news of imperialism, others began to join forces against the Jews. There was Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Europe.

After the 1948 war, Israel had increased to about 8,000 square miles of Palestine which decreased the Arab lands that had been in the 1947 U.N. partition by about 50 percent. Jerusalem was divided, with Arabs on the east side of the Green Line and the Jews on the west.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid is a discrimination and individualization of people of different races.
The word "apartheid" was created in the late 1930s by the South African Bureau for Racial Affairs (SABRA). It was first put into action in 1948, when the Afrikaner National Party gained power under Prime Minister Malan.

After the apartheid was upheld international pressure for the changes of South Africa's racial policies grew, and in October 1989 President de Klerk permitted antiapartheid demonstrations. This was followed in 1990 by the abolition of the Separate Amenities Act, and a new constitution was also promised by the South African government.

In this same year came Nelson Mandela, who was a leading figure in the African National Congress (ANC) in 1964, was released from prison on Feb. 11, 1990 after 27 years and was later elected president. In 1991 the remaining major discriminating laws that supported apartheid were terminated, including the Population Registration Act of 1950.

In February 1993, Mandela and de Klerk agreed to form a government that embodied national unity, despite race or color. The elections were held in April 1994, with the ANC winning 62% of the vote and Mandela becoming president. After Mandelas' win, South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth in June 1994, and a committee was set up to start a new nonracial constitution. In 1995 a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was appointed to investigate human-rights abuses that had taken place during the time of the apartheid.

African Independence

The continent Africa changed from the 20 year period of time from 1955 to 1975. After World War 2, the leaders of Africa gave up colonial rulings and began to form independent countries. Doing this took time and effort because Europe had imperialized Africa and had demolished most of their resources.

In the 1940s a man named Kwame Nkrumah who was a former teacher who had spent many years studying in the Us, began to make protests for the rights of the peoples independence. Kwame returned to the Gold Coast in 1947 to help out with boycotts against the government. In the end, his efforts for independence was successful. In 1957, the Gold Coast received its independence and called their country Ghana to symbolize a famous West African kingdom of the past.Ghana became the first country by black Americans to work with the British Commonwealth.

Nine years later, in 1966, Nkrumah the army and the police took power over Ghana. They are stuck in between a civilization and military ruling and stubble with the economy. In 1979 and 1981, an Air Force pilot named Jerry Rawlings took control of Ghana and in the year 2000 the first elections began.

In 1955, almost all of Africa was owned by British colonies except, Libya, Egypt, Liberia, and the Union of South Africa. Ethiopia was the only place in Africa that always had their independence.

By the year of 1975, drastic changes had occurred. The British colonies now only owned South-West Africa, Spanish Sahara, Affars and Issas Terr. and Rhodesia. which named after a racist British man named Ceciles Rhodes.

Rhodesia finally got it's independence in 1980 and renamed their country Zimbabwe.

Colonel Joseph Mobutu came into the rule of Zaire for 32 years after overthrowing the nation's first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. He renamed Kantaga to Zaire. His way of ruling was unprofitable towards the people and pushed the people into poorness.

Laurent Kabila overthrew Mobutu and had himself sworn in as president of Congo(Zaire) in 1997.He banned all political parties.

Another leader of South African independence is Nelson Mandela who had to go through many obstacles in order to achieve the rights for his people and was then elected for president and won with the majority of the votes.

9th Grade Review - Neolithic Revolution

The Neolithic Revolution followed a time when people were what was called nomads. Nomads were people who lived in groups and moved from place to place and never really stayed in one place too long.They hunted food with spears and other such sharp objects. They were like cavemen.

It appears that the action of being sexist was historical because while the men went hunting for animals to bring home for women to cook, the women stayed home and gathered fruits.

This was the period of time that brought about spears and axes that were made and formed form bone, wood, and stone. This way of life came to a halt in about 10,000 BCE because of the discovery of the cultivation of crops and domesticate animals.

This change is called the Neolithic Revolution. This new system of things brought about agriculture which led to the extinction of nomads and the creation of permanent housing. With the creation of homes came villages which divided the people into different social classes. This put the more endowed above the less endowed. This action was determined by what you did for a living. You were judged if you were a farmer, craftsman, priest, or warrior.

With these different social classes came the Council of Elders who were in charge of each village. From the transformation of hunters into gentlemen, those men became great warriors because of their methods of weaponry and skill.

Even though the inventive tools produced by the nomads were good, they were still not great. Neolithic farmers invented a calendar to keep track of the progress of their crops during planting and harvesting time. They also created metal tools to help out on the fields, like plows.

Some of the earlier nomads that decided to settle,stayed in the fertile valleys of the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates,Yellow, and Indus Rivers because the water form these valleys made the soil rich and easier to plant crops in.

The Neolithic Revolution is an important time in history because of its impact on our world today. Some of these great civilizations turned into what is now Europe, Mesopotamia, China , and India.

The European Union

The European Union(EU) was a combination of 25 nations to make one alliance in Europe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there was only the US to stand alone, so Europe came in to take the empty space for power. Like the USSR, the European Union didn't work with the US, they competed with them.

The 25 allied nations shared the same income, as stated in their contract of alliance. This was called the Euro. This took over for the US dollars that were usually exchanged.After this new economic system of money exchange was finalized, it became obvious that the US dollars were about one-third more than Euro dollars. This new system made the people of Europe richer.

The EU gave workers a broader area to skim through jobs. The people in these 25 nations had a choice of all 25 of these nations.

One of the restrictions of the EU was that capital punishment was not allowed, so that eliminated Turkey not to be included in this alliance. The EU has about 500 million people in its population which is about 200 million more of the population of the US. Maybe this huge difference of people is because of those who are free to roam the US even with all the laws, killing people. Since the US has capital punishment, the population will decrease by those who die at the hands of the law more often than that in the EU.

I think that the EU has a higher population because of not having capital punishment. I think that because of the fact that the EU is refusing to kill their own people, the people in these 25 nations choose to be at peace with each and not kill each other on a daily basis because of this action of law. I'm not saying that their perfect,but that they have a lower rate of deaths per year which speaks greatly when compared to the US.