Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

The Apartheid is the racial segregation policy of South America. All people who were considered non-whites did not have the same rights as those who where "white". For example, African Americans were not allowed to vote in the parliament. Public bathrooms and certain places were also reserved for one race only. It literally meant "seperate development of races". Government prohibited mixed marriages. Many of those who opposed Apartheid were banned. It got so bad that even some of the opposition leaders were killed.

Nelson Mandela was one of those blessed people that opposed the horrible rule of the Apartheid. He grew up in the streets of South America, where drinking out of the wrong water fountain could get u in jail. He started out as a leader in the African National Congress. Unfortunately his work was cut short when he was sentenced to death. He continued to give his people hope. After 27 years, he was released from jail and the Apartheid was over. Nelson was awarded the nobel peace prize and voted as president of South America. He is admired greatly for the hope he gave his people while he was in jail. They were happy for the freedom they received from the Apartheid.

African Independence

According to the map that is shown, Africa has changed tremendously in only 20 years. In 1955, Africa was practically overthrown by the European nations. Almost all its countries were ruled by the European people. The only countries that were not under European rule were Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, as well as South Africa. By the time 1975 came rolling in, Almost all the countries that were ruled over, were free from European rule. Before all these countries gained their independence, Europeans marched in to take all the natural resources that Afreica was naturally known for. Many of the Africans were angry that their own homeland was taken over. They wanted to either chase all the Europeans away. If they had to, they also resorted to killing. A few of the Africans did not really mind the Europeans taking over because the Europeans gave them many new thing. They built hospitals, schools and other helpful places for the Africans. Eventually, the Africans grew tired and worked really hard to gain their independence. They succeeded very well too.

One of the most memorable leaders of African independence was Jomo Kenyatta. He grew up studying very hard and gaining a proper education. He eventually became a carpenter but continued studying politics. When the Europeans invaded his homeland, he realized how unfair they were treating his people. He also realized that they were trying to change their government into that of communism. He went to Europe to try to persuade them to give his people their well deserved freedom. He was put in jail for 7 years. When he got out of jail, Africa was soon freed from the European influence. He was voted as the president of Kenya.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

This was has to honestly be one of my favorite films i have watched. This was about the space race to space and into the moon. The United States and Russia were the two countries competing to get into space first. As i was watching this film, i realized that Russia was the one who initially won this space race.The first race was to get the first man into space. We succeeded with sending a monkey into space but a few weeks later (i think it was 2) Russia got the first man into space. It was then that we lost this first race. The second race was to get someone on the moon. This was where we claimed our first victory. We got the first man on the moon so we won right there!

This movie showed a lot of great scenes. One of my favorite scenes was when they broke the sound barrier. America accomplished such a feat that day. This goes to show how advanced our technology was. The other scenes were when both the United States and Russia tried to send different rockets into space. America really failed at sending those rockets up to space. Once Russia sent up their rocket, America tried so hard to send rockets up to space until they finally succeeded. Eventually they caught up and won the space race.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO stood for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This group included countries in both North America and Europe. The main reason for this group was defense. If one of the countries were to be attacked by a nation the other NATO countries could come to their aid. Europe still had many economic problems so the United States were able to help them out and give them supplies. This could help both countries, if their is good cooperation between the two, to rebuild ther cities faster. Many of them felt threatened by an attack from the Soviet so the importance of the NATO grew.

The Warsaw Pact included the Soviet Union and its satllite countries. It was supposed to be another defensive group but was created in response to NATO. Here, they dominated the alliance. They kept their military personnel and kept on running socialist governments. They renewed in 1985 for another 20 years. In the 1980's the organization weakened severely. Troops were being withdraw from countries.In 1991 the Pact decided to disperse.