African Independence

Film Lesson: The Right Stuff

The movie The Right Stuff was about the on going competition between Russia and US. First of all, this happened during the Cold War when the superpowers went head to head and had a competition over everything because at the end of the day one wanted to be more superior to the other. The first thing that happened is that the US and the Russians were competing on who would break the sound barrier which was 750. Fortunately the US were the first ones to break it and this made the Russians very upset. Furthermore, the Russians were the first ones to send a satellite into space. This satellite was called Sputnik and it was launched in the year of 1957 into space. A year later was when the US sent its first satellite into space. The next competition was which nation was going to be the first one to send a man to space. Due to this the U.S. created NASA which was a space program used to explore space. NASA stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. However, since the US believed that is was very unknown thing to send a man into space what they decided to do was to send a monkey first into space and fortunately the monkey made it. On the other hand, the Russians decided that they were going to send a man into space either way and they did making them look very advance and ahead than the US. Therefore, the people who believe that the US was the first to send a man into space are very wrong. In the movie I rememeber the chosen people to go into space go under major testing and experimenting in order to check how they can retain themselves in space compared to a monkey. The same test that the men were given, were also given to the monkey. Later in the years, the US decided to beat the Russians onto the moon and they did because Luis Armstrong was the first man on the moon. One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

NATO and the Warsaw Pack

After World War II, the superpowers of the world decided to go head to head. Now this was actually was the Cold War however there was no actual fighting going on. In the Cold War there were two different types of organizations created. With the U.S. and other Europeans countries the organization called NATO was created in defense to Russia. which stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization This was to created a mutual defense among all the countries in the NATO for if someone gets attacked by other countries. This organization also helped the U.S stop Russia from spreading their communist ways and from keeping Germany separated. In response to NATO, Russia created an organization called the Warsaw Pack. This organization consist of countries such as Poland (where is was signed), Albania, Hungry, and even Bulgaria. The Warsaw Pack was another mutual defense actually created in response to the creation of NATO by the U.S. Russia and U.S. went head to head with their organizations. Even though Warsaw Pack seemed more advanced with their satellites countries, the organizations later dissolved out.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

The movies Schindler's List was about how the Jews went through the Holocaust. In this movie the Holocaust was illustrated as being very cold hearted and brutal. The movie conveyed to the viewer how the Jews were moved out of the own homes and houses into the "ghetto". Here it didn't matter if the Jews were rich or poor they still were forced and crowed into the ghetto. In the ghetto they were packed and moved in very uncomfortably. Many families tried to take as many things as they can however many lost their things because the Nazis threw them away. In the movie there was one family that placed their jewelry into a piece of bread and that piece of bread they eat so that the Nazis wouldnt take their valuable things away. Additionally in the movie the Nazis killed anyone who wouldn't listen to orders or instructions or anyone who looked sick. Also the Jews were moved from the ghetto into concentration camps where they took everything the Jews own and threw it away. If the Jews were able to work or were sick they would killed them one by one shooting them. Many of the children were killed as well which is very sad even though some would hide in the bathrooms full of nasty dirty things. In Auschwitz, the Nazis would cut off all the girls hair in order to use it for the war that was going on. It was very sad and dissapointing to see how people try to dehumanize a group of people. I would mostly remember when Schindler saw the little girl in the pink dress walking through the streets when the Jews were being sent to the concentration camps from the ghetto and then Schindler saw her dead bodies going into the hole where they would burn the bodies.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

Night and Fog was a documentary about the Holocaust made by the French. In this documentary they showed many scenes that were actually real and that really happened. For instanced they showed the skeletons of the dead bodies. However the bodies of the Jews that were working in concentration camps were very skinny and you could actually see their bones. It was very shocking and sad to watch such strong scenes of how brutally the Jews were treated by the Nazis. In this documentary they also showed the gas chambers where the Nazis would gas lots of Jews to death. The Jews being gassed would believe they were taking a shower but once there was gas instead of water coming out of the sprinkler they knew the were about to die. There was no escape because they were locked inside. The documentary showed one of the major concentration camps which was Auschwitz and it showed the train tracks and everything. Today there only lies green grass and souls of innocence people in Auschwitz however back during the Holocaust Auschwitz was a mass murdering place. In my opinion you can not compare the movie Schindler's List to the documentary becuase now Hollywood movie no matter how real they act it out or how vivid they make it seem nothing would compare to the actual skeletons, blood, and dead bodies of what really happened.

The Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was based on World War I and Germany was the country to take all the blame for it. This Treaty was actually signed in France and symbolizes the end of WWI. The Treaty of Versailles forced and had Germany obligated to pay a compensation for all the destruction of the war. In other words, the Treaty of Versailles affected Germany in a very bad way. For instance, Germany lost 10 percent of its land and all of its overseas colonies to the Allies which were France, British, and American. In addition to losing so much land, the Germans also lost about 12.5 percent of their own people. So some German people were not even living in Germany territory. In result to the treay, Germany's economy became even worse after the war because they couldn't recover themselves because they had so much money to pay the allies. Their produce and profit were entirely used as payments to the allies. The Germans lost military power and were soon into a recession. Since Germany was very desperate to recover and to put revenge on the allies, the treaty actually lead to WWII and the rise of Adolf Hitler and also facism.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal was one of those leaders who lead his country such as turkey to total independence from the Ottoman Empire. He, Mustafa Kemal became President of Turkey for 15 years and during those 15 he modernize Turkey using sweeoing reforms and many other notions. He wanted to give Turkey a sense of dignity, equality, and happiness. As president he created the "6 Arrows" which include republicanism, populism, secularism, reformism, nationalism, and statism. He also allowed Moslem majority and small minorities free to practice their faith and what ever they wanted. Most of his reforms were full of secular instructions and he believed that in freedom and equality for all and even though the peasants were less of social class he also believed that they were a big part of society. In the modernization, Mustafa changed the way people wore clothes and also he declared that the religious beliefs should have nothing to do with the governments actions. In other words a secular government.