Erika's Global Blog

Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of communism

2009-05-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

Mikhail Gorbachev allowed new ideas to be heard. communism restricted freedom of press, speech, and religion. With Gorbachev now governing, the soviet citizens were able to speak their minds about complaints or problems. Gorbachev actually took the time out and listened to people. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev announced a policy known as glastnost or openness. This encouraged the soviet individuals to discuss ways to improve their society. Then in that same year, Gorbachev introduced the idea of perestroika or economic reconstructing. He made changes to save the soviet economy. These changes opened up the soviet union and paved the way for the end of communism.

ODE TO JACKIE FEICHTER

2009-05-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

THE COLOR OF YOUR EYES, THE BRIGHTNESS OF YOUR SMILE,
GETS ME THROUGH THE DAY, THINKING OF YOU ALL THE WHILE
1 TOUCH FROM YOUR HAND, SENDS JITTERS DOWN MY SPINE
IM ALWAYS THINKING OF YOU, WISHING YOU WERE MINE
I GO HOME EACHDAY, AND THINK OF THE FEELINGS THAT IVE FELT
HOPING THAT SOMEDAY YOU WILL BE MINE BUT 4 NOW THERES SUM1 ELSE
NOT 4 LONG

I LOVE YOU JACKIE

The collapse of communism

2009-05-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

The leading powers of the Cold War was the USSR and the US. After world war 2, they started competing. They both had atomic weapons and arms weapons. They competed with each other to the point where it cost both parties a lot of money. but for the USSR, the competition was way too much. Their economy soon collapsed at the high price of competing with the US. Because the USSR collapsed, the communist countries that were associated with it went down also. The collapse of the USSR destroyed many economies around the world.

The Berlin Wall was a border separating East and West Germany. No one was allowed to cross over to the other side. Those who tried were punished. For 28 years, east and west germany was completely blocked off from each other. In 1989, they decided to make border crossings so that people would be able to travel back and forth between eastern and western germany. some people came at the wall to gather souvenirs and some stormed the wall. On November 9 of that same year, the wall came down.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

2009-05-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

Apartheid is the separation of blacks and mixed individuals, from white people. Apartheid was the policy of the government of South Africa in the years 1948 to 1994. Nelson Mandela is a hero because he fought for Africas unity and liberation. He is an inspirational man. He was thrown in jail and treated badly by the white men. He had great reason to be angry with them. They indeed deserved revenge. Mandela had a different way of handling the Apartheid situation. Mandela refused to use violence as the answer to gain freedom for his people. he was a man of peace. Nelson Mandela was also very fair too. For instance, as much as he hated the Apartheid, he never hated South Africans.If I was Nelson Mandela, I would hate the Apartheid and the South Africans. Mandela and I are obviously very different. Using this approach and many others, Mandela was able to gain freedom for his people. Mandela is so admired by the authors of these sites. One man stated that Mandelas face was tired, but when he spoke, his voice was strong. Many South Africans have given him an amount of respect that people in superiority only wish they could have. Nelson Mandela was a great man.

African Independence

2009-05-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

Many African nations had been ruled by the Europeans. After World War 2,the African people decided that they didnt want to go back to being ruled as colonies, after they had fought in the war trying to defend their freedom. Meanwhile, the Europeans were willing to give the nations back their independence. In the 20 year period from 1955 to 1975, African had gone from colonies to independent countries. One of the leaders of African Independence was Jomo Kenyatta. As the president of Kenya, Kenyatta worked hard to unite the various ethnic and language groups in the country. As a result, Kenyas capitol grew into a major business center of East Africa. Another important name is Nelson Mandela. He also helped with the African Independence.

NATOand the Warsaw Pact

2009-04-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It includes countries in Europe and North America. NATO was created for the countries involved so that if any opposing countries attacked them, the countries part of the NATO organization would have their back. The NATO also helped with economic aide of the European nations. If the countries cooperated with eachother, they could speed up the could rebuildng process.
The Warsaw pact consisted of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries. It was like a NATO for the Soviet Union. The warsaw pact was created in response to the NATO.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

2009-03-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

Schindlers list illustrated the holocaust in a number of ways. There were Nazis, Kapo and Commandandt. They were taking the Jews from their homes and putting them in ghettos. The Jews were made to be slaves. They were treated horribly. They were only given bread and soup to eat. Women, Men and children were separated from their families. If The Jews were either old, too young, sick, or unhealthy, they were killed. The Nazis had different killing methods. Some people were shot. some were killed in gas chambers.Some were put into ovens and burned.Those who survived, were let free after the war. Just like the holocaust.
The most powerful scenes to me were the children and the Auschwitz camp. I dont understand how anyone has the heart to kill thousands of people. especially children. The kids didnt even lose their innocence yet. They were very young. Yet their age didnt make a difference. They were killed anyway. This upsets me because i love children. And to kill a child depresses me. I remember the little girl in the red coat. She was so cute and lonely. Yet she was killed.
The images that will always stay in my head is that of the naked, dead bodies laying on the ground. The thing is that the Nazis didnt even bother to clean it up. They just left them laying there. I saw heads chopped off of the bodies. Its pretty scary.

Night and Fog

2009-03-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

Night and Fog was very sad. it depressed me because the jews were treated as if they were animals. They were treated terribly by thos ewho felt they were superior to the Jews. They even treated kids the same way they treated adults. It was the worst. showing the dead bodies on the floor with no heads almost made me sick. the film was very powerful. It made me think about everything. It made me think of the things that they used to go through. When people make racist jokes, this is what i think about. Racism is what the holocaust was all about. It compares with the scenes from schindlers list because some of the scenes from this movie was in schindlers list. The documentary portrays the holocaust most effectively. the documentary was in black and white which made me feel like i was there. there were pictures that told the story.this made me feel like it was more realistic because the pictures were actually taken at the camps. i felt like i was there and i felt their pain.

WWI and The Treaty of Versailles

2009-02-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the war between Germany and the allied powers. Germany was blamed for the first world war and so the Germans were forced to pay for the suffering that was caused as a result of World War I. They had to accept full responsibility for the war, and they had to spend A LOT of money. 10% of german lands were lost, all of Germany's overseas colonies were taken away, and 12.5% of the German population were living outside of their countries borders. The Germans had payed a high price.

Some of the rules of the Treaty of Versailles were:

-the German army had a 100,000 man limit

-Germany surrendered all colonies

-restricted in size

-germany must pay money or goods to the allies

-had to accept full responsibility for the war

I do not think that this treaty was fair. Germany was blamed for the war when it wasn't really their fault. Now they had to pay a very high price. The price was so high that it messed up Germany as a whole.It screwed over all the people in Germany.I feel bad.

Historians say that the Treaty of Versailles led to the uprising of Adolph Hitler.I think this statement might be true. What Germany was going through brought many people down. They needed a leader to bring them back to their feet. When Adolph Hitler stepped up, the Germans were most vulnerable and they were in need of a leader. At that time, Hitler was the one who could have done so.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the modernization of Turkey

2009-02-11T07:08:00.000-08:00

Mustafa Kemal modernized Turkey and made it more secular. The word secular means denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis. The Kemalist secularism meant the separation of state and religion. The religion was separated from educational, cultural, and legal affairs. It meant the independence of thought and of institutions. The Kemalist principle of secularism was not against religion, but it was against those who were in oppopsition to modernization.Religious faith was a matter of individual conscience.
Mustafas main goal was to give Turkey a new sense of dignity,equality, and happiness. Kemalism believed that only a republican government can best represent the wishes of the people.

Gandhi

2009-02-10T06:55:00.000-08:00

Gandhi helped his nation of india gain independence from Great Britain. One way that he did this was by calling on the indians to boycott against the british. The indians refused to buy british goods, attend government schools, pay british taxes, and vote in elections.One of Gandhis ideas was on non-violence. He gave the idea of civil-disobedience which is the deliberate and public refusal to obey an unjust law.He launched this campaign to weaken the british governments authority and economic power.Gandhi had the indians spin their own clothing so that they wouldnt have to buy clothes from the british.As a result of the boycott, the sale of british cloth dropped sharply.There were strikes and demonstrations againt the british that usually ended in the arrest of the indians.Gandhi didnt like violence, so he pleaed for non-violence.Another way that Gandhi helped his nation is through the salt acts. The indians needed salt. The only place they could get salt from is the government. The only way that the indians could get the salt is by buying it from the british and they had to pay taxes. To show their opposition, the indians walked to the seacoast and began collecting their own salt from the sea water by letting the water evaporate.This was called the salt march.A little bit later, they intended to shut down the salt factories.The indians were attacked and beaten when they did this.But people continued to march peacefully.I think that Indias independance was all about Gandhi. If he didnt fight for independence than it would not have happened.the idea of non-violence that Gandhi had was a good idea.It helped the indians.

The Russian Revolution

2009-01-09T06:42:00.000-08:00

The Russian Revolution started with the February and October Revolutions. The February Revolution was a popular uprisig.the Tsar at that time (Nicholas II) had gotten Russia involved in WWII. Many people were dying as a result of the war.There were many food shortages.Instead of getting the people what they had begged for(food), Nicholas II sent troops to keep people from the violent demonstrations and riots in Petrograd. As a result, Nicholas II was removed from power. Now that there was no king in Russia, a temporary government was put in place. This government proclaimed civil liberties and promised demoratic elections. The October Revolution was the time when the temporary government was overturned, and the Soviet Union was established. the October Revolution was thought up of by a small group of people called the Bolsheviks. they werent very popular and they didnt get much support. They started to over throw the government in April and by October, they were a popular and much larger group. they had built up support in Petrograd and with other urban centers.after october, the Bolsheviks declared themselves the representatives of a dictatorship. As a result, the Russian Civil War broke out in the summer of 1918.

Causes of WWI

2009-01-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

There are many things that contributed to World War I.It goes from nationalism to militarism to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand to the collapse of the alliance system. first it starts with nationalism. in Europe, countries such as France, Germany, Austria and Russia were very nationalistic. As a result of this, the French turned against the Germans and the Russians against the austrians. Through nationalistic speeches and writings, these countries tried to prove their national superiority. This quickened the pace that the war took to envelop. when Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbians Austria took action. Germany let Austrias actions rock; meaning Germany minded their business and didnt get into it. the same cant be said for Russia. Russia defended Serbia and the next thing you know France, Belgium and soon after Great Britain was involved. the alliance systems had alot to do with the world war also. Since the alliances were made secretly, this made it hard for the countries to trust one another.The General suspicion kept the diplomats from doing their job and they didnt fix the crisis'.

The Opium Wars

2008-12-10T06:44:00.000-08:00

The Opium war was the worlds very first drug war. Opium is a drug made from poppy seedpods. It was produced in the East Indes and shipped to China by the British merchants. Opium is used to make other drugs such as Heroin, Morphine, Codein and Mescalun. At one time, opium was used as medicine to treat diseases. When the chinese were introduced to mixing opium with tobacco, they began to smoke it. This drug was so powerful that the chinese became badly addicted to it.
After a while, the British merchants didnt have anything to sell to China. China was a self-sufficient country so everything that they needed, they alredy had. In order to keep the tea trade flowing, the British merchants imported opium mixed with tobacco to china. This promoted opium smoking. Many of the chinese smoked this drug and as a result, the chinese population decreased. When the chinese government became aware of the drug, they tried to put an end to it. There were policies against selling opium to smoke. opium smoking houses were banned and shut down. Anyone who sold opium to smoke was either banished or killed. eventhough there were policies against opium, the British still kept selling it to china. Because some of the government officials were greedy, they became part of the illegal opium trade.
Some time had passed and the chinese really became serious about the sale of opium. In more ways than one, they tried to get the British to stop selling opium to China. They wouldnt listen.

an anti-opium campaign was started. Great Britain demanded that the Chinese ended the campaign but they didn't so the Britain's attacked the Chinese. They Chinese were caught by surprise by this attack. Because the Britain's had advanced technology, they won the Opium war.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the moon"

2008-12-03T06:39:00.000-08:00

The Europeans faced many hardships as they explored Africa. First the Africans who were with John Speke and Richard Burton had to travel with no shoes. They traveled on rocks and in different forms of percipitation. Second, the europeans had to travel with personal belongings, food and tents for shelter. These things were pretty heavy to carry. Third, they had to travel through the high grass and branches of Africa. They used instruments to chop down the grass and branches in their way. Fourth, they came across tribes who didnt know who they were. They were most facinated by the sight of white men. Fifth, they were robbed by some of the Africans who were at first traveling with them.
Lake Victoria is the third largest lake in the world. It is named after a british Queen. It is strange that Lake Victoria is named after a british Queen because lake Victoria is the source of the Nile River. As we all know, the Nile River is in Africa. This leads me to conclude that Lake Victoria is in Africa. If this large lake is in Africa, why is it named after a british Queen? This very question has me very perplexed.
The Europeans had advanced technology over the African people.One was the magnifying glass and the telescope. When the head of the African tribe was given the magnifying glass, he was looking through it because he had no clue what it was. When he was given the telescope he thought it was a musical instrument. He blew through the telescope which was pretty funny. The piece oif technology that amazed the head of the tribe the most was the gun. He was holding it like it was a precious item. He laughed when he had shot one of the people. He was truly amazed with this weapon.
Eventually, Europeans were able to conquer Africa. They had a great technological advancement. They were able to conquer Africa with their machine guns. The Africans didnt have this advancement in technology. They still had spears and bows and arrows. There was no way that they could fight against the machine guns. For this reason, Africa was taken over by the Europeans.

Karl Marx and Communism

2008-11-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

Karl was known for communism. He had the idea that the workers should be the ones to control factories and farms. He urged the workers to unite and rebel against the landlords in a worldwide revolution. Marx came up with the idea for communism because he didnt like the way the workers were treated. Communism was the idea that workers would share wealth in communist society and that all workers should be treated equal.He started to express his ideas but they were shot down with threats from the authorities. He moved to paris with his wife and began mixing with the working-class. The poverty that he saw was shocking. It was then that he applied the dialect theory to what he saw in Paris. Now Marx considered himself a communist and he argued that the working class would be the emancipators of society. Karl Marx viewed the workers as the good guys and the landlords as the bad guys.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

2008-11-05T06:42:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx was not in agreement with the Industrial Revolution. He hated the treatment of the workers in Europe and the conditions that they were living in. The European factories were very harsh and unsafe. Marx felt that the workers should be the ones to control the factories. He hated the way everything was before and after the Industrial Revolution. It was a battle of the rich verses the poor.
If it wasnt for Karl Marx' strong dislike for the Industrial Revolution, there would be no communism. Communism in other words is basically a classless society. Marx didnt like the way that the poor people were treated. His a idea for a classless society was a good idea. This would make both the rich and the poor equal.

Nationalism

2008-10-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

Nationalism is the belief that ones loyalty should be towards a nation of people who share a common culture or history. I for one am not nationalistic. I do not watch the olympics and root for America. I do not salute the American flag or have a flag of any nation hanging in my window. I do not sing the National Anthem or God bless America. I do not follow up on the war between America and Iraq. I am not a nationalistic individual.
Nationalim destroyed empires and built up nations. Italy was formed from the territory of the destroyed empires. Austria ruled Venetia, Lombardy, and many other small states in the north. The Spanish Bourbon family ruled the kingdom of the two Sicilies in the south. Between 1815 and 1848, the Italians no longer wanted to live under foreign rulers. Two leaders with different personalities and different goals, each contributed to the unification of Italy, by way of nationalistc views.
Before Italy actually became Italy, this country was broken up into states. Piedmont-Sardinia was the largest and moost powerful of the states.In 1852, the king of Sardinia named Camillo Cavour as its prime minister. Cavour worked very hard in order to expand Sardinia's power.He achieved the expansion of Sardinia's power along with the unification of Italy.In 1866, Venetia became part of Italy.In 1870, the Italian forces took over the Papal states which was the last part of the territory.

Simon Bolivar

2008-10-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

Simon Bolivar was a venezuelan, famous for being the liberator of South America. Shortly after Bolivar's wife died, he went to Europe and traveled in France and Italy. During his travels, he studied the philosophies of Rousseau and Locke. On his way back to South America, he stopped in the United States. He organized and led a revolutionary army in order to free South America from the rule of Spain. At first, he lost some of the battles but he eventually won independence for Venezuela. This helped other South American countries such as: Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia and Peru gain their independence. In the end, Bolivia was named after Simon Bolivar.

In 1822, Bolivar became dictator of Peru. Upper Peru became a separate state named Bolivia, after Bolivar. The Bolivian constitution is one of the most important political pronouncements

Robespierre and the Reign of Terror

2008-09-23T06:42:00.000-07:00

The Reign of Terror was a period of violence that occured after the onset of the French Revolution. It was provoked by conflict between rival political groups, and it was marked by the executions of many enemies of the revolution. Robespierre played a big part in the reign of terror by becoming its dominant member. He took control of the government and tried to wipe out the old monarchy. With Robespierre as the new dictator, everything changed. Many people were executed by the government. No one was safe. Not even the people in the government. People got tired of Robespierre cutting off everyones head. As a result, a conspiracy was formed against him. He was arrested, and beheaded. This ended the reign of terror.

The French Revolution

2008-09-22T06:49:00.002-07:00

Many people in France were critical of the nobility, the king, and the clergy for many reasons.
-The nobles had almost complete authority over peasants.
- Nobles did not have to do military service
-Nobles didnt have to pay most taxes. This didnt make any sense because the nobles had enough money in order to pay taxes. But the peasants who were poor and had nothing, had to pay taxes. This was totally unfair.
-Nobles collected tolls from people using roads and markets.
-Many nobles and clergy lived in great luxury and palaces. This shows that the clergy and the nobles were being greedy.
The king had absolute rule and authority over France. the people clearly didnt like that. They were treated very unfairly just because they were poor.
A French peasant would have grumbled about alot of things in 1789.
-They were forced to do militarty service
-Peasants couldnt hunt or fish on noble grounds
-Peasants had to pay taxes to the king, their lord, and the church
-They had to use the lords mill, oven, and winepress. They had to pay. Its not even like they had a choice of whether or not they wanted to use their lords mill, oven and winepress. The peasants had to use it and they were charged for it. How sad this was.
Based on source A, I think the cartoonist is making a really good point. The picture shows a peasant carrying the noble and the lord on his back. This means that the lord and the nobles depend on the peasants in order to live.The peasants made up almost all of the French population. They taxes and everything that was being collected from the peasants went towards the king, the clergy, the nobles, and the lords. Without the peasants, they would be peasants themselves. The caption under the picture "one hopes this will end soon" is tyelling us that the peasants hope that this will soon end. It is too much for them to carry.

the author of source B, describes the lives of the french peasants by saying " the taxes and feudal dues are crushing us". The author goes on to give an example of a woman whose husband had only a morsel of land, one cow, and a poor horse. They had to pay 20kg of wheat and three chickens as feudal dues to one lord. 60kg of oats, one chicken, five pence to another, and heavy taxes were to go to the king's tax collectors. Their lives were terrible.

Sources A,B, and C explain why the peasants resented the rich. The rich treated the peasants badly and they were taking what little money the peasants had. According to source B, the peasants had to give a lot of money towards the rich. All of their money was being taken leaving the peasants poor. If i was living in France during this time, i would have resented the rich too.

The writing of Rousseau in source D, would influence the peasants the most. With the idea of no man having natural authority over others, in the heads of the peasants, this would probably cause them to strike. They would stop paying taxes and stop doing all of the unfair things that the king is making them do. They would gang up on the king, nobles, lords and clergy. Eventually removing them from their power. This is possible because of all the people living in France, 90% of them were peasants. Then they will realize that they have the power to chose and make decisions for themselves.

The pamphlet from which source D came from was banned in 1775. The king, lord, nobles, and clergy most likely banned this piece of literature. They probably did this in order to prevent the peasants from getting ideas about themselves having power. They realized that if the peasants go on strike, this could remove the king, lord, nobles, and clergy from their power. Resulting in them becoming peasants as well.

2008-09-22T06:49:00.001-07:00

John Locke and the Enlightenment

2008-09-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

The rights that Jefferson is talking about in the Declaration of Independence are: the people have the right to abolish or alter, any form of government that becomes destructive and to institute a new government. In other words, if the people feel that the president or the governor, or the mayor, or someone who is governing them is doing a bad job at it, the people have the right to abolish or destroy that form of government and chose a new one.
When people were created, no one had more rights than the next person. All men are treated equally. The Declaration of Independence supports this by saying that people have the right to life, the people have the right to freedom, and the people have the right to happiness. Everyone is born with these rights.
According to the Declaration of Independence, the government comes from the people. The people chose the ones whom they want to govern them. They chose these individuals by voting.
People have many rights.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

2008-09-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

The theory that came first was the geocentric theory. This theory placed the earth at the center of the universe. The heliocentric theory is the theory that the sun is at the center of the solar system. This theory came out of the scientific revolution. The advancements of mathematics and physics, was eventually able to support the heliocentric theory.
The trial of Galileo. A man named Galileo believed that the earth revolved around the sun. This is normal for both you and I to believe because it has been proven, but for the Catholic Church in 1633, this idea was nonsense. Galileo began to develop an interest in the Copernican theory. Sometime during the mid 1590's, Galileo came to the conclusion that the theory Copernicus had was right.After Galileo discovered the telescope, he was able to confirm his belief. Galileo began to tell people of his idea and write about it.

The Scientific Method

2008-09-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

The scientific method is a method that is used in order to organize an experiment that is being conducted.The experiment is tested over and over with the few easy steps of the scientific method. A long time ago, a man by the name of Aristotle had a theory that heavier objects fell faster than lighter objects. in the late 1500's, a man named Galileo tested this theory. He went to the top of the leaning tower of pisa and he experimented. He took stones of different weight and dropped them from the top of the tower. Galileo was able to conclude that objects fall at the same speed no matter what the weight is. Galileo tested his theory more than once to make sure everything was accurate. He had used the scientific method.

Evolution vs. Creation

2008-09-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

Darwins theory of evolution is that everything is related in some way because of natural selection. everything is always changing. whether it be plants, animals, food. everything is changing. Darwins theory talks about how things are still evolving slowly but surely.how it works is that a superior species is evolved. the more of that species there is, the inferior species will eventually decline until they are extinct.now you have a new species for a period of time;but its not long until another species starts to evolve from that species.
The theory of creation rejects the theory of evolution. Creationism is the belief that humanity, life, the earth, and the universe were created by a God. Old earth creationism used geological findings. This is what rejects the theory of evolution.
Personally, i believe that the earth and humanity was created by God. In the Genesis, the bible tells of how God created the heavens and the earth. He also created the animals and plants on the earth and Adam and Eve. As a result, man used the things that God gave us to create other species scientifically. all in all i can say that i do not agree with the theory of evolution.

Test

2008-09-04T07:09:00.001-07:00

test