Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

The Soviet Union had been a world power competing against the United States for years. By the 1960s, it seemed like communism would endure anything. However, things soon began to change. The Soviet Union began to fall behind the United States. After the death of Leonoid Brezhnev, the Soviets needed to find a new leader. Brezhnev's next two successors died after 1 year in power. Mikhail Gorbachev was the last communist ledaer to rule the Soviet Union. He realized that if he wanted to restore the nation, he would have to change some of the policies imposed by previous Soviet leaders. Throughout most of history of the Soviet Union, the government had kept information under "lock and key." It did not want people to act on their own or spread their own ideas, and had firm control of the media. Gorbachev knew that he would never be able to help the country if he didn't let information flow freely, so he started a policy of glanost, or openness, in order to get more people to discuss how the economy could be helped. In order to help to economy, Gorbachev introduced perestroika, or economic restructuring. Soon, he opened up a policy called democratization, to open up the political system of the Soviet Union, and allow elections to be held in the Soviet Union. Gorbachev then began to improve relations with other countries. In 1987, he signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the U.S. Despite Gorbachev's attempts to save communisms, he couldn't stop reforms from being made. Poland and Hungary were the first to rebel and the other countries soon followed suit. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev officially resigned his position and the Soviet Union was dissolved. He wanted to bring about reform to help save communism and the Soviet Union, but his reforms eventually led to its destruction.

Collapse of Communism

For over 8 decades, the Soviet Union had been controlled by a communist government. It had been going against the United States and capitalism as a superpower during the Cold War for years. Both countries were neck and neck and wanted to come out on top. However, the communists were eventually unable to keep up with the U.S. The Soviet Union was spending so much money on their military that the farming and manufacturing businesses were being hurt, which was also hurting the economy. Meanwhile, the U.S. was rapidly building up its own military. The falling oil prices were also hurting the Soviets even more, because oil was its chief export. By the 1980s, it was clear that change had to be made. In 1985, Mikail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev's reforms signified the end of the Soviet Union and the communist controlled government. It became official on December 25, 1991, when the Soviet Union was officially disbanded.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid is a system of legal racial separation. It was practiced in South Africa for over 4 decades. Apartheid was first legislated in 1948, by the Afrikaner National Party, under Prime Minister Malan. They began to pass laws that prohibited relations between different races, including marraige. Then they began to separate public places and facilities, such as schools and restaurants, and also made it required that all black people older than 16 years old had to carry documents. They eventually took the citizenship of all black citizens of South Africa. People began to go against these policies of apartheid. One of the most famous people to go against apartheid was Nelson Mandela. He became a prominent figure in South Africa while trying to bring racial equality to South Africa. Mandela was a peaceful man, and led non-violent protests against the government, but at the same time, he used guerrila tactics to bring about change. He gained widespread popularity in South Africa, and the South African government had tried to shut him down by throwing him in prison for twenty seven years, but he never backed down. Many people from around the world began to support Mandela. Eventually, Mandela's efforts paid off, because apartheid was completely abolished in 1994, and Mandela was elected president of South Africa.

African Independence

For centuries, many of the nations in Africa had been ruled by the European countries. Those countries had plundered and exploited the African nations for their personal gain. However, things had begun to change after World War 2. Many of the African people didn't want to go back to being ruled as colonies after fighting to "defend freedom" in the war. At the same time, many of those European countries were already willing to give these nations their independence. World War 2 had demolished a huge part of Europe, so these countries already had a lot of problems to deal with. They didn't have the time or money to continue to support their colonial empires. The main problem was how and when should the African people be given independence.



One of the first nations to start working towards independence was Ghana-previously known as the Gold Coast. It was originally a British colony, but after the war, the British started paving the way for it to become an independent nation. They started by allowing more Africans get nominated for the Legislative Council. The people of Ghana weren't happy with this. They wanted to have their own elections instead of having others choose who will represent them. Led by Kwame Nkrumah, they began having nonviolent protests in order to bring about change. Their efforts paid off, because despite being imprisoned, multiple times, Ghana was declared an independent nation in 1957. Soon, other nation began to follow in their footsteps. Nations such as Kenya and Congo began to fight for their independence from the European countries.

The Cuban Misille Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis is considered the hottest point in the Cold War. It is the point where the U.S. and the Soviet Union got the closest to actual fighting. The Cuban Missile Crisis started because of an arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. By 1962, the Soviet Union was lagging far behind the U.S. in the effort to create more powerful nuclear weapons. The Missiles created by the Soviets were only powerful enough to reach Europe, but the American missiles had a much farther range. They could easily reach the Soviet Union quickly. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev came up with the idea of placing Missiles in an area closer to the U.S, in order to prevent a potential attack from the U.S. and provide a new strategic arsenal. At the same time, Cuba was looking for a way to defend itself from the U.S. Things were extremely tense after the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion. Even though the invasion failed, the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was positive that there would be another invasion attempt. In 1962, Khrushchev made an agreement with Castro to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. The U.S. soon found out about the plan, and tensions began to build. The U.S. tried to stop the Soviets from bringing in anymore missiles by cutting Cuba off from them with a naval quarantine. The tensions worsened when a U-2 was shot down over Cuba. The drama continued until the Americans and Soviets came to an agreement on October 28th. The missiles were taken out of Cuba in exchange for the U.S. to promise that they wouldn't invade Cuba.

Film Lesson- The Right Stuff

In the movie, The Right Stuff, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were competing in a "space race" to send people into space. It began after World War 2 ended. The U.S. and the Soviet Union were allies at the time, but it was obvious that it wouldn't last. The U.S. wanted to stay ahead of the Soviets. At first, America was clearly ahead technologically. A U.S. pilot even managed to break the sound barrier and move at Mach speeds. Then the Soviets managed to send a satelite called Sputnik into space, and the race really began. The U.S. wanted to take it to the next level-they wanted to send people into space. Thousands of people signed of for the chance, but only seven were actually chosen. The first test launches by the U.S. were disastrous. Eventually, the U.S. managed to send a chimpazee into space. However, the Soviet Union took mit one step further by sending the first person into space. At the time, the U.S.S.R. was winning the space race.

I think that the most memorable scene of the movie was the scene where the U.S. is trying to launch a rocket into space, and isn't having any luck. That scene shows you how desperate the U.S. was to stay ahead of the Soviet Union. o them, it didn't matter how long it took, as long as they managed to come out on top.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

NATO was created on April 4th, 1949 as a military alliance between the U.S. and many of the Western European nations. It was formed as a defense mechanism against communism. Under the treaty, if any nation that was part of the treaty was attacked, then all of the other allied nations would come to its defense. At first, NATO was really just an agreement for the U.S. to defend any of the nations involved in NATO, but that began to change after 1950. After the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and Korea, the other nations began to realize that they couldn't just wait around for the U.S> to defend them against the Soviet Union.

The Warsaw Pact was created 6 years after NATO was created between the Soviet Union and its "satelite countries". The Warsaw Pact was originally created to counter NATO. At first, it was incredibly powerful, but the Warsaw Pact soon fell far behind NATO technologically. Eventually, the Warsaw Pact collapsed and was terminated in 1991. Oddly enough, the Soviet Union-now Russia- is now a part of NATO when NATO was originally created to go against it.