Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

The Apartheid was a system of government where you might have the same same job as someone else but because of the color of your skin, the other person would get paid more in a week than what you would get paid in a year. Also, they would underestimate your ancestors and their way of life. Nelson Mandela is such a hero because he sacrificed himself in order to achieve South Africa's freedom. Mandela at first was the leader of a political movement called the African National Congress (ANC). As the leader of this political movement, he fought for the rights of colored skin people in Africa which he knew were been unfairly taken away from them. He was sentenced to life in prison, unfairly, since the government didn't want him around to influence people to realize what the government was doing. After 27 years in prison, he was freed and was elected president of Africa. Mandela is so admired by the authors of these articles and sites because he freed so many people, including himself, from the injustice the Apartheid government was offering them. He saved a lot of people from continuing with that lifestyle, which they didn't deserve, by being in prison for so long, sacrificing himself in such a brave way. i Think he had a lot of courage and was a very kind person to do this.

African Independence

Africa has changed dramatically in the 20 year period between 1955 and 1975, because most of Africa a numerous amount of countries gained their independence from the Europeans. They realized that it was unfair to them having to live under the rule of people that only exploited these "colonies" natural resources and not only that, also the fact that most of these rulers were racist. Some of the leaders that encouraged African independence were Kwame Nkrumah, who achieved Gold Coast now know as Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta and Mau Mau, who got Kenya's independence, Mobutu Sese Seko, achieved Zaires independence. Ahmed Ben Bella, helped to achieve Algeria's independence, and Angola got it's independence by the cost of the rebellion that was formed by the civilians that cost half of the Portuguese budget and forced the Portuguese to leave without handing power to anyone specifically. These were the six leaders that helped achieve Ghana's, Kenya's, Zaire's, Algeria's, and Angola's independence.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

Competitions were about with first man on moon and first nation to have a satellite in space. The competition was between the United States and Russia. They wanted to see who could land on the moon first.. The russians in this competition where winning only because they were ahead of the United States in technology. The Russians were the first to be in space, but United States had the first person to land on the moon because the NASA got funded a lot so they made a better spaceship to land before Russia did. The part of this film that helped me remember this cold war event is when America found out that russia had a man on space; they were devistated. That's one of the things I wouldn't forget. Also the Russians set up the first satellite in space. Something else they competed was they wanted to see who can brake the sound barrier first.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

NATO stands for the (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The NATO was for the United States and European countries. If a country would attack a member of NATO, all of those other countries would defend the country.

In response to this, the Warsaw pact was created. In May 1955, the USSR made the Warsaw Treaty in response to the scare of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO in October 1954. This pact would not be powerful unless the Soviet Union was part of it. Back then, the only two superpowers in the world was the United States and the Soviet Union. Unlike NATO, the Warsaw Pact was weakening because of the political scene of Russia towards the 80s and it fully dissolved in the 90s.

The ones who created Warsaw pact were USSR and 8 other communist countries.

The ones who created NATO were France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland