Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of communism

Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the Soviet Union by adding more churches. He wanted the people to start talking more about their society. He had an idea that was made in 1985 called "Glasnost."
The Glasnost is when the people talked about the Soviet Union's issues. These issues consisted of economic and political problems.
Gorbachev wanted to hear how the society's had to say and wanted to hear their opinions. He also wanted the people to come together.Another idea Mikhail Gorbachev had was "Peristrokia." This organization was an idea to reform the economic and the political system. By forming Glasnost and the Peristrokia, Gorbachev was able to open the Soviet Union and end communism.

Collapse of Communism

During the Cold war there was a wall that was built to separate the communists countries and the democratic countries. This wall was called The Berlin Wall.The collapse of Communism started with Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika. He thought these policies would help the USSR in the long run. Communism collapsed because it was weak in economic system and it just wasn't working. This was for the USSR and Eastern Europe. These countries started running out of money.

The reason why people tore down the Berlin wall was because they were shocked that they weren't able to go to the other side of their own country in Germany. The Berlin wall would separate Germany into two parts. East Germany was communist and West Germany wasn't. The Berlin wall stopped people from crossing the border for 28 years. The people who did attempted to cross over were killed,shot or put through gas. After the countries got their own independence people were getting jobs that payed a lot more because the government wasn't in control with the economy. When the USSR was no longer communist everyone felt more relieved and no one had to fear that the Soviet Union would attack their country because they weren't communist.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

To me Apartheid is any system or practice that separates people according to race. Apartheid was racism made law, a system dictated in the minutest detail as to how and where the majority of blacks would live, work and die. Nelson Mandela was a strong African man who wanted his people and himself to be treated and respected as normal people and not have to bow down to the unfair government system. Nelson was a strong lifelong warrior in the battle to free South Africans. He was a leader of an underground political congress also known as ANC. ANC was part of a dramatic demonstration against the white ruled government.

In 1964 he was sentenced to life in jail and while in jail he was still having hopes that one day his people will be free from apartheid. In 1990 Mandela was released from prison and less than five years after he was released, he was elected president of South Africa. He ended the Apartheid and freed his people from being treated differently and he also was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Now everyone in South Africa has equal opportunities at home and work to make themselves feel comfortable.

African Independence

African changed so much from 1955 to 1975 because it gained more independent countries in 1975. Africans formed a movement to celebrate African culture, heritage, and values, it was called the Negritude movement.In 1947, there was a new leader called Kwame Nkrumah who worked to liberate the Gold Coast African colony. Kwame Nkrumah was elected Prime Minister and tried to build better roads, better schools, and to expand health facilities later on Kwame Nkrumah was elected Prime Minister and tried to build better roads, better schools, and to expand health facilities. Every African country gained there independence at different years.

Some leaders of Africa independent leaders were, Patrice Lumumba who was the first leader of the Congo after Belgium was granted their independence. Jomo Kenyatta was another strong leader who helped his respective nation gain independent from Britain. Marcus Garvey had a goal to lead Europeans out of Africa and have Africa ruled by Africans. Ahmed Ben Bella the Leader of FLN, he was named Prime Minister and first President of Algeria. He estasblished national order, began land reforms, and developed new plans for education.