"The Right Stuff"

The US and the Soviet Union were competing against each other to see who could make the furthest advancements into space. In the beginning of the film they showed how America was trying to break sound barrier. Of course they kept this as a secret because they did not wanted Russia to know what was going on. Then further into the film America found out that Russia launched the first rocket into space. At this point the Russians were winning the competition because they launched the first satellite and the rocket into space. The scenes that will help me remember the Cold War would be when people were being selected for the astronaut mission.The experiments that they were put to looked painful but necessary because the Americans didn't want anything to go wrong.These men being tested had to be strong, healthy, have a college degree, as well as having to be a pilot. At the end seven men were chosen to go to space for the first time.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

NATO is an organization that includes some countries in Europe and North America.
The Warsaw Pact was formed as communist military alliance to maintain power over Eastern Europe. The major reason for the formation of NATO was that the countries involved wanted a defense alliance so that if one of the countries were to be attacked all of the other countries in NATO would come and help. The Warsaw Pact was made by Russia and many other republics in Europe. The countries within the Warsaw Pact promised to defend each other if any other country within the alliance was attacked.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

"Schindler's List" was about a man named Oskar Shindler who helped to save about over 100 Jews from being massacred at the Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Germany. He was a greedy German businessman who saved his workers from his factories, so that he wouldn't lose money. The Jews or his factory workers worked pretty much for free, and saving them from Hitler was like a way to repay them. He was a Nazi but not like the rest, i believe he had a heart.

One scene that will stay with me forever and that almost made me cry was the little girl with the red coat, it was soo sad to see a little innocent child get murdered just because they wanted to. The concentration camps were the worst scenes for the movie for me. Jewish families were separated by gender and age. The men that were too old, and the children since they couldn't work, they were immediately killed. The strong and healthy people survived. Most of the prisoners barely ate any food, at times they would die of starvation.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

I think that "Night and Fog," a good documentary, it showed us scenes and pictures during the war, and it showed us the scenes from after the war. The scenes from after the war are the abandoned concentration camps or what are left from them. It has some strong footage, but i think its really good to know what really happened. The scenes from "Schindler's List" are a remake from what really happened, they are good because it gives a better look at what happened during the war more up close. I like "Schindler's List" better because the documentary may be real and all but the remake of the war gives you a more personal feel of the war, as if u there, because of the people telling their stories and their feelings.

The Treaty of Versailles (Ended WWI)

The Treaty of Versailles affected the Germans in the end of WWI because, they were pretty much blamed for everything and had to give up their land and money. The Treaty made them give up 10% of the any land they owned whether in Europe or overseas. They also lost about 12.5% of their people during the war. The treaty also caused the German's economy to go down and they could barely pay their dues to the Allies. This treaty wasn't fair at all because it gave the right for the rest of the world to blame Germany for everything that was lost in the war. The Germans were in need to recover from this economic downfall that it caused the rise Adolf Hitler to have power and also the rise of Fascism. I think that historians say that the Treaty of Versailles caused the rise of Hitler and fascism because of the economic downfall, so the German people pretty much fell right into Hilter's hands without knowing the consquences of it.

Mustafa Kemal and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was the president of Turkey for 15 years and modernized it as well. Before that, he was a military leader and because he was very successful and also his social-political reforms, Turkey was formed as a new nation. He believed that all the people were supposed to dress, act and live like the Europeans. He also established law which states that people should dress in proper clothing instead of wearing a cloth. He made the agricultural expansion, industrial growth, and technological advancements in Turkey better. His work helped the nation in many different ways, he didn't want Turkey to stay behind in technology or as a civilization.
Secular means worldly rather than spiritual, not specifically relating to religion or to a religious body.

Gandhi

Gandhi helped his nation of India gain its independence from Great Britain in many different non-violent ways. He was born in Porbander in the west of India in 1869. In 1888 he went to study law in London. Then in 1907 he went to South Africa, he held a lot of protests against the government because of the bad treatment towards the Indians. Then in 1915 he returned to India and joined the Congress pretty soon he was one of the party's top leader. This is when it all started he helped the Indians boycott against British goods and convinced them to buy Indian goods. He did this with no violence, he believed that if there was violence involved it would give a negative outcome in which the Indians Independence will never happen. Gandhi was imprisoned in 1922, 1930, 1933 and in 1942, for various charges but none including violence. While he was in prison, he fasted so the violence in India would stop. He believed that if he fasted for a certain amount of time and he died that maybe that way the violence in India will end. Gandhi weaved his own cloth and so did his followers. He did many things to stop the Salt Acts. During this time, Indians could only buy salt from the British, and on top of that they had to pay sales tax on the salt they brought. Gandhi couldn't take it anymore so his followers and himself marched on the sea cost. There they were going to make their own salt. Gandhi wanted Muslims and Hindus to live in the same country, he wanted unity between the two cultures. He was assassinated by an Indian who did not support the idea about Muslims and Hindus living together. The Indian Independence was not all about Gandhi, because the British lost alot of money in the war and barely had money to take care of India so sooner or later they were going to give India back to the Indians.