Carlos Peralta's Global Blog

Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

2010-05-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

Mikhail Gorbachev is the president of Russia. He was the youngest president at age 54. Mikhail decided that since the Russia was a totalitarian state, and nothing was getting done, he thought that he should open up Russia more so that free fresh new ideas will come and make Russia more economic and new with social reforms. This was called the "Glasnost". This was to promote Openess in Russia.

In 1985, Gorbachev decided to make something new called "Peristrokia". This was to make economic reforms. Local managers gained full rights to their farms and property and people were allowed to own privately owned small businesses.

The collapse of communism

2010-05-11T22:55:00.000-07:00

Many things led to the fall of communism in Russia. The people were going though oppression and wanted to break free just like us over here in the west. The government wanted full control over the country but when people are always being told what do or feel they fell the need to revolt and the Government crumbles.This is what the leaders in the U.S.S.R. faced. The people of the USSR voted Communism out of the country soon this spread all over the east and communism everywhere was starting to fall.

Since Russia was no longer a communist state they decided to take down the Berlin Wall to connect the Former east Germany with West Germany. Germany was no longer divided and Germany was free from the clutches of communism once again.Today there are still communist countries, but they're economies are terrible and they rely on donations from other countries.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

2010-05-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

Apartheid means the separation of races for the benefit of one. In other words, they separate races so that one race can live better and get more benefits. This is exactly what was happening in Africa. Africans were being separated from the whites in their own country. They were also being mistreated and were being harmed by the government. This was all legal and it going against it was considered unlawful or insubordinate.

Nelson Mandela was one of the people who fought to eliminate the apartheid laws in Africa. He went to jail for opposing the law, but nevertheless he fought what he felt his people deserved and he helped a lot. Thanks to him Africa got rid of these laws and voted nelson Mandela as their first black president.

African Inpendence

2010-05-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Europeans basically imperilized the continent and took it for themselves. Until recently 1955-1970, Africa had been gaining their independence. The French, Spanish, English etc. took over them for a long time. They used them for their natural resources and cheap labor. Ghana was the first country to gain their independence. Kwame Nkrumah was the leader. He was a teacher who spent time studying in the united states and came back to get rights for his country, but ended up becoming the president of Ghana and the English left.

Another nation was Kenya. This country was special because their leader/president was in prison then he was elected as the leader. This is one of the two countries that did this. The leaders name was Jomo Kenyatta. He led the Mau Mau's so he can scare the white men away without any war.

"The Right Stuff"

2010-04-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

In this film they showed the Space Race. It was part of the Cold War but it was about space. The Russians were the first to put a satellite in space. The US were the first to break the sound barrier. The US began to fear that the will control the whole world. The US said they had to get something up there. The Russians were the first to built a spaceship. The US began to get people the best astronaut so fly to space. They picked 7 astronauts out of 56 pilots. We had our crew but we need a spaceship. 1961 was when we built our spaceship and instead of sending the astronauts we sent a monkey.

The Russians were the first to sent a human to space. The US was so embarrassed about this we started to put so much money to NASA. The US started to faster the Russians. Farther then the Russians.We eventually beat them by sending Neil Armstrong to the moon. We won the Space Race against Russia.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

2010-04-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

NATO was formed by Europe and The United States so that they could have defense alliances.If one of the countries were to be attacked by a nation the other NATO countries could come to their aid. Europe still had many economic problems so the United States were able to help them out and give them supplies. NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Warsaw Pact was a treaty between all of the countries that bordered the Soviet Union. The Warsaw pact was similar to the NATO but just for the Soviet Union. When North America and its allies found out about the Warsaw pact they knew that action would have to be take to avoid another World War.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

2010-03-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

In my perspective i think this documentary will most likely stay on my mind cause of the brutal scenes that took place in Germany. Images that will most likely stay in my mind will probably be when they where executing the Jews who tried to escape in the ghetto. They would just take any measures possible to make sure that all the Jews were dead. Another scene was when the Nazis were burning thousands of dead bodies, so much bodies that it was snowing ashes.

Schindler's list is better than night and fog in a way because it shows the emotion of the people, but these emotions are quickly shadowed by the footage of the real carnage caused by the holocaust which is shown in night and fog. Some scenes I will admit though are really strong. Like the scene were the little girl in the red dress is being carried to the giant pile of burning bodies.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

2010-03-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

The documentary shows disturbing images of bodies and the methods of death the Nazis carried out.You see corpses piled high and starvation and dismemberment is not hidden in Auschwitz.The documentary which is the real perspective of the holocaust is better than the Hollywood version in the sense that it actually shows real footage, but night and fog definetly wins it just because of the actual footage that they show which is gruesome to say the least and enough to raise the hairs on your back. This movie actually shocked and surprised me. I have never seen anything so sick and disturbing as this video, its so hard to imagine that anything like this could actually happen.

The Treaty of Versailles

2010-03-01T16:04:00.000-08:00

Germany did it!
The treaty of Versailles is the treaty that ended the war in the palace Versailles. This ended the ww1 for the whole continent of Europe. the whole thing affected germany for their damage, they decrease the german millitary up to 100,000 men and cut their fleets in half. They were to lose also 13 percent of their land, along with 48 percent of all iron production was lost long with the land.

I believe that the treaty of Versailles was completely unfair. Although Germany did lose the war they were still unfairly treated and punished. It was because of this that ww2 was started. Germany felt this and they took revenge as soon as they could.

Mustafa Kemal and the Modernization of Turkey

2010-02-24T11:32:00.000-08:00

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is a Turkish Muslim. He was mostly involved in religion and politics. Mustafa Kemal wanted to modernized the religion, Islam in Turkey. Mustafa didn't want to wear the traditional stuff that Muslims wore in the Middle East. He believed that religion is religion, you don't have to wear a specific thing. He felt that since they're in Europe, they wanted themselves to blend in the European style. Like he wanted them to wear such things, like jackets, hats, shoes, pants, and etc. that Europeans wore at that time, since Turkey is part of Europe.
He wanted the Turkish people to be considered civilized among their European neighbors. His main focus was on how the people dressed. He also got rid of the Islamic calendar and replaced it with the western calendar. He thought that if maybe he could change the way they dressed then maybe he can change the way they think and make them more liberal and open minded.

Gandhi

2010-02-24T11:12:00.000-08:00

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind:

Gandhi was considered the father of india. Gandhi was one of the most influential people in india. He helped india overcome its suppressors,England. He did this by organizing a bunch of peaceful protests and boycotting a lot of british products and goods. He believed that non-violence would help him and it did.

Gandhi thought that if maybe he would not fight then the enemy would look bad and everyone would be on his side. I believe that if gandhi did not exist, india would still be able to gain its independence, but it would have taken them some time. India's independence would have still been achieved but not only would it have taken longer but it would have also been much, much longer. India wanted its independence because they were being oppressed and british goods were being forced onto to them.

The Russian Revolution

2010-01-13T09:54:00.000-08:00

Causes of WW1

2010-01-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

The world at War... and everyone else.

World War 1 was one of the most deadliest wars in history. The war was said to have began when the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, but the truth is that there were many other reasons. One of these being nationalism. Nationalism was a big cause of the war. People would fight over land and would hate each other because of their love for their country. Militarism also contributed because all the countries would build their military and make other countries suspicious.

Opium wars

2009-12-18T09:59:00.000-08:00

The british would only trade gold and silver for tea from china. China didn't need anything besides the gold that Britain had but Britain didn't want to trade gold for tea. so instead britain decided to trade opium. Britain thought if maybe they could get china addicted to opium then they could trade that for tea. The chinese tried to fight off the drugs. Sadly they couldn't and the drug was forced upon them. the british won because of their superior navy and weapons.

"mountains of the moon"

2009-12-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

When the europeans first entered africa they expected it to be all easy. Little did they know that what lied ahead of them was much tougher. They faced many hardships and were almost killed. After many tries they finally found the lake and named it lake victoria. Can you believe that a lake right in the middle of africa was named after a british queen? Well soon after , the invention of the machine gun, steamboat, and the discovery of malaria's cure europe was finally able to conquer europe.

Imperialism Project

2009-12-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

We did the imperialism project because it was suppose to show us a broader view of imperialism and its effects. The project showed us how much land these countries had and how many natural resources were gained. I also learned about the war that were fought in order to gain and control these lands.

Karl Marx and The Industrial Revolution

2009-11-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

Communism is fun!

Karl Marx is credited with being the first person to practice and create communism. During the industrial revolution marx looked around him and saw that all the workers were living and working in horrible conditions. This was all due to the owner of these factories. Then marx thought that maybe the workers should own the factory and not the owners, he thought that perhaps wealth should be shared and had by all! That we should all live alike and live in peace. Well it may sound nice on paper but its actually not as it seems. Karl Marx may have had his head in the right place but there was no way communism turned out the way he wanted it to.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

2009-10-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

le nationalism:

Nationalism can be defined as ones love for their native country. Here in america it can be described as patriotism. We show it by joining the military and singing the national anthem. Italy is a fine example of nationalism because it was one of the first countries that became a country. It developed its own flag people and culture. It was one of the first countries to try out nationalism.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

2009-10-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Simon Bolivar and the sinister six:

Simon Bolivar was one of the most influential people in the history of South America. He helped free six latin american countries from their European oppressors. Simon would travel to France and America in order to better understand the new governments thaat were established. Once he learned about the new governments he came back to south america and implemented these ideas on his people. He helped south america implement a good government.

John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

2009-10-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

The constitution:
Thomas Jefferson talks about the rights that every human being is entitled to. He says that we should all have the freedom to practice our own religion and to say whatever we want. He says that we should all have the freedom to do whatever we want. TJ says that the goverment should be powered by the people. That we should vote for who we want to control us and for the people who will help us.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

2009-09-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

Third planet from the sun: Believe it or not people weren't always smart. One fine example is the theory of geocentrism. The idea is that (get this) the earth is the center of the solar system. To no surprise the roman catholic church backed up this idea but then a man named Galileo Galilei came and said that heliocentrism is the right way to go (belief that we revolve around the solar system revolves around the sun). The church being its charming self put Galileo on trial they stated that he had violated the 1616 (so-called) injunction against teaching, holding, or writing about Copernican theory. Galileo and the church had two totally different views and the church being bigger won over Galileo and he was forced into house arrest. And that is the famous story of Heliocentrism.

Scientific Revolution: The Scientific Method

2009-09-21T17:29:00.000-07:00

The scientific method is a method used to prove something in the scientific community. Basically its steps used to set up an experiment. If the experiment can be replicated with the same result then its considered a fact. Steps involving thinking of an idea,Thinking of an hypothesis, Creating an experiment to prove the hypothesis, and Analyzing your result. It all started during the scientific revolution where people instead of just talking and making up facts actually started conducting test to prove that they were right.
Proving that im right:
a scientific method that is well done and formulated may look something like this
Observation- Flowers grow when its sunny.
Analysis- Constant trips to the garden at home depot.
Hypothesis- If flowers had no sun I bet they wouldn't grow.
Test- Ill get a bunch of flowers and ill try to grow some in the sun and some in my closet.
Analyze- It seems that the flowers in the closet haven't grown....how peculiar.
Results- Yeah I was correct.

Evolution V.S. Creation

2009-09-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

Viva la Evolution:
The theory of evolution is the idea that all of life on earth today derives from a common ancestor, that all of us throughout the years have evolved to were we are now. The man that spear headed this idea was Charles Darwin. While on a trip to the Galapagos he noticed that the same finches had different beaks on every island. According to the theory of evolution we started off as simple cells and evolved from that.
The Creation of Creationism:
The theory of creationism is that god magically created the earth and all of its belongings in a mere 7 days. It is said that when he created earth he also made Adam but then Adam got lonely and a female companion named Eve was made. Then after thousands of years of reproduction societies formed and then etc.
In my Opinion:
I believe in Evolution. It just makes sense to me because God creating the world seems to not explain the different variations of animals. Also we have proof of our ancestors and of dinosaurs. We basically have a boat load of fossils and data that prove that we did have ancestors that we have evolved from. Creationism seems to lazy of an idea if you ask me but that's just my opinion.