The Collapse of Communism

The causes of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe were that it had no popular support, political downfall, and economic problems.The fact that the USSR had gained all of its money from the Eastern European states (after world war 2), Stalin's paranoia of the West forced him to put all that money into defensive arms and therefore none of that money was being channeled into the country. Many historians would argue that it was at this point that the USSR began its downward spiral and this is were the country began its snowball effect.

They did because they wanted to reunify Germany.Germany was split into four sectors-the Soviet, American, French, and English after WWII. Germany had fallen apart. The Soviets ran their sector as a communist one. The wall was built in 1961 to prevent the Soviets' people in the east from escaping into the West which was better. People still tried to get over. They dug tunnels and jumped out of windows. People died trying to cross-a total of 239 deaths from the wall. There were about 5000 escapes. Ronald Reagan had came over to the Brandenburg gate to give a speech to the Soviet Leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the West Berliners. East Berliners heard the speech through their radios. He wanted the wall down since their was tension between the US and USSR with the Space Race and Nuclear Weapons that had happened in the past. He wanted to be on better terms with the Soviets and realized the struggle of the people. He wanted Germany reunified.

And later in 1989 things heated up. East Berliners held demonstrations against their communist government. Authorities had to handle the situation with matters of force. East Berliners were beaten and arrested that night, some even took sledgehammers and tried to break apart the wall to get into east Berlin. Finally in like Nov they started to take the wall down. Families that were separated were reunited after not seeing each other for years. All was better but it took a while for things to be cleaned up. In 1991 the USSR fell. Also Gorbachev had made peace with Reagan and Gorbachev had won the Nobel peace prize.


Soviet labor did not allow the Soviet Union to compete with the world economy on favorable terms. This low productivity, and this is where a profound connection between the internal and external life of the Soviet Union existed, could only have been boosted by the energy and initiative of the masses. Such input was not forthcoming.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid was the government of south Africa. the apartheid system was no whites classified as colored people or Indians did not share full rights. Apartheid has also loosely applied to similar movements and other forms of racial separation. Apartheid was coined in the late 1930s the SABRA which called for a policy separate development of the races. Mandela 's election , South Africa rejoined the commonwealth in June 1994, and a committee was set up to draft a new nonracial constitution. In 1995 a truth and reconciliation commission was appointed to investigate human-rights abuses that taken place during the apartheid era.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid South African Anti-Apartheid leader and first black President Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela was a dominant figure in the South African liberation movement, burning his pass as a peaceful protest. Apartheid had similarities to segregation in the American South, but was much worse. In addition to not being able to vote and separation from the whites in public businesses, blacks (which made up seventy percent of the population) were forced to live in a small area of the country, and could not leave without a “pass,” which very few people had and were very hard to get. Also, apartheid laws were explicitly stated laws, not just de facto rules that society followed, which South African blacks were forced to follow for nearly fifty years. Nelson Mandela rose up as leader of the African National Congress and major speaker against the evils of Apartheid, becoming the voice of the movement to end apartheid.There were a number of attempts to free Mandela, including a major campaign in 1980. He was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in 1982 and to Victor Vester Prison in Paarl in 1988. During this time he was allowed increasing contact with his wife, Winnie Mandela, and their two daughters. Mandela began negotiations with the South African government for his freedom and the end of apartheid while at Pollsmoor.

The ANC, PAC, and SACP were legalized on 2 February 1990, and Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Vester Prison on 11 February 1990. When elected president in 1994, Mandela sought to create a "Rainbow Nation," and the ANC collaborated with other political parties to form a "Government of National Unity."

african independence

Between the two world wars, an educated middle class had began to emerge to African cities, Young men went to abroad for college and graduate studies. They listened to American jazz musicians and read literature of the Harlem Renaissance. they were influenced by African Americans such as W.E.B. du Bois as well as by such older african as Blaise Diagne, who organized Pan-African congresses in 1919 and 1921. French-speaking Africans and West Indians began to express their growing sense of black consciousness and pride in traditional Africa. They formed the Negritude. This movement viewed the black experience as unique. One of the movement's leaders, Leopold Senghor, later became the first president of Senegal.


one of the movement leaders, Leopold Senghor later became the first president of Senegal. African soldiers in world world 11 fought alongside Europeans to defend freedom. this experience mad then unwilling to accept colonial domination when they returned home. the postwar world changed the thinking of European too. They began to question the cost of maintaining their colonial abroad. The leader of their largely nonviolent protests was Kwame Nkrumah. He was a former teacher who had spent several years studying the united states. in the 1940s, he worked to liberate the Gold coast. he became president of the African organization of the united states and Canada. Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast in 1947. He helped to stage strikes and riots against the government. One was the strong leadership of Kenyan nationalist Jomo Kenyatta , a Kikuyu educated in London. The second was the rise of the Mau Mau. By the time the British granted Kenya independence in 1963, more than 10,000 black Kenyans and 100 white Kenyans had been killed. Kenyatta became president of the new nation. He worked hard to unite the various ethic and language groups in country.