Mark's Global Blog

The Cuban Missile Crisis

2008-04-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Basically the Cuban missile crisis was the most important point were the Cold War was not going to be Non-Violent, but it was going to get dirty and more violent than ever; to the point where the world was close to being at its end by nuclear war. Meaning that Russia would have bombed us from Cuba. We would have bombed Russia, Turkey Would have Bombed russia, etc... There we would ave had a nuclear war and there would have been nukes everywhere. Well in the Cuabn Missile Crisis the russian played dirty first because they started to plant bombs in Cuba without the US knowing. Then eventually the US noticed and they tried to call it off because Kennedy realized and he thought smart that if any bomb was released in any country Zillions of people would have died and the world might have suffered some type of disruption and humanity would have gone to waste. Kennedy proposed to give his Nukes that he had in turkey back to russia, hoping that russia would understand that the US would not invade Cuba. Russia seeing how US gave up there weapons ordered Cuba to un-activate the Nukes and they stopped sending deadly weapons to Cuba. So concluding this the Cuabn Missile Crisis was very close to destroynig the world if it wouldnt have been for the act of Kennedy who took the first move to say "hey lets stop, were gona end humanity", and did a deal.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

2008-04-03T11:26:00.001-07:00

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. With headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, the organization established a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. The Russians and The Americans had done different alliances to defend themselves seeming how each nation thought the other was going to attack but neither nation wanted to attack because they thought something would happen. Either way they would both end up destroying everything seeming how lot of the most deadly weapons was being held by these 2 nations. Moving on with another alliance made was The Warsaw Pact. What exactly was the Warsaw pact? A military alliance of communist nations in Eastern Europe. Organized in 1955 in answer to NATO, the Warsaw Pact included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. So as you can see both countries held organizations in defense of the threat from the other country. In conclusion throughout the Cold War both countries had alliances to threaten or to defend themselves and the most important ones were the NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

2008-03-31T05:39:00.001-07:00

Basically in this movie, the scenes we saw explained examples of how the USA and Soviet Union were having like a competition/Non-Violent war. The Cold war is basically when the USA and Russia had a war without weapons or any kind of physical attacks. They would just see to prove which nation is better. In the movie The Right Stuff shows when the US breaks a record of this new technology they have developed and when the media/ press is going to let it out on the news, the US says no don't release it. If Russia sees this they are going to try to beat us. This is one example of how the US doesn't permit the Russians to know about there achievements. Another example is when the US advances in technology they try to test men to see who can be the first one to step on the moon. The Americans got the first living thing on the moon but it wasn't actually a human being. It was a Chimpanzee. After the Americans managed to land that the Russians spend a lot of time trying to make a rocket launch, they failed a couple of times but then they got it and the Russians send the human to the moon but the moon was already claimed by the Americans. This comes to show the kind of war this was. In a way it was really like a competition or like two smart kids trying to see who can get the best grade and they do dirty moves to beat each other.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

2008-03-31T05:37:00.000-07:00

In Schindlers list many images were very powerful and I'm sure stroke everyone who saw the movie, but some images were very strong. This Hollywood version describing the holocaust was very descriptive and had several scenes that got stuck to your memory. For me one of the most important scenes was the ones where they were killing all the Jews or where they were searching for the people in the ghetto to send them to concentration camps. Another scene that was very catchy was when they showed the little kids hiding from the Nazis and some of them were even hiding in the toilets full of dung. Even though these were scenes that were very powerful the whole movie explains very specifically how the things were. This movie is one of my favorite movies and i plan and watching it again another time. One thing thats pretty amazing is that the class didn't even see the whole movie, we only saw scenes, yet the movie still caught our attention.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

2008-03-31T05:36:00.000-07:00

Night and fog is a very descriptive movie and described the holocaust very similarly. One thing that i saw in both the movies was that Night and Fog explained the holocaust using more evidence that was actually in the holocaust. Like for example they used real videos that were actually taken at place. They used real images where they showed the dead bodies; they even recorded how the place looks now a days meaning how the chambers were empty etc... I felt more touched though with schindlers list because they really didnt focus on showing you EXACTLY with real evidence how the holocaust was. They focused more on showing you the basic concept on what it was and making you realize how cruel that act of genocide was and how the Nazi's surpassed the border or abuse of human nature. Concluding i think the Shindlers List Movie meaning theo hollywood version, explained more effectively the Holocaust. If i would have seen only the night and fog i really wouldnt haveknown much about the holocaust and it would have just been "another social studies class", but schindlers list actually made me realize how bad the holocaust was.

The Treaty of Versailles (WWI)

2008-02-11T05:19:00.000-08:00

As Known Hitler was a very powerful dictator who controlled very large armies of German troops. He was a very rebellious leader and had killed many people. He was in this alliance where Italy and France had like a treaty of peace between themselves. After the treaty of Versailles was made and Germany lost most of its power, they went into depression and Hitler couldn't stand this, so he gathered up a vast army and thus caused WWII.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and The Modenization Of Turkey

2008-02-11T05:17:00.000-08:00

Mustaka Kemal took a decision that changed turkey completely. He decided to make the country of turkey completely non-religous. This affected turkey because religion influenced many people's culture's and its reallyhard to just change your whole life that was based on your ancenstors and religion just because this guy tells you to be non-religous. Mustafa Kemals idea was to modernize turkey and to make turkey like the other countries. Being modernized does not mean that you completely have to erase religion; that is where he went wrong and so turkey's religion was non-religuos until Mustafa Kemals was there.

Film Lesson "Gandhi

2008-02-07T05:08:00.000-08:00

Gandhi was a great historical figure and made one of the biggest contributions to the world. He gave independence to India without having to use physical violence. Gandhi made several movements that the british would hate but can only win by using injustice. Gandhi started thinking that he can easily get Indian troops to fight the English but as he said "An Eye for an Eye only leaves the whole world blind". It means if the indians fight back it would only leed to more chaos and destruction. Gandhi used another technique that was very successful and actually legal; he didnt fight back. He would rebel against the british orders and when the british would arrest hurt or kill them he would just show resistance. There was a point where the british realized they were losing money, they started to look bad and were doing illegal things, at this point, the british gave up and india had won its independence.India lived happily but one day a seek killed Gandhi. Ever since Gandhi has been greatly honored and recognized all over the world.

The Opium Wars

2007-12-18T15:04:00.000-08:00

The Opium Wars is result of an argument from the Chinese and the english. What happened was is that the english were looking for something to sell to the chinese that the chinese didn't have. So after a long time the english figured out that the chinese didn't occupy Opium. the english offered the chinese Opium as a trade entrance ad the chinese accepted. After a while the chinese started to realize that Opium was a very bad drug for people and people started to die because of overdose and other reasons that had to do with the drug. The chinese realized that the drug was not only health-bad, but it was also bad in the sense that it was affecting chinas social, political, and cultural way of living. The Chinese told the english that they did not want to buy that product anymore but seeming how the english needed chinas resources the english refused to stop trading it with the chinese until the english and the chinese had a war called the Opium War. In this war the english won so easily they got what they wanted; the reason the english won was not because they had a vast army, but because the war was on water and the english had a very strong navy force due to their technological military advances. Their boats were of black steel while the chinese boats were of wood. In conclusion the english came to a truce with chine but still the english won the Opium War.

"The White Man's Burden"

2007-12-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

The White Man's Burden is a poem that the englishes who recited it express themselves in a very conceided kind of way by saying in very specific details that all white men have a burden of "fixing" other races. In other words since the Europeans back then thought they were the first and perfect race, they were the correct ones and anybody who did something different than them was weird. They considered Imperialism a favor for other coutries, their strategy was to go to other countries and say : hey if u give us your resources we will teach you how to be like us! so like that the would have all the resources and think of themselves as gods. So basically in the poem the whites are just saying that they carry a burden of "civilizing" other nations.

"The Scramble for Africa"

2007-12-18T14:49:00.000-08:00

The Scramble for Africa was a time where the Europeans were starting to get more and more involved with africa and wanted to explore it for its resources, imperialism, territory and other things. France, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Portugal were the main countries interested in this idea of exploring and conquering africa. It's like they were all fighting for that country and they were from the same place but different explorers set their minds to trying to get africa. Whoever would get africa would have more resources, territory, and they wouldn't even be that far away because Europe is very close to the northern part of Africa.

Film Lesson:"Mountains of the Moon".

2007-12-18T14:36:00.000-08:00

Even though we saw very few scenes in this movie, the movie explained a lot in a short piece of time. It was about the European explorers who were in search of the source of the nile river, and in search of Africa's most valuable natural resources. The Europeans had a very hard job because they had few people with them and even had to take people from africa to work for them and to do there stuff. In the movie, Speak-one of the most important protagonists of the movie- goes through alot of pain and suffering with his friend explorer. They are living in a place they don't know and are always being ambushed by african tribes along their large journeys. Very bad things would happen to them, like for example: the porters would run away with their belongings, african tribes would ambush,etc... Now that i mention African tribes Speak and his friend were lucky to have this one man that speaks english and served them as a translator. If it wasn't for that man that spoke both african and english they would have all been dead, for due to the language diversity they were able to trade and communicate , make truces, avoid tragical deaths due to misunderstandings,etc... This movie was short but explained alot about imperialism in the late 1800's.

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

2007-11-27T07:47:00.000-08:00

In 1853, Americas command commodore Matthew Perry sailed to Japan looking for benefits for the americans. He sailed there with 4 big modernized boats and proposed to the Japaneese that they open to ports so that the Americans can supply themselves. The Japaneese werent too sure about this idea but they seemed kind of threatened since the americans came proposing with advanced ships that had cannons and very good armor. I myself think the Americans brought these ships "just incase" the Japaneese didnt accept. Then again that didn't happen and the Japaneese accepted such proposal; they called this agreement The Treaty of Kanawaga. In conclusion this meant that whenever the americans needed to supply themselves on long journeys, they would pass by japan and refill. The reason the Americans picked Japan for this treaty is because Japan is out in the ocean; Japan is like a little set of islands close to each other. These are called Archipelagos. An archipelago is a chain of islands where they are all considered a part together. The Meiji era was a very bad periodof time for the Japaneese economy. Since the country was ruled by the emperor, he made all the decisions. The Japaneese had to limit themselves to trade and economic advances because the emperor was signing alot of treatys. Then after the emperor died and the meiji era had ended Japan began to restore everythign they had lost and started to regain alot of things they gave away. They began to modernize themselves more. This was a good advantage for japan because not only were they improving themselves but also other countries started to give them a little more respect and if would be very rare of a country to try to pressure them into a treaty. When the meiji era ended the Japaneese restored Themselves.

Karl Marx And The Industrial Revolution

2007-11-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx was a great philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutianary figure. He is known for creating or spreading the idea of communism. It was meant to have everybody have the same amount of money; not to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer. He had an idea of everybody being treated equal and everybody having possesion of the same things. This idea sounds perfect when you say it. But when you test it, it is much more different; why? because there are the ones who work ALOT, and there are the ones who work A LITTLE. So it really is not fair if a professional doctor makes the same amount of money as an 18 year old handing out flyers. There is always going to be a competition or a "greedy" one who wants to make more money then the rest. This is why Marx idea wasn't spread out world wide.

Nationalism and The Creation of Italy

2007-11-15T07:58:00.000-08:00

For many years, Italy's separate nations (before italy) did not want to unite because they were afraid to give all their power to one central government. Those nations wanted to be independent and did not want to have anything to do with each other. When the idea of nationalism started to rise and spread out through Europe they started to look into it more and more. So, Nationalism basically helped Italy unite itself; before nationalism influenced the lives of the leaders from the sole nations, those nations were small and together became a very powerful country.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American

2007-10-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

Simon Bolivar, a.k.a. "El Libertador", was a great leader of Independence movements that happened in South America (mostly the top portion). Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas on 1783. Simon Bolivar had an apprentice called Jose de San Martin. They both had different ideas but based on the same source, to liberate South America. A victory at the Battle of Boyaca in 1819 added New Granada to the territories free from Spanish control, and in september 7, 1821 the Gran Colombia (a federation covering much of modern Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador) was created, with Bolívar as president. Eventually the regions of the Gran Colombia started to realize that they were all about themselves and wanted to seperate so the unity started to fall apart and Simon Bolivars dream started to fall apart; but at least he liberated the spanish countries. Simon Bolivar was a great leader.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

2007-09-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

Since there was no recent technology in the time of galileo galilei and copernicus, it was hard to find out about space ad our universe; galileo had put up a theory saying that the planets and the sun revolved around earth but they revolved around the earth in an eliptical shape. and copernicus though they considered him right said that all planets revolved around the sun but that they revolved in a circular shape. None of them were correct but copernicus was close enough so his theory stood while they put galileo on trial for his false theory. While galileo was on trial he started thinking outside the box and he did many things. like putting the scientific method in practice, inventing a telescope, etc...

Scientific Revolution: Scientific Method

2007-09-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

The Scientific method is method used to investigate, learn or fix old theory's. There are a couple of steps in this method that help in the investigation:

Ask a Question: Most of the time the scientific method is used to answer a question made like for example who, what, when, where, why, which or how.

Backround Research: Most of the times it isn't enough to just answer the things yourself, sometimes it's good to investigate through popular sources of research like the internet or the library and find things that might help you with what you are looking for.

Hypothesis: Now is when you start the question that will construct your theory. Like for ex:if i do _____ then _____ will happen...

Test your hypothesis: (Self explanatory)

Draw Conclusion: now that you have tested youre hypothesis what you have to do is analyze youre data and draw a conclusion, whether youre theory was right or wrong.

Evolution vs Creation

2007-09-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

The theory of evolution .vs. creation is a popular debate on how, why, and when everything started; most of the general concepts in the debate are mostly on the origins of the earth, humanity, life and the universe. Now if we look at the debate i have to points of view: one where i have scientific proof that we came from the family of the apes, and another point of view where religion comes in and everything is written in the bible. In the scientific point of view it is said that when the Big Bang occurred the planets were released and that in the earth life took place, and that during the years the most simple life forms went evolving and turning complex life forms. To me that makes a lot of sense. Then there is religion, where the bible explains that god created everything. In a way both theory's depend on each other. So i really cant pick but maybe in a couple of years or decades the world will find out.

Test

2007-09-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

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