Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

The Collapse of Communism

During the Cold War the USSR and the U.S. were the world's leading superpowers. After WW2 these two world powers were competing in a race. Both of them being world powers and armed with atomic weapons so they did not get in to any actual fighting. The cost of keeping up with each other was high for both countries. For the USSR it was too much. Their economy soon collapsed at the high price of competing with the U.S. With the collapse of the USSR the communist countries that they supported soon also collapsed due to the fact that their main source of money came from Soviet Russia.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid is a policy of legal racial segregation.
Nelson Mandela was raised in South Africa. He lived in a part under the Apartheid system. He was treated unfairly just because his skin was black. People were treated unequally. Living conditions were harsh in South Africa. For example, if a white man and a black man had the same job. The white man could possibly make more money in a week than the black man could make in an entire year.
He lead an underground movement. It didnt last long however because he was sentenced to life in prison in 1964. He was freed 27 years after his imprisonment. Five years later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and elected president of South America.

African Independence

African Independence was a period when African colonies gained its independence from the European countries. During the mid 1950's the continent of Africa was being ruled by European countries, because the Europeans wanted the natural resources that were available in Africa. After 20 years Africa was a whole different continent, because the colonies gained independence from the Europeans and went on to become independence countries. It was easy for the African countries because the European countries were weakened after WWII. The Europeans did not want to deal with their colonies, because it was very expensive to run colonies from countries far away. Many Africans became well educated. Africa had many leaders because there were so many provinces. These leaders were inspired by African-American leaders. They had Leopold Senghor, who lead Sengal and later became president; Marcus Garvey was jamaican born, but his goal was to lead Europeans out of Africa and have Africa ruled by Africans; Kwame Nkrumah became Ghana's first prime minister; Jomo Kenyatta led Kenya through a harsh independence; etc.