Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid is a form of racial segregation in parts of the world where it is racially segregated in social or educational ways. Nelson Mandela was a hero because he wanted all of the races to be free even though the white people locked him up for 27 years. He was also a complex person because he wanted peace but had used a campaign of violence. He wasn't communist but admired the communist leaders that fought along side him.

African Independence

The Africans finally got their independence a while after the scramble for Africa. Africa changed a lot in 20 years. There were less areas in Africa that were colonies of the Europeans and a lot more that had their independence. A leader named Jomo Kenyatta had leadKenya and helped gain their independence. When he got elected for leading it he tried to unite all of the different cultures living in there.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban missile crisis was during the Cold War. It was when the Soviet Union was behind the US in the arms race and the US had missiles that could reach the Soviet Union but they only had missiles that could bomb Europe. The Soviet Union decided to try and put missiles on a closer range to the US and Cuba agreed because Fidel Castro was afraid of another invasion. Eventually the US found out because of photographs they got from a spy.

This was concidered "the hottest moment in the Cold War" because this was as close as the US and the Soviet Union got to bombing each other and starting a nuclear war. In order to combat the crisis Kennedy organized the EX-COMM which is a group of 12 of his most important advisors to handle the crisis. After a meeting he decided to put a naval quarantine around Cuba. Then he wrote a letter to the Soviets about taking their missiles out of Cuba. they had a meeting and agreed and the Soviets took their missiles out of Cuba.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO and The Warsaw Pact were alliances that were created to defend the other countries in the alliances. NATO was made up of the US, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom. The Warsaw Pact consisted of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.

NATO was made as a mutual defence alliance so that if one of them was attacked the other countries in the alliance would come in to aide that country being attacked. The Warsaw Pact was made as a response to NATO and is supposed to be a mutual defence alliance like NATO. The Soviet Union dominated The Warsaw Pact.