Cultural Focus
Period 1 - Vai Vimil
Mustafa Kemal
Mustafa Kemal had been born in 1881 in the former Ottoman Empire. He had then become a revolutionary had had helped establish the Republic of Turkey. And then was the first president of Turkey and was able to modernize Turkey through his reforms.
Mustafa had modernize and secularize the country by studying the Western governments, and adapting their structure for the people of Turkey. He had a belief that modernization necessarily entailed Westernization and had established a policy of state secularism with a constitution that had separate the government for the religion.
He had played social and economic reforms as a crucial part of his strategy for modernization. He had replaced the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet, introduced the Gregorian calendar and had urged the people to dress in Western clothes. He had industrialized his nation by establishing state owned factories and creating a network of railroads.
Before Mustafa had established the republic of Turkey, he had been part of the Young Turks, which were a revolutionary movement of intellectuals. He had participated in the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, were Mustafa was able to hold a great deal of posts in the Ottoman army. He had also fought against the Balkan Wars from 1911 to 1912, and was a war chief posted at the Turkish embassy in the second Balkan War. His bravery and strategic powers had helped take over the Allied invasion of Dardanelles in 1915, until the end of the fighting in 1918, Mustafa had received many promotions.
Peter the Great
Peter the Great had been one of Russia’s greatest statesmen, and he had been the Tsar and first Emperor of Russia. He was a man that had used his willpower, extraordinary energy and supreme vision to rule over Russia.
Peter the Great had risen to the title of tsar thought bitter power struggles among his half brothers. Since Peter’s father died when he was four years old, that had lead the throne open to Peter’s eldest half brother. Who then died, then after some support from Peter’s other half brother, Ivan. Peter was able to go for the throne after Peter and Ivan were proclaimed joint tsars.
Peter had launched many series of reforms in a course of 25 years, in the areas of administration, industry, commerce, technology and culture. This had been sparked in Peter’s mind because his country had lacked the
Peter the Great had access to the sea routes, and that had been vital for the trade at that time. en an avid learner who had preferred traveling in disguise. He had been able to study shipbuilding and work as a ship’s carpenter in Holland, and then in Great Britain he had been able to visit factories, arsenals, schools, and museums. This had let Peter to acquire great knowledge of different crafting and such. But due to his time away it had caused many uprisings and rebellions in that time.
Tanzimat Reform
The Tanzimat Reform had begun under Sultan Mahmud II. These reforms had encouraged Ottomanism among the diverse ethnic groups of the Empire, which had attempted to adopt non Muslim and non Turkish more thoroughly in the Ottoman society by greater civil liberties and equality.
The Tanzimat Reforms had emerged from the minds of many reformist sultans like Mahmud II and Abdulmecid I as well as many more prominent reformers who were European educated bureaucrats who had recognized that the old religious and military institutions no longer met the needs of the empire in the modern world.
The Tanzimat reforms had been created a far reaching effects. Those educated in the schools established during the Tanzimat period included major personalities of the nation states which were to develop from the Ottoman Empire, such as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and other progressive leaders and thinks of the Republic of Turkey and many other from Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa.
The peak of the reforms had been in the 1876 with the help and implementation of the Ottoman constitution checking the autocratic powers of the Sultan. In this ht estate institutions were reorganized, laws were updated to the needs of the changing world, modern education, clothing, and lifestyle were encouraged. This had been the time in which the Tanzimat Reforms have boosted.
Lech Walesa
Lech Walesa was a Polish politician, trade organizer, philanthropist and human rights activist. He had been charismatic leader who had co founded Solidarity, which had been the Soviet bloc’s first independent trade union. Due to this he had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
Walesa had first started his life as an electrician by trade. then soon became a dissident trade union activist. He had been persecuted by the Communist authorities, and was placed under surveillance, then fired in 1976. Then in the August of 1980 he became instrumental in the political negotiations that had lead to the amazing Gdansk Agreement between the workers and the government.
Lech Walesa had been very interested in the worker’s concerns from early on his life, in 1968 he had encouraged his shipyard colleagues to boycott offill rallies that condemned recent student strikes. Walesa being a charismatic leader had been able to organize 1970 strikes at the Gdansk Shipyard. This had been to protest against the government's decree raising food prices.
Walesa had been part of the parliamentary elections in June of 198, he had somewhat of a setback when his former comrades were satisfied to govern alongside the Communists. Walesa did not believe in that, instead he had ran off and re established a new office of president. Using his new slogan of “I don't want to, but Ive got no choice” , Walesa had raided awareness and eventually went he presidential election.
Kwame the Great
Kwame Nkrumah aka Kwame Nkrumah had been the leader of Ghana and the leader of the state before Ghana, he came to the Gold Coast at 1951. he had became the first Prime Minister of the Gold Coast and had led it into independence as Ghana in 1957.
kwame Nkrumah was born as Francis Nwia Ngongoma in 1909 in the Gold Coast. He had attended a nearby Roman Catholic missionary school where on he was baptized on September 21. At age sixteen or seventeen he had became a pupil teacher at a school in Half Assini. Where he had been recommended for the Government Training College where he studied to be a teacher and graduate to be a teacher.
On his road to Ghanaian independence, Kwame had to face many challenges, first to learn to govern. Second, to unify the four territories of the Gold Coast. Third, to win the nation’s compete for the United Kingdom. Nkrumah had been was successful at all three of his goals, within six years of his release from prison, he was the leader of an independent nation.
Kwame had create a well funded Ghana News Agency to generate domestic news and disseminate it abroad. This had been to consolidate state control over newspaper, establishing the Ghanaian Times, Daily Graphic, and the Mirror Group. This had been significant because it create a new form of media and communication to help communicate news or educate others.
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania made up of over 1000 islands scattered over the central southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits language family, culture, and beliefs.
Polynesia is characterized by a small amount of land spread over a very large portion of the mid and southern Pacific Ocean. Most of these Polynesian islands, including Hawaiian Islands and Samoa, are volcanic island built by hotspots. These help shape and form the island for what it is.
There are 14 different islands in Polynesia; American Samoa, which is just unorganized territory, Cook Islands that is a part of New Zealand, Easter Island which is part of Chile, French Polynesia which is an overseas country by the French, Hawaii, New Zealand, Niue which is governed by New Zealand, Norfolk Island with is an Australian External territory, Pitcairn which is british overseas territory, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna which is a collectivity of France,and Rotuma which is dependent on Fiji.
The Polynesian people are considered to live in the Polynesia area, and are linguistic. Meaning that they are related to each other by similar languages. This has proven to give the connection while it is still varied.