The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of

witchcraft, which was considered to be of “satanic nature” at the time. Those who were accused of
witchcraft had two choices, to plead guilty and spend life imprisoned, or to claim innocence and be put to
death.

From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft,
were taken to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. All executions were done in
public. An elderly man, who was over eighty years old, had heavy stones stacked onto his body, until was
pressed to death for refusing to succumb to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced
accusations of witchcraft. Dozens languished in jail for months without trials. Then, almost as soon as it
had begun, the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts ended.

Salem Village faced daily challenges closer to home as well. Most families had to support themselves,
making their own clothes, planting vegetables, raising livestock such as pigs, cows and chickens. Farming
was generally a terrible task, as the townspeople had to work in the harsh climate. The weather was hot
and the land was rough and rocky terrain. Droughts and floods were constantly occurring during this time
and were unpredictable. A single drought or flood could ruin a year’s harvest. An epidemic of smallpox
could kill a family. In a world where people saw the Devil lurking behind every misfortune, it is little
wonder they believed evil spirits were at work.

Communism is a political and economic system in which citizens share property and wealth based on
need, as everything is owned by the government. Private ownership does not exist. Communism became
a political system in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when Karl Marx spoke out about
communistic concepts. Communism was further developed and implemented by Vladimir Lenin and
Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, and after World War II, began to spread to countries such as East
Germany, China, and Poland.

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for
profit. It means civilians (as opposed to government) own property and therefore run the economy.
Through capitalism, profit is received by controlling the tools of production, by the capitalists – those
who provide the capital. Wages are received by those who sell their labor with those tools, i.e. the
workers. Today the capitalist system is the world's most dominant form of economic model.

The difference between capitalism and communism is that Capitalism means private ownership. Any
person (with sufficient amount of money to start with) can start a business and run it however they
choose and keep the profit or deal with the loss.
Communism means common ownership. Communism is when the state (which represents the people)
owns everything the people use. The state decides when and where a particular type of business is
needed, builds the store, hires the people and takes the profit or the loss. In a true communist state, no
one owns anything except for small, personal possessions. The state owns the houses they live in, even
the furniture in the house.

Positives of communism;
• Nobody goes without necessities - food and shelter are provided.
• All citizens are treated equally.
• Medical care and dental care are provided.
• All education is free.

Negatives of communism;
• People who want to exert their own initiative, (eg. Starting a business) would have no reason to,
as the government already owns everything.

Positives of Capitalism
• Encourages competition.
• Growth and rewards to those who work harder than others
• Market is decided by the consumer.

Negatives of Capitalism
• Huge gap in social classes.
• Does not offer a safety net for those who do not succeed financially.

The Cold War was a period of pressure and hostility, as it was a conflict between the United States (US)
and the Soviet Union (USSR) for dominance over the world. The countries competed in many different
ways. Rather than engaging in a potentially devastating out and out war, the countries involved in the
Cold War jockeyed for position in more subtle ways. It lasted from 1945 to 1991, and was mainly a
contest between Communism and Anti-Communism.
The western countries thought that communism was a risky idea. At this time, Russia had control of the
majority of Eastern Europe, but the Allies and the United States in particular hoped to prevent the spread
of Communism through repression. This was done by regions which bordered Communist countries, which
sent spies across the borders to gather information about Communist governments. In addition, both
Communists and Westerners engaged in wars on other ground, such as in Korea and Vietnam, in an
attempt to gain the upper hand.

Russia and allied nations such as China, wanted to protect themselves and the Communist nations that
they were allied with. The division between Communist Eastern Europe and the West was often referred
to as the “Iron Curtain,” due to the difficulty in crossing it, thanks to Communist officials trying to keep
citizens in and Westerners out. Communist nations competed with the West economically, scientifically,
and technologically in an attempt to establish superiority. The Cold War led the Space Race which landed
Americans on the moon in 1969, and it also led to nuclear proliferation, as a growing number of countries
grew concerned for their safety.