title: The Devil Wears Prada (band)

text: On September 23, 2020, the band released an episode of their podcast ("The Prada Pod") in which they discussed bassist Andy Trick's departure from the band and his replacement: former touring bassist Mason Nagy. On April 7, 2021, the name, artwork, and track listing, for a new EP, "ZII", were announced. A sequel to 2010's "Zombie", it is about hopelessness and was partially inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 23, the first single of the EP, "Termination", was released. On May 14, one week before the EP release, the band released the second single "Nightfall".


title: The Devil Wears Prada (band)

text: On September 29, the band released their first post-"ZII" single titled "Sacrifice" along with an accompanying music video. On February 3, 2022, the band unveiled the second single "Watchtower" and its corresponding music video. On June 7, the third single "Salt" was released. At the same time, they announced that their eighth studio album "Color Decay" would be released on September 16, 2022. On July 26, the band released the fourth single "Time" along with a music video. On September 13, three days before the album release, the band published the fifth and final single "Broken".


title: The Devil Wears Prada (band)

text: In their early years, the band and their works were described by some sources as metalcore and Christian metal. According to Audio Ink Radio, "by fusing the finest elements of American metal-core and European melodic metal, Dayton, Ohio's the Devil Wears Prada are living the heavy music dream: delivering metal with a slight facelift to the next generation of headbangers." The band members' beliefs, and the themes in their music, also led to their genre being described as "Christian metalcore".


title: The Devil Wears Prada (band)

text: In 2021, Sipress stated in a Reddit AMA in response to a question as to whether they still considered their music to be Christian based that, "we have not promoted the band a being Christian for a looong time. Most of us aren't Christians, but we do aim at writing music that is fun to play!".


title: The Devil Wears Prada (band)

text: Despite speculations that the band named themselves after the film of the same title, it turned out that they were formed before the film was released. They have explained that their band name is based on an anti-materialistic mindset and derived their name from the novel, "The Devil Wears Prada". At the time of naming the band, the members assumed that the novel included anti-materialism as its moral, until later discovering that the novel did not feature this as its message at all. Despite making this mistake, the band members refused to change the name and decided that they would create a new, non-materialistic definition indicating that at the Last Judgment, God will not look at people's possessions.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: Jalacy J. "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins (July 18, 1929 – February 12, 2000) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, film producer, and boxer. Famed chiefly for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of songs such as "I Put a Spell on You", he sometimes used macabre props onstage, making him an early pioneer of shock rock. He received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the 1989 indie film "Mystery Train".


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: Hawkins was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. At the age of 18 months, Hawkins was put up for adoption and shortly thereafter was adopted and raised by Blackfoot Indians. Hawkins studied classical piano as a child and learned guitar in his 20s. In a 1993 interview, Hawkins recounts telling his music tutor...to leave before I make your life miserable [...] because with the type of music I want to play. The things I want to do with music and don't want to do it the old conventional way that everybody knows. I want to come up with my own ideas. I've got all the information that I need to get from you to do what I want, now if you stick around, I'm going to make your life miserable.His initial goal was to become an opera singer (Hawkins cited Paul Robeson as his musical idol in interviews), but when his initial ambitions failed, he began his career as a conventional blues singer and pianist. Other influences included Mario Lanza, Enrico Caruso, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, Wynonie Harris, Nellie Lutcher, Roy Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Roy Milton, Elmore James, Lightnin' Hopkins and H-Bomb Ferguson.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: He joined the US Army with a forged birth certificate in 1942 (aged 13), and allegedly served in a combat role, with his fellow soldiers and higher-ups around him ignoring the fact he was substantially underage.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: During this time, he also entertained the troops as part of his service. In 1944, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces, being honorably discharged in 1952. Hawkins was an avid and formidable boxer during his years in the US Army (and later Air Force) boxing circuit. In 1949, he was the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: In 1951, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins began his career performing vocals and keyboards for Philadelphia guitarist Tiny Grimes, and was subsequently featured on some of Grimes' recordings. When Hawkins later went solo, his first single “Why Did You Waste My Time” was performed with accompaniment from Grimes’ band. In 1956, Hawkins signed with OKeh Records. When Hawkins became a solo performer, he often performed in a stylish wardrobe of leopard skins, red leather, and wild hats.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: Hawkins' most successful recording, "I Put a Spell on You" (1956), was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. According to the "AllMusic Guide to the Blues", "Hawkins originally envisioned the tune as a refined ballad." The entire band was intoxicated during a recording session where "Hawkins screamed, grunted, and gurgled his way through the tune with utter drunken abandon." The resulting performance was no ballad but instead a "raw, guttural track" that became his greatest commercial success and reportedly surpassed a million copies in sales, although it failed to make the "Billboard" pop or R&B charts.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: Although Hawkins himself blacked out and was unable to remember the session, he relearned the song from the recorded version. Meanwhile, the record label released a second version of the single, removing most of the grunts that had embellished the original performance; this was in response to complaints about the recording's overt sexuality. Nonetheless it was banned from radio in some areas. Furthermore, the recording attracted the ire of groups such as the NAACP, "which worried that his act would reflect badly on African Americans." Hawkins later credited the uproar with a boost in sales due to the perceived taboo nature of his performances.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: Soon after the release of "I Put a Spell on You", radio disc jockey Alan Freed offered Hawkins $300 to emerge from a coffin onstage. Hawkins initially declined, reportedly saying "No black dude gets in a coffin alive – they don't expect to get out!" However, he later relented and soon created an outlandish stage persona in which performances began with the coffin and included "gold and leopard-skin costumes and notable voodoo stage props, such as his smoking skull on a stick – named Henry – and rubber snakes." These props were suggestive of voodoo, but also presented with comic overtones that invited comparison to "a black Vincent Price." Despite the commercial success of the gimmick, Hawkins resented the schlock-factor that made him famous. He found it exploitative, and believed it undermined his sincerity as a vocalist and a balladeer. In a 1973 interview, he bemoaned the Screamin' epithet given to him by his label Okeh records, saying "If it were up to me, I wouldn't be Screamin’ Jay Hawkins...James Brown did an awful lot of screamin’, but never got called Screamin’ James Brown...Why can't people take me as a regular singer without making a bogeyman out of me?"


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: "I Put a Spell On You" became a classic, covered by a variety of artists such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Nina Simone, Alan Price, The Animals, Them with Van Morrison, Arthur Brown, Bryan Ferry, Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Tim Curry, Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Nick Cave, Marilyn Manson, Mica Paris, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Joss Stone, Diamanda Galas, and Annie Lennox. Hawkins' original version was featured during the show and over the credits of the 2003 "The Simpsons" episode "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can".


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: Hawkins' later releases included "Constipation Blues" (which included a spoken introduction by Hawkins in which he states he wrote the song because no one had written a blues song before about "real pain"), "Orange Colored Sky", and "Feast of the Mau Mau". Nothing he released, however, had the monumental success of "I Put a Spell on You". In Paris in 1999 and at the Taste of Chicago festival, he actually performed "Constipation Blues" with a toilet onstage.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: He continued to tour and record through the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in Europe, where he was very popular. Hawkins released a single recording of mainstream ballads in 1969, "Too Many Teardrops" and the Hawaiian styled "Makaha Waves" on the flip-side. In February 1976, he suffered facial injuries when he was burned by one of his flaming props while performing with his guitarist Mike Armando at the Virginia Theater in Alexandria, Virginia. He appeared in performance (as himself) in the Alan Freed bio-pic "American Hot Wax" in 1978. Subsequently, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch featured "I Put a Spell on You" on the soundtrack – and deep in the plot – of his film "Stranger Than Paradise" (1983) and then Hawkins himself as a hotel night clerk in his "Mystery Train" and in roles in Álex de la Iglesia's "Perdita Durango" and Bill Duke's adaptation of Chester Himes' "A Rage in Harlem".


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: In 1983, Hawkins relocated to the New York area. In 1984 and 1985, Hawkins collaborated with garage rockers the Fuzztones, resulting in "Screamin' Jay Hawkins and the Fuzztones Live" album recorded at Irving Plaza in December 1984. They performed in the 1986 movie "Joey".


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: In 1990, Hawkins performed the song "Sirens Burnin'," which was featured in the 1990 horror film "Night Angel".


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: In July 1991, Hawkins released his album "Black Music for White People". The record features covers of two Tom Waits compositions: "Heart Attack and Vine" (which, later that year, was used in a European Levi's advertisement without Waits' permission, resulting in a lawsuit), and "Ice Cream Man" (a Waits original and not a cover of the John Brim classic). Hawkins also covered the Waits song "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard", for his album "Somethin' Funny Goin' On". In 1993, his version of "Heart Attack and Vine" became his only UK hit, reaching No. 42 on the UK singles chart. In 1993, Hawkins moved to France.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: When Dread Zeppelin recorded their "disco" album, "It's Not Unusual" in 1992, producer Jah Paul Jo asked Hawkins to guest. He performed the songs "Jungle Boogie" and "Disco Inferno". He also toured with the Clash and Nick Cave during this period, and not only became a fixture of blues festivals but appeared at many film festivals as well, including the Telluride Film Festival premiere of "Mystery Train".


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: His 1957 single "Frenzy" (found on the early 1980s compilation of the same name) was included in the compilation CD, "", in 1996. This song was featured in the show's Season 2 episode "Humbug". It was also covered by the band Batmobile.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: In 2001, the Greek director and writer Nicholas Triandafyllidis made the documentary "Screamin' Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell on Me" about various stages of his life and career, including a filming of his last-ever live performance, in Athens on December 11, 1999, two months before his death, following a performance the day before in Salonica. In the documentary notable artists such as Jim Jarmusch, Bo Diddley, Eric Burdon, Frank Ash, Arthur Brown and Michael Ochs talked about Screamin' Jay Hawkins' early life, personality and career, and about his incredible talent.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: From 1962 to 1971, Hawkins lived in Hawaii. He returned to New York after purchasing a home in Hawaii and establishing his own publishing company, sustained by the royalties from covers of "I Put a Spell On You". Hawkins had six marriages; his last wife was 31 at his death. Singing partner Shoutin' Pat Newborn stabbed him in jealousy when he married Virginia Sabellona. He had three children with his first wife and claimed variously to have 57 or 75 children in total. After his death, his friend and biographer Maral Nigolian set up a website to trace these children, identifying 33, at least 12 of whom met at a 2001 reunion.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: Hawkins died after emergency surgery from an aneurysm on February 12, 2000, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, near Paris, at 70 years old.


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: Although Hawkins was not a major success as a recording artist, his highly theatrical performances from "I Put a Spell on You" onward earned him a steady career as a live performer for decades afterward, and influenced subsequent acts. He opened for Fats Domino, Tiny Grimes and the Rolling Stones. This exposure in turn influenced rock acts such as Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, the Cramps, Screaming Lord Sutch, Black Sabbath, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Arthur Brown, Led Zeppelin, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, and Glenn Danzig. Vox.com described Hawkins as a "goth icon".


title: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

text: In the 2020 retrospective documentary mini series "Red Dwarf: The First Three Million Years" Hawkins is named as one of the key influences on Danny John-Jules' character Cat.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Republic of Ragusa (; ; ; ; ) was an aristocratic maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik ("Ragusa" in Italian, German and Latin; "Raguxa" in Venetian) in South Dalmatia (today in southernmost Croatia) that carried that name from 1358 until 1808. It reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before being conquered by Napoleon's French Empire and formally annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1808. It had a population of about 30,000 people, of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls. Its motto was """", a Latin phrase which means "Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world".


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Originally named ' (Latin for "Ragusan municipality" or "community"), in the 14th century it was renamed ' (Latin for "Ragusan Republic"), first mentioned in 1385. It was nevertheless a Republic under its previous name, although its Rector was appointed by Venice rather than by Ragusa's own Major Council. In Italian it is called '; in Croatian it is called ' ().


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Slavic name "Dubrovnik" is derived from the word "", an oak grove; by a folk etymology. The name "Dubrovnik" of the Adriatic city is first recorded in the Charter of Ban Kulin (1189). It came into use alongside "Ragusa" as early as the 14th century.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Latin, Italian and Dalmatian name ' maybe derives its name from ' (from the Greek : ', "precipice"); it was later altered to ', ', ' or ' (even ', ', ' and ') and finally into '. Another theory is that the term "Ragusa" delivers from Proto-Albanian "*rāguša" meaning "berry" (compare Modern-Albanian "rrush" (meaning "grape")). The official change of name from Ragusa to Dubrovnik came into effect after World War I.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Republic ruled a compact area of southern Dalmatia – its final borders were formed by 1426 – comprising the mainland coast from Neum to the Prevlaka peninsula as well as the Pelješac peninsula and the islands of Lastovo and Mljet, as well as a number of smaller islands such as Koločep, Lopud, and Šipan.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In the 15th century the Ragusan republic also acquired the islands of Korčula, Brač and Hvar for about eight years. However they had to be given up due to the resistance of local minor aristocrats sympathizing with Venice, which was granting them some privileges.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In the 16th century the administrative units of the Republic were: the City of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), counties (Konavle, Župa dubrovačka – Breno, Slano – Ragusan Littoral, Ston, Island of Lastovo, Island of Mljet, Islands of Šipan, Lopud and Koločep) and captaincies (Cavtat, Orebić, Janjina) with local magistrates appointed by the Major Council. Lastovo and Mljet were semi-autonomous communities each having its own Statute.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: According to the "De Administrando Imperio" of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, the city was founded, probably in the 7th century, by the inhabitants of the Roman city of Epidaurum (modern Cavtat) after its destruction by the Avars and Slavs c. 615. Some of the survivors moved north to a small island near the coast where they founded a new settlement, Lausa. It has been claimed that a second raid by the Slavs in 656 resulted in the total destruction of Epidaurum. Slavs settled along the coast in the 7th century. The Slavs named their settlement "Dubrovnik". The Romans ("Latin") and Slavs had an antagonistic relationship, though by the 12th century the two settlements had merged. The channel that divided the city was filled, creating the present-day main street (the "Stradun") which became the city centre. Thus, "Dubrovnik" became the Slavic name for the united town. There are recent theories based on excavations that the city was established much earlier, at least in the 5th century and possibly during the Ancient Greek period (as per Antun Ničetić, in his book "Povijest dubrovačke luke"). The key element in this theory is the fact that ships in ancient time traveled about 45 to 50 nautical miles per day, and mariners required a sandy shore to pull their ships out of the water for the rest period during the night. An ideal combination would have a fresh water source in the vicinity. Dubrovnik had both, being halfway between the Greek settlements of Budva and Korčula, which are apart.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: During its first centuries the city was under the rule of the Byzantine Empire. The Saracens laid siege to the city in 866–867; it lasted for fifteen months and was raised due to the intervention of Byzantine Emperor who sent a fleet under Niketas Ooryphas in relief. Ooryphas' "showing of the flag" had swift results, as the Slavic tribes sent envoys to the Emperor, once more acknowledging his suzerainty. Basil dispatched officials, agents and missionaries to the region, restoring Byzantine rule over the coastal cities and regions in the form of the new theme of Dalmatia, while leaving the Slavic tribal principalities of the hinterland largely autonomous under their own rulers. The christianization of the Croats and the other Slavic tribes also began at this time. With the weakening of Byzantium, Venice began to see Ragusa as a rival that needed to be brought under its control, but an attempt to conquer the city in 948 failed. The citizens of the city attributed this to Saint Blaise, whom they adopted as their patron saint.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The city remained under Byzantine domination until 1204, with the exception of periods of Venetian (1000–1030) and later Norman (1081–1085, 1172, 1189–1190) rule. In 1050, Croatian king Stjepan I (Stephen) made a land grant along the coast that extended the boundaries of Ragusa to Zaton, north of the original city, giving the republic control of the abundant supply of fresh water that emerges from a spring at the head of the Ombla inlet. Stephen's grant also included the harbour of Gruž, which is now the commercial port for Dubrovnik.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Thus the original territory of the Ragusan municipality or community comprised the city of Ragusa, Župa dubrovačka, Gruž, Ombla, Zaton, the Elafiti islands (Šipan, Lopud and Koločep) and some smaller islands near the city.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The famous 12th century Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi mentioned Ragusa and the surrounding area. In his work, he referred to Ragusa as the southernmost city of Croatia.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In 1191, Emperor Isaac II Angelos granted the city's merchants the right to trade freely in Byzantium. Similar privileges were obtained several years earlier from Serbia (1186) and from Bosnia (1189). The Charter of Ban Kulin of Bosnia is also the first official document where the city is referred to as "Dubrovnik".


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In 1202, the Venetian Republic invaded Dalmatia with the forces of the Fourth Crusade, and Ragusa was forced to pay tribute. Ragusa began supplying Venice with products such as hides, wax, silver, and other metals. Venice used the city as its naval base in the southern Adriatic Sea. Unlike with Zadar, there was not much friction between Ragusa and Venice as the city had not yet begun to compete as an alternative carrier in the trade between East and West; in addition, the city retained most of its independence. The people, however, resented the ever-growing tribute.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In the middle of the 13th century the island of Lastovo was added to the original territory. On 22 January 1325, Serbian king Stefan Uroš III issued a document for the sale of his maritime possessions of the city of Ston and peninsula of Pelješac to Ragusa. In 1333, during the rule of Serbian king Stefan Dušan (Stefan Uroš IV, r. 1331–1355), the two possessions were handed over to Ragusa. In January 1348, the Black Death struck the city and decimated the urban population.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In 1358, the Treaty of Zadar forced Venice to yield all claims to Dalmatia. The city accepted the mild hegemony of King Louis I of Hungary. On 27 May 1358, the final agreement was reached at Visegrád between Louis and the Archbishop Ivan Saraka. The city recognized Hungarian sovereignty, but the local nobility continued to rule with little interference from the Hungarian court at Buda. The Republic profited from the suzerainty of Louis of Hungary, whose kingdom was not a naval power, and with whom they would have little conflict of interest. The last Venetian conte left, apparently in a hurry. Although under the Visegrád agreement Dubrovnik was formally under the jurisdiction of the ban of Croatia, the city successfully resisted both the royal and ban authority.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In 1399, the city acquired the area between Ragusa and Pelješac, called the "Primorje" (Dubrovačko primorje) with Slano (lat. "Terrae novae"). It was purchased from Bosnian King Stephen Ostoja. A brief war with Bosnia in 1403 and 1404 ended with Bosnian withdrawal. Between 1419 and 1426, the Konavle region, south of Astarea (Župa dubrovačka), including the city of Cavtat, was added to the Republic's possessions.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In the first half of the 15th century Cardinal Ivan Stojković ("Johannes de Carvatia") was active in Dubrovnik as a Church reformer and writer. Trading with the Bosnian kingdom was at a peak, and the largest caravan trade between Podvisoki and Ragusa would happen in 1428. That year, on 9 August, Vlachs committed to Ragusan lord Tomo Bunić, that they would deliver 600 horses with 1500 modius of salt. Delivery was meant for Dobrašin Veseoković, and Vlachs price was half of delivered salt.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In 1430 and 1442, the Republic signed short-term arrangements with the Ottoman Empire defining its status. In 1458, the Republic signed a treaty with the Ottomans which made it a tributary of the sultan. Under the treaty, the Republic owed the sultan "fidelity", "truthfulness", and "submission", and an annual tribute, which was in 1481 defined at 12,500 gold coins. The sultan guaranteed to protect Ragusa and granted them extensive trading privileges. Under the agreement, the republic retained its autonomous status and was virtually independent, and usually allied with the Maritime Republic of Ancona.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: It could enter into relations with foreign powers and make treaties with them (as long as not conflicting with Ottoman interests), and its ships sailed under its own flag. Ottoman vassalage also conferred special trade rights that extended within the Empire. Ragusa handled the Adriatic trade on behalf of the Ottomans, and its merchants received special tax exemptions and trading benefits from the Porte. It also operated colonies that enjoyed extraterritorial rights in major Ottoman cities.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Merchants from Ragusa could enter the Black Sea, which was otherwise closed to non-Ottoman shipping. They paid less in customs duties than other foreign merchants, and the city-state enjoyed diplomatic support from the Ottoman administration in trade disputes with the Venetians.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: For their part, Ottomans regarded Ragusa as a port of major importance, since most of the traffic between Florence and Bursa (an Ottoman port in northwestern Anatolia) was carried out via Ragusa. Florentine cargoes would leave the Italian ports of Pesaro, Fano or Ancona to reach Ragusa. From that point on they would take the land route Bosnasaray (Sarajevo)–Novibazar–Skopje–Plovdiv–Edirne.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: When, in the late 16th century, Ragusa placed its merchant marine at the disposal of the Spanish Empire on condition that its participation in the Spanish military ventures would not affect the interest of the Ottoman Empire; the latter tolerated the situation as the trade of Ragusa permitted the importation of goods from states with which the Ottoman Empire was at war.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Along with England, Spain and Genoa, Ragusa was one of Venice's most damaging competitors in the 15th century on all seas, even in the Adriatic. Thanks to its proximity to the plentiful oak forests of Gargano, it was able to bid cargoes away from the Venetians.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: With the Portuguese explorations which opened up new ocean routes, the spice trade no longer went through the Mediterranean. Moreover, the discovery of the Americas started a crisis of Mediterranean shipping. This was the beginning of the decline of both the Venetian and Ragusan republics.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Charles VIII of France granted trading rights to the Ragusans in 1497, and Louis XII in 1502. In the first decade of the 16th century, Ragusan consuls were sent to France while their French counterparts were sent to Ragusa. Prominent Ragusans in France included Simon de Benessa, Lovro Gigants, D. de Bonda, Ivan Cvletković, captain Ivan Florio, Petar Lukarić (Petrus de Luccari), Serafin Gozze, and Luca de Sorgo. The Ragusan aristocracy was also well represented at the Sorbonne University in Paris at this time.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The fate of Ragusa was linked to that of the Ottoman Empire. Ragusa and Venice lent technical assistance to the Ottoman–Mameluke–Zamorin alliance that was defeated by the Portuguese in the Battle of Diu in the Indian Ocean (1509).


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: On 6 April 1667, a devastating earthquake struck and killed around 2,000 citizens, and up to 1,000 in the rest of the republic, including many patricians and the Rector () Šišmundo Getaldić. The earthquake also levelled most of the city's public buildings, leaving only the outer walls intact. Buildings in the Gothic and Renaissance styles – palaces, churches and monasteries – were destroyed. Of the city's major public buildings, only the Sponza Palace and the front part of the Rector's Palace at Luža Square survived. Gradually the city was rebuilt in the more modest Baroque style. With great effort Ragusa recovered a bit, but still remained a shadow of the former Republic.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In 1677 Marin Caboga (1630–1692) and Nikola Bunić (ca. 1635–1678) arrived in Constantinople in an attempt to avert an imminent threat to Ragusa: Kara-Mustafa's pretensions for the annexation of Ragusa to the Ottoman Empire. The Grand-Vizier, struck with the capacity Marin showed in the arts of persuasion, and acquainted with his resources in active life, resolved to deprive his country of so able a diplomat, and on 13 December he was imprisoned, where he was to remain for several years. In 1683, Kara-Mustafa was killed in the attacks on Vienna, and Marin was soon free to return to Ragusa.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In 1683 the Ottomans were defeated in the Battle of Kahlenberg outside Vienna. The Field marshal of the Austrian army was Ragusan Frano Đivo Gundulić. In 1684, the emissaries renewed an agreement contracted in Visegrád in the year 1358 and accepted the sovereignty of Habsburg as Hungarian Kings over Ragusa, with an annual tax of 500 ducats. At the same time Ragusa continued to recognize the sovereignty of the Ottomans, a common arrangement at the time. This opened up greater opportunities for Ragusa ships in ports all along the Dalmatian coast, in which they anchored frequently. In the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), the Ottomans ceded all of Hungary, Transylvania, Slavonia, Dalmatia and Podolia to the victorious Habsburgs, Venetians, and Poles. After this, Venice captured a part of Ragusa's inland area and approached its borders. They presented the threat of completely surrounding and cutting off Ragusa's trade inland. In view of this danger and anticipating the defeat of the Ottomans in 1684 Ragusa sent emissaries to Emperor Leopold in Vienna, hoping that the Austrian Army would capture Bosnia. Fortunately for the Republic, the Ottomans retained control over their hinterland. With the 26 January 1699 peace agreement, the Republic of Ragusa ceded two patches of its coast to the Ottoman Empire so that the Republic of Venice would be unable to attack from land, only from the sea. One of them, the northwestern land border with the small town of Neum, is today the only outlet of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Adriatic Sea. The southeastern border village of Sutorina later became part of Montenegro, which has coastline to the south. After the treaty, Neum and Sutorina were attached to Sanjak of Herzegovina of Bosnia Eyalet. Ragusa continued its policy of strict neutrality in the War of Austrian succession (1741–48) and in the Seven Years' War (1756–63).


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: In 1783, the Ragusan Council did not answer the proposition put forward by their diplomatic representative in Paris, Frano Favi, that they should establish diplomatic relations with America, although the Americans agreed to allow Ragusan ships free passage in their ports.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The first years of the French war were prosperous for Ragusa. The flag of Saint Blaise being neutral, the Republic became one of the chief carriers of the Mediterranean. The Continental blockade was the life of Ragusa; and before the rise of Lissa the manufactures of England, excluded from the ports of France, Italy, Holland, and Germany, found their way to the centre of Europe through Saloniki and Ragusa.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Battle of Austerlitz and the consequent peace treaty, having compelled Austria to hand over Dalmatia to France, put Ragusa in a dilemma. The nearby Bay of Kotor was a Venetian frontier against the Ottomans. But while France held the land, the United Kingdom and Russia held the sea; and while French troops marched from Austerlitz to Dalmatia, eleven Russian ships of the line entered the Bay of Kotor, and landed 6,000 men, later supported by 16,000 Montenegrins under Petar I Petrović-Njegoš. As 5,000 Frenchmen under General Molitor marched southwards and peacefully took control of the fortresses of Dalmatia, the Russians pressed the senators of Ragusa to allow them to occupy the city, as it was an important fortress – thus anticipating that France might block further progress to Kotor. As there was no way from Dalmatia to Kotor but through Ragusa, General Molitor was equally ardent in trying to win Ragusa's support.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Republic was determined to maintain its strict neutrality, knowing that anything else would mean its destruction. The Senate dispatched two emissaries to Molitor to dissuade him from entering Ragusan territory. Despite his statement that he intended to respect and defend the independence of the Ragusan Republic, his words demonstrated that he had no qualms about violating the territory of a neutral nation on his way to take possession of Kotor, and he even said that he would cross the Ottoman territories of Klek and Sutorina (bordering the Republic to the north and south, respectively) without asking permission from the Ottoman Empire. To the emissaries' protestation he responded by promising to respect Ragusan neutrality and not enter its territory in exchange for a loan of 300,000 francs. It was clearly blackmail (a similar episode occurred in 1798, when a Revolutionary French fleet threatened invasion if the Republic did not pay a huge contribution). The Ragusan government instructed the emissaries to inform Molitor that the Russians told the Republic quite clearly that should any French troops enter Ragusan territory, the Russians and their Montenegrin allies would proceed to pillage and destroy every part of the Republic, and also to inform him that the Republic could neither afford to pay such an amount of money, nor could it raise such an amount from its population without the Russians being alerted, provoking an invasion. Even though the emissaries managed to persuade General Molitor not to violate Ragusan territory, Napoleon was not content with the stalemate between France and Russia concerning Ragusa and the Bay of Kotor and soon decided to order the occupation of the Republic.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Upon entering Ragusan territory and approaching the capital, the French General Jacques Lauriston demanded that his troops be allowed to rest and be provided with food and drink in the city before continuing on to Kotor. However, this was a deception because as soon as they entered the city, they proceeded to occupy it in the name of Napoleon. The next day, Lauriston demanded an impossible contribution of a million francs.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Almost immediately after the beginning of the French occupation, Russian and Montenegrin troops entered Ragusan territory and began fighting the French army, raiding and pillaging everything along the way and culminating in a siege of the occupied city (during which 3,000 cannonballs fell on the city). The environs, thick with villas, the results of a long prosperity, were plundered, including half a million sterling.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The city was in the utmost straits; General Molitor, who had advanced within a few days' march of Ragusa, made an appeal to the Dalmatians to rise and expel the Russian–Montenegrin force, which met with a feeble response. Only three hundred men joined him, but a stratagem made up for his deficiency of numbers. A letter, seemingly confidential, was dispatched to General Lauriston in Ragusa, announcing his proximate arrival to raise the siege with such a force of Dalmatians as must overwhelm the Russians and the vast Montenegrin army; which letter was, as intended by Molitor, intercepted and believed by the besieging Russians. With his force thinly scattered, to make up a show, Molitor now advanced towards Ragusa, and turning the Montenegrin position in the valley behind, threatened to surround the Russians who occupied the summit of the hill between him and the city; but seeing the risk of this, the Russians retreated back towards the Bay of Kotor, and the city was relieved. The Montenegrin army had followed the order of Admiral Dmitry Senyavin who was in charge of the Russian troops, and retreated to Cetinje.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Around the year 1800, the Republic had a highly organized network of consulates and consular offices in more than eighty cities and ports around the world. In 1808, Marshal Marmont issued a proclamation abolishing the Republic of Ragusa and amalgamating its territory into the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, himself claiming the newly created title of "Duke of Ragusa" ("Duc de Raguse"). In 1810, Ragusa, together with Dalmatia and Istria, went to the newly created French Illyrian Provinces. Later, in the 1814 Battle of Paris, Marmont abandoned Napoleon and was branded a traitor. Since he was known as the "Duke of Ragusa", the word "ragusade" was coined in French to signify treason and "raguser" meant a cheat.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Article "44" of the "1811 Decree" abolished the centuries-old institution of "fideicommissum" in inheritance law, by which the French enabled younger noblemen to participate in that part of the family inheritance, which the former law had deprived them of. According to an 1813 inventory of the Ragusan district, 451 land proprietors were registered, including ecclesiastical institutions and the commune. Although there is no evidence of the size of their estates, the nobles, undoubtedly, were in possession of most of the land. Eleven members of the Sorgo family, eight of Gozze, six of Ghetaldi, six of Pozza, four of Zamagna and three of the Saraca family were among the greatest landowners. The citizens belonging to the confraternities of St. Anthony and St. Lazarus owned considerable land outside the City.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: After seven years of French occupation, encouraged by the desertion of French soldiers after the failed invasion of Russia and the reentry of Austria in the war, all the social classes of the Ragusan people rose up in a general insurrection, led by the patricians, against the Napoleonic invaders. On 18 June 1813, together with British forces they forced the surrender of the French garrison of the island of Šipan, soon also the heavily fortified town of Ston and the island of Lopud, after which the insurrection spread throughout the mainland, starting with Konavle. They laid siege to the occupied city, helped by the British Royal Navy, who had enjoyed unopposed domination over the Adriatic sea, under the command of Captain William Hoste, with his ships HMS "Bacchante" and . Soon the population inside the city joined the insurrection. The Austrian Empire sent a force under General Todor Milutinović offering to help their Ragusan allies. However, as was soon shown, their intention was to in fact replace the French occupation of Ragusa with their own. Seducing one of the temporary governors of the Republic, Biagio Bernardo Caboga, with promises of power and influence (which were later cut short and who died in ignominy, branded as a traitor by his people), they managed to convince him that the gate to the east was to be kept closed to the Ragusan forces and to let the Austrian forces enter the City from the west, without any Ragusan soldiers, once the French garrison of 500 troops under General Joseph de Montrichard had surrendered.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Major Council of the Ragusan nobility (as the assembly of 44 patricians who had been members of the Major Council before the Republic was occupied by France) met for the last time on 18 January 1814 in the Villa Giorgi in Mokošica, Ombla, in an effort to restore the Republic of Ragusa.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: On 27 January, the French capitulation was signed in Gruž and ratified the same day. It was then that Biagio Bernardo Caboga openly sided with the Austrians, dismissing the part of the rebel army which was from Konavle. Meanwhile, Đivo Natali and his men were still waiting outside the Ploče Gates. After almost eight years of occupation, the French troops marched out of Dubrovnik on 27 and 28 January 1814. On the afternoon of 28 January 1814, the Austrian and British troops made their way into the city through the Pile Gates. With Caboga's support, General Milutinović ignored the agreement he had made with the nobility in Gruž. The events which followed can be best epitomized in the so-called flag episode.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Flag of Saint Blaise was flown alongside the Austrian and British colors, but only for two days because, on 30 January, General Milutinović ordered Mayor Sabo Giorgi to lower it. Overwhelmed by a feeling of deep patriotic pride, Giorgi, the last Rector of the Republic and a loyal francophile, refused to do so "for the masses had hoisted it". Subsequent events proved that Austria took every possible opportunity to invade the entire coast of the eastern Adriatic, from Venice to Kotor. The Austrians did everything in their power to eliminate the Ragusa issue at the Congress of Vienna. Ragusan representative Miho Bona, elected at the last meeting of the Major Council, was denied participation in the Congress, while Milutinović, prior to the final agreement of the allies, assumed complete control of the city.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Regardless of the fact that the government of the Ragusan Republic never signed any capitulation nor relinquished its sovereignty, which according to the rules of Klemens von Metternich that Austria adopted for the Vienna Congress should have meant that the Republic would be restored, the Austrian Empire managed to convince the other allies to allow it to keep the territory of the Republic. While many smaller and less significant cities and former countries were permitted an audience, that right was refused to the representative of the Ragusan Republic. All of this was in blatant contradiction to the solemn treaties that the Austrian Emperors signed with the Republic: the first on 20 August 1684, in which Leopold I promised and guaranteed inviolate liberty ("inviolatam libertatem") to the Republic, and the second in 1772, in which the Empress Maria Theresa promised protection and respect of the inviolability of the freedom and territory of the Republic.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: At the Congress of Vienna, Ragusa and the territories of the former Republic were made part of the crown land of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, ruled by the Habsburg monarchy, which became known as Austria-Hungary in 1867, which it remained a part of until 1918.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: After the fall of the Republic, most of the aristocracy died out or emigrated overseas; around one fifth of the noble families were recognized by the Habsburg Monarchy. Some of the families that were recognized and survived were the Ghetaldi-Gundula, Gozze, Kaboga, Sorgo, Zlatarić, Zamagna, Pozza, Gradi and Bona.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Republican Constitution of Ragusa was strictly aristocratic. The population was divided into three classes: nobility, citizens, and plebeians, who were mainly artisans and farmers (serfs, coloni and freemen). All effective power was concentrated in the hands of the aristocracy. The citizens were permitted to hold only minor offices, while plebeians had no voice in government. Marriage between members of different classes of the society was forbidden.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The organization of the government was based on the Venetian model: the administrative bodies were the Major Council ("Consilium maius", "Maggior Consiglio", "Velje vijeće"), the Minor Council ("Consilium minus", "Minor Consiglio", "Malo vijeće") (from 1238) and the Senate ("Consilium rogatorum", "Consiglio dei Pregadi", "Vijeće umoljenih") from 1253. The head of the state was the Rector.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Major Council consisted only of members of the aristocracy; every noble took his seat at the age of 18 (from 1332 when the council was "closed" and only male members of Ragusian noble families had seat in it – "Serrata del Maggior Consiglio Raguseo"). It was the supreme governing and legislative body which (after 1358) elected other councils, officials and the Rector.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Every year, members of the Minor Council were elected by the Major Council. Together with the Rector, the Minor Council had both executive and ceremonial functions. It consisted first of eleven members and after 1667 of seven members.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The main power was in the hands of the Senate, which had 45 members over 40 years of age, elected for one year also by the Major Council. First it had only consultative functions, later (during the 16th century) the Senate became the real government of the Republic. In the 18th century the Senate was "de facto" the highest institution of the Republic and senators became "nobles of the nobility".


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: While the Republic was under the rule of Venice (1204–1358), the duke – head of the state (Latin: "comes", Italian: "conte", Croatian: "knez") was Venetian; but after 1358 the elected Rector (from 1358 nominal head of the state was known as Latin: "rector", Italian: "rettore", Croatian: "knez") was always a person from the Republic of Ragusa chosen by the Major Council. The length of the Rector's service was only one month, and a person was eligible for reelection after two years. The rector lived and worked in the Rector's Palace.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: This organization was designed to prevent any single family from gaining absolute control, such as the Medici had done in Florence. Nevertheless, historians agree that the Giorgi and Sorgo families generally had the greatest influence (especially during the 18th century).


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Until the 15th century, judicial functions were in the hand of the Minor Council, then a separate civil court and criminal court were established, leaving the Minor Council and the Senate only supreme appellate jurisdiction. Judges of the criminal and civil court were Ragusan patricians elected annually by the Major Council.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The officials known as "provveditori" supervised the work and acts of the councils, courts, and other officials. Known as the "guardians of justice", they could suspend decisions of the Minor Council, presenting them to the Senate for final deliberation. "Provveditori" were annually elected by the Major Council among patricians above 50 years of age.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The government of the Republic was liberal in character and early showed its concern for justice and humanitarian principles, but also conservative considering government structure and social order. An inscription on the Council's offices read: "Obliti privatorum publica curate" (Manage the public affairs as if you had no private interests). The Republic's flag had the word "Libertas" (freedom) on it, and the entrance to the Saint Lawrence fortress (Lovrijenac) just outside the Ragusa city walls bears the inscription "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro" (Liberty can not be sold for all the gold of the world). The slave trade was forbidden in 1416. The Republic was a staunch opponent of the Eastern Orthodox Church and only Roman Catholics could acquire Ragusan citizenship.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The city was ruled by the aristocracy, and marriage between members of three different social classes was strictly forbidden. The Ragusan aristocracy evolved in the 12th century through the 14th century. It was finally established by statute in 1332. New families were accepted only after the earthquake in 1667.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Ragusan archives document, "Speculum Maioris Consilii Rectores", lists all the persons that were involved in the Republic's government between September 1440 and January 1808. Of 4397 rectors elected, 2764 (63%) were from "old patrician" families: Gozze, Bona, Caboga, Cerva, Ghetaldi, Giorgi, Gradi, Pozza, Saraca, Sorgo, and Zamanya. An 1802 list of the republic's governing bodies showed that six of the eight Minor Council and 15 of the 20 Major Council members were from the same 11 families.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Because of the decrease of their numbers and lack of noble families in the neighborhood (the surroundings of Dubrovnik was under Ottoman control) the aristocracy became increasingly closely related, and marriages between relatives of the third and fourth degree were frequent.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The nobility survived even when the classes were divided by internal disputes. When Marmont arrived in Dubrovnik in 1808, the nobility was divided into two blocks, the "Salamankezi" ("Salamanquinos") and the "Sorbonezi" ("Sorboneses"). These names alluded to a certain controversy arisen from the wars between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and King Francis I of France, which happened some 250 years previously. After the 1667 earthquake killed many nobles, some plebeians were introduced into the noble class. The "salamanquinos", those in favor of Spanish absolutism, did not treat these new nobles like equals; but the inclined "sorboneses", who sided with the French and to a certain liberalism, accepted them. Both sides retained their status and were seated together in the Council, but they did not maintain social relations and did not even greet each other in the streets; an inconvenient marriage between members of both groups was as striking as if it occurred between members of different classes. This social split was also reflected in the plebeians, who were divided into the rival brotherhoods of Saint Antony and Saint Lazarus, which were as unfriendly in their relations as the "salamanquinos" and "sorboneses".


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Today the coat of arms of Ragusa, in its red and blue version, can be seen in the coat of arms on the Croatian flag as it constitutes a historic part of Croatia.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The historian Nenad Vekarić used tax evidence from the Dubrovnik littoral () and a census to find that the Republic of Dubrovnik (Ragusa) had a population of nearly 90,000 by 1500. From then to 1700 the population declined: in the first half of the 16th century it had more than 50,000 inhabitants; in the second half of the 16th century, between 50,000 and 60,000; in the 1630s, about 40,000; and in 1673–74, only 26,000 inhabitants. In the second half of the 15th century, due to Turkish expansion, Dubrovnik received a large number of Christian refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, offering them the less fertile land. Numerous epidemics, the Candian War of 1645–69, the 1667 earthquake, and emigration greatly reduced the population levels. The population of the republic never again reached its previous levels.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Originally, Latin was used in official documents of the Republic. Italian came to use in the 1420s. Both languages were used in official correspondence by the Republic. The Republic was influenced by the Venetian language and the Tuscan dialect.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Population spoke the local variant of the Shtokavian dialect, the same dialect upon which modern Serbo-Croatian and its forms, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian, are all based. Old Ragusan, a variant of Dalmatian that was spoken on the Dalmatian coast following the end of the Roman Empire, with elements of old Slavic vernacular, commonly referred to as "ilirski" (Illyrian), and Italian, was among the common languages. Since it was mainly used in speech, it is poorly documented. Its use started declining in the 15th century.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The use of Serbo-Croatian in everyday speech increased in late 13th century, and in literary works in mid-15th century. At the end of the 14th century, inhabitants of the republic were mostly native speakers of Serbo-Croatian, referred to by them as "Croatian", "Slavic", or "Illyrian" at the time.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: There is still some debate over whether Shtokavian or Chakavian was the oldest Slavic vernacular in Ragusa. The oldest Slavic documents and the earlier prose was Shtokavian, while 16th-century poetry was Chakavian. The Cyrillic script in handwriting was sometimes used.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: When Ragusa was part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, between 1808 and 1810, Italian was still in official use. Serbo-Croatian was normally spoken among lower classes, Italian among the upper. Ragusans were in general bilingual, speaking Serbo-Croatian in common day-to-day duties and Italian in official occasions or mixing both.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Ragusan literature, in which Latin, Italian, and Serbo-Croatian coexisted, blossomed in the 15th and 16th centuries. According to Marcus Tanner:


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: Literary works of famous Ragusans were written in both Serbo-Croatian and Italian. Among them are the works of writers Džore Držić (Giorgio Darsa), Marin Držić (Marino Darsa), Ivan Bunić Vučić (Giovanni Serafino Bona), Ignjat Đurđević (Ignazio Giorgi), Ivan Gundulić (Giovanni Gondola), Šišmundo (Šiško) Menčetić (Sigismondo Menze), and Dinko Ranjina (Domenico Ragnina).


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The literature of Dubrovnik had a defining role in the development of modern Croatian, Dubrovnik Shtokavian dialect having been the basis for standardized Croatian. Writers from the 16th to the 19th century (before the Age of Romantic National Awakenings) that were explicit in declaring themselves as Croats and their language as Croatian included Vladislav Menčetić, Dominko (Dinko) Zlatarić, Bernardin Pavlović, Mavro Vetranović, Nikola Nalješković, Junije Palmotić, Jakov Mikalja, Joakim Stulli, Marko Bruerović, Peter Ignaz Sorgo, Antun Sorkočević (1749–1826), and Franatica Sorkočević (1706–71).


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The inhabitants of the Republic of Ragusa were Catholics and spoke the local variant of the Shtokavian dialect, the same dialect upon which modern Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian are all based. Among the modern South Slavic nations, Ragusans are mostly attributed to Croats. However, discussions on the subject of Ragusan ethnicity are mainly based on revised concepts which developed after the fall of the Republic; in particular, the time of Romantic Nationalism resulting from the French Revolution. Before this, states in general were not based on the contemporary unifying concepts such as nation, language, or ethnicity; loyalty was chiefly to family, city, and (among Catholics such as the Ragusans) the Church. Vlachs, also named Morlachs, were active within Ragusa's city walls but the majority of them were shepherds, guards, or carters living in Dalmatia.


title: Republic of Ragusa

text: The Republic of Ragusa used various currencies over time and in a variety of systems, including the artiluc, perpera, dukat and libertine.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: Gym Class Heroes was an American rap rock band from Geneva, New York. The group formed in 1997 when Travie McCoy met drummer Matt McGinley during their high school gym class. The band's music displays a wide variety of influences, including hip hop, rock, funk, and reggae. After the addition of guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and bassist Eric Roberts in 2003, the group was signed to Fueled by Ramen and Decaydance Records (Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz's independent record label), on which they released their debut album, "The Papercut Chronicles". The group gained a strong fanbase while promoting the album, appearing at festivals such as The Bamboozle and Vans Warped Tour.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: In 2006, the group released the gold-selling album "As Cruel as School Children". Since that release, the band's single "Cupid's Chokehold" peaked at number four on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in various countries, including the United Kingdom, and "Clothes Off!!" peaked within the top ten of the charts in Finland, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. On September 9, 2008, Gym Class Heroes released their third album, "The Quilt", which contained numerous collaborations with other artists. The band went on hiatus in 2009, a time in which the members pursued various side projects. McCoy released his solo debut album "Lazarus" in June 2010. Lumumba-Kasongo has been working on his side-project Soul, while McGinley now drums in the rock group Kill the Frontman. The group released "The Papercut Chronicles II" on November 15, 2011.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: MC Travie McCoy and drummer Matt McGinley became friends at their local high school in ninth grade in Geneva, New York. They officially came together in 1997. The band formed when bassist Ryan Geise and drummer Matt McGinley were performing at a party in an instrumental band with no vocals. McCoy, who was in attendance at the party, took the microphone onstage and started rapping. A week later, the group came together and started making music.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: The original group began playing college parties and BBQs, birthday parties, clubs, and festivals which eventually led to larger venues throughout the northeast, including four years on Warped Tour (2003, 2004, 2006, 2008). McCoy won MTV's Direct Effect MC Battle and as a prize, appeared in Styles P's video "Daddy Get That Cash". The group had three more releases from 1999 to 2004: "Hed Candy", "Greasy Kid Stuff", and "...For the Kids".


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: In 2003 the band recorded the album "The Papercut Chronicles" while on tour. The members were not even finished working on the album, as it caught the attention of Fall Out Boy's bassist Pete Wentz, who signed the group to his offspring Fueled By Ramen label, Decaydance Records. At this time, guitarist Milo Bonacci (who went on to form Ra Ra Riot) parted ways with the band and was replaced with current guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo (brother of the rapper Sammus), who was attending Cornell University at the time. On the first day the band began to rehearse with Lumumba-Kasongo, "Cupid's Chokehold" was written, which would become the album's first single. McGinley recalled, "We just had intentions of working him in on old songs, but we ended up jamming on this Supertramp thing for a minute and got carried away and wrote a song." The group released the four-song "Papercut Chronicles EP" before finally releasing "The Papercut Chronicles" in February 2005. After Eric Roberts replaced Ryan Geise on bass, the group toured constantly throughout 2005, appearing at the year's SXSW, The Bamboozle, and Warped Tour festivals. Music videos were filmed for the songs "Taxi Driver" and "yes".


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: In May 2006, WXSS, a radio station in Milwaukee, began playing "Cupid's Chokehold" shortly before the release of the band's second full-length album, "As Cruel as School Children". The group's manager, Scott Nagelberg stated "As more stations added it, it became undeniable: This was the chance for this band to make it happen." Although the band intended to promote a different song, "The Queen and I" as the album's lead single, the label shifted its focus to "Cupid's Chokehold". The group became frustrated with its association with the song after its scheduled performance of "The Queen and I" on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" was changed to "Cupid's Chokehold" last minute. However, McGinley later stated, "Eventually, we saw the rationale. It's a little awkward, but it's still Gym Class Heroes. At the end of the day, it's a good song we all believe in, so we're happy it's getting a lot of attention." It became the band's most successful single, peaking at number four on the ""Billboard" Hot 100". On July 25, 2006, Gym Class Heroes released "As Cruel as School Children". The record contained guest appearances by Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy and William Beckett from The Academy Is... The album marked a departure in the band's sound, with the band utilizing drum machines and synthesizers as opposed to the band's typical live instrumentation. The band also gained popularity when McCoy was featured in the Cobra Starship song "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)", which was featured on the .


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: After headlining a seven-week U.S. tour called the "Daryl Hall for President Tour '07", the group returned to the studio to record new material. The resulting material became "The Quilt", which was released on September 9, 2008. The album featured numerous collaborations with other artists, including Daryl Hall (from Hall & Oates), The-Dream, Estelle, and Busta Rhymes. Guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo said of the album, "I would definitely say that this is the most collaborative album I've played on with the band. I remember the very first day we started jamming out and working on the songs. I thought, Man, I haven't felt like this since I was in high school jamming out in a garage.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: So it's kind of cool, 'cause it was that same feeling, except we were recording for a major album." Gym Class Heroes co-headlined the 2008 Warped Tour along with Fueled by Ramen label mates Paramore. While the band was performing onstage at the festival on July 2, 2008, Travie McCoy was arrested after hitting a man on the head with his microphone. The man had been in the crowd at a concert in St. Louis when he shouted racial slurs at McCoy. McCoy asked the man, "What did you just call me?" As security was removing the man from the venue, McCoy brought the man on stage to call him out in front of the crowd. In a statement, McCoy's publicist said that the man hit McCoy's knee, which was in a brace after he had suffered a recent strain.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: Travie McCoy has pursued a solo career. In 2010, he released a hit single "Billionaire" with Bruno Mars, which has been successful since its UK release in early May 2010 and also featured in Taio Cruz's single "Higher". He released his first solo album, "Lazarus", on June 8, 2010. Lumumba-Kasongo created the side-project Soul in 2008, which he has currently been focusing on during Gym Class Heroes' break. The songs "Live a Little" and "No Place Left to Run" from "The Quilt" were originally intended to be used strictly for his side project, but McCoy heard the songs and convinced Lumumba-Kasongo to let Gym Class Heroes use the songs. McGinley has been drumming in the rock group Kill the Frontman.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: McCoy had discussed the band's new album, "The Papercut Chronicles II", "We're about 12 demos deep. All I got to say is it's definitely going back to the essence of Gym Class Heroes, which is four dudes sitting in a room, vibing off each other and making organic, dark metal." On June 9, 2011, Gym Class Heroes released a song entitled "Stereo Hearts" which features Adam Levine from Maroon 5. It was the first single to be released from "The Papercut Chronicles II". It became available for download on iTunes on June 14, 2011. It peaked at No. 4 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. On October 18, 2011, Gym Class Heroes released a song entitled "Life Goes On" which features Oh Land. It is the first and only promotional single to be released from "The Papercut Chronicles II". On October 31, the band released their second single of the album, "Ass Back Home", featuring Neon Hitch via iTunes. The third single "The Fighter" features Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic and was released on November 8, 2011, one week before the album's release on November 15. On November 20, 2011, Gym Class Heroes performed "Stereo Hearts" with Adam Levine on the American Music Awards of 2011. The video for the fourth single, "Martyrial Girls", premiered on Fueled by Ramen's YouTube channel on August 27, 2012. Following the release of the single, the group ceased activity and entered a hiatus.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: In 2018, the band returned to playing live, opening for 311 and The Offspring on their Never Ending Summer Tour. They were set to perform on the Vans Warped Tour 25th Anniversary Show in Atlantic City before abruptly breaking up again. In 2019, McCoy stated in an interview that Gym Class Heroes was still on a hiatus, with an uncertain duration.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: On October 11, 2022, When We Were Young Festival announced the band as part of the line-up for the 2023 edition of the festival, seemingly confirming the end of the band's hiatus.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: AllMusic describes them as a "unique alternative-funk-rap outfit" and also states that their sounds melds elements of rap, rock, R&B, and funk into one cohesive and melodic sound. Their sound has also been described as a mix of alternative hip hop and pop-rap. McCoy says of the band's musical style, "We've been the proverbial sore thumb our entire career. Even before we got signed to Fueled by Ramen, we were playing shows with death metal and hardcore bands and whoever would let us play with them. I wouldn't even consider us a hip-hop band. Musically, it's just all over the place." The band acknowledges '80s


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: funk-influenced R&B acts such as Prince and Ready for the World as major influences on its sound. Each member draws from different types of music for inspiration, with drummer Matt McGinley saying "there aren’t many [types of music] we agree on." McCoy cites 1970s blue-eyed soul group Hall & Oates as his biggest musical influence.


title: Gym Class Heroes

text: Guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasango is mainly influenced by rock music, citing Jimi Hendrix and Muse as an inspiration for his guitar playing. Bassist Eric Roberts incorporates elements of reggae into his playing, as well as styles influenced by metal bands such as The Dillinger Escape Plan and Meshuggah. McGinley favors funk and rock stylistics inspired by groups such as Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and 311. Additionally, the band is noted for not using samples in its music, a practice commonly used in hip-hop. McCoy states that "It’s more fun and organic in the live show. There’s definitely a lot of acts that can pull off a DJ/MC thing but then a lot that can’t. Also I guess it’s all we know." However, "As Cruel as School Children" does contain samples, with McGinley commenting, "We’ve always been a band and we never did sampling at all before but within the last couple of years we’ve embraced it more. In the songs we did with Patrick Stump we used it."


Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation is a 2004 American military science fiction horror television film directed by Phil Tippett and starring Richard Burgi, Lawrence Monoson, and Colleen Porch. It is a sequel to "Starship Troopers" (1997) and the second installment of the "Starship Troopers" franchise. The film premiered on Encore Action on April 24, 2004, and was released on DVD and VHS on June 1, 2004.


title: Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation

text: The film received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized the shift from first film's action to horror, as well as the lack of returning cast from the first film. It was followed by the direct-to-video sequel "" in 2008.


text: A squad of soldiers find themselves pinned down on a world overrun by Arachnids ("bugs"); even with their new laser gun technology and assistance from psychic soldiers, the bugs overrun them. General Jack Shepherd (Ed Lauter) makes a last stand with four of his best soldiers, allowing the majority of his surviving troops to escape - including Sergeant Dede Rake (Brenda Strong), psychic Lieutenant Pavlov Dill (Lawrence Monoson), Private Jill Sandee (Sandrine Holt), her lover Private Duff Horton (Jason-Shane Scott), Private Billie Otter (Cy Carter) and Private Lei Sahara (Colleen Porch). Despite reaching relative safety, the team is whittled down by deadly storms and arachnid ambushes. Lieutenant Dill is plagued by visions of the Arachnids annihilating humanity, hindering his efforts to lead the team, and he takes his anger out on Private Sahara, who is revealed to be a psychic that lost reliable control of her abilities during puberty.


text: The survivors take shelter at Hotel Delta 1-8-5 - an abandoned structure containing the disgraced Captain V. J. Dax (Richard Burgi), who killed his commanding officer and was sealed in a furnace as punishment. A deadly dust storm kicks up, leaving the survivors without communications or back-up for a lengthy period of time, and they protect themselves with an electric pulse fence. Dax assumes command from Dill after deeming him an incompetent leader, leaving Dill aggravated as he sees Dax as a traitor to the Federation.


text: Soon after defenses are set up, the survivors are surprised to be met by a still-living General Shepherd, accompanied by three soldiers who rescued him from his group's slaughter - the comatose private Charlie Soda (Kelly Carlson), the strange-acting technical sergeant Ari Peck (J. P. Manoux), and the medic corporal Joe Griff (Ed Quinn). With the help of the newcomers they solve their technical issues, including lack of communication, and wait for a Fleet dropship to rescue them.


text: At the base, Soda showers and seduces Horton. Heartbroken, Sandee finds a new significant other in Griff, causing tempers to flare; however, both Horton and Sandee soon act strangely, as do many other survivors. Sahara seems to have become ill, suffering nightmares and waking up vomiting; Later, she accidentally brushes Griff's hand and has a psychic vision. She goes to Rake for advice and Rake suggests that Sahara is pregnant, which can cause visions if either parent or child is psychic - as well as make girls temperamental and think that "they know it all". Eventually Sahara and Dax find themselves facing a new breed of Arachnid; a bug that infests the human body by entering through the mouth and propagating inside the brain. They go to Dill with the news and make amends with him - after which a guilt-ridden Dill confesses to the horiffic visions he suffered having driven his prior poor decisions, which has left Dill haunted by the many deaths under his command during the escape. Sahara tells Dill that she has been receiving parts of the vision as well, and Dill tells Sahara that an occasional side-effect of pregnancy can be a temporary return of the psychic abilities lost at puberty.


text: Soon after making amends, Dill finds General Shepard has also been seduced and infected by Soda with the mind-controlling bug. Dill attempts to capture Soda along with several infected soldiers to be dissected and studied but, as he rants about the horrors that await them, an infected Otter kills him with a knife that Dax had given him; the murder is blamed on Dax, his name having been inscribed on the knife prior, and he is detained.


text: After Dax is imprisoned, Rake is ambushed by the infected Horton and Otter, the latter pinning Rake down while the former infects her by forcing the control bug down her throat. Otter then attempts to infect Sahara, but is caught and takes multiple pipe shots to the head. Rake takes multiple adrenaline shots to hamper her control bug long enough to wound Sandee, kill Horton and save both Sahara and Dax; she then kills herself before the bug can take full control of her. Sahara uses her restored psychic abilities to read the mind of the Arachnid that infected Rake and discovers the bugs' plan - to use General Shepherd to infest High Command and sabotage the entire Federation from within, allowing the bugs to wipe out the human race just like in Sahara's vision. Sahara and Dax kill the rest of the infected troops, confronting the infected Shepherd on the roof just as the pulse fences fail. Shepherd is about to be rescued when Dax, dual-wielding rifles, kills him. Dax gets Sahara onto the ship, telling the bewildered crew that she holds information vital to the survival of the Federation, but refuses to get onto the ship himself saying ""Murderers don't go home!"" (referencing his past crimes) and dies in a blaze of glory while fending off the bugs.


text: One year later on Earth, Sahara - now discharged from the military - attends a recruiting seminar with her newborn infant son to speak about her experience, speaking of Dax's actions and crediting him for saving her life. Although Dax is labeled a Hero of the Federation, his death is shrouded in propaganda as the Federation replaces his actual final words with "Shed no tears for me, my glory lives forever!", hiding his disgraced past and using his end as a means of recruitment. As Sahara leaves, the recruiting officer thanks her for attending and also tells her to raise her son well, as "We need fresh meat for the grinder"; Sahara is visibly alarmed by the implications and flees the recruiting station, while the recruiter smiles callously.


text: Andy Patrizio of IGN gave the film a "mediocre" rating, writing that "Movies like this are why direct-to-video has yet to earn any respectability and is viewed as the home for bad movies".


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas, he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families and their slaves from the United States to the Tejas region in 1825.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Born in Virginia and raised in southeastern Missouri, Austin served in the Missouri territorial legislature. He moved to Arkansas Territory and later to Louisiana. His father, Moses Austin, received an empresario grant from Spain to settle Texas. After Moses Austin's death in 1821, Stephen Austin won recognition of the empresario grant from the newly independent nation of Mexico.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin attracted numerous Anglo-American settlers to move to Texas, and by 1825 Austin had brought the first 300 American families into the territory. Throughout the 1820s, Austin sought to maintain good relations with the Mexican government, and he helped suppress the Fredonian Rebellion. He also helped ensure the introduction of slavery into Texas despite the opposition of the Mexican government to the institution. (It banned it in 1837.) Austin led the initial actions against the indigenous Karankawa people in this area.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: As Texas settlers became increasingly dissatisfied with the Mexican government, Austin advocated conciliation, but the dissent against Mexico escalated into the Texas Revolution. Austin led Texas forces at the successful Siege of Béxar before serving as a commissioner to the United States. Austin ran as a candidate in the 1836 Texas presidential election but was defeated by Sam Houston, who had served as a general in the war and entered the race two weeks before the election. Houston appointed Austin as Secretary of State for the new republic, and Austin held that position until his death in December 1836.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Stephen F. Austin was born on November 3, 1793, in the mining region of southwestern Virginia. His parents were Mary Brown Austin and Moses Austin. In 1798, his family moved west to the lead-mining region of present-day Potosi, Missouri. Moses Austin received a "sitio" from the Spanish government for the mining site of "Mine à Breton", which had been established by French colonists.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: His great-great-grandfather, Anthony Austin (b. 1636), was the son of Richard Austin (b.1598 in Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England). The immigrant ancestors, Richard Austin and his wife Esther, were original settlers of Suffield, Massachusetts, which became Connecticut in 1749.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: When Austin was eleven years old, his family sent him back East to be educated, first at the preparatory school of Bacon Academy in Colchester, Connecticut. He studied at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, from which he graduated in 1810. After graduation, Austin began studying to be a lawyer, reading the law with an established firm.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: At age 21, he was elected to and served in the legislature of the Missouri Territory. There he was "influential in obtaining a charter for the struggling Bank of St. Louis". Left penniless after the Panic of 1819, Austin decided to move south to the new Arkansas Territory.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: He acquired property on the south bank of the Arkansas River, in the area that would later become Little Rock. After purchasing the property, he learned the area was being considered as the location for the new territorial capital, which could make his land worth a great deal more. He made his home in Hempstead County, Arkansas. Two weeks before the first Arkansas territorial elections in 1820, Austin declared his candidacy for Congress. His late entrance meant his name did not appear on the ballot in two of the five counties, but he still placed second in the field of six candidates. Later, he was appointed as a judge for the First Circuit Court. Over the next few months, Little Rock was designated as the territorial capital. But Austin's claim to land in the area was contested, and the courts ruled against him. The Territorial Assembly reorganized the government and abolished Austin's judgeship.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin left the territory, moving to Louisiana. He reached New Orleans in November 1820. He met and stayed with Joseph H. Hawkins, a New Orleans lawyer and former Kentucky congressman. He made arrangements to study law with him.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: During Austin's time in Arkansas, his father traveled to Spanish Texas and received an empresarial grant that would allow him to bring 300 American families to Texas. Moses Austin caught pneumonia soon after returning to Missouri. He directed that his "empresario" grant would be taken over by his son Stephen. Although Austin was reluctant to carry on his father's Texas venture, he was persuaded to do so by a letter from his mother, written two days before Moses's death.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin boarded the steamer "Beaver" and departed to New Orleans to meet Spanish officials led by Erasmo Seguín. He was at Natchitoches, Louisiana, in 1821, when he learned of his father's death. "This news has effected me very much, he was one of the most feeling and affectionate Fathers that ever lived. His faults I now say, and always have, were not of the heart."


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin led his party to travel in four weeks to San Antonio, with the intent of reauthorizing his father's grant; they arrived on August 12. While in transit, they learned Mexico had declared its independence from Spain, and Texas had become a Mexican province, rather than a Spanish territory. José Antonio Navarro, a San Antonio native with ambitious visions of the future of Texas, befriended Stephen F. Austin, and the two developed a lasting association. Navarro, proficient in Spanish and Mexican law, assisted Austin in obtaining his empresario contracts. In San Antonio, the grant was reauthorized by Governor Antonio María Martínez, who allowed Austin to explore the Gulf Coast between San Antonio and the Brazos River to find a suitable location for a colony. As guides for the party, Manuel Becerra and three Aranama Indians went with the expedition.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin advertised the Texas opportunity in New Orleans, announcing that land was available along the Brazos and Colorado rivers. A family of a husband, wife, and two children would receive at twelve and a half cents per acre. Farmers could get and ranchers . In December 1821, the first U.S. colonists crossed into the granted territory by land and sea, on the Brazos River in present-day Brazoria County.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin's plan for an American colony was thrown into turmoil by Mexico's gaining independence from Spain in 1821. Governor Martínez informed Austin that the "junta instituyente", the new rump congress of the government of Agustín de Iturbide of Mexico, refused to recognize the land grant authorized by Spain. His government intended to use a general immigration law to regulate new settlement in Mexico. Austin traveled to Mexico City, where he persuaded the "junta instituyente" to approve the grant to his father, as well as the law signed by the Mexican Emperor on January 3, 1823.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: The old imperial law offered heads of families a league and a labor of land, , and other inducements. It also provided for the employment of agents, called "empresarios", to promote immigration. As an "empresario", Austin was to receive 67,000 acres of land for each 200 families he brought to Texas. According to the law, immigrants were not required to pay fees to the government. Some of the immigrants denied Austin's right to charge them for services at the rate of 12.5 cents/acre (31 cents/ha).


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: When Emperor of Mexico Agustín de Iturbide abdicated in March 1823, the law was annulled once again. In April 1823, Austin induced the congress to grant him a contract to bring 300 families into Texas. He wanted honest, hard-working people who would make the colony a success. In 1824, the congress passed a new immigration law that allowed the individual states of Mexico to administer public lands and open them to settlement under certain conditions. In March 1825, the legislature of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas passed a law similar to the one authorized by Iturbide. The law continued the system of "empresarios", as well as granting each married man a league of land, , with the stipulation that he must pay the state $30 within six years.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin sought an area for his colonists on the land near the mouth of the Colorado River (Texas) for his colony, that could provide a good supply of clean potable water. Austin laid claim to rich tracts of land near bays and river mouths already populated by the Karankawa. The Karankawa relied on these bays for the fish and shellfish that provided their winter food sources and thus were fiercely protective of that land.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin was greeted by the native Karankawa inhabitants with the help of his Mexican scouts, they watched closely as the immigrants unloaded their goods, so that their two sloops could navigate safely up the shallows of the Colorado River. When the Karankawa noticed that only four armed men were guarding the merchandise of 300 immigrants, they made their attack, killing the guards and plundering the articles.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: On February 23, 1823 the Karankawa killed two men, named Loy and John C. Alley, and wounded another named John C. Clark. They were bringing home a canoe full of corn on the Colorado River, near the mouth of Skull Creek. Later the same evening, Robert Brotherton was riding along a trail near Skull Creek, when he was “met by the Indians, robbed of his guns and perceiving he was in danger of his life after making his escape, was wounded in the back with an arrow, very severely. A volunteer militia was organized and went to the scene of the robbery. They followed the tracks to a nearby encampment and slew nineteen of them, scalped them and plundered their camp", wrote one of the participants, John H. Moore, This event became known as the Skull Creek massacre.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin wrote that extermination of the Karankawa would be necessary, even though his first encounter with the tribe was friendly. He talked to the settlers of cannibalism and extreme violence of the Karankawa, sometimes more specifically the Carancaguases. Research has suggested that these accusations of cannibalism were false, possibly caused by confusion with another tribe, and that the Karankawa were horrified by cannibalism when they learned of it being practiced by shipwrecked Spaniards. Austin told the colonists that the Karankawa would be impossible to live among. Austin continued to encourage violence both against and between the Indian tribes, culminating in 1825 with his order for all Kawankawa to be pursued and killed on sight.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: By late 1825, Austin had brought the first 300 families to his settlement, the Austin Colony; these 300 are now known in Texas history as the Old Three Hundred. Austin had obtained further contracts to settle an additional 900 families between 1825 and 1829. He had effective civil and military authority over the settlers, but he was quick to introduce a semblance of American law – the Constitution of Coahuila y Tejas was agreed on in November 1827. Austin organized small, informal armed groups to protect the colonists, which evolved into the Texas Rangers. Despite his hopes, Austin was making little money from his endeavors; the colonists were unwilling to pay for his services as "empresario," and most of his revenues were spent on the processes of government and other public services.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: During these years, Austin, a member of Louisiana Lodge No. 111 at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, sought to establish Freemasonry in Texas. Freemasonry was well established among the educated classes of Mexican society. It had been introduced among the aristocracy loyal to the House of Bourbon, and the conservatives had total control over the Order. By 1827, Americans living in Mexico City had introduced the United States York Rite of Freemasonry as a liberal alternative to the established European-style Scottish Rite. On February 11, 1828, Austin called a meeting of Freemasons at San Felipe to elect officers and to petition the Masonic Grand Lodge in Mexico City for a charter to form a lodge. Austin was elected Worshipful Master of the new lodge. Although the petition reached Matamoros and was to be forwarded to Mexico City, nothing more was heard of it. By 1828, the ruling faction in Mexico was afraid the liberal elements in Texas might try to gain their independence. Fully aware of the political philosophies of American Freemasons, the Mexican government outlawed Freemasonry on October 25, 1828. In 1829, Austin called another meeting, where it was decided that it was "impolitic and imprudent, at this time, to form Masonic lodges in Texas".


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: He was active in promoting trade and currying the good favor of the Mexican authorities, aiding them in the suppression of the Fredonian Rebellion of Haden Edwards. Some historians consider the Fredonian Rebellion to be the beginning of the Texas Revolution. Although "premature ...  the Fredonian Rebellion sparked the powder for later success." For this event, Austin raised troops to fight with Mexican troops against the Texas rebels. With the colonists numbering more than 11,000 by 1832, they were becoming less amenable to Austin's cautious leadership, and also, the Mexican government was becoming less cooperative. It was concerned with the growth of the colony and the efforts of the U.S. government to buy the state from them. The Mexican government had attempted to stop further U.S. immigration as early as April 1830, but Austin's skills gained an exemption for his colonies. He granted land to immigrants based on to the husband, 320 to the wife, 160 for every child, and 80 for every slave.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Slavery was a very important issue to Austin, one he called "of great interest" to him. Austin was a periodical slaveowner throughout his life; however, he had conflicting views about it. Theoretically, he believed slavery was wrong and went against the American ideal of liberty. In practice, however, he agreed with the social, economic, and political justifications of it, and worked hard to defend and expand it. Despite his defense of it, he also harbored concerns that the long-term effects of slavery would destroy American society. He grew particularly concerned following Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831, stating:


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: While Austin thought it would be advantageous some day for Texas to phase out of slavery, up until the Texas Revolution he worked to ensure that his colony's immigrants could bypass the Mexican government's resistance to it. Doing so ensured the population growth and economic development of his colony, which was primarily dependent on the monocropping of cotton and sugar. In August 1825, he recommended that the state government allow immigrants to bring their slaves with them through 1840, with the caveat that female grandchildren of the slaves would be freed by age 15 and males by age 25. His recommendation was rejected.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: In 1826, when a state committee proposed abolishing slavery outright, 25 percent of the people in Austin's colony were slaves. Austin's colonists, mostly pro-slavery immigrants from the south, threatened to leave Texas if the proposition passed, while prospective Southern immigrants hesitated to come to Texas until slavery was guaranteed there. Austin conceded that the success of his colony was dependent on slavery. Without slaves, the colonists would lack the mass labor to cultivate the land, which would stall the pace of immigration needed to develop and increase the value of the land, and would deflate the economy and motivate his colonists to leave.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Austin went before the legislature and pleaded that, at the least, his original 300 families should be allowed to keep their slaves. He argued against the "bad faith" of freeing them, demanded reparations to slaveowners for every slave emancipated by the state, warned that the loss of slaves could leave some colonists destitute, and reasoned that freeing them would not only leave his settlers alone in the harsh Texas environment, but would also expose them to the discomfort and nuisance of living amongst freed slaves, who would become vagrants seeking retribution upon their former owners. While he waited for the legislature's verdict of his request, Austin went into a deep depression over the issue and sent his brother, Brown Austin, to further lobby the legislature on his behalf.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: In March 1827, the legislature signed Article 13 into law. Despite the law complying with some of his requests, Austin called it "unconstitutional". He contested the law as it freed the children of slaves at birth, established a six-month grace period before fully emancipating all slaves in the state, and included provisions to improve the conditions of slaves and transitioning freedmen. Austin –– who had been so effective in persuading the legislature, however, that the author of Article 13 (before its passage) requested to withdraw it –– helped his colonists evade the law by advising them to legally supplant the word "slave" with the words "workingmen," "family servants," and "laborers," and by working to pass a decree that banned freedmen from Texas and forced emancipated slaves to work for their former slaveowners until the accrued "debt" (e.g. clothing, food), incurred for their own enslavement, was worked off.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: In 1828, Austin petitioned the legislature to guarantee that slaveowners, immigrating to Texas, could legally "free" their slaves before immigrating, and contract them into a lifetime term of indentured servitude, thereby avoiding recognizing them as slaves. He lobbied to help his colony elude president Vicente Guerrero's 1829 decree to legally emancipate slaves in the province, and to bypass the government's effort to prohibit slavery when it passed the Law of April 6, 1830.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: In 1829, John Durst, a prominent landowner and politician, wrote about the president's emancipation of slaves, “We are ruined forever should this measure be adopted” . Stephen F. Austin replied,


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: In 1830, Austin wrote that he would oppose Texas joining the United States without guarantees that he should "insist on the perpetual exclusion of slavery from this state [Texas]". In 1833, he wrote:


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: In May 1835, Austin's colonists learned that Mexico's tolerance for the evasions of slaveowners was drawing to a close, with its proposal of new abolition legislation. Alarmed, and with Austin imprisoned in Mexico for pushing for independence, colonists turned against the Mexican government, calling it "oppressive" and a "plundering, robbing, autocratical government" without regard for the security of "life, liberty or property". Resisting the impact a changed slavery policy would have on economic growth, and fearing rumors of Mexico's plan to free the slaves and turn them loose upon the colonists, shortly after Austin returned from Mexico, he and his colonists took up arms against the Mexican government. Austin later gained U.S. Government support for his revolution when he wrote to Senator Lewis F. Linn and pleaded that Santa Anna planned to "exterminate" all of the colonists and fill Texas "with Indians and negroes [freed slaves]".


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Immigration controls and the introduction of tariff laws had done much to dissatisfy the colonists, peaking in the Anahuac Disturbances. Austin became involved in Mexican politics, supporting the upstart Antonio López de Santa Anna. Following the success of Santa Anna, the colonists sought a compensatory reward, proclaimed at the Convention of 1832—resumption of immigration, tariff exemption, separation from Coahuila, and a new state government for Texas. Austin did not support these demands; he considered them ill-timed and tried to moderate them. When they were repeated and extended at the Convention of 1833, Austin traveled to Mexico City on July 18, 1833, and met with Vice President Valentín Gomez Farías. Austin did gain certain important reforms; the immigration ban was lifted, but a separate state government was not authorized. Statehood in Mexico required a population of 80,000, and Texas had only 30,000.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: Believing that he was pushing for Texas independence and suspect that he was trying to incite insurrection, Austin was arrested by the Mexican government in January 1834 in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. He was taken to Mexico City and imprisoned. No charges were filed against him as no court would take jurisdiction. He was moved from prison to prison. He was released under bond in December 1834 and required to stay in the Federal District. He was fully freed under the general amnesty in July 1835 and in August 1835 left Mexico to return to Texas via New Orleans.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: In his absence, several events propelled the colonists toward confrontation with Santa Anna's centralist government. Austin took temporary command of the Texian forces during the Siege of Béxar from October 12 to December 11, 1835. After learning of the Disturbances at Anahuac and Velasco in the summer of 1835, an enraged Santa Anna made rapid preparations for the Mexican army to sweep Anglo settlers from Texas. War began in October 1835 at Gonzales. The Republic of Texas, created by a new constitution on March 2, 1836, won independence following a string of defeats with the dramatic turnabout victory at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, and the capture of Santa Anna the following morning. He was then imprisoned.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: In December 1835, Austin, Branch Archer, and William H. Wharton were appointed commissioners to the U.S. by the provisional government of the republic. On June 10, 1836, Austin was in New Orleans, where he received word of Santa Anna's defeat by Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto. Austin returned to Texas to rest at Peach Point in August. On August 4, he announced his candidacy for president of Texas. Austin felt confident he could win the election until two weeks before the election, when on August 20, Houston entered the race. Austin wrote, "Many of the old settlers who are too blind to see or understand their interest will vote for him." Houston carried East Texas, the Red River region, and most of the soldiers' votes. Austin received 587 votes to Sam Houston's 5,119 and Henry Smith's 743 votes. Houston appointed Austin as the first secretary of state of the new republic; however, Austin only served approximately two months before his death.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: In December 1836, Austin was in the new capital of Columbia (now known as West Columbia) where he caught a severe cold; his condition worsened. Doctors were called in but could not help him. Austin died of pneumonia at noon on December 27, 1836. He was at the home of George B. McKinstry, near what is now West Columbia, Texas. He was 43. Austin's last words were "The independence of Texas is recognized! Don't you see it in the papers?..." Upon hearing of Austin's death, Houston ordered an official statement proclaiming: "The Father of Texas is no more; the first pioneer of the wilderness has departed." Originally, Austin was buried at Gulf Prairie Cemetery in Brazoria County, Texas. In 1910 Austin's body was reinterred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. Austin never married, nor did he have any children. He bequeathed all his land, titles, and possessions, to his married sister, Emily Austin Perry.


title: Stephen F. Austin

text: While Stephen F. Austin and his sister Emily have each been the subject of biography, they are descended from several generations of noteworthy people, including: Moses Austin (father—biography published by Trinity University Press), Abia Brown (grandfather), Joseph Sharp (great grandfather), Isaac Sharp (great, great grandfather), Anthony Sharp (great, great, great grandfather—biography published by Stanford University Press). Accordingly, history records noteworthy social contributions in each generation of Stephen's family dating back to the early seventeenth century. Richard Austin, a native of Titchfield, Hampshire was his paternal emigrant ancestor.


title: Colmar

text: Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is the seat of the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin department and of the subprefecture of the Colmar-Ribeauvillé arrondissement.


title: Colmar

text: The city is renowned for its well-preserved old town, its numerous architectural landmarks, and its museums, among which is the Unterlinden Museum, which houses the "Isenheim Altarpiece".