title: Gay icon

text: Lady Gaga, who herself is bisexual, fought as an LGBT rights activist from the beginning of her career and has a large LGBT following. She is often referred as one of the biggest contemporary gay icons and fought against LGBT-related phobias, for marriage and adoption equality, the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell law, the protection of transgender people.


title: Gay icon

text: "Out" described Katy Perry as a gay icon. Perry dedicated the music video for Firework to the It Gets Better Project. Perry was additionally awarded the National Equality Award by the Human Rights Campaign.


title: Gay icon

text: Late singer and actress Judy Garland was immensely popular among gay men due to her camp sensibilities, and is considered "the quintessential pre-Stonewall gay icon".


title: Gay icon

text: In the 1950s, the phrase "friend of Dorothy" became used as a slang term for homosexuals. This term is attributed both to well-known author and fellow gay icon Dorothy Parker, and to Garland's prominent role as Dorothy Gale in "The Wizard of Oz".


title: Gay icon

text: Highly regarded by the LGBT community due to her work with gay men suffering from AIDS, Diana, Princess of Wales, is considered to be a gay icon. The hardships she faced during her life within the British royal family and her struggles with bulimia have been cited as factors to which members of the LGBT community can mostly connect. Writing for "Them", David Levesley described Diana as "a symbol of the familial oppression many queer people know all too well," and added that "[queer people] admire her for how long she lasted in the face of a shitty situation. Is there anything more queer than a fabulous woman trapped in a bleak household?" James Greig from "Vice" also held a similar viewpoint, stating that "her status as a tragic diva aside, it's undeniable that Diana made real, material changes to the lives of LGBT people – particularly through the work she did around AIDS." In an article for "Newsweek", Desmond O'Connor wrote that Diana's work with dying HIV+ gay men was crucial for reminding "the people of Great Britain that their 'untouchable' sons deserved to be loved."


title: Gay icon

text: In 2009, a panel including Sir Ian McKellen and Alan Hollinghurst chose Diana's portrait to be shown in the Gay Icons exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In October 2017, the "Attitude" magazine honoured Diana with its Legacy Award for her HIV/AIDS work. Prince Harry accepted the award on behalf of his mother.


title: Gay icon

text: Montero Lamar Hill, better known by his stage name Lil Nas X, is an up-and-coming American rapper and singer who is seen as a gay icon. After having publicly come out of the closet June 2019, he is considered "a proud proponent of the 'gay agenda.'" Not only was he named one of GQ's Men of the Year in 2021.


title: Gay icon

text: Sir Elton Hercules John, famously known as Elton John, is perhaps one of the most famous, publicly queer musicians of all time. During 1976, he announced publicly that he was bisexual and remained open about his sexuality to present day, happily married to his husband David Furnish since 2014. Aside from his musical career, he is also the founder of the Elton John AIDS Foundation which was created to give support and aide to those in need as well as to "prevent infections, fight stigma and provide treatment with love, compassion and dignity for the most vulnerable groups affected by HIV around the world".


title: Gay icon

text: Lea Salonga is a Filipina singer, actress, and columnist who rose to international recognition for originating the role of Kim in the original West End and Broadway productions of "Miss Saigon" and becoming the first Asian actress to win a Tony Award. She has actively supported the LGBT community for many years. In 2011, "The Advocate" called her a "major gay icon" for being "very vocal in her support for LGBT equality, both here and in her native Philippines."


title: Gay icon

text: The song "Reflection," which she sang in Disney's "Mulan" (1998), has become viewed as an anthem for queer audiences. On October 12, 2009, during a benefit concert held at The Philippine Center's Kalayaan Hall for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy, Salonga referenced the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. and stated, "I believe that every single human being has the fundamental right to marry whoever they want."


title: Gay icon

text: Since his creation, He-Man's homoeroticism, implied homosexuality, and adherence to multiple gay stereotypes has resulted in the character and show drawing a queer audience when the cartoon first aired, with the character being viewed as a gay icon.


title: Gay icon

text: Multiple characters and celebrities have been hailed as gay icons through tongue-in-cheek internet memes. Several of these characters have been leading antagonists from horror films, such as Ma, Annabelle, The Babadook, Megan and Pennywise.


title: Gay icon

text: Many celebrities have responded positively to being regarded as gay icons, several noting the loyalty of their gay fans. Eartha Kitt and Cher have credited gay fans with keeping them going at times when their careers had faltered.


title: Gay icon

text: Kylie Minogue has acknowledged the perception of herself as a gay icon and has performed at such events as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Asked to explain the reason for her large gay fanbase, Minogue replied, "It's always difficult for me to give the definitive answer because I don't have it. My gay audience has been with me from the beginning ... they kind of adopted me." She noted that she differed from many gay icons who were seen as tragic figures, with the comment, "I've had a lot of tragic hairdos and outfits. I think that makes up for it!"


title: Gay icon

text: Lady Gaga has acknowledged and credited her gay following for launching then supporting her career stating, among other examples, "When I started in the mainstream it was the gays that lifted me up", and that "because of the gay community I'm where I am today." As a way to thank her gay audience for allowing her to perform her first album in gay clubs before she was invited to perform at straight ones, she often debuted her new albums at gay clubs. Along her career, she also dedicated a "MuchMusic Video Award" win, as well as her "Alejandro" music video, to gay people, frequently praised her gay entourage for the positive impact they had on her life and often gave a place to different queer crowds in her songs, performances, music videos as well as in the visuals of her make up line. Lady Gaga is known for her fights as an LGBT activist and attended numerous LGBT events such as Prides and Stonewall day.


title: Gay icon

text: Madonna has acknowledged and embraced her gay following throughout her career, even making several references to the gay community in her songs or performances, and performed at several gay clubs. She has declared in interviews that some of her best friends are gay and that she adores gay people and refers to herself as "the biggest gay icon of all times." She also has been quoted in television interviews in the early 1990s as declaring the "big problem in America at the time was homophobia."


title: Gay icon

text: Geri Halliwell has consistently acknowledged and accepted her status as a gay icon throughout her career as both a solo artist and member of the Spice Girls, describing a "kinship" with the gay community and her love and respect for her LGBTQ fans.


title: Gay icon

text: In August 2020, Lea Salonga responded to her gay icon tag, saying, "I’m not actually sure how I am." In the same interview, she continued, "Is it that I stand up for gay rights? Is it that I have siblings, cousins who are also members of the LGBT community?" She has also acknowledged the LGBT presence in musical theatre and stated that she has worked closely with members of the LGBT community for her entire career. In September 2022, after playing the role of queer mom Elodie Honrada on HBO Max's "", she told "The Advocate Channel" that "if there is someone for whom this really resonates, and see these characters and go 'Oh my gosh, that's me, and I'm not treated as a joke,' it's great."


title: Matchlock

text: A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Before the invention of the matchlock mechanism, the musketeer or an assistant had to apply the match directly to gunpowder by hand, much like a cannon. The matchlock mechanism allowed the musketeer to apply the match himself without losing his concentration.


title: Matchlock

text: The classic matchlock gun held a burning slow match in a clamp at the end of a small curved lever known as the "serpentine". Upon the pull of a lever (or in later models a trigger) protruding from the bottom of the gun and connected to the serpentine, the clamp dropped down, lowering the smoldering match into the flash pan and igniting the priming powder. The flash from the primer traveled through the touch hole, igniting the main charge of propellant in the gun barrel. On the release of the lever or trigger, the spring-loaded serpentine would move in reverse to clear the pan. For obvious safety reasons, the match would be removed before reloading of the gun. Both ends of the match were usually kept alight in case one end should be accidentally extinguished.


title: Matchlock

text: Earlier types had only an "S"-shaped serpentine pinned to the stock either behind or in front of the flash pan (the so-called "serpentine lock"), one end of which was manipulated to bring the match into the pan.


title: Matchlock

text: Most matchlock mechanisms mounted the serpentine forward of the flash pan. The serpentine dipped backward, toward the firer, to ignite the priming. This is the reverse of the familiar forward-dipping hammer of the flintlock and later firearms.


title: Matchlock

text: A later addition to the gun was the rifled barrel. This made the gun much more accurate at longer distances but did have drawbacks, the main one being that it took much longer to reload because the bullet had to be pounded down into the barrel.


title: Matchlock

text: A type of matchlock was developed called the snap matchlock, in which the serpentine was brought to firing position by a weak spring, and activated by pressing a button, pulling a trigger, or even pulling a short string passing into the mechanism. As the match was often extinguished after its collision with the flash pan, this type was not used by soldiers but was often used in fine target weapons where the precision of the shot was more important than the repetition.


title: Matchlock

text: An inherent weakness of the matchlock was the necessity of keeping the match constantly lit. This was chiefly a problem in wet weather, when damp match cord was difficult to light and to keep burning. Another drawback was the burning match itself. At night, the match would glow in the darkness, possibly revealing the carrier's position. The distinctive smell of burning match-cord was also a giveaway of a musketeer's position (this was used as a plot device by Akira Kurosawa in his movie "Seven Samurai"). It was also quite dangerous when soldiers were carelessly handling large quantities of gunpowder (for example, while refilling their powder horns) with lit matches present. This was one reason why soldiers in charge of transporting and guarding ammunition were amongst the first to be issued self-igniting guns like the wheellock and snaphance.


title: Matchlock

text: The matchlock was also uneconomical to keep ready for long periods of time. To maintain a single sentry on night guard duty with a matchlock, keeping both ends of his match lit, required a mile of match per year.


title: Matchlock

text: The earliest form of matchlock in Europe appeared by 1411 and in the Ottoman Empire by 1425. This early arquebus was a hand cannon with a serpentine lever to hold matches. However this early arquebus did not have the matchlock mechanism traditionally associated with the weapon. The exact dating of the matchlock addition is disputed. The first references to the use of what may have been matchlock arquebuses ("tüfek") by the Janissary corps of the Ottoman army date them from 1394 to 1465. However it is unclear whether these were arquebuses or small cannons as late as 1444, but according to Gábor Ágoston the fact that they were listed separately from cannons in mid-15th century inventories suggest they were handheld firearms, though he admits this is disputable. Godfrey Goodwin dates the first use of the matchlock arquebus by the Janissaries to no earlier than 1465. The idea of a serpentine later appeared in an Austrian manuscript dated to the mid-15th century. The first dated illustration of a matchlock mechanism dates to 1475, and by the 16th century they were universally used. During this time the latest tactic in using the matchlock was to line up and send off a volley of musket balls at the enemy. This volley would be much more effective than single soldiers trying to hit individual targets.


title: Matchlock

text: Robert Elgood theorizes the armies of the Italian states used the arquebus in the 15th century, but this may be a type of hand cannon, not matchlocks with trigger mechanism. He agreed that the matchlock first appeared in Western Europe during the 1470s in Germany. Improved versions of the Ottoman arquebus were transported to India by Babur in 1526.


title: Matchlock

text: The matchlock was claimed to have been introduced to China by the Portuguese. The Chinese obtained the matchlock arquebus technology from the Portuguese in the 16th century and matchlock firearms were used by the Chinese into the 19th century. The Chinese used the term "bird-gun" to refer to muskets and Turkish muskets may have reached China before Portuguese ones.


title: Matchlock

text: In Japan, the first documented introduction of the matchlock, which became known as the "tanegashima", was through the Portuguese in 1543. The "tanegashima" seems to have been based on "snap matchlocks" that were produced in the armory of Goa in Portuguese India, which was captured by the Portuguese in 1510. While the Japanese were technically able to produce tempered steel (e.g. sword blades), they preferred to use work-hardened brass springs in their matchlocks. The name "tanegashima" came from the island where a Chinese junk (a type of ship) with Portuguese adventurers on board was driven to anchor by a storm. The lord of the Japanese island Tanegashima Tokitaka (1528–1579) purchased two matchlock rifles from the Portuguese and put a swordsmith to work copying the matchlock barrel and firing mechanism. Within a few years, the use of the "tanegashima" in battle forever changed the way war was fought in Japan.


title: Matchlock

text: Despite the appearance of more advanced ignition systems, such as that of the wheellock and the snaphance, the low cost of production, simplicity, and high availability of the matchlock kept it in use in European armies until about 1720. It was eventually completely replaced by the flintlock as the foot soldier's main armament.


title: Matchlock

text: In Japan, matchlocks continued to see military use up to the mid-19th century. In China, matchlock guns were still being used by imperial army soldiers in the middle decades of the 19th century.


title: Matchlock

text: There is evidence that matchlock rifles may have been in use among some peoples in Christian Abyssinia in the late Middle Ages. Although modern rifles were imported into Ethiopia during the 19th century, contemporary British historians noted that, along with slingshots, matchlock rifle weapons were used by the elderly for self-defense and by the militaries of the Ras.


title: Matchlock

text: Under Qing rule, the Hakka on Taiwan owned matchlock muskets. Han people traded and sold matchlock muskets to the Taiwanese aborigines. During the Sino-French War, the Hakka and Aboriginals used their matchlock muskets against the French in the Keelung Campaign and Battle of Tamsui. The Hakka used their matchlock muskets to resist the Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1895) and Han Taiwanese and Aboriginals conducted an insurgency against Japanese rule.


title: Matchlock

text: Tibetans have used matchlocks from as early as the sixteenth century until very recently. The early 20th century explorer Sven Hedin also encountered Tibetan tribesmen on horseback armed with matchlock rifles along the Tibetan border with Xinjiang. Tibetan nomad fighters used arquebuses for warfare during the Chinese invasion of Tibet as late as the second half of the 20th century—and Tibetan nomads reportedly still use matchlock rifles to hunt wolves and other predatory animals. These matchlock arquebuses typically feature a long, sharpened retractable forked stand.


title: Matchlock

text: A Spanish matchlock, purchased in Holland, plays an important role in Walter D. Edmonds' Newbery Award-winning children's novel "The Matchlock Gun".


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: On Your Wedding Day () is a 2018 South Korean romantic comedy film that depicts the ten-year love and friendship of two people from teenage to adulthood. It was written and directed by Lee Seok-geun, and stars Park Bo-young and Kim Young-kwang. The film was released on August 22, 2018.


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: A man receives a wedding invitation from his first love whom he met in high school. He reminisces all the trouble he went through to get together with her over the span of years beginning from youth, and how they had ups and downs in their life together. He finally goes to her wedding, and thanks her for being the shining star in his life and she thanks him for his support in need. He then walks away from her wedding function.


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: "The Korea Herald" described the film as a "funny, cute, lighthearted, and leaving you reminiscent of how it used to be when you were younger", and that it "created likeable characters... everyone in the movie perfectly fits his or her part."


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: William Schwartz from "HanCinema" commented that it is "an all-around excellent movie", and wrote that the film "chronicles their love story through 2005 and 2007 and 2012, before finally ending on a twist in 2018. It is a marathon. Any of the four different eras could be a fully-fledged movie on its own. They all have strong, engaging story-lines."


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: Local online entertainment media "TV Report" remarked that "On Your Wedding Day" is "emerging as the dark horse of theater's summer season." It reported that the film attracts audience in all ages—teenagers, 20s, 30s and middle-age—as it depicts a chronicle of real first love; showed realistic stories and various emotions in the changing environment; and sympathized with the memories of youth.


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: Online magazine "Cosmopolitan Philippines" commented that the film "served important life and love lessons without being too cheesy or unrealistic." The reviewer also praised the lead stars' acting performance and their on-screen chemistry.


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: The film premiered in South Korean cinemas on August 22, 2018. It attracted 99,318 moviegoers on its opening day and finished first place with gross, slightly higher than "The Witness" which finished in second place. It topped the box office during its first weekend with 30% revenue share, by attracting 694,237 moviegoers and grossing . After topping the box office for six consecutive days, the film reached 1 million admissions on August 27, 2018. On August 31, it reached its break-even point with 1.5 million of admissions, as result of a strong ten days box office performance.


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: During its second weekend, it remained on the top of the box office by having 568,267 attendance with gross, 18.6% lower gross compared to its debut weekend. On September 3, 2018, it surpassed 2 million cumulative admissions. After a two weeks strong performance, the film fell to second place during its third weekend with gross from 321,342 attendance, tailing "Searching". On September 12, 2018, the film reached 2.6 million views and became the most watched romance film in South Korea in 2018, surpassing "Be with You".


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: Chinese remake of the film titled "My Love" was released on April 30, 2021. It is directed and co-written by Han Tian, and stars Greg Hsu and Zhang Ruonan.


title: On Your Wedding Day

text: On June 23, 2021, it was announced that "On Your Wedding Day" will be adapted into a webtoon. It will be serialized on webtoon platforms such as Naver and Kakao.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Mad Max is an action-adventure video game based on the "Mad Max" franchise. Developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, it was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2015. Feral Interactive published the game's macOS and Linux versions. In the game, players control Max Rockatansky as he progresses through the wasteland building a vehicle, the "Magnum Opus", to do battle with a gang of raiders, led by Scabrous Scrotus, and to reach the storied "Plains of Silence", where he hopes to find peace. "Mad Max" emphasizes vehicular combat, in which players can use weapon and armor upgrades on their car to fight enemies. It is set in an open post-apocalyptic wasteland consisting of deserts, canyons, and caves.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Two other "Mad Max" games, developed by Cory Barlog and Interplay Entertainment respectively, were in production before the announcement of this game, but neither of them were successfully released. Although "Mad Max" is not based on the film series, it was inspired by its universe, and franchise creator George Miller was consulted during the game's pre-production. Avalanche Studios found developing a vehicular-combat video game a challenge because of their inexperience with creating that type of game. Announced at E3 2013, the game was re-tooled during development and the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were canceled.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Originally planned for release in 2014, it was released in September the following year, several months after the theatrical release of "", the fourth film in the series. "Mad Max" received overall mixed reviews from critics. Although the game's environment, direction, vehicular combat, and graphics were praised, its quest design and story were criticized. The game became the eighth best-selling retail game in the United States in September 2015.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: "Mad Max" is an action-adventure game set in an open world post-apocalyptic environment, emphasizing vehicular combat, in which the player is the eponymous Mad Max. According to its publisher, up to 60 percent of the game focuses on driving. Some weapons and tools, including flamethrowers and turbo boosts, are mounted directly onto the "Magnum Opus", while others, such as a harpoon and sniper rifle, are used in conjunction with the vehicle by Chumbucket, Max's assistant, or Max himself. Max's "Magnum Opus", with its V8 engine and powerful ramming ability, can destroy enemies' vehicles and weaponry. When simultaneously driving and aiming, the game changes to slow motion to allow the player to toggle between targets. Although "Mad Max" primarily uses a third-person perspective, the player can switch to first-person view when fighting enemies while driving the "Magnum Opus". Chumbucket repairs the car when instructed to do so or when the player exits.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: To encourage exploration, the "Magnum Opus" can be upgraded with materials scavenged from the desert, by hijacking enemies' cars or collecting their car parts. An enemy can jump on top of the "Magnum Opus" to make it explode, but the player can avoid that by surrounding the car with hazards such as spikes. The player can access the garage screen throughout the game, allowing them to customize the "Magnum Opus". Max's garage can change and modify the car's engine, chassis, wheels, body work, paint job, and its "shell". Upgrading one aspect of the car will negatively affect other aspects; upgrading the engine will allow Max to drive faster, but handling will be more difficult. The sound produced by the engine changes when the player changes, adds, or remove parts of the "Magnum Opus". Max, his armor, and weapons are customisable; the player can unlock new skills and upgrades for him as he progresses through the game and earns experience points. Max is also customisable, with his clothing, appearance, fighting skills, and weapons being modifiable. Griffa, a wasteland wanderer, also offers Max tokens which can be used to upgrade his abilities.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Although the game has many choices (such as playing stealthily or aggressively), it emphasizes action over stealth. "Mad Max" features a variety of weapons, including Max's iconic shotgun, but ammunition is scarce and the game emphasizes melee combat over firearms. One weapon is the explosive Thunderstick, which can be lanced into an enemy's chest. The game has a free-flow combat system combining professional wrestling attacks and boxing techniques, similar to Warner Bros.' previous "" video-game series (in which indicators on enemies' heads remind the player when to strike, counter or make finishing moves). Attacks by Max during his "frenzied" state are more powerful than usual.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: "Mad Max"s landscape consists of canyons, caves, deserts, and abandoned wastelands. The game's world is divided into several regions, with each having its own backstory and landscape. Unique landmarks and ruins can be discovered in each region. Side activities such as races, time trials, invading enemy fortresses, and eliminating enemy convoys can be found in each region. A region's threat level is lowered by completing these activities, facilitating its navigation. Each region has a boss, who can be found and defeated in their base. Some of the game's strongholds are friendly, and eliminating hostile strongholds gives Max additional quests and rewards. These strongholds can be upgraded, offering Max different benefits such as helping Max to collect scraps when the game is turned off, or restoring Max's health and shotgun ammo upon visits. Max can ascend in a hot-air balloon (permanently attached to the ground) to look for new objectives and locations. After seeing the objectives through binoculars, they are highlighted on the map. Max can be guided by Chumbucket in strategically completing his objectives. Max is accompanied by a dog companion who can help players detect land mines. Max has limited climbing abilities, and objects that he can climb are highlighted in yellow.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Most resources in the game are scarce except for gasoline, which is needed for driving. The player can collect one jerrycan at a time, storing it in the back of the "Magnum Opus", and can find collectibles (history relics) throughout the game. The relics are primarily photos and notes of the wasteland before the apocalypse. Food and water are vital to Max's survival; the player can collect them in the wasteland and use them to replenish their health. Max can also eat small animals, such as rodents, and maggots from decomposing corpses, to replenish his health, and areas where he can find food and supplies have crows flying around them. As initially described, the player would be able to venture into the Big Nothing, an uncharted, volatile area of the wasteland with dangerous sandstorms and no food or water in which rare parts for the "Magnum Opus" could be found (according to Avalanche, the "Big Nothing" made the game map infinite) but ultimately this was not a feature of the final gameplay. A dynamic day-night cycle, a weather system and a variety of environmental hazards are included in the game, whose terrain is affected by weather and natural disasters.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: In search of fuel, highway patrol officer-turned-survivalist Max Rockatansky (Bren Foster) journeys to the Plains of Silence. He runs into the War Boys led by Scabrous Scrotus (Travis Willingham), son of Immortan Joe (Fred Tatasciore) and ruler of Gastown. The War Boys run Max off the road and steal his car and supplies, leaving him to die in the desert. Max chases them and challenges Scrotus to a duel on the Land Mover. Scrotus sics his war hound on Max, but after Max fends off the dog, Scrotus throws it off the Land Mover in disgust. Max then stabs Scrotus in the head with his own chainsaw, but Scrotus kicks Max off the Land Mover.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Befriending the abandoned dog, Max obtains a weapon and clothes from a dead Wastelander. In the desert, Max finds a hunchbacked mechanic named Chumbucket (Jason Spisak) who calls him the Saint. Chumbucket leads Max to Scrotus and the War Boys and tells him that he is building a car, the Magnum Opus, but it lacks critical parts; Max agrees to search for them. Max must first liberate Wasteland leaders' territories from the War Boys: Jeet (Josh Keaton), whose stronghold is in an old lighthouse, and Gut Gash (Liam O'Brien), whose followers believe that they will be protected from a flood in their ship stronghold built on the remains of an oil tanker. He must penetrate a massive gate protected by War Boys, using the Magnum Opus outfitted with an exploding harpoon. Max and Chumbucket must then save Pink Eye (Adrienne Barbeau), a woman whose mechanical skill rivals Chumbucket's, from an invasion of her silo base led by Stank Gum—one of Scrotus' Top Dogs.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Searching for a V8 engine for the Magnum Opus, Max learns about a race in Gastown with a Big Chief V8 as a prize. After winning the race against Stank Gum (Yuri Lowenthal) and defeating the fighter Tenderloin in a Thunderdome duel, Max receives the engine and the concubine Hope (Courtenay Taylor). His victory is short-lived; Scrotus recognizes Max and attacks him. After he is shot with a crossbow and thrown down a mine shaft, Max is saved by Hope, who takes him to the Organic Mechanic and Scab (Orion Acaba)—also known as the Bloodbag. While Max is undergoing surgery, he has a hallucination that his wedding to Hope is officiated by Chumbucket and a man with a dog's head. When he wakes up, he and Hope steal the Big Chief; they drive to the temple of Deep Friah (Robin Atkin Downes), a friendly fire cultist.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: At the temple, Hope asks Max to find her daughter, Glory (Madison Carlon), who had fled to Buzzard territory. He travels to the Underdune and rescues Glory from the Buzzards. Returning, he discovers that Chumbucket took the Magnum Opus to his old home. Max follows him in one of Deep Friah's cars, but learns that Scrotus and Stank Gum tortured Chumbucket, who revealed Hope and Glory's location and their ties to Max. Max kills Stank Gum, rushes back to the temple and finds Hope hanged to death and Glory tortured on the floor. Glory dies, and Max swears vengeance against Scrotus.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: He returns to Gastown and learns Scrotus' location from Scab. Max and Chumbucket find Scrotus driving around the Purgatory Flatlands, and use the Magnum Opus to crash the Land Mover, which is pushed to the edge of a cliff. Max wants to push the Mover off the cliff with the Magnum Opus but is opposed by Chumbucket, who considers himself the car's protector. Ignoring Chumbucket, he rams the Mover at full speed; Chumbucket dies, and the Land Mover and Magnum Opus are destroyed. Scrotus escapes with the Interceptor, Max's car at the start of the game, and challenges him. Max wins the battle, pulling the chainsaw blade out of Scrotus' head and killing him. Max enters the Interceptor and places a picture of his family on the dashboard as he heads off.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: A video game set in the "Mad Max" universe was mentioned by franchise creator George Miller in a 2008 interview. Miller joined "God of War II" director Cory Barlog to develop the game after Barlog left Sony Computer Entertainment. The project was originally intended as a tie-in with a "Mad Max" animated film which would be released simultaneously. The film's production was suspended to allow adequate production time for the game. After Barlog announced in 2008 that a publisher for the game was being sought, no further information about the project was forthcoming. In 2010, Barlog was a consultant for Avalanche Studios, leaving in 2012 for Crystal Dynamics. A "Fury Road" tie-in video game was in development by Interplay Entertainment, but was scrapped when Electronic Arts acquired the franchise's video-game rights for $20 million.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: On 14 February 2013, a blurry screenshot of the game was released by Avalanche Studios founder and CEO Christofer Sundberg. The game was announced at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 on 10 June at Sony's press conference, with a scheduled 2014 release for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Although Sundberg said during the expo that Miller and Barlog's project was not the "Mad Max" game announced by Avalanche, he later said that Barlog had worked on a "Mad Max" game at Avalanche. Despite the unclear relationship between the projects, according to the game's design director, Miller had collaborated with Avalanche during the game's pre-production in mid-2011. Despite having Miller to offer input, Warner Bros. was inclined to give much creative freedom to Avalanche. Full production of the game began before May 2012.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: In April 2014, Avalanche announced that "Mad Max" would be delayed until the following year, making it one of the titles released during Avalanche's "biggest year since [its] inception". The game was retooled during development. Despite its release that year, the game is not directly connected to 2015's "" and was not intended to be a tie-in; its setting and story are original. This decision was made because the game's publisher, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, believed that a standalone game was more beneficial to players than a "play-the-movie game" after the success of its "Batman: Arkham" series. Locations which have appeared in the films, such as Gas Town and Thunderdome, are featured in the game. Unlike previous Avalanche games, such as "Just Cause 2", the game's tone is more mature and its narrative is emphasized.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Similar to the films, Max seldom speaks or expresses emotion; his thoughts are reflected by his actions. The team aimed at developing a complex character and personality for him. According to the game's director, Max is traumatized by past experiences (such as losing his family); this makes him "insane", "unstable", and "mad". These qualities are reflected in the game's "rage" mode, in which Max inflicts additional damage on enemies. Chumbucket, Max's mechanic and companion, is obsessed with the Magnum Opus; according to the game's lead writer, he "has a pseudo-religious/sexual relationship with engines". Scabrous Scrotus, the game's main antagonist, is a warlord designed as a "bloodthirsty monster that only can find solace from his own pain through the suffering of others". Enemies' faces are painted and scarred; according to game director Frank Rooke, their appearance "is kind of the approach of how this civilization merged into this kind of state".


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Lead designer Emil Krafting said that gameplay was the top priority during development. Like the "Just Cause" series, "Mad Max"s developer aimed to give players autonomy by providing tools to create their own events. The studios intended to build a dynamic world, creating "a seamless series of events". The game was inspired by the atmosphere of the "Mad Max" universe, rather than a particular film in the series. According to Avalanche, they did not plan to be influenced by other post-apocalyptic video games such as "Fallout", "Rage", and "Borderlands" since most of those games were inspired by the original "Mad Max". The company said that the game's vehicular combat posed a challenge because of their inexperience with that type of game. The car customization system was designed to increase the game's fun factor and give players more freedom.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: The game's world was inspired by the "Just Cause" series, which features large sandboxes for players to explore. Avalanche Studios CEO Christofer Sundberg hoped that players would compare "Mad Max"s desert setting to the western setting of "Red Dead Redemption". The game world is scaled according to gameplay density and frequency; the development team emphasized creating a world with choices and distractions, rather than focusing on size. Designed as dead, threatening, and hostile, it is also exciting and engaging (encouraging exploration). One challenge faced by the developers was building a wasteland with a variety of environments, since "Mad Max" is Avalanche's first post-apocalyptic game. They spent most of their time designing ground and terrain variations to minimize repetition in the landscape. Since the game is set in a desert, the team used vibrant colors for the sky. Avalanche Studios sent a team to a Costa Rican jungle to inspect local landscapes and environments in preparation for creating the world of "Mad Max", particularly its sky. Like the films, the game does not identify the apocalypse; its developers wanted to give "a sense of mystery" to the wasteland so players could imagine how the wasteland evolved. Garages allowing players to upgrade and repair their cars were originally intended to be featured in the game. The idea was later scrapped, since the studio thought the element "interfered with gameplay".


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: "Mad Max" is powered by Apex Engine (formerly known as Avalanche Engine), an in-house proprietary engine developed by Avalanche and also used in "Just Cause 2". According to lead graphics designer Alvar Jansson, new graphical features were introduced to the engine during the development of "Mad Max" and it was designed and optimized for open-world games. The team also worked on improving the world's draw distance and ensuring that gameplay across the three major platforms have no significant difference.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Gaming journalists invited to preview a private gameplay demonstration at E3 2013 noted that Max had an American accent, rather than the Australian accent of the film series, and fans protested his new American voice; Avalanche Studios later confirmed that he would have an Australian accent. Donal Gibson, the brother of the original Mad Max star Mel Gibson, expressed interest in taking the lead role in the video game adaptation. However, Australian actor Bren Foster, who previously starred in "The Last Ship" and "Days of Our Lives", was chosen for the role. The game's setting is described as "wasteland creole", with elements of a number of civilizations, so its characters have a variety of accents.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: "Mad Max" was released on 1 September 2015 in North America and the United Kingdom, 2 September in Australia, 3 September in New Zealand and 4 September in Europe for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It was announced on 3 May 2015 that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions had been cancelled due to hardware restrictions, but a Linux port was announced. The game was released for Linux and macOS on 20 October 2016.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Players who pre-ordered the game could receive the Ripper, an additional Magnum Opus design. The Ripper, a steelbook, collector's box, mini-license plate and Blu-ray copy of "" were included in the Post-Apocalypse Edition. PlayStation 4-version purchasers could access a Road Warrior Survival Kit, with twelve hood ornaments for the Magnum Opus, exclusively until 30 November 2015. To promote "Mad Max", Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment sponsored launch events. In Australia, the company invited artists to create artwork on their vehicles with dust. They joined Uber for a Seattle promotion in which Uber users could access a free ride "straight from the post-apocalypse". The offer was free, since "dollars are worthless in the wasteland".


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: "Mad Max" received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Its story received a mixed response. Brandin Tyrrel of IGN found the story surprising and genuine, despite most of the action occurring later in the game. Tyrrel wrote that the characters have different personalities and distinct qualities, and considered them the "true star" of the game. According to Chris Carter of Destructoid, the game's story engages the player. Leon Hurley of GamesRadar found the overall story weak and "barely exist[ing] for the majority of the game", but thought the game's climax was exciting. Matt Bertz of "Game Informer" also criticized the story, calling it thin and light, and called the voice actors' performances uneven.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: "Mad Max"s world design received generally positive reviews. According to Brandin Tyrrel, it captured the films' savage tone and the game's sandbox was a "gorgeous" setting for players to explore. GamesRadar's Leon Hurley praised the game's scale, which he compared to "". Martin Robinson of Eurogamer compared its scale favorably to Avalanche's previous "Just Cause" game series, and opined that Avalanche had successfully combined the "Mad Max" universe with an open-world game design. Matt Bertz praised the game's inhospitable atmosphere, commending Avalanche for adding a variety of styles and a vibrant sky to an otherwise-boring sandbox. Daniel Bloodworth of GameTrailers echoed Bertz, calling each region unique and distinct. Bloodworth also praised Avalanche for its efforts in crafting the world. Peter Brown of GameSpot praised "Mad Max"s natural disasters, writing that it set a new standard for in-game weather effects. Philip Kollar of Polygon criticized the game's layout, writing that every location in the game feels identical and its bland environments discourage exploration.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Tyrrel considered the vehicular combat one of the game's best elements, adding a layer of creativity. Brown praised the car action, calling it intense, complex, and unpredictable, but criticized the over-simplistic and shallow on-foot combat. Carter compared the game's vehicular controls to the best racing games, and commended its handling. He also praised the car mechanics, writing that it has offered players a cinematic experience. Tyrrel liked the additions to the game's combat (such as the introduction of weapons and the Fury mode), writing that they added depth to the combat. Hurley praised the game's progression system, which he found satisfying, and the balance between vehicular and on-foot combat. Bloodworth wrote that the melee combat used a "tried-and-true system" which worked well, despite awkward camera angles. Kollar criticized the boss fights, which he thought lacked variety.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: Other gameplay aspects received mixed reviews. Tyrrel praised the customization system for Max and the Magnum Opus, since the customization impacts the gameplay and makes the overall experience more rewarding; Kollar echoed this. Brown criticized the game for failing to offer much challenge or a sense of accomplishment to players. He called the health system a redundant addition in which resources, such as water and food, play an insignificant role and can be neglected by players. Brown also criticized the scrap-collecting system, writing that it frustrated most players and slowed the game's pace. However, Robinson wrote that those elements reflect the barbarian nature of the wasteland. He praised its world design (which he thought echoed the films), describing it as "a world of twisted metal and sudden violence that's there to be survived rather than conquered". Bloodworth criticized the game's stronghold system, which he called repetitive. Brown criticized the game's lack of a climbing system, which hinders movement; this was echoed by Carter.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: "Mad Max"s quest design also received mixed reviews. Tyrrel praised the content and activities scattered across the world, calling the activities engaging for most players. However, he disliked the repetition which dragged down their replay value. Hurley found it easy for players to become confused in the game's early stages, since the objectives are unclear. Brown criticized the structure of several quests which force players to use a certain method, removing freedom and creativity. Chris Carter of "Destructoid" wrote that the game brought nothing new to the genre, and its quests and features were too similar to typical Ubisoft open-world design.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: The game had some technical problems when it was released. Tyrrel noted an unstable frame rate and occasional texture pop-up, and Kollar identified audio problems.


title: Mad Max (2015 video game)

text: "Mad Max" was the second-best selling game in the United Kingdom in its first week of release on the United Kingdom software retail chart, only behind "", which was released the same day. According to the NPD Group, it was the eighth-best selling game in the United States in September 2015.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: France began colonizing the Americas in the 16th century and continued into the following centuries as it established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France established colonies in much of eastern North America, on several Caribbean islands, and in South America. Most colonies were developed to export products such as fish, rice, sugar, and furs.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The first French colonial empire stretched to over at its peak in 1710, which was the second largest colonial empire in the world, after the Spanish Empire.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: As they colonized the New World, the French established forts and settlements that would become such cities as Quebec, Trois-Rivières and Montreal in Canada; Detroit, Green Bay, St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Mobile, Biloxi, Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the United States; and Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haïtien (founded as "Cap-Français") in Haiti, Cayenne in French Guiana and São Luís (founded as "Saint-Louis de Maragnan") in Brazil.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The French first came to the New World as travelers seeking a route to the Pacific Ocean and wealth. Major French exploration of North America began under the rule of Francis I, King of France. In 1524, Francis sent Italian-born Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore the region between Florida and Newfoundland for a route to the Pacific Ocean. Verrazzano gave the names "Francesca" and "Nova Gall" to that land between New Spain and English Newfoundland, thus promoting French interests.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1534, Francis I of France sent Jacques Cartier on the first of three voyages to explore the coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River. He founded New France by planting a cross on the shore of the Gaspé Peninsula. The French subsequently tried to establish several colonies throughout North America that failed, due to weather, disease, or conflict with other European powers. Cartier attempted to create the first permanent European settlement in North America at Cap-Rouge (Quebec City) in 1541 with 400 settlers but the settlement was abandoned the next year after bad weather and attacks from Native Americans in the area. A small group of French troops were left on Parris Island, South Carolina in 1562 to build Charlesfort, but left after a year when they were not resupplied by France. Fort Caroline established in present-day Jacksonville, Florida, in 1564, lasted only a year before being destroyed by the Spanish from St. Augustine. An attempt to settle convicts on Sable Island off Nova Scotia in 1598 failed after a short time. In 1599, a sixteen-person trading post was established in Tadoussac (in present-day Quebec), of which only five men survived the first winter. In 1604 Pierre Du Gua de Monts and Samuel de Champlain founded a short-lived French colony, the first in Acadia, on Saint Croix Island, presently part of the state of Maine, which was much plagued by illness, perhaps scurvy. The following year the settlement was moved to Port Royal, located in present-day Nova Scotia.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec (1608) and explored the Great Lakes. In 1634, Jean Nicolet founded "La Baye des Puants" (present-day Green Bay), which is one of the oldest permanent European settlements in America. In 1634, Sieur de Laviolette founded Trois-Rivières. In 1642, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, founded Fort Ville-Marie which is now known as Montreal. Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette founded Sault Sainte Marie (1668) and Saint Ignace (1671) and explored the Mississippi River. At the end of the 17th century, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle established a network of forts going from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River. Fort Saint Louis was established in Texas in 1685, but was gone by 1688. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded "Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit" (modern-day Detroit) in 1701 and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville founded "La Nouvelle Orléans" (New Orleans) in 1718. Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founded Baton Rouge in 1719.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The European settlement of Mobile, Alabama began with French colonists, who in 1702 constructed "Fort Louis de la Louisiane", at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River, as the first capital of the French colony of La Louisiane. It was founded by French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, to establish control over France's claims to "La Louisiane". Bienville was appointed as royal governor of French Louisiana in 1701. Mobile's Roman Catholic parish was established on July 20, 1703, by Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, Bishop of Quebec. The parish was the first French Catholic parish established on the Gulf Coast of the United States.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1704 the ship "Pélican" delivered 23 French women to the colony; passengers had contracted yellow fever at a stop in Havana. Though most of the ""Pélican" girls" recovered, numerous colonists and neighboring Native Americans contracted the disease in turn and many died. This early period was also the occasion of the importation of the first African slaves, transported aboard a French supply ship from the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean, where they had first been held. The population of the colony fluctuated over the next few years, growing to 279 persons by 1708, yet shrinking to 178 persons two years later due to disease.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: These additional outbreaks of disease and a series of floods resulted in Bienville ordering that the settlement be relocated in 1711 several miles downriver to its present location at the confluence of the Mobile River and Mobile Bay. A new earth-and-palisade Fort Louis was constructed at the new site during this time. By 1712, when Antoine Crozat was appointed to take over administration of the colony, its population had reached 400 persons.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The capital of La Louisiane was moved in 1720 to Biloxi, leaving Mobile to serve as a regional military and trading center. In 1723 the construction of a new brick fort with a stone foundation began and it was renamed Fort Condé in honor of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Seven Years' War, which Britain won, defeating France. By this treaty, France ceded its territories east of the Mississippi River to Britain. This area was made a part of the expanded British West Florida colony. The British changed the name of Fort Condé to Fort Charlotte, after Queen Charlotte.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The French were eager to explore North America but New France remained largely unpopulated. Due to the lack of women, intermarriages between French and Indians were frequent, giving rise to the Métis people. Relations between the French and Indians were usually peaceful. As the 19th-century historian Francis Parkman stated:


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: To boost the French population, Cardinal Richelieu issued an act declaring that Indians converted to Catholicism were considered "natural Frenchmen" by the Ordonnance of 1627:


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Louis XIV also tried to increase the population by sending approximately 800 young women nicknamed the "King's Daughters". However, the low density of the population in New France remained a very persistent problem. At the beginning of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the British population in North America outnumbered the French 20 to 1. France fought a total of six colonial wars in North America (see the four French and Indian Wars as well as Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War).


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1562, Charles IX, under the leadership of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny sent Jean Ribault and a group of Huguenot settlers in an attempt to colonize the Atlantic coast and found a colony on a territory which would take the name of the French Florida. They discovered the sound and Port Royal Island, which would be called Parris Island in South Carolina, on which he built a fort named Charlesfort. The group, led by René Goulaine de Laudonnière, moved to the south where they founded the Fort Caroline on the Saint John's river in Florida on June 22, 1564.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: This irritated the Spanish who claimed Florida and opposed the Protestant settlers for religious reasons. In 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés led a group of Spaniards and founded Saint Augustine, 60 kilometers south of Fort Caroline. Fearing a Spanish attack, Ribault planned to move the colony but a storm suddenly destroyed his fleet. On 20 September 1565 the Spaniards, commanded by Menéndez de Avilés, attacked and massacred all the Fort Caroline occupants including Jean Ribault.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The French interest in Canada focused first on fishing off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. However, at the beginning of the 17th century, France was more interested in fur from North America. The fur trading post of Tadoussac was founded in 1600. Four years later, Champlain made his first trip to Canada on a trade mission for fur. Although he had no formal mandate on this trip, he sketched a map of the St. Lawrence River and in writing, on his return to France, a report entitled "Savages" (relation of his stay in a tribe of Montagnais near Tadoussac).


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Champlain needed to report his findings to Henry IV. He participated in another expedition to New France in the spring of 1604, conducted by Pierre Du Gua de Monts. It helped the foundation of a settlement on Saint Croix Island, the first French settlement in the New World, which would be given up the following winter. The expedition then founded the colony of Port-Royal.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1608, Champlain founded a fur post that would become the city of Quebec, which would become the capital of New France. In Quebec, Champlain forged alliances between France and the Huron and Ottawa against their traditional enemies, the Iroquois. Champlain and other French travelers then continued to explore North America, with canoes made from birch bark, to move quickly through the Great Lakes and their tributaries. In 1634, the Normand explorer Jean Nicolet pushed his exploration to the West up to Wisconsin.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Following the capitulation of Quebec by the Kirke brothers, the British occupied the city of Quebec and Canada from 1629 to 1632. Samuel de Champlain was taken prisoner and there followed the bankruptcy of the Company of One Hundred Associates. Following the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France took possession of the colony in 1632. The city of Trois-Rivières was founded in 1634. In 1642, the Angevin Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière founded Ville-Marie (later Montreal) which was at that time, a fort as protection against Iroquois attacks (the first great Iroquois war lasted from 1642 to 1667).


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Despite this rapid expansion, the colony developed very slowly. The Iroquois wars and diseases were the leading causes of death in the French colony. In 1663 when Louis XIV provided the "Royal Government", the population of New France was only 2,500 European inhabitants. That year, to increase the population, Louis XIV sent between 800 and 900 'King's Daughters' to become the wives of French settlers. The population of New France reached subsequently 7,000 in 1674 and 15,000 in 1689.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: From 1689 to 1713, the French settlers were faced with almost incessant war during the French and Indian Wars. From 1689 to 1697, they fought the British in the Nine Years' War. The war against the Iroquois continued even after the Treaty of Rijswijk until 1701, when the two parties agreed on peace. Then, the war against the English took over in the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1690 and 1711, Quebec City had successfully resisted the attacks of the English navy and then British army. Nevertheless, the British took advantage of the second war. With the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, France ceded to Britain Acadia (with a population of 1,700 people), Newfoundland and Hudson Bay. Under the Sovereign Council, the population of the colony grew faster. However, the population growth was far inferior to that of the British Thirteen Colonies to the south. In the middle of the 18th century, New France accounted for 60,000 people while the British colonies had more than one million people. This placed the colony at a great military disadvantage against the British. The war between the colonies resumed in 1744, lasting until 1748. A final and decisive war began in 1754. The Canadiens and the French were helped by numerous alliances with Native Americans, but they were usually outnumbered on the battlefield.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: On May 17, 1673, explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi River, known to the Sioux as "does Tongo," or to the Miami-Illinois as " missisipioui" ("the great river"). They reached the mouth of the Arkansas and then up the river, after learning that it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico and not to the California Sea (Pacific Ocean).


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1682, the Normand Cavelier de la Salle and the Italian Henri de Tonti came down the Mississippi to its Delta. They left from Fort Crevecoeur on the Illinois River, along with 23 French and 18 Native Americans. In April 1682, they arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi; they planted a cross and a column bearing the arms of the king of France. In 1686 de Tonti left 6 men near the Quapaw village of Osotouy, creating the settlement of Arkansas Post. De Tonti's Arkansas Post would be the first European settlement in the Lower Mississippi River valley. La Salle returned to France and won over the Secretary of State of the Navy to give him the command of Louisiana. He believed that it was close to New Spain by drawing a map on which the Mississippi seemed much further west than its actual rate. He set up a maritime expedition with four ships and 320 emigrants, but it ended in disaster when he failed to find the Mississippi Delta and was killed in 1687.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1698, Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville left La Rochelle and explored the area around the mouth of the Mississippi. He stopped between Isle-aux-Chats (now Cat Island) and Isle Surgeres (renamed Isle-aux-Vascular or Ship Island) on February 13, 1699 and continued his explorations to the mainland, with his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to Biloxi. He built a precarious fort, called 'Maurepas' (later 'Old Biloxi'), before returning to France. He returned twice in the Gulf of Mexico and established a fort at Mobile in 1702.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: From 1699 to 1702, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was governor of Louisiana. His brother succeeded him in that post from 1702 to 1713. He was again governor from 1716 to 1724 and again 1733 to 1743. In 1718, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville commanded a French expedition in Louisiana. He founded the city of New Orleans, in homage to Regent Duke of Orleans. The architect Adrian de Pauger drew the orthogonal plane of the Old Square.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1718, there were only 700 Europeans in Louisiana. The Mississippi Company arranged for ships to bring 800 more, who landed in Louisiana in 1718, doubling the European population. John Law encouraged Germans, particularly Germans of the Alsatian region who had recently fallen under French rule, and the Swiss to emigrate.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Prisoners were set free in Paris in September 1719 onwards, under the condition that they marry prostitutes and go with them to Louisiana. The newly married couples were chained together and taken to the port of embarkation. In May 1720, after complaints from the Mississippi Company and the concessioners about this class of French immigrants, the French government prohibited such deportations. However, there was a third shipment of prisoners in 1721.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The Mississippi Company arranged for hundreds (not thousands) of German immigrants to move to Louisiana by ships in 1721. Charles Frederick d'Arensbourg was a leader of the settlement called the German Coast. By the end of 1720, the Mississippi Company failed. Later, more Germans immigrated to Louisiana during the 1750's and 1770's.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The last French and Indian War resulted in the dissolution of New France, with Canada going to Great Britain and Louisiana going to Spain, although mainly absent. French colonists descendants or "Canadiens" that had settled in the Valley of Ohio, migrated into the Spanish territory West of the Mississippi and were instrumental in pushing further West toward the Pacific through their longer experience of the new continent and its native inhabitants. Only the islands of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon are still in French hands.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1802 Spain returned Louisiana to France, but Napoleon sold it to the United States in 1803. The French and their descendants left many toponyms (Illinois, Vermont, Bayous...) and ethnonyms (Sioux, Coeur d'Alene, Nez Percé...) in North America along with a rich and complex History as well as proud descendants far beyond Québec and Acadia original heartlands.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: A major French settlement lay on the island of Hispaniola, where France established the colony of Saint-Domingue on the western third of the island in 1664. Nicknamed the "Pearl of the Antilles", Saint-Domingue became the richest colony in the Caribbean due to slave plantation production of sugar cane. It had the highest slave mortality rate in the western hemisphere. A 1791 slave revolt, the only ever successful slave revolt, began the Haitian Revolution, led to freedom for the colony's slaves in 1794 and, a decade later, complete independence for the country, which renamed itself Haiti. France briefly also ruled the eastern portion of the island, which is now the Dominican Republic.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: During the 17th and 18th centuries, France ruled much of the Lesser Antilles at various times. Islands that came under French rule during part or all of this time include Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante, Martinique, St. Barthélemy, St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Martin, St. Vincent and Tobago. Control of many of these islands was contested between the French, the British and the Dutch; in the case of St. Martin, the island was divided in two, a situation that persists to this day. Great Britain captured some of France's islands during the Seven Years' War and the Napoleonic Wars. Following the latter conflict, France retained control of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Marie-Galante, St. Barthélemy, and its portion of St. Martin; all remain part of France today. Guadeloupe (including Marie-Galante and other nearby islands) and Martinique each is an overseas department of France, while St. Barthélemy and St. Martin each became an overseas collectivity of France in 2007.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: France Antarctique (formerly also spelled France antartique) was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio. The colony quickly became a haven for the Huguenots, and was ultimately destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: On November 1, 1555, French vice-admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (1510–1575), a Catholic knight of the Order of Malta, who later would help the Huguenots to find a refuge against persecution, led a small fleet of two ships and 600 soldiers and colonists, and took possession of the small island of Serigipe in the Guanabara Bay, in front of present-day Rio de Janeiro, where they built a fort named Fort Coligny. The fort was named in honor of Gaspard de Coligny (then a Catholic statesman, who about a year later would become a Huguenot), an admiral who supported the expedition and would use the colony in order to protect his co-religionists.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: To the still largely undeveloped mainland village, Villegaignon gave the name of Henriville, in honour of Henry II, the King of France, who also knew of and approved the expedition, and had provided the fleet for the trip. Villegaignon secured his position by making an alliance with the Tamoio and Tupinambá Indians of the region, who were fighting the Portuguese.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Unchallenged by the Portuguese, who initially took little notice of his landing, Villegaignon endeavoured to expand the colony by calling for more colonists in 1556. He sent one of his ships, the "Grande Roberge", to Honfleur, entrusted with letters to King Henry II, Gaspard de Coligny and according to some accounts, the Protestant leader John Calvin.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: After one ship was sent to France to ask for additional support, three ships were financed and prepared by the king of France and put under the command of Sieur De Bois le Comte, a nephew of Villegagnon. They were joined by 14 Calvinists from Geneva, led by Philippe de Corguilleray, including theologians Pierre Richier and Guillaume Chartrier. The new colonists, numbering around 300, included 5 young women to be wed, 10 boys to be trained as translators, as well as 14 Calvinists sent by Calvin, and also Jean de Léry, who would later write an account of the colony. They arrived in March 1557. The relief fleet was composed of:


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Doctrinal disputes arose between Villegagnon and the Calvinists, especially in relation to the Eucharist, and in October 1557 the Calvinists were banished from Coligny island as a result. They settled among the Tupinamba until January 1558, when some of them managed to return to France by ship together with Jean de Léry, and five others chose to return to Coligny island where three of them were drowned by Villegagnon for refusing to recant.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: In 1560 Mem de Sá, the new Governor-General of Brazil, received from the Portuguese government the command to expel the French. With a fleet of 26 warships and 2,000 soldiers, on 15 March 1560, he attacked and destroyed Fort Coligny within three days, but was unable to drive off their inhabitants and defenders, because they escaped to the mainland with the help of the Native Brazilians, where they continued to live and to work. Admiral Villegaignon had returned to France in 1558, disgusted with the religious tension that existed between French Protestants and Catholics, who had come also with the second group (see French Wars of Religion).


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Urged by two influential Jesuit priests who had come to Brazil with Mem de Sá, named José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega, and who had played a big role in pacifying the Tamoios, Mem de Sá ordered his nephew, Estácio de Sá to assemble a new attack force. Estácio de Sá founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on March 1, 1565, and fought the Frenchmen for two more years. Helped by a military reinforcement sent by his uncle, on January 20, 1567, he imposed final defeat on the French forces and decisively expelled them from Brazil, but died a month later from wounds inflicted in the battle. Coligny's and Villegaignon's dream had lasted a mere 12 years.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: Equinoctial France was the contemporary name given to the colonization efforts of France in the 17th century in South America, around the line of Equator, before "tropical" had fully gained its modern meaning: Equinoctial means in Latin "of equal nights", i.e., on the Equator, where the duration of days and nights is nearly the same year round.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The French colonial empire in the New World also included New France (Nouvelle France) in North America, particularly in what is today the province of Quebec, Canada, and for a very short period (12 years) also Antarctic France (France Antarctique, in French), in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All of these settlements were in violation of the papal bull of 1493, which divided the New World between Spain and Portugal. This division was later defined more exactly by the Treaty of Tordesillas.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: France équinoxiale started in 1612, when a French expedition departed from Cancale, Brittany, France, under the command of Daniel de la Touche, Seigneur de la Ravardière, and François de Razilly, admiral. Carrying 500 colonists, it arrived in the Northern coast of what is today the Brazilian state of Maranhão. De la Ravardière had discovered the region in 1604 but the death of the king postponed his plans to start its colonization.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: The colonists soon founded a village, which was named "Saint-Louis", in honor of the French king Louis IX. This later became São Luís in Portuguese,[1] the only Brazilian state capital founded by France. On 8 September, Capuchin friars prayed the first mass, and the soldiers started building a fortress. An important difference in relation to France Antarctique is that this new colony was not motivated by escape from religious persecutions to Protestants (see French Wars of Religion). The colony did not last long. A Portuguese army assembled in the Captaincy of Pernambuco, under the command of Alexandre de Moura, was able to mount a military expedition, which defeated and expelled the French colonists in 1615, less than four years after their arrival in the land. Thus, it repeated the disaster spelt for the colonists of France Antarctique, in 1567. A few years later, in 1620, Portuguese and Brazilian colonists arrived in number and São Luís started to develop, with an economy based mostly in sugar cane and slavery.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: French traders and colonists tried again to settle a France Équinoxiale further North, in what is today French Guiana, in 1626, 1635 (when the capital, Cayenne, was founded) and 1643. Twice a Compagnie de la France équinoxiale was founded, in 1643 and 1645, but both foundered as a result of misfortune and mismanagement. It was only after 1674, when the colony came under the direct control of the French crown and a competent Governor took office, that France Équinoxiale became a reality. To this day, French Guiana is a department of France.


title: French colonization of the Americas

text: French Guiana was first settled by the French in 1604, although its earliest settlements were abandoned in the face of hostilities from the indigenous population and tropical diseases. The settlement of Cayenne was established in 1643, but was abandoned. It was re-established in the 1660s. Except for brief occupations by the English and Dutch in the 17th century, and by the Portuguese in the 19th century, Guiana has remained under French rule ever since. From 1851 to 1951 it was the site of a notorious penal colony, Devil's Island ("Île du Diable"). Since 1946, French Guiana has been an overseas department of France.


title: White power skinhead

text: White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white nationalist organizations and some of them are members of prison gangs. The movement emerged in the United Kingdom between the late 1960s and the late 1970s, before spreading across Europe, Russia and North America in the 1980–1990s.


title: White power skinhead

text: Scholar Timothy S. Brown defines the skinheads as a "style community", that is to say a "community in which the primary site of identity is personal style", which allows innovative configurations to be made in new geographical and cultural contexts, or around opposing political ideologies – as in the dichotomy between racist and anti-racist skinheads. From a group perspective, John Clarke, a precursor of skinhead studies in the 1970s, has noted that the "skinhead style represents an attempt to recreate the traditional working class community, as a substitution for the real decline of the latter which started in the 1960s."


title: White power skinhead

text: According to Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg, the white power skinhead movement, which emerged within the skinhead subculture from the late 1970s onward, can be defined by "racism; proletarian consciousness; an aversion to organization, dismissed in favor of gang behavior; and an ideological training that began with or is based on music." They have mostly emerged from working-class backgrounds, except in Russia, where they have mostly emerged from the educated, urban middle class.


title: White power skinhead

text: The original skinhead subculture began in the United Kingdom in 1968–1969, probably in London and Southeast England, more specifically in the East End of London according to Clarke. It had heavy British mod and Jamaican rude boy influences, including an appreciation for black music genres like rocksteady, ska, and early West Indian reggae. The particular lifestyle and aggressive look of skinheads was a self-declared reaffirmation of the traditional working class puritanism and gender roles – in fact "a "stylized" re-recreation of an "image" of the working class", which seemed threatened in their views with contamination by the permissive and hedonistic culture of the British middle-class in the 1960–1970s. For instance, the defining skinhead short haircut mostly emerged in reaction to the perceived shift in men's styles away from traditional masculinity, which was embodied by the "middle-class, peace-loving, long-haired student" of the hippie movement.


title: White power skinhead

text: The identity of the 1960s skinheads, however, was not based on white power, neo-Nazism or neo-fascism, even though some skinheads had engaged in "Paki-bashing", i.e. violence against Pakistanis and other South Asian immigrants. Even so, black West Indians ("Caribs") were also involved in skinhead gang attacks against South Asian immigrants, and the violence has been interpreted by Alexander Tarasov as a social conflict caused by the new presence of South Asian traders and shopkeepers within a community of white and West Indian poor factory workers. Clarke similarly notes that areas where skinheads became the most prominent were "typically either new council housing estates or old estates being either developed or experiencing an afflux of outsiders", either Commonwealth immigrants or middle-class whites in search of affordable housing.


title: White power skinhead

text: The leading politician Enoch Powell and his inflammatory 1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech gave a public voice to widespread anxieties concerning non-white immigration and the "threat" which was supposedly posed by South Asian immigrants. Although there is "little agreement [among scholars] on the extent to which Powell was responsible for racial attacks", the speech may have helped unleash "Paki-bashing" violence against South Asian immigrants, which was referred to as "skinhead terror" by "The Observer" in April 1970, with the "Paki-bashers" simply being referred to as "skinheads" in many contemporary reports. By the early 1970s, the reggae scene had ceased to be simply a "party music" and, under the influence of Rastafarism, got closer to community-oriented themes like black liberation and African mysticism, which participated in alienating some white proletarians from the community. In 1973 white skinheads launched a violent melee in a night club, chanting "young, gifted and white" and cutting the speakers as the West Indian disc jockey was playing "Young, Gifted and Black" by Bob and Marcia.


title: White power skinhead

text: The skinhead scene had mostly died out by 1973. Around 1977, a second wave started to emerge from the disintegration of the punk subculture, which was radicalized as "street punk" when some of its members accentuated its aggressive character. Although the punk movement emphasized nihilistic and narcissistic values instead of the working class heritage, their opposition to the middle and upper class, the adoption of Nazi imagery by some punks to maximize shock value, and the development of an underground network of punk fanzines, inspired and facilitated the parallel emergence of a racist skinhead subculture. The latent right-wing and anti-immigrant leaning, present within the skinhead movement since the late 1960s, became progressively dominant in the United Kingdom, fuelled by the job crisis, the economic decline, and an increase in immigration during the late 1970s–early 1980s. By the early 1980s, the white power skinhead subculture had spread across most of Britain, largely "through face to face interaction among the fans at football matches." The cartoon character Black Rat, created in 1970 by French artist Jack Marchal, was adopted by young neo-Fascists in various European nations and became an essential marker of the fringe culture.


title: White power skinhead

text: Music played a key symbolic role in the political polarization of the skinhead subculture. Marchal recorded a French Hard Rock album named "Science & Violence" in 1979, and German students of the neo-Nazi party NPD formed the first German nationalist rock group in 1977. A new music genre, Oi! – a contraction of "Hey, you!" pronounced with a Cockney accent – emerged as a skinhead version of punk rock in the late 1970s, contrasting with the sometimes multiracial bands of the left-wing and unpolitical skinhead resurgence, which rather drew influence from the original Jamaican Ska roots of the late 1960s. Coined as a nickname for the new genre by British journalist Gary Bushell in 1980, "Oi!" soon became synonymous with "skinhead". Unlike many of their followers, however, early Oi! band members were generally not neo-Nazi or even affiliated with right-wing organizations, and they increasingly distanced themselves from some of their fans, who contributed to recurrent riots at concerts.


title: White power skinhead

text: In July 1981, the "Southall riots" were sparked when hundreds of skinheads were welcomed at an Oi! gig which was performed in a predominantly-Asian suburb of London. Some skinheads began to attack the neighboring Asian stores, and 400 Asians later responded by burning the venue with paraffin bombs while the skinheads were fleeing with help from the police. The event led to a moral panic in Britain and the skinhead subculture was firmly associated with right-wing politics and "white power music" in the public's opinion by 1982. According to Brown, some lyrical themes of Oi!, such as social frustrations, political repression and working-class pride, were common to other genres such as country music or blues, but others like violence ("Aggro", for 'aggressiveness') and football hooliganism "could be easily interpreted in extreme right-wing terms." The phrase "all cops are bastards" was popularized among some skinheads by the Oi! band The 4-Skins' 1982 song "A.C.A.B."


title: White power skinhead

text: From the late 1970s the National Front (NF), a British neo-fascist party which was losing ground in electoral politics, began to turn toward the skinhead movement to obtain grassroots supporters among the working class. The Rock against Communism (RAC) genre, relaunched in 1982 by Skrewdriver leader Ian Stuart Donaldson in association with the National Front, appeared in reaction to the Rock against Fascism movement. To draw new adherents, the National Front attempted to use the white power music scene to re-frame its message from overt hate of foreigners and minorities to self-love and collective defence of white identity. Donaldson and the National Front founded a record label named White Noise Club, which released Skrewdriver's album "White Power" in 1983, the eponymous song becoming "the most recognizable neo-fascist skinhead song". In 1987, a music festival was organized by National Front member Phil Andrewon on Nick Griffin's Suffolk property, and was attended by hundreds of racist skinheads from across Europe who gave the Nazi salute and sang along a chorus that demanded "white power for Britain".


title: White power skinhead

text: A split within White Noise Club led to the establishment of Blood & Honour in 1987. Donaldson had become involved with the West German label Rock-O-Rama and felt the need to create his own global neo-fascist skinhead movement without any political party affiliation. The music promotion network quickly turned into the "major reference point for young neo-fascists and neo-Nazis throughout Europe who came to Britain to attend the gigs of Skrewdriver and other bands." Even though skinhead violence helped damage the National Front's public image, the movement draw thousands of young people to neo-fascism and provided the party with a new medium to diffuse their message. In an effort to clean up both the British National Party's discourse and public image, Griffin publicly distanced the party from the skinhead subculture after he became its chairman in 1999. The party expelled skinhead members, although it has allowed white power band members to join and has accepted donations from neo-fascist skinhead concerts in the early 2000s.


title: White power skinhead

text: In 1990 the European Parliament's Committee of Inquiry into Racism and Xenophobia reported that the violent and racist skinhead subculture was "by far the most worrying development since the last Committee of Inquiry report [in 1985]." The death of Donaldson in a car crash in September 1993, followed by that of Nicky Crane who succumbed to AIDS in December of the same year, led to the takeover of Blood & Honour by Combat 18, "a more extreme, semi-terrorist neo-Nazi splinter group", and eventually to bloody internal feuds between Combat 18 supporters and Blood & Honour loyalists in the mid- and late 1990s. In 1985, a French worker at the Brest Arsenal, Gaël Bodilis, created the label Rebelles Européens, which had an allegiance to neo-Nazism. It was associated with the FNJ, the youth wing of the Front National, the neo-fascist Troisième Voie and later with the neo-Nazi organisation PNFE. The label rapidly grew as the second-largest white power music label in Europe, although the European white power rock scene only managed to enter the mainstream market in Sweden, where the band Ultima Thule reached the top of the charts in 1993.


title: White power skinhead

text: Racist faction of the skinhead subculture began to appear in the first half of the 1980s in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, West Germany, Austria, the United States, Canada, and Australia; and by the mid-1980s in France, Belgium, Denmark, and Switzerland. During the 1990s, the movement rapidly grew in the West and began to spread more intensively towards Eastern Europe, Russia in particular. Before the Internet came to be widely available after the mid-1990s, white power skinhead music played a key role in the international diffusion of white supremacist ideologies within a highly fragmented racist movement. In many European countries, merchandising – and sometimes illegal racist or Holocaust-denying material – was sold via mail-order or during the touring of bands.


title: White power skinhead

text: Measuring the number of white power skinheads is made difficult by the lack of a formal and organized structure, the issue of overlapping memberships, and a tradition of silence set up to cultivate the mystique of their clandestine activities and to prevent the police from estimating the size of local groups. In 1995, around 70,000 of them were estimated to be present in 33 countries (half being "hard-core activists", the others friends and associates), including 5,000 in Germany, 4,000 in Czechia, 4,000 in Hungary, and 3,500 in the US. By 2002, 350 white power music bands were active the US and Western Europe, and


title: White power skinhead

text: In most European countries, the racist skinhead subculture became polarized on the far-right between 1983 and 1986, and shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 in Eastern Europe, where it has been particularly strong since the transition to capitalism. The white power music scene rapidly embraced the growth of the Internet, which allowed them to bypass local European hate speech laws and further develop their international networks. In 2013, Hammerskin Nation (HSN) managed to bring together over 1,000 skinheads from all over Europe at a Nazi rock gig organized in Milan.


title: White power skinhead

text: In Germany, the hard rock band Böhse Onkelz ('Evil Uncles'), formed in 1980 in Frankfurt am Main, lay the ground for the radicalization of the skinhead movement by connecting the music scene with right-wing nationalism. Although they never openly embraced "white power" ideas, their 1981 song "Türken Raus" ('Turks Out') earned them a reputation as a racist band. In the 1980s, the German neo-Nazi skinheads were known for their violence, sometimes murderous. In 1985, a 76-year-old Jew who had survived the Holocaust was trampled to death during a fight between skinheads and anti-fascist demonstrators. In 1987, skinheads attacked Christians during a festival in Lindau because of the town council's refusal to allow the neo-Nazi Alliance of the German People to hold a meeting in the town hall. In August 1992, racist skinheads participated in the Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots, lynching immigrants with the help of ordinary citizens as passersby cheered. During the 1990s, the number of Neo-Nazi groups in reunified Germany skyrocket, with numerous unemployed young East Germans joining the white power skinhead movement.


title: White power skinhead

text: In France, the white power skinhead movement was structured around Jeunesses Nationalistes-Révolutionnaires (JNR), founded in 1987 by Serge Ayoub. It was linked to the label Rebelles Européens and to the neo-fascist organization Troisième Voie, then to the French Nationalist Party. The JNR initially performed policing functions for the French Front National, but the latter eventually distanced itself from Ayoub and the JNR after mass skinhead attacks on immigrants in Rouen and Brest.


title: White power skinhead

text: The Russian white power skinhead subculture takes its roots in the Glasnost during the 1980s, a period of relative liberalization led by the Soviet regime which allowed for fascist discourses to emerge among young Russian punks, primarily as a reaction against the ideology and history of the Soviet Union. Football hooliganism also played a role in the diffusion of neo-fascist rhetoric in the 1980s. The subculture, known in Russian as "skinhedy", appeared in 1992 in Moscow with a dozen of skinheads. Their size became noticeable by 1994, in the atmosphere of chaos that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts at liberal reforms and rapid economic privatization. Their number skyrocketed throughout the 1990s, fuelled by economic disorder, the collapse of the education system, and the legitimization of violence against political opponents and minorities by the newly established liberal state, illustrated by Boris Yeltsin's attack on the Russian parliament during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, and the introduction of a state of emergency the same year to police and deport Caucasians in preparation for the First Chechen War. Sensationalized coverage of the skinhead movement by Russian state-owned media until the early 2000s has also participated in the large-scale diffusion of the movement. By the end of 1999 there were 3,500 to 3,800 skinheads in Moscow, up to 2,700 in St Petersburg, and at least 2,000 in Nizhnii Novgorod.


title: White power skinhead

text: The movement remained unnoticed in the general public until the early 2000s, when acts of violence began to multiply. Skinheads attacked a Vietnamese hostel in October 2000, an Armenian school in March 2001, led a pogrom at the Yasenevo Market on Hitler's birthday in April 2001, then a second pogrom in the Moscow underground transit system in November 2001, which resulted in 4 deaths. Despite some common grounds with Vladimir Putin's nationalist agenda, skinheads remain opposed to vestiges of authority in the country. The skinhead subculture presents itself, in the words of scholar Peter Worger, as an "ultra-nationalist alternative to Putin’s state-sanctioned patriotism." The neo-Nazi Russian National Unity group, in contrast, as known to have enrolled young members from skinhead gangs. The Federal Law on Counteracting Extremist Activity, adopted in 2002 after the skinhead pogroms, was rarely enforced by the police and skinheads are rather prosecuted for murders associated with hooliganism and everyday-life conflicts than for hate speech and racist violence.


title: White power skinhead

text: Some of the skinhead groups are autonomous, while others are linked to the US-based organizations Blood & Honour and Hammerskin Nation. Contrary to most other countries, the Russian skinhead subculture has attracted members from all income levels, and they have tended to come from the educated middle class in the urban centres. In 2004, there were about 50,000 self-identified skinheads in the country, with groups active in approximately 85 cities. Up to 2,000 rioters linked to the Russian skinhead movement have participated in an anti-Chechen pogrom in 2006.


title: White power skinhead

text: Under serious police pressure, the number of racist acts and Neo-Nazis started to significantly decline in Russia from 2009.


title: White power skinhead

text: In the 1980s and 1990s, many young American neo-Nazis and white supremacists, often associated with the Ku Klux Klan, joined the growing US white power skinhead movement. By 1988, there were ~2,000 neo-Nazi skinheads in the United States.


title: White power skinhead

text: The first identifiable neo-Nazi skinhead group was the short-lived Chicago's Romantic Violence, established in 1984 by 25-year-old Clark Martell. The group collapsed when Martell was imprisoned for assault. Shortly thereafter in 1985, the American Front emerged in San Francisco. As other groups like the Hammerskins (1987) or Volksfront (1994) were growing in the country, racist skinheads gained acceptance among existing and organized US white power organizations like the Church of the Creator, White Aryan Resistance, National Alliance or KKK, which perceived the popularity of the subculture as an opportunity to expand their audience.


title: White power skinhead

text: At the time of his death in 2002, National Alliance leader William Luther Pierce, who regarded music as an opportunity to reach a young audience and counteract mainstream cultural productions, had become the world's largest white power music producer thanks to his label Resistance Records. In 2004, the white power label Panzerfaust Records launched a "Project Schoolyard USA" to distribute sample CDs to middle and high students across the United States.


title: White power skinhead

text: In the United States, most white power skinhead groups are organized at either the state, county, city or neighborhood level; the Hammerskin Nation is one of the few exceptions, due to its international presence. A 2007 report by the Anti-Defamation League says groups such as white power skinheads, neo-Nazis, and the KKK have been growing more active in the United States, with a particular focus on opposition to illegal immigration. The Aryan Brotherhood has grown in some parts of the United States by swallowing whole skinhead gangs.


title: White power skinhead

text: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) noted in 2020 that the skinhead movement had "almost no young recruits" in the United States. The SPLC writes, "Image-conscious white nationalist groups and militant neo-Nazi groups are attracting the younger generation, while new racist skinhead groups are emerging only from the fragments of existing groups. No group is recruiting in significant numbers." Sarah Lawrence College journalist Chelsea Liu identified their fashion style as one possible reason for the decline, seeing it as "increasingly obsolete" and noting the alt-right's preference for casual clothing.


title: White power skinhead

text: Since the emergence of white power skinheads in the late 1970s, anti-racist forces within the skinhead subculture, sometimes called "Red Skins" when associated with left-wing politics, have sought to resist the white power skinheads, who they often deride as "boneheads".


title: White power skinhead

text: Anti-racist skinheads generally emphasize the multicultural roots of the original skinhead subculture, and the authenticity of the skinhead style, which developed outside of the political realm. They oppose the views of white power skinheads, for whom the skinhead subculture emerged from a "pure white", working-class cultural and social context, emphasizing the "Paki-bashing" of the late 1960s to allege that the original skinheads as "white separatists".


title: White power skinhead

text: The Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP), founded in 1986 in New York City, stress the importance of the Jamaican influence in the original British skinhead subculture. The next largest antiracist skinhead organizations are SLO (Skinheads Liberation Organization) and RASH (Red and Anarchist Skinheads).


title: White power skinhead

text: Early skinheads typically wore steel-toed combat boots or Doc Martens, thin red suspenders, Crombie coats, sheepskin bomber jackets, blue jeans, mohair suits, in addition to a shaved head or very closely-cropped hair.The Anti-Defamation League writes that although steel-toed workboots are typical of both racist and anti-racist skinheads, white power skinheads commonly fit their boots with white- or red-coloured laces to signify their affiliation to the subculture. These laces are usually done in a "ladder" style: laces are done horizontally instead of crossed. In a few gangs, these laces must be "earned" through acts of racist violence against a "perceived enemy of the white race".


title: White power skinhead

text: In the early 2000s, the Lonsdale clothing brand became popular among some neo-Nazi skinheads in Europe, partly due to the association of the four middle letters of Lonsdale – NSDA, the only visible part if worn under open jackets – with NSDAP, the acronym of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party. However, the brand has also been popular since the 1980s among non-Nazi skinheads. Lonsdale has publicly denounced the trend and sponsored various anti-racist events and campaigns.


title: White power skinhead

text: White power skinheads also tend to bear tattoos displaying their affiliation to the white power movement, although some leaders have encouraged members to abstain from receiving tattoos. Frequent depictions include Viking warriors or Berserkers, World War II German soldiers (especially Waffen-SS), and skinheads themselves – often all three together. Tattoos portraying a "crucified skinhead" are also extremely popular among white power skinheads.