title: Panic of 1837

text: In 1842, the American economy was able to rebound somewhat and overcome the five-year depression, but according to most accounts, the economy did not recover until 1844. The recovery from the depression intensified after the California gold rush started in 1848, greatly increasing the money supply. By 1850, the US economy was booming again.


title: Panic of 1837

text: Intangible factors like confidence and psychology played powerful roles and helped to explain the magnitude and the depth of the panic. Central banks then had only limited abilities to control prices and employment, making bank runs common. When a few banks collapsed, alarm quickly spread throughout the community and were heightened by partisan newspapers. Anxious investors rushed to other banks and demanded to have their deposits withdrawn. When faced with such pressure, even healthy banks had to make further curtailments by calling in loans and demanding payment from their borrowers. That fed the hysteria even further, which led to a downward spiral or snowball effect. In other words, anxiety, fear, and a pervasive lack of confidence initiated devastating, self-sustaining feedback loops. Many economists today understand that phenomenon as an information asymmetry. Essentially, bank depositors reacted to imperfect information since they did not know if their deposits were safe and so fearing further risk, they withdrew their deposits, even if it caused more damage. The same concept of downward spiral was true for many southern planters, who speculated in land, cotton, and slaves. Many planters took out loans from banks under the assumption that cotton prices would continue to rise. When cotton prices dropped, however, planters could not pay back their loans, which jeopardized the solvency of many banks. These factors were particularly crucial given the lack of deposit insurance in banks. When bank customers are not assured that their deposits are safe, they are more likely to make rash decisions that can imperil the rest of the economy. Economists have concluded that the suspension of convertibility, deposit insurance, and sufficient capital requirements in banks can limit the possibility of bank runs.


title: Standard electrode potential (data page)

text: The data values of standard electrode potentials ("E"°) are given in the table below, in volts relative to the standard hydrogen electrode, and are for the following conditions:


text: Legend: ("s") – solid; ("l") – liquid; ("g") – gas; ("aq") – aqueous (default for all charged species); ("Hg") – amalgam; bold – water electrolysis equations.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Poland is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is , making it the 69th largest country in the world and the ninth largest in Europe.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: From a nucleus between the Oder and Vistula rivers on the North-Central European Plain, Poland has at its largest extent expanded as far as the Baltic, the Dnieper and the Carpathians, while in periods of weakness it has shrunk drastically or even ceased to exist.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In 1492, the territory of Poland-Lithuania – not counting the fiefs of Mazovia, Moldavia, and East Prussia – covered , making it the largest territory in Europe; by 1793, it had fallen to , the same size as Great Britain, and in 1795, it disappeared completely. The first 20th-century incarnation of Poland, the Second Polish Republic, occupied , while, since 1945, a more westerly Poland covered .


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Poles are the most numerous of the West Slavs and occupy what some believe to be the original homeland of the Slavic peoples. While other groups migrated, the Polanie remained "in situ" along the Vistula, from the river's sources to its estuary at the Baltic Sea. There is no other European nation centred to such an extent on one river. The establishment of a Polish state is often identified with the adoption of Christianity by Mieszko I in 966 CE (see Baptism of Poland), when the state covered territory similar to that of present-day Poland. In 1025 CE, Poland became a kingdom. In 1569, Poland cemented a long association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin, forming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries in 16th- and 17th-century Europe.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had many characteristics that made it unique among states of that era. The Commonwealth's political system, often called the Noble's Democracy or Golden Freedom, was characterized by the sovereign's power being reduced by laws and the legislature (Sejm), which was controlled by the nobility (szlachta). This system was a precursor to the modern concepts of broader democracy and constitutional monarchy. The two comprising states of the Commonwealth were formally equal, although in reality Poland was a dominant partner in the union. Its population was hallmarked by a high level of ethnic and confessional diversity, and the state was noted for having religious tolerance unusual for its age, although the degree of tolerance varied over time.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In the late 18th century, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth began to collapse. Its neighbouring states were able to slowly dismember the Commonwealth. In 1795, Poland's territory was completely partitioned among the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire, and Austria. Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic in 1918 after World War I, but lost it in World War II through occupation by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Poland lost over six million citizens in World War II, emerging several years later as the socialist People's Republic of Poland within the Eastern Bloc, under strong Soviet influence.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: During the Revolutions of 1989, communist rule was overthrown and Poland became what is constitutionally known as the "Third Polish Republic." Poland is a unitary state made up of sixteen voivodeships (). Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Poland currently has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and one of the most populous members of the European Union.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In the period following the emergence of Poland in the 10th century, the Polish nation was led by a series of rulers of the Piast dynasty, who converted the Poles to Christianity, created a sizeable Central European state, and integrated Poland into European culture. Formidable foreign enemies and internal fragmentation eroded this initial structure in the 13th century, but consolidation in the 14th century laid the base for the Polish Kingdom.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila, the Jagiellon dynasty (1385–1569) ruled the Polish–Lithuanian union. The Lublin Union of 1569 established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as an influential player in European politics and a vital cultural entity.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In 1525, during the Protestant Reformation, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert of Hohenzollern, secularized the order's Prussian territory, becoming Albert, Duke of Prussia. The Duchy of Prussia, which had its capital in Königsberg, was established as a fief of the Crown of Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a vassal state of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom from 1569 to 1726, and incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1726. In 1561, during the Livonian Wars, the Livonian Confederation was dismantled and the Livonian Order, an order of German knights, was disbanded. On the basis of the Treaty of Vilnius, the southern part of Estonia and the northern part of Latvia were ceded to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and formed into the Ducatus Ultradunensis (Pārdaugavas hercogiste).


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Territorial changes before and during the Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385), ending with the Union of Krewo.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Mieszko I of Poland was the first historical ruler of the first independent Polish state ever recorded- Duchy of Poland. He was responsible for the introduction and subsequent spread of Christianity in Poland. During his long reign most of the territories inhabited by Polish tribes and other West Slavs were temporarily added to his territory into a single Polish state, soon to be independent again. The last of his conquests were Silesia and Lesser Poland that were incorporated some time before 990.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: During the reign of Bolesław the Brave, relations between Poland and the Holy Roman Empire deteriorated, resulting in a series of wars (1002–1005, 1007–1013, 1015–1018). From 1003–1004 Bolesław intervened militarily in Czech dynastic conflicts. After his forces were removed from Bohemia in 1018, Bolesław retained Moravia. In 1013, the marriage between Bolesław's son Mieszko and Richeza of Lotharingia, the niece of Emperor Otto III and future mother of Casimir I the Restorer, took place. The conflicts with Germany ended in 1018 with the Peace of Bautzen accord, on favorable terms for Bolesław. In the context of the 1018 Kiev expedition, Bolesław took over the western part of Red Ruthenia. In 1025, shortly before his death, Bolesław I the Brave finally succeeded in obtaining the papal permission to crown himself, and became the first king of Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The first Piast monarchy collapsed after the death of Bolesław's son – king Mieszko II in 1034. Deprived of a government, Poland was ravaged by an anti-feudal and pagan rebellion, and in 1039 by the forces of King Bretislav of Bohemia. The country suffered territorial losses, and the functioning of the Gniezno archdiocese was disrupted.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: After returning from exile in 1039, Duke Casimir I (1016–1058), properly known as the Restorer, rebuilt the Polish monarchy and the country's territorial integrity through several military campaigns: in 1047, Masovia was taken back from Miecław, and in 1050 Silesia from the Czechs. Casimir was aided by the recent adversaries of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire and Kievan Rus, both of whom disliked the chaos in Poland. Casimir's son Bolesław II the Generous managed to restore most of the country's strength and influence and was able to crown himself king in 1076. In 1079 there was an anti-Bolesław conspiracy or conflict that involved the Bishop of Cracow. Bolesław had Bishop Stanislaus of Szczepanów executed; subsequently Bolesław was forced to abdicate the Polish throne because of the pressure from the Catholic Church and the pro-imperial faction of the nobility. The rule over Poland passed into the hands of his younger brother Władysław Herman.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: After a power struggle, Bolesław III the Wry-mouthed (son of Władysław Herman, ruled 1102–1138) became the Duke of Poland by defeating his half-brother in 1106–1107. Bolesław's major achievement was the reconquest of all of Mieszko I's Pomerania, a task begun by his father and completed by Bolesław around 1123. Szczecin was subdued in a bloody takeover and Western Pomerania up to Rügen, except for the directly incorporated southern part, became Bolesław's fief, to be ruled locally by Wartislaw I, the first duke of the Griffin dynasty.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: At this time, Christianization of the region was initiated in earnest, an effort crowned by the establishment of the Pomeranian Wolin Diocese after Bolesław's death in 1140.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty was a political act by the Piast duke Bolesław III Wrymouth of Poland, in which he established rules for governance of the Polish kingdom by his four surviving sons after his death. By issuing it, Bolesław planned to guarantee that his heirs would not fight among themselves, and would preserve the unity of his lands under the House of Piast. However, he failed; soon after his death his sons fought each other, and Poland entered a period of fragmentation lasting about 200 years.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In the first half of the 13th century Silesian duke Henry I the Bearded, reunited much of the divided Kingdom of Poland ("Regnum Poloniae"). His expeditions led him as far north as the Duchy of Pomerania, where for a short time he held some of its southern areas. He became the duke of Cracow (Polonia Minor) in 1232, which gave him the title of senior duke of Poland (see Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty), and came into possession of most of Greater Poland in 1234. Henry failed in his attempt to achieve the Polish crown. His activity in this field was continued by his son and successor Henry II the Pious, until his sudden death in 1241 (Battle of Legnica). His successors were not able to maintain their holdings outside of Silesia, which were lost to other Piast dukes. Polish historians refer to territories acquired by Silesian dukes in this period as "Monarchia Henryków śląskich" ("The monarchy of the Silesian Henries"). In those days Wrocław was the political center of the divided Kingdom of Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Few years after the death of Henry II the Pious his son – Bolesław II the Bald – sold the northwest part of his duchy – the Lubusz Land – to Magdeburg's Archbishop Wilbrand von Käfernburg and the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. This had far reaching negative consequences for the integrity of the western border, leading to an expansion of Brandenburg possessions into the east of Odra river. As a result, a wide piece of land was annexed from Poland and Pomerania that together with Lubusz Land formed the newly established Brandenburgian province of Neumark.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In 1295, Przemysł II of Greater Poland became the first, since Bolesław II, Piast duke crowned as King of Poland, but he ruled over only a part of the territory of Poland (including from 1294 Gdańsk Pomerania) and was assassinated soon after his coronation.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: A more extensive unification of Polish lands was accomplished by a foreign ruler, Wenceslaus II of Bohemia of the Přemyslid dynasty, who married Przemysł's daughter and became King of Poland in 1300. Václav's heavy-handed policies soon caused him to lose whatever support he had earlier in his reign; he died in 1305.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: After the death of Wenceslaus III of Bohemia – son of Wenceslaus II – in 1306, most of the Polish Lands came under the rule of duke Władysław I the Elbow-high. However at this points, various foreign states were staking their claims on some parts of Poland. Margraviate of Brandenburg invaded Pomerelia in 1308, leading Władysław I the Elbow-high to request assistance from the Teutonic Knights, who evicted the Brandenburgers but took the area for themselves, annexed and incorporated it into the Teutonic Order state in 1309 (Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) and Treaty of Soldin/Myślibórz). This event caused a long-lasting dispute between Poland and the Teutonic Order over the control of Gdańsk Pomerania. It resulted in a series of Polish–Teutonic Wars throughout 14th and 15th centuries.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: During this time, all Silesian dukes accepted Władysław's claims for sovereignty over other Piasts. After acquiring papal consent for his coronation, all nine dukes of Silesia declared twice (in 1319 before and in 1320 after the coronation) that their realms lay inside the borders of the Polish Kingdom. However, despite formal papal consent for the coronation, Władysław's right to the crown was disputed by successors of Wenceslaus III (a king of both Bohemia and Poland) on the Bohemian throne. In 1327 John of Bohemia invaded. After the intervention of King Charles I of Hungary he left Polonia Minor, but on his way back he enforced his supremacy over the Upper Silesian Piasts.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In 1329 Władysław I the Elbow-high fought with the Teutonic Order. The Order was supported by John of Bohemia who dominated the dukes of Masovia and Lower Silesia.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In 1335 John of Bohemia renounced his claim in favour of Casimir the Great, who in return renounced his claims to the Silesia province. This was formalized in the Treaty of Trentschin and Congress of Visegrád (1335), ratified in 1339 and later confirmed in the 1348 Treaty of Namslau.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: King Casimir, being deprived of historically and ethnically Polish lands of Silesia and Pomerelia sought a compensation of this loses in the east. Through a series of military campaigns between 1340 and 1366 Casimir had annexed the Halych–Volodymyr area of Rus'. The city of Lwów quickly developed to become a main town of this new region.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Allied with Denmark and Western Pomerania, Casimir was able to impose some corrections on the western border as well. In 1365 Drezdenko and Santok became Poland's fiefs, while Wałcz district was in 1368 taken outright, severing the land connection between Brandenburg and the Teutonic state and connecting Poland with Farther Pomerania.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Territorial changes during the Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569), starting with the Union of Krewo and ending with the Union of Lublin.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Territorial changes during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, starting with the Union of Lublin and ending with the Third Partition of Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: During the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618), the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth controlled Moscow for two years, from 29 September 1610 to 6 November 1612.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Sweden, weakened by involvement in the Thirty Years' War, agreed to sign the Armistice of Stuhmsdorf (also known as Treaty of Sztumska Wieś or Treaty of Stuhmsdorf) in 1635, favourable to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in terms of territorial concessions.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In the history of Poland and Lithuania, the Deluge refers to a series of wars in the mid-to-late 17th century that left the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in ruins.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Deluge refers to the Swedish invasion and occupation of the western half of Poland-Lithuania from 1655 to 1660 and the Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1648, which led to Russia's invasion during the Russo-Polish War.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The was a treaty signed on September 19, 1657, in the eastern Prussian town of Wehlau (Welawa, now Znamensk) between Poland and Brandenburg-Prussia during the Swedish Deluge. The treaty granted independence to Prussia in recognition of its help against the Swedish forces during the Deluge.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In the , the Polish King, John II Casimir, renounced his claims to the Swedish crown, which his father Sigismund III Vasa had lost in 1599. Poland formally ceded Swedish Livonia and the city of Riga, which had been under de facto Swedish control since the 1620s. The signing of the treaty ended Swedish involvement in the Deluge.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The ended with the of January 13, 1667. The peace settlement gave Moscow control over the so-called with the Polish Commonwealth retaining Right-bank Ukraine. The signing of the Treaty ended Russian occupation of the Polish confederation and the Deluge war. Since the war started the population of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had been nearly halved by war and disease. War had destroyed the economic base of the cities and raised a religious fervour that ended Poland's policy of religious tolerance.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: As a result of the Polish–Ottoman War the Polish commonwealth ceded Podolia in the 1672 Treaty of Buczacz.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 was a treaty between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth signed on May 6, 1686, in Moscow. It confirmed the earlier Truce of Andrusovo of 1667. The treaty secured Russia's possession of the Left-bank Ukraine, Zaporozh'ye, Seversk lands, the cities of Chernihiv, Starodub, and Smolensk and its outskirts, while Poland retained Right-bank Ukraine.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Treaty of Karlowitz, or Treaty of Karlovci, was signed on January 26, 1699, in Sremski Karlovci, a town in modern-day Serbia. The Treaty of Karlowitz was signed following a two-month congress between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League of 1684, a coalition of various European powers including the Habsburg Monarchy, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Republic of Venice, and the Russia of Peter I Alekseyevich. The treaty concluded the Austro-Ottoman War of 1683–1697, in which the Ottoman side had finally been defeated at the Battle of Senta. The Ottomans ceded most of Hungary, Transylvania, and Slavonia to Austria while Podolia returned to Poland. Most of Dalmatia passed to Venice, along with the Morea (the Peloponnesus peninsula) and Crete.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In February 1772, an agreement for the partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was signed in Vienna. Early in August Russian, Prussian and Austrian troops simultaneously entered the Commonwealth and occupied the provinces agreed upon among themselves.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: By the first partition in 1772, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lost about (30% of its territory, amounting at that time to about ), with a population of over four to five million people (about a third of its population of 14 million before the partition).


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: By the 1790s the First Polish Republic had deteriorated into such a helpless condition that it was successfully forced into an alliance with its enemy, Prussia. The alliance was cemented with the Polish–Prussian Pact of 1790. The conditions of the Pact were such that the succeeding and final two partitions of Poland were inevitable. The May Constitution of 1791 enfranchised the bourgeoisie, established the separation of the three branches of government, and eliminated the abuses of Repnin Sejm.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Those reforms prompted aggressive actions on the part of Poland's neighbours, wary of a potential renaissance of the Commonwealth. In the second partition, Russia and Prussia took so much territory that only one-third of the 1772 population remained in Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Kosciuszko's insurgent armies, who fought to regain Polish territory, won some initial successes but they eventually fell before the forces of the Russian Empire. The partitioning powers, seeing the increasing unrest in the remaining Commonwealth, decided to solve the problem by erasing any independent Polish state from the map. On 24 October 1795 their representatives signed a treaty dividing the remaining territories of the Commonwealth between their three countries.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Territorial changes during the time after the Partitions, starting with the Third Partition of Poland and ending with the creation of the Second Polish Republic.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Napoleon's attempts to build and expand his empire kept Europe at war for almost a decade and brought him into conflict with the same European powers that had beleaguered Poland in the last decades of the previous century. An alliance of convenience was the result of this situation. Volunteer Polish legions attached themselves to Bonaparte's armies, hoping that in return the emperor would allow an independent Poland to reappear out of his conquests.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Prussia had acquired the City of Danzig in the course of the Second Partition of Poland in 1793. After the defeat of King Frederick William III of Prussia at the 1806 Battle of Jena–Auerstedt, according to the Franco-Prussian Treaty of Tilsit of 9 July 1807, the territory of the free state was carved out from lands that made up part of the West Prussia province.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In 1809, a short war with Austria started. Although the Duchy of Warsaw won the Battle of Raszyn, Austrian troops entered Warsaw, but Duchy and French forces then outflanked their enemy and captured Cracow, Lwów and much of the areas annexed by Austria in the Partitions of Poland. After the Battle of Wagram, the ensuing Treaty of Schönbrunn allowed for a significant expansion of the Duchy's territory southwards with the regaining of once-Polish and Lithuanian lands.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Following Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia, the duchy was occupied by Prussian and Russian troops until 1815, when it was formally partitioned between the two countries at the Congress of Vienna.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Congress Poland was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, when European states reorganized Europe following the Napoleonic wars.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Grand Duchy of Posen was a region in the Kingdom of Prussia in the Polish lands commonly known as "Greater Poland" between the years 1815–1848. According to the Congress of Vienna, it was to have autonomy. In practice, it was subordinated to Prussia and the proclaimed rights for Poles were not respected. The name was unofficially used afterwards for denoting the territory, especially by Poles, and today is used by modern historians to describe different political entities until 1918. Its capital was Posen (Polish: Poznań).


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Cracow with its Territory, more commonly known as either the Free City of Cracow or Republic of Cracow, was a city-state created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: After the November Uprising, Congress Poland lost its status as a sovereign state in 1831 and the administrative division of Congress Poland was reorganized. Russia issued an "organic decree" preserving the rights of individuals in Congress Poland but abolished the Sejm. This meant Poland was subject to rule by Russian military decree.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In the aftermath of the unsuccessful Cracow Uprising, the Free City of Cracow was annexed by the Austrian Empire.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: After the defeat of Congress Poland, many Prussian liberals sympathised with the demand for the restoration of the Polish state. In the spring of 1848 the new liberal Prussian government allowed some autonomy to the Grand Duchy of Posen in the hope of contributing to the cause of a new Polish homeland. Due to a number of factors, including the outrage of the German-speaking minority in Posen, the Prussian government reversed course. By April 1848, the Prussian army had already suppressed the Polish militias and National Committees that emerged in March. By the end of the year the Duchy had lost the last vestiges of its formal autonomy, and was downgraded to a Province of the Prussian kingdom.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Territorial changes during the Second Polish Republic and the joint German-Soviet occupation of Poland, starting with the formation of the Republic and ending with the end of the occupation.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The West Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed on November 1, 1918, with Lviv (Lwów) as its capital. The Ukrainian Republic claimed sovereignty over Eastern Galicia, including the Carpathians up to the city of Nowy Sącz in the west (despite of Polish majority), as well as Volhynia, Carpathian Ruthenia and Bukovina. Although the majority of the population of the Western-Ukrainian People's Republic were Ukrainians, Poles and Jews, large parts of the claimed territory were considered Polish by the Poles. In Lwów (Lviv) the Ukrainian minority supported the proclamation, the city's significant Jewish minority accepted, remained neutral or had a negative attitude towards the Ukrainian proclamation, and the Polish majority was shocked to find themselves in a proclaimed Ukrainian state. Due to the fact that Poles constituted over 60% of Lviv's inhabitants, almost 30% Jews, and Ukrainians below 10%, the vast majority of the city's inhabitants were against the fact that Lviv belonged to Ukraine and they wanted it to belong to Poland again.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In the aftermath of World War I, the Polish people rose up in the Greater Poland Uprising on December 27, 1918, in Poznań after a patriotic speech by Ignacy Paderewski, a famous Polish pianist. The fighting continued until June 28, 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed, which recreated the nation of Poland. From the defeated German Empire, Poland received the following:


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: On July 17, 1919, a ceasefire was signed in the Polish–Ukrainian War with the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR). As part of the agreement Poland kept ZUNR territory. The West Ukrainian People's Republic then merged with the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR). On June 25, 1919, Supreme Allies Council transferred East Galicia (ZUNR territory) to Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Polish–Soviet War (February 1919 – March 1921) was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine on the one hand and the Second Polish Republic and the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic on the other. The war was the result of conflicting expansionist ambitions. Poland, whose statehood had just been re-established by the Treaty of Versailles following the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, sought to secure territories it had lost at the time of the partitions. The aim of the Soviet states was to control those same territories, which the Russian Empire had gained in the partitions of Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Free City of Danzig (Gdańsk) was created on 15 November 1920 in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. As the Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from Germany and from Poland, but it was not an independent state. The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a binding customs union with Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in order to give Poland access to a good-sized seaport.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Polish–Lithuanian War was an armed conflict between Lithuania and the Second Polish Republic, lasting from August 1920 to October 7, 1920, in the aftermath of World War I, not long after both countries had regained their independence. It was part of a wider conflict over disputed territorial control of the cities of Vilnius (), Suwałki () and Augustów ().


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In the aftermath of the war the Republic of Central Lithuania was created in 1920 following the staged rebellion of soldiers of the 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division of the Polish Army, supported by the Polish air force, cavalry and artillery. Centered on the historical capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilna (, ), for eighteen months the entity served as a buffer state between Poland, upon which it depended, and Lithuania, which claimed the area.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Soon after the Battle of Warsaw the Bolsheviks sued for peace. The Poles, exhausted, constantly pressured by the Western governments and the League of Nations, and with its army controlling the majority of the disputed territories, were willing to negotiate. The Soviets made two offers: one on September 21 and the other on September 28. The Polish delegation made a counteroffer on October 2. On the October 5, the Soviets offered amendments to the Polish offer, which Poland accepted. The armistice between Poland on the one side and Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Russia on the other was signed on October 12 and went into effect on October 18. Long negotiations ensued, with the Treaty of Riga being signed in March 1921. The assessment of relative advantage is not universally agreed. Outcome assessments vary, mostly between calling the result a Polish victory and being inconclusive, with the latter mostly by Soviet-era Russian historians. However, in his secret report to the 9th Conference of the Bolshevik Party on 20 September 1920, Lenin called the outcome of the war "In a word, a gigantic, unheard-of defeat", considering he wanted to reach the German communist revolutionaries to aid them and establish a socialist marxist republic there.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: During the closing years of World War I Polish and Czechoslovak diplomats met to arrange a common border between the two new countries. By the time armistice was declared, most of the border was agreed except for three small politically and economically sensitive areas with both Polish and Czechoslovak residents: Cieszyn, Orawa, and Spisz.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Cieszyn Silesia or the Duchy of Cieszyn ( and ) was a small area that the pre-World War I census showed was predominantly Polish in three districts (Teschen, Bielsko and Frysztat) and mainly Czech in the fourth district of Frydek. The economic importance of Cieszyn Silesia lay in the rich coal basin around Karvina and in the valuable Košice–Bohumín Railway, which linked Bohemia with Slovakia. In northern Cieszyn Silesia, the railroad junction of Bohumín ( and ) served as a crossroads for international transport and communications.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Claims over these regions turned violent in 1919 with a brief military conflict, the Seven-day war, between Polish and Czechoslovak units. The Allied governments pressed for a ceasefire and on 3 February 1919 a Polish–Czech border agreement was signed on the basis of the 5 November 1918 ethnic division agreement. This was later changed at the Conference of Ambassadors in Spa, Belgium on 28 July 1920. Cieszyn () was divided along the Olza river between the two newly created states of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The smaller western suburbs of Cieszyn were joined to Czechoslovakia as the new town of Český Těšín along with the railroad and the Karvina coal basin. Poland received the portion of Cieszyn east of the Olza river. The Conference of Ambassadors divided the region just as the Red Army was nearing Warsaw.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The county of Orawa () arose before the 15th century. The county's territory is situated along the Orava River between Zazriva and the Tatra Mountains. Spisz () is situated between the High Tatras and the Dunajec River in the north, the springs of the Váh River in the west, the Slovak Ore Mountains and the Hnilec River in the south, and a line running from the town of Stara Ľubovňa, via the Branisko Mountains, to the town of Margecany in the east. While the Orawa and Spisz border was in arbitration, many groups fought to be a part of Poland, including a number of Polish authors. They began to write about an alleged three hundred thousand Poles living in the Orawa territory.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Conference of Ambassadors decided that Czechoslovakia would cede to Poland a number of villages from the Orawa and Spisz regions, including the municipalities of Oravy Srnie, Podvlk, Harkabúz, Nižná Zubrica, Vyšná Zubrica, Oravka, Bukovina-Podsklie, Pekelník, Jablonka, Chyžné, Hladovka, Suchá Hora, Vyšná Lipnica, a part of Nižné Lipnice and 4.2% of the rather Belá new communities, with Fridman (Falštin settlement), Krempach, Tribš, Durštín, Čierna Hora, Jurgov, Repiská, Vyšné lapse, Nižné lapse, Nedeca, Kacvín and Lapšanka.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In late 1921 a border adjustment between the Weimar Republic and Poland took place as a result of the Silesian Uprisings. The uprising were a series of three armed rebellions that took place between 1919 and 1921 by the Polish people in the Upper Silesia region against the Weimar Republic. The Polish people of the region wanted to join the Second Polish Republic, which had been established following World War I. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles had called for a plebiscite in Upper Silesia in 1921 to determine whether the territory should be a part of Germany or Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The plebiscite took place on March 20, 1921, two days after the signing of the Treaty of Riga, which ended the Polish–Soviet War. In the plebiscite, 707,605 votes were cast for Germany, and 479,359 for Poland. The Germans had a majority, by 228,246 votes. In late April 1921, rumours flew that Upper Silesia would stay in Germany. This led to the Third Polish Uprising in May–July 1921. The question of the Upper Silesia problem was turned over to a council of the League of Nations. The commission, consisting of four representatives—one each from Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and China. The commission gathered its own data, interviewing Poles and Germans from the region. On the basis of the reports of this commission and those of its experts, in October 1921 the Council awarded the greater part of the Upper Silesian industrial district to Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: After a variety of delays, a disputed election to join Poland took place on January 8, 1922, and the Republic of Central Lithuania became part of Poland, finalizing the geography of Poland's eastern "Kresy" region until the Invasion of Poland in 1939.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Polish government was not satisfied with the Czechoslovakia-Polish border decided from the Paris Peace Conference or from the Conference of Ambassadors. The conflict was only resolved by the Council of the League of Nations' Permanent Court of International Justice on March 12, 1924, which decided that Czechoslovakia should retain the territory of Javorzyna. and which entailed (in June of the same year) an additional exchange of territories in Orava – the territory around Lipnica Wielka (Nižná Lipnica) went to Poland, the territory around Suchá Hora (Sucha Gora) and Hladovka (Glodowka) went to Czechoslovakia.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: As Czechoslovakia was being absorbed into the German Reich, Zaolzie, the Czech half of Cieszyn, was annexed by Poland in 1938 following the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award. At noon on September 30, Poland gave an ultimatum to the Czechoslovak government. It demanded the immediate evacuation of Czech troops and police from Zaolzie and gave Prague until noon the following day. At 11:45 a.m. on October 1 the Czech foreign ministry called the Polish ambassador in Prague and told him that Poland could have what it wanted. Poland was accused of being an accomplice of Nazi Germany.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Poland seized land from northern Spisz and northern Orawa, including territories around Suchá Hora and Hladovka, around Javorina, around Leśnica in the Pieniny Mountains, a small territory around Skalité, and some other very small border regions. They officially received the territories on 1 November 1938. Polish military groups began to carry out assimilation of the population. Polish was introduced as the only official language and the Slovak Intelligence were displaced from the territories.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland and partitioned it pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: After the invasion, Germany annexed the lands it lost to reformed Poland in 1919–1922 by the Treaty of Versailles: the Polish Corridor, West Prussia, the Province of Posen, and parts of eastern Upper Silesia. The council of the Free City of Danzig voted to become a part of Germany again, although Poles and Jews were deprived of their voting rights and all non-Nazi political parties were banned. Parts of Poland that had not been part of Wilhelmine Germany were also incorporated into the Reich.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Two decrees by Adolf Hitler (October 8 and October 12, 1939) provided for the division of the annexed areas of Poland into the following administrative units:


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: These territories had an area of and a population of 10,000,000 people. The remaining Polish territory was annexed by the Soviet Union or made into the German-controlled General Government occupation zone. Eastern areas of Poland became part of either Soviet Belarus (including Białystok, Łomża, Baranowicze and Brest) or Soviet Ukraine (including Lwów, Tarnopol, Lutsk, Rowne and Stanisławów). The city of Vilnius (Polish: "Wilno") with its adjacent area was seized by the Soviet Union and returned to Lithuania.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the district of Białystok, which included the Białystok, Bielsk Podlaski, Grajewo, Łomża, Sokółka, Volkovysk, and Grodno Counties, was "attached to" (not incorporated into) East Prussia. The former Lwow, Stanislawow and Tarnopol Voivodeships were annexed to the General Government, forming its fifth district, Distrikt Galizien.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Territorial changes during the Polish People's Republic and modern Third Polish Republic, since the end of World War II.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: At the end of World War II, the Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. There were extensive changes to the territorial extent of Poland, following the decision taken at the Tehran Conference of 1943 at the insistence of the Soviet Union. The Polish territories east of the Curzon Line (known as the Kresy), which the Soviet Union had occupied in 1939 along with the Bialystok region were permanently annexed, resulting in Poland losing over 20% of its pre-war borders. While a large portion of this area was predominately populated by Ukrainians and Belarusians, most of their Polish inhabitants were expelled. Today these territories are part of Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: Poland received former German territory east of the Oder–Neisse line, consisting of the southern two thirds of East Prussia and most of Pomerania, Neumark (East Brandenburg), and Silesia. Poland also received the town of Swinemünde (now Świnoujście) on the island of Usedom and the city of Stettin (now Szczecin) on the western bank of the Oder river in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. The German population was expelled and these territories were repopulated mainly with Poles from central Poland and those expelled from the eastern regions. Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken by the occupying Soviet and Polish Communist military authorities even before the Potsdam Conference ("wild expulsions"). The new borders between the two post-war German states and Poland were later reaffirmed in the Treaty of Zgorzelec with East Germany (1950) and in the Treaty of Warsaw (1970) with West Germany.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: On August 16, 1945, a border agreement between Poland and the USSR was signed. The western portion of the Byelorussian SSR was granted to Poland. The Belastok Voblast was divided into Soviet Brest Voblast, Hrodna Voblast and Polish Białystok Voivodeship.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: As a result, Poland lost about of its pre-war territory in the east, but gained some in the west and north.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: After the Second World War the Czechoslovak government wanted to return to the 1920 border between the two nations, while Polish inhabitants of Zaolzie were in favour of the boundary of August 31, 1939. On May 20, 1945, in Trstena an agreement for a return to the 1938 borders of Poland was signed and the following day the Czechoslovak border guards moved to the old Czechoslovak border. At several places there were fights between Polish and Czechoslovak militias, but the situation calmed with the arrival of Polish troops on July 17, 1945. The Polish government still did not want to give up Zaolzie, and on June 16, 1945, Marshall Michał Rola-Żymierski issued directive number 00336, which ordered the 1st Armoured Corps of the Polish Army to concentrate in the area of Prudnik, Rybnik and Cieszyn, and to seize Zaolzie. However, the Soviets decided to hand the region to Czechoslovakia, and the Poles followed the Moscow directive. The Czechs demanded former German areas of Klodzko, Glubczyce, and Racibórz, but after Soviet mediation, all sides signed a treaty on September 21, 1945, which accepted the December 31, 1937, Polish – Czechoslovak and Czechoslovak – German borderline as the boundary between the two countries.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: The Polish border underwent a minor correction in 1948, when the village of Medyka near Przemyśl was transferred to Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In 1949, there was modest exchange of territory between the Polish People's Republic and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). What is now the B 104/B 113 road junction at Linken, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to the immediate west of the Polish town of Lubieszyn was transferred from Poland to the GDR in return for a narrow strip of land lying directly on the west side of the road that connected the settlements of Linki and Buk. This move necessitated the creation of a new road linking Lubieszyn to Linki and Buk that mirrored the new shape of the border.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: On February 15, 1951 Aleksander Zawadzki (acting in the name of the President of the Polish Republic) and Andrey Vyshinsky (acting in the name of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) signed "Treaty No. 6222. Agreement between the Polish Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics concerning the exchange of sectors of their state territories". The treaty was a border adjustment, with Poland and the Soviet Union exchanging .


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In 1951, a small area of land on Usedom Island (Polish: Uznam) was ceded from the German Democratic Republic (Eastern Germany) to Poland. The water pumping station for Świnoujście (German: Swinemünde) lies on that land and was therefore handed over to Poland. In return, a similarly-sized area north of Mescherin, including the village of Staffelde (Polish: Staw), was transferred from Poland to the German Democratic Republic.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: On June 13, 1958, the "Agreement concerning the final demarcation of the state frontier" between Czechoslovakia and Poland was signed in Warsaw. Adam Rapacki signed for Poland and Václav David signed for Czechoslovakia. The treaty confirmed the border at the line of January 1, 1938, the situation before the Nazi-imposed Munich Agreement transferred territory from Czechoslovakia to Poland.


title: Territorial evolution of Poland

text: In March 1975 Czechoslovakia and Poland modified their border along the Dunajec to permit Poland to construct a dam in the Czorsztyn region, southeast of Krakow.


title: Nicholas Hamilton

text: Nicholas William Hamilton (born 4 May 2000) is an Australian actor, musician and singer best known for portraying Rellian in "Captain Fantastic" and Henry Bowers in "It" and "It Chapter Two".


title: Nicholas Hamilton

text: Hamilton was born in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia to Vicki Atkins and Craig Hamilton and grew up in Alstonville. Nicholas graduated from Alstonville High School in 2018. He has a brother named Joshua "JJ" Hamilton and two sisters namely Rebecca Hamilton and Rachel Hamilton. His uncle died from cancer in 2011, which he credits as starting his career, stating "I knew I had to pursue acting for him." His first role was the part of Elvis in a grade five school play - Hamilton said he reluctantly took it, but 'really enjoyed [the] whole process' of rehearsal. He later joined a local acting agency.


title: Nicholas Hamilton

text: Hamilton gained industry attention in the 2013 short film "Time", directed by Liam Connor. He played a young boy who believed in time travel. The film was a finalist of the 2013 Tropfest Short Film Festival, and Hamilton won an award at the festival for Best Male Actor. This gained him the attention of Catherine Poulton, an agent in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He began his screen career with a role in "", and parts in short films such as "Jackrabbit" and "Letter to Annabelle".


title: Nicholas Hamilton

text: Hamilton's first role in a feature film was as Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes' son in the Australian drama-suspense film "Strangerland". In early 2016, he landed a guest role in "Wanted" alongside Rebecca Gibney. His first American performance was as Rellian in 2016's "Captain Fantastic", for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Young Artist Awards, along with the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In 2014, after filming "Captain Fantastic", he joined with WME and 3 Arts Entertainment. In 2017, he portrayed Lucas Hanson in the film adaptation of "The Dark Tower", as well as his most well-known character portrayal of Henry Bowers in "IT". To prepare for the role of Bowers, he read the original novel and liaised with Jarred Blancard, who portrayed Bowers in the 1990 miniseries. In 2018, it was announced he would portray Private Noel Grimes in "Danger Close", an Australian film centered on the Battle of Long Tan and "Endless/Undying" as Chris, a teenager who finds himself trapped in a purgatory searching for a way to make contact with his true love. He returned as young Henry Bowers in "It Chapter Two", released in 2019.


title: Nicholas Hamilton

text: In June 2021, Hamilton appeared in Season 2 of Hulu's "Love, Victor". He also led "Action Royale", a Snapchat Original Series as Trilby, a teenager who starts an underground esports gambling ring to pay off his father's debts and is slated to appear in true-story-film "Brave The Dark" as Nate, a homeless teen struggling to find his purpose and the courage to confront the darkness of his past.


title: Nicholas Hamilton

text: In January 2021, he released his debut single, "Different Year". He subsequently released singles "noRoom", a duet between Hamilton and co-writer Savs, "In Line" and "Pretty Young", the latter becoming the title track of his 2021 debut EP of the same name. This EP also features the tracks "Everything to Lose" and "Intro".


title: Nicholas Hamilton

text: Hamilton moved from his home country of Australia to Los Angeles in 2019 at the age of 18. He has a dog named Nala.


title: Nicholas Hamilton

text: Hamilton has also gained fame on the social media site TikTok, where he has gained a following by making cocktails and tasting ready-made alcoholic beverages.


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Christopher Tony Wolstenholme (born 2 December 1978) is an English musician. He is the bassist and backing vocalist for the rock band Muse.


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Chris Wolstenholme grew up in the English town of Rotherham before moving to Teignmouth, Devon, where he played drums for a post-punk band. He met Matt Bellamy and Dominic Howard from another band while both bands rehearsed in the same building. Bellamy and Howard convinced Wolstenholme to take up bass and start a new band with them, initially called Rocket Baby Dolls. The band was renamed Muse in 1994.


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: The members of Muse played in separate school bands during their stay at Teignmouth Community College in the early 1990s. Guitarist Bellamy successfully auditioned for drummer Howard's band, Carnage Mayhem, becoming its singer and songwriter. They asked Wolstenholme, at that time the drummer for "Fixed Penalty", to join as bassist; he agreed and took up bass lessons.


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Wolstenholme featured on bass for Moriaty's 2015 single "Bones". He also contributed to Rick Parfitt's posthumous solo album "Over and Out", which was released in March 2018.


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Wolstenholme's basslines are a central motif of many Muse songs; the band combines bass guitar with effects and synthesisers to create overdriven fuzz bass tones. Like Bellamy, Wolstenholme uses touch-screen controllers built into a few of his instruments to control synthesisers and effects including Kaoss Pads or Digitech Whammy pedals.


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Wolstenholme mostly plays fingerstyle. According to producer Rich Costey, who has worked with Muse on several occasions, "His finger strength is staggering ... He hits the strings really goddamn hard. It sounds that way because that's the way he plays."


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Wolstenholme wrote and sang lead vocals on two Muse songs, "Liquid State" and "Save Me", from their sixth album, "The 2nd Law" (2012).


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Wolstenholme also has played guitar on "Unintented", "Hoodoo", "Blackout", "Guiding Light", "The Globalist", and "Dig Down (acoustic)", and keyboard on early performances of "Time Is Running Out" and "Blackout", as well as "Something Human", "Propaganda", and "The Void". He has also used a Misa Kitara digital guitar on "Madness", "Dig Down", and "Break It to Me".


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Wolstenholme married his girlfriend, Kelly, on 23 December 2003. They have six children. In April 2010, Chris and Kelly moved to Foxrock, County Dublin, Ireland. In 2012, they moved to London while Muse recorded.


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: After Wolstenholme and Kelly divorced, Wolstenholme married Caris Ball on 1 December 2018, the day before his 40th birthday. The couple have two children, a daughter and a son, as well as Ball's daughters Tabitha and Indiana, giving Wolstenholme ten children in total.


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Wolstenholme is a supporter of Rotherham United, his hometown football team. He holds an honorary doctorate of arts from the University of Plymouth.


title: Chris Wolstenholme

text: Wolstenholme has struggled with alcoholism. In a 2011 interview, he said he would drink so much he would vomit blood, but did not grasp the severity of his situation. His bandmates had tried to broach the subject of his drinking several times without success. Wolstenholme eventually realised that drinking would kill him, as it had his father. His bandmates did not notice his problem for several years; according to Bellamy, "He's such a good musician that his motor skills or something just aren't affected. So he would come in and play brilliantly and then we wouldn't see him for a bit. We'd have a great gig and he'd go off to his room so we wouldn't really know what was going on." Wolstenholme's alcoholism did not affect his playing until the recording of Muse's fifth album "The Resistance" (2009), at which point he went into rehab. His experiences inspired the lyrics of "Liquid State" and "Save Me", from Muse's sixth album, "The 2nd Law" (2012).


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Enlightened absolutism (also called enlightened despotism) refers to the conduct and policies of European absolute monarchs during the 18th and early 19th centuries who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, espousing them to enhance their power. The concept originated during the Enlightenment period in the 18th and into the early 19th centuries.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: An enlightened absolutist is a non-democratic or authoritarian leader who exercises their political power based upon the principles of the Enlightenment.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Enlightened monarchs distinguished themselves from ordinary rulers by claiming to rule for their subjects' well-being. John Stuart Mill stated that despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Enlightened absolutists' beliefs about royal power were typically similar to those of regular despots, both believing that they were destined to rule. Enlightened rulers may have played a part in the abolition of serfdom in Europe.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: The enlightened despotism of Emperor Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire is summarized as, "Everything for the people, nothing by the people".


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Enlightened absolutism is the theme of an essay by Frederick the Great, who ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786, defending this system of government. When the prominent French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire fell out of favor in France, he eagerly accepted Frederick's invitation to live at his palace. He believed that an enlightened monarchy was the only real way for society to advance. Frederick was an enthusiast of French ideas. Frederick explained: "My principal occupation is to combat ignorance and prejudice ... to enlighten minds, cultivate morality, and to make people as happy as it suits human nature, and as the means at my disposal permit."


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Enlightened absolutists held that royal power emanated not from divine right but from a social contract whereby a despot was entrusted with the power to govern through a social contract in lieu of any other governments. The monarchs of enlightened absolutism strengthened their authority by improving the lives of their subjects. The monarch’s taking responsibility for his subjects precluded their political participation.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: The difference between an absolutist and an "enlightened" absolutist is based on a broad analysis of the degree to which they embraced the Age of Enlightenment. Historians debate the actual implementation of enlightened absolutism. They distinguish between the "enlightenment" of the ruler personally, versus that of his regime. For example, Frederick the Great was tutored in the ideas of the French Enlightenment in his youth, and maintained those ideas in his private life as an adult, but in many ways was unable or unwilling to effect enlightened reforms in practice. Other rulers such as the Marquis of Pombal, prime minister of Portugal, used the ideas and practices of the Enlightenment not only to achieve reforms but also to enhance autocracy, crush opposition, suppress criticism, advance colonial economic exploitation, and consolidate personal control and profit.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: The concept of enlightened absolutism was formally described by the German historian Wilhelm Roscher in 1847 and remains controversial among scholars.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Centralized control necessitated centralized systematic information on the nation. A major renovation was the collection, use and interpretation of numerical and statistical data, ranging from trade statistics, harvest reports, death notices to population censuses. Starting in the 1760s, officials in France and Germany began increasingly to rely on quantitative data for systematic planning, especially regarding long-term economic growth. It combined the utilitarian agenda of "enlightened absolutism" with the new ideas being developed in economics. In Germany and France, the trend was especially strong in Cameralism and Physiocracy.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Government responses to the Age of Enlightenment varied widely. In several nations with powerful rulers, called "enlightened despots" by historians, leaders of the Enlightenment were welcomed at Court and helped design laws and programs to reform the system, typically to build stronger national states. In France the government was hostile, and the philosophers fought against its censorship. The British government generally ignored the Enlightenment's leaders.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Frederick the Great, who ruled Prussia 1740–1786, was an enthusiast for French ideas (he ridiculed German culture and was unaware of the remarkable advances it was undergoing). Voltaire, who had been imprisoned and maltreated by the French government, was eager to accept Frederick's invitation to live at his palace. Frederick explained, "My principal occupation is to combat ignorance and prejudice ... to enlighten minds, cultivate morality, and to make people as happy as it suits human nature, and as the means at my disposal permit". He wrote an essay on "Benevolent Despotism" defending this system of government.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Empress Catherine II of Russia sponsored the Russian Enlightenment. She incorporated many ideas of Enlightenment philosophers, especially Montesquieu, in her Nakaz, which was intended to revise Russian law. However, inviting the famous French philosopher Denis Diderot to her court worked out poorly.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Charles III, King of Spain from 1759 to 1788, tried to rescue his empire from decay through far-reaching reforms such as weakening the Church and its monasteries, promoting science and university research, facilitating trade and commerce, modernizing agriculture and avoiding wars. The centralization of power in Madrid angered the local nobility, and challenged the traditional autonomy of cities, and so resistance grew steadily. Consequently, Spain relapsed after his death.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Emperor Joseph II, ruler of Austria 1780–1790, was over-enthusiastic, announcing so many reforms that had so little support that revolts broke out and his regime became a comedy of errors.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: In some countries the initiative came not from rulers but from senior officials such as the Marquis of Pombal, who was Joseph I of Portugal's Secretary of State. For a brief period in Denmark Johann Friedrich Struensee attempted to govern in terms of Enlightenment principles. After issuing 1,069 decrees in 13 months covering many major reforms, his enemies overthrew him and he was executed and quartered.


title: Enlightened absolutism

text: Xuezhi Guo contrasts the Confucian ideal of a "humane ruler" ("renjun") with the ideal of Chinese legalists, who he says "intended to create a truly 'enlightened ruler' ("mingjun") who is able to effectively rule the masses and control his bureaucracy"; this ruler would be a "skilful manipulator and successful politician who uses means or 'technique' in achieving self-protection and political control". Guo quotes Benjamin I. Schwartz as describing the features of "a truly Legalist 'enlightened ruler:He must be anything but an arbitrary despot if one means by a despot a tyrant who follows all his impulses, whims and passions. Once the systems which maintain the entire structure are in place, he must not interfere with their operation. He may use the entire system as a means to the achievement of his national and international ambitions, but to do so he must not disrupt its impersonal workings. He must at all times be able to maintain an iron wall between his private life and public role. Concubines, friends, flatterers and charismatic saints must have no influence whatsoever on the course of policy, and he must never relax his suspicions of the motives of those who surround him.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the entire global energy sector, with a recent focus on curbing carbon emissions and reaching global climate targets, including the Paris Agreement. The 31 member countries and 11 association countries of the IEA represent 75% of global energy demand.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA was set up under the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis to respond to physical disruptions in global oil supplies, provide data and statistics about the global oil market and energy sector, promote energy savings and conservation, and establish international technical collaboration on innovation and research. Since its founding, the IEA has also coordinated use of the oil reserves that its members are required to hold.


title: International Energy Agency

text: In subsequent decades, the IEA's role expanded to cover the entire global energy system, encompassing traditional fuels such as gas, and coal as well as cleaner and fast-growing energy sources and technologies including renewable energy sources; solar photovoltaics, wind power, biofuels as well as nuclear power, and hydrogen, and the critical minerals needed for these technologies.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The core activity of the IEA is providing policy advice to its 31 member states, as well as to its 11 Associated countries, which include Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Ukraine, Singapore, Thailand, Egypt and Morocco to support their energy security and advance their transition to clean energy. The Agency publishes policy recommendations and solutions to help all countries ensure secure, affordable and sustainable energy, as well as analysis, roadmaps, policy reviews, detailed data on more than 150 countries. Recently, it has focused in particular on supporting global efforts to accelerate clean energy transition, mitigate climate change, and reach net zero emissions.


title: International Energy Agency

text: As the COVID-19 pandemic set off a global health and economic crisis in early 2020, the IEA called on governments to ensure that their economic recovery plans focus on clean energy investments in order to create the conditions for a sustainable recovery and long-term structural decline in carbon emissions.


title: International Energy Agency

text: In May 2021, the IEA published a roadmap for the global energy sector to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and to prevent global temperatures from rising above 1.5 °C. All IEA member countries have signed the Paris Agreement which aims to limit warming to 1.5 °C, and two thirds of IEA member governments have made commitments to emission neutrality by 2050.


title: International Energy Agency

text: In March 2022, the IEA's Ministerial Meeting gave the agency a broader mandate to focus on the clean energy transition. The IEA has been criticised for historically undervaluing the role of renewable energy sources such as photovoltaics in future energy systems as well as under-estimating their declining cost. Environmental groups, investors and companies have been urging the IEA to do more to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA's current executive director is Fatih Birol, who took office in late 2015. Birol was re-appointed for a third term in March 2022. It publishes a range of reports and other information including its flagship publication, the annual "World Energy Outlook", as well as the "Net Zero by 2050" report.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA was founded on November 18, 1974, after the 1973 oil crisis, to avoid future shocks by helping to ensure reliable energy supplies, promote energy efficiency, ensure energy security and encourage technological research and innovation.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The Agreement on an International Energy Program (IEP Agreement) established the mandates and structure of the IEA, chartering it as an autonomous organisation under the umbrella of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA operates autonomously, with its own budget and governance structure. The organization began with 16 founding member countries and has since expanded to 31, with the latest addition being Lithuania in 2022. Full members of the IEA must also be members of the OECD and are required to hold 90 days worth of oil imports as emergency stocks. These emergency stocks can be released to stabilize oil markets worldwide and have been activated five times: January 1991 due to the Gulf War, 2005 after devastation in the Gulf of Mexico from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 2011 during the Libyan crisis, and twice in 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: International Energy Agency

text: In addition to the emergency release mechanism, the IEA's initial mandates include reducing dependence on oil, developing alternative energy sources, energy research and development, and collaboration with oil-producing companies and countries to create a stable energy market. Members are expected to draw up plans on demand reduction and efficiency measures that can be implemented during energy emergencies.


title: International Energy Agency

text: In 2015, the IEA's chief economist Dr. Fatih Birol was appointed executive director, the first time an official from within the organization was picked to lead it. They have a mandate to modernize the agency on three major pillars: broadening the IEA's mandate on energy security beyond oil to include natural gas and electricity; increasing engagement in emerging economies through new Association partnerships; and expanding the IEA's core focus on clean energy technology and energy efficiency.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The new category of “Association countries” was created in 2015, allowing countries that do not fit the criteria for IEA membership to become affiliated with the organization and participate in its work. China, Indonesia, and Thailand were the first to join and the IEA now has eleven Association countries, including Ukraine since July 2022. IEA member and Association countries represent over 75% of global energy consumption.


title: International Energy Agency

text: After the IEA's 2022 Ministerial meeting, a bi-annual high-level meeting of IEA countries, member countries once again expanded the organisation's mandate to include accelerating the global clean energy transition by “supporting countries in the global effort to attain net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector by mid-century.” The “IEA 3.0” mandate also doubles down on strengthening energy security and recognizes the importance of tracking critical minerals and materials to the clean energy transition.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA's structure includes a Governing Board, Ministerial Meetings, and Standing Groups and Committees.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The Governing Board constitutes the main decision-making body of the organisation. It is composed of member country representatives and meets three to four times a year. The Governing Board is responsible for the IEA's administrative proceedings and approving binding decisions in relation to energy developments.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA Ministerial Meeting is the biennial gathering of energy ministers who determine the broad direction of the IEA. The Ministerial allows for the development of ideas which are subsequently put to the Governing Board.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Standing Groups meet multiple times a year and are made up of officials from member states. The IEA has several Standing Groups and Committees, focusing on energy research and technology, long-term cooperation, emergency preparedness, and other topics.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The 31 member countries and 11 association countries of the IEA represent 75% of global energy demand.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Only OECD member states may join the IEA. Member are required to maintain total oil stock levels equivalent to at least 90 days of the previous year's net imports. Member countries commit to respond to significant oil disruptions through a collective action to allow more crude oil to enter the global market.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Accession countries are those going through the process of becoming full members. The process involves authorisation by the Governing Board, discussions with the executive director, and the sharing of information related to the criteria for membership with the Secretariat.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Association was formally launched in 2015 and currently includes 11 countries. The IEA collaborates with Association countries on a wide range of energy-related issues determined through joint programmes of work. Association countries may also participate in most Standing Groups and Ministerial meetings. Egypt and Argentina joined as Association countries in March 2022, and Ukraine was formally invited on 16 June 2022, and joined in July 2022.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA produces analyses on all energy sources and technologies, on global and regional markets, as well as specific country-level reports and studies on key technologies, minerals, and materials for the clean energy transition. It also produces comprehensive data and statistics for over 150 countries.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA's analytical work is split into various categories including policy recommendations, tracking, market forecasts, technical roadmapping, and scenario analysis.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA publishes comprehensive data, statistics, and analysis that inform national energy policies and support long-term planning for energy sector investments. The IEA analyses and releases data and information on trends in energy supply, demand, prices, public research and development, and energy efficiency metrics. The data also serves to track short- and long-term trends in countries energy transitions.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The Policies and Measures Database (PAMS) makes available to the public data on government policies and programs to reduce carbon emissions, support energy efficiency, and improve the development and use of renewable and clean energy sources. The database compiles data from several IEA and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) data sources dating back to 1999 and includes information on past, current, and planned policy measures.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Net Zero by 2050 was published in May 2021 and presented the first comprehensive pathway for the global energy sector to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The report introduced the Net Zero Emissions scenario, showing how to transition to net zero by 2050 while maintaining secure and affordable energy supplies, extending energy access, and encouraging robust economic growth. The report was the basis for a game created by the IEA and the Financial Times in which players compete to see if they can reduce emissions to net zero.


title: International Energy Agency

text: WEO, first issued in 1977, is the IEA's annual flagship publication. It provides analysis and trend insights on global energy demand and supply, within the context of energy security, climate, and economic development. Projections are based on the IEA's World Energy Model, which covers the global energy system from aggregated top-level analysis down to local details.


title: International Energy Agency

text: First issued in 2006, ETP is a bi-annual guidebook on clean energy technology. The publication focuses on challenges, growth areas, and strengths of emerging clean energy technologies and their contribution to global energy and environmental policy-making.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Published annually with the support of the members of the Elective Vehicles Initiative, GEVO highlights and analyses recent developments in EVs and electric mobility. The publication combines historical analysis with projections to 2030 for topics such as charging infrastructure, emissions, energy use, and related policy developments. The report includes policy recommendations to advance EV adoption.


title: International Energy Agency

text: First published in 1983, the monthly Oil Market Report analyses the global oil market, providing data and forecasts aimed for an audience of industry, financial, and government officials as well as an academic and NGO audience. Country specific analysis on trade and production tracks both OECD and non-OECD states.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The Electricity Market Report provides regular forecasts for global electricity demand, supply, generation and emissions, with a special focus on recent developments.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The Gas Market Report is updated quarterly, providing the latest developments and data for global gas markets.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Energy Efficiency is an annual report on global progress and developments in the crucial role that efficient appliances, equipment, buildings, transport and industry play in reducing energy use and the resulting emissions.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The Renewable Energy Market Update surveys new additions in global renewable power capacity and demand for biofuel. The report, which is updated several times a year, also discusses important variables and policy implications that may affect projections for the years to come.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The annual World Energy Investment tracks investment across the energy world, examining how investors are assessing risks and opportunities across all areas of fuel and electricity supply, critical minerals, efficiency and research and development.


title: International Energy Agency

text: TCEP reports on the status of 46 critical energy technologies and sectors needed to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century, and provides recommendations on how to accelerate their development and deployment.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Since 1976, the IEA has published in-depth energy policy reviews. These country policy reviews are typically conducted every five years for member countries, and cover the full range of the country's energy systems and policies, with recent reports placing particular focus on progress towards reaching climate goals. The most recent reports were on Norway, Poland, Belgium, and Canada. The IEA also produces in-depth energy reviews of its accession and association countries, as well as partner countries.


title: International Energy Agency

text: In its focus on energy efficiency, the IEA convenes policy leaders and other stakeholders with an eye toward scaling up progress on energy efficiency as a way to mitigate climate change, contribute to energy security, and deliver economic, and support economies and communities. The IEA has created Energy Efficiency Indicators based on over ten years of data to highlight the drivers of individual nations’ energy use in order to track energy efficiency and improve national policies. The data covers major sectors such as residential services, industry, and transport.


title: International Energy Agency

text: CETP's focus is to “accelerate global clean energy transitions, particularly in major emerging economies.” The program supports governments whose energy policies will be key to the global energy transition and involves collaborative analytics, technology cooperation, stakeholder convenings, and training and capacity-building. CETP has identified Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and South Africa as priority countries as well as the regions of Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.


title: International Energy Agency

text: As part of its work on the energy transition, the IEA convenes the Global Commission for People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions to “ensure the benefits and costs involved in the transformation of our energy system are distributed fairly and in a way that protects the most vulnerable in society.” The approach focuses on skill development, jobs, worker protections, economic development, equity and fairness, social inclusion, and engaging individuals as stakeholders in the process. The commission is composed of national leaders, government ministers, and representatives from civil society. In October 2021, the Commission published a report for twelve recommendations for a people-centered approach to the clean energy transition.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Given the implications of climate change impacts for energy security, the IEA also works to understand climate impacts on energy systems and provide guidance on measures to improve their resilience to these impacts. This includes an assessment of hydropower under different climate scenarios and a report focused on climate hazards for power systems and measures to enhance their climate resilience. The IEA also provides an overview of the level of climate hazards in its member countries, along with key planning and policy documents to address energy sector climate resilience.


title: International Energy Agency

text: TCPs provide support to independent, international groups of government and industry experts to research, develop, and commercialise energy technologies and related issues. Over 6,000 experts are involved in TCPs across approximately 300 organisations in 55 countries. Examples of TCPs include the Energy in Buildings and Communities (EBC), Photovoltaic Power Systems (PVPS), and Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (HEV).


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA has been criticised for systematically underestimating the role of renewable energy sources in future energy systems such as photovoltaics and their cost reductions.


title: International Energy Agency

text: In the past, the IEA has been criticized by environmental groups for underplaying the role of renewable energy technologies in favor of nuclear and fossil fuels. In 2009, Guy Pearse stated that the IEA has consistently underestimated the potential for renewable energy alternatives.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The Energy Watch Group (EWG), a coalition of scientists and politicians which analyses official energy industry predictions, claims that the IEA has had an institutional bias towards traditional energy sources and has been using "misleading data" to undermine the case for renewable energy, such as wind and solar. A 2008 EWG report compares IEA projections about the growth of wind power capacity and finds that it has consistently underestimated the amount of energy the wind power industry can deliver.


title: International Energy Agency

text: For example, in 1998, the IEA predicted global wind electricity generation would total 47.4 GW by 2020, but EWG's report states that this level was reached by the end of 2004. The report also said that the IEA has not learned the lesson of previous underestimates, and last year net additions of wind power globally were four times greater than the average IEA estimate from its 1995–2004 predictions. This pattern seems to have continued through 2016.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Amid discontent from across the renewables sector at the IEA's performance as a global energy watchdog, the International Renewable Energy Agency was formed on January 26, 2009. The aim is to have the agency fully operational by 2010 with an initial annual budget of €25M.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The IEA's current forecasts for solar power do not accord with the exponential growth in the sector. The misleading projections have perpetuated the impression that the growth of solar power requires huge subsidies, and has the potential to discourage investment in solar energy market and consequently, hold back even faster growth.


title: International Energy Agency

text: In 2018 the IEA was criticized in Davos by Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Al-Falih, for hyping the US shale oil industry amid forecasts of oversupply for the oil market in their January Oil Market Report. Al-Falih was exasperated with those claims, arguing that natural depletion, and strong demand growth meant that there was plenty of room for new supplies, while the shale drillers would not crash the market. He further said that the IEA is overstating the role of shale in a global market, and how the core job of the IEA, is not to take things out of context.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Ahead of the launch of the "2009 World Energy Outlook", the British daily newspaper "The Guardian", referring to an unidentified senior IEA official, alleged that the agency was deliberately downplaying the risk of peak oil under pressures from the USA. According to a second unidentified former senior IEA official it was "imperative not to anger the Americans" and that the world has already entered the "peak oil zone".


title: International Energy Agency

text: "The Guardian" also referred to a team of scientists from Uppsala University in Sweden who studied the 2008 World Energy Outlook and concluded the forecasts of the IEA were unattainable. According to their peer-reviewed report, oil production in 2030 would not exceed while the IEA forecasts a production of . The lead author of the report, Dr. Kjell Aleklett, has claimed that IEA's reports are "political documents". Other research from the same group has thoroughly reviewed oil projections done by the IEA World Energy Outlook.


title: International Energy Agency

text: The anticorruption NGO Global Witness wrote in its report "Heads in the Sand" that "Global Witness' analysis demonstrates that the Agency continues to retain an overly-optimistic, and therefore misleading, view about potential future oil production." According to Global Witness, "the Agency's over-confidence, despite credible data, external analysis and underlying fundamentals all strongly suggesting a more precautionary approach, has had a disastrous global impact."


title: International Energy Agency

text: Environmental groups have become critical of the IEA's 450 Scenario (created to align with the 2009 Copenhagen Accord), contending it does not align with up-to-date climate science, nor is it consistent with the Paris climate agreement that aspires to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In March 2017, the IEA (along with IRENA) published a report that considers a safer climate scenario than their current 450S. This scenario offers improved chances of limiting global warming to less than two degrees, but – according to research organization Oil Change International – still falls short of adequately addressing climate science and the decarbonization required to reach agreed upon global climate limits. The IEA has stopped updating this safer climate scenario.


title: International Energy Agency

text: Concerns regarding the IEA's Sustainable Development Scenario (the successor to the 450 scenario) has also been raised by climate scientists and key financial institutions, who have called for 1.5 °C scenario placed centrally in the World Energy Outlook. As of December 2019, two-thirds of IEA member states have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050; however, the IEA's Sustainable Development Scenario only gets to net-zero by 2070, two decades too late.


title: International Energy Agency

text: In 2021, the IEA was publicly criticized by more than 30 international academics and researchers at Our World in Data for publishing its detailed, global energy data behind paywalls, "[making] it unusable in the public discourse and [preventing] many researchers from accessing it". The authors of the Our World in Data open letter suggested that "countries that fund the IEA drop the requirement to place data behind paywalls and increase their funding".


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Megan Phelps-Roper is an American political activist who is formerly a member of, and spokesperson for, the Westboro Baptist Church, a Calvinist Christian sect categorized as a hate group. Her mother is Shirley Phelps-Roper, and her grandfather is the church's founder, Fred Phelps. She grew up in Topeka, Kansas, in a compound with other members of the church. As a child, she was taught the Westboro Baptist Church doctrine and participated in the church's pickets against homosexuality, the American response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the funerals of soldiers who died in the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq. In 2009, she became active on Twitter to preach the church's doctrine. Phelps-Roper began to doubt her beliefs when Twitter users pointed out contradictions in the Westboro Baptist Church's doctrine, and when elders changed the church's decision-making process.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Phelps-Roper left the church in 2012 after she was unable to reconcile her doubts with her beliefs. Following her departure, Phelps-Roper became a prominent critic of the church's philosophy and practices. She travels around the world to speak about her experience in the church and advocates dialogue between groups with conflicting views. In 2019, she released the memoir "Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope".


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Megan Phelps-Roper was born in 1985 or 1986, and is the eldest daughter of Shirley Phelps-Roper and Brent Roper. Her grandfather was Fred Phelps, who founded the Westboro Baptist Church, a Christian sect based on the members' Calvinist interpretation of the bible and categorized by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. Her parents taught her the doctrine of the Westboro Baptist Church sect from an early age. She grew up on a compound in Topeka, Kansas, that was owned by other church members. When Phelps-Roper was 13, her grandfather baptized her into the Westboro Baptist Church.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: After graduating from Washburn University, Phelps-Roper worked at her family's law firm, Phelps Chartered, as a business administrator. She also appeared as a regular guest on the Kansas City morning show "Afentra's Big Fat Morning Buzz". In 2011, Phelps-Roper appeared in Louis Theroux's documentary "America's Most Hated Family in Crisis", in which she described her contact with four Dutch filmmakers. After watching the documentary, her father insisted that she block the filmmakers on Twitter and limit her time on the social media platform. Phelps-Roper complied, reasoning that removing her focus from earthly matters would increase her spirituality. During this period, her mother was accused of not following church doctrine, and Phelps-Roper replaced her as the scheduler for the church's picketing demonstrations.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Phelps-Roper has stated that as an adult, she doubted the church's doctrine and noted the existence of many contradictions within the church's beliefs. David Abitbol, a Jewish Twitter user, pointed out the contradictions which he perceived in the church's doctrine, including the fact that the church advocated the death penalty for people who have a child out of wedlock while Phelps-Roper's mother was not married when her first child was born. Phelps-Roper stopped carrying signs which called for the death penalty for sins, but also stopped communicating with Abitbol so that he could not further challenge her beliefs.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Another point of contention that Phelps-Roper cited as increasing her doubts was how decision-making within the church changed. Previously, the church had employed a consensus decision-making model, and women had influential roles in this process. In 2011, a council of nine male church elders met separately from other members and decided to make church decisions by themselves. Later, a member was asked to leave the church by a majority vote instead of unanimous consent. Phelps-Roper felt that both events violated the church's interpretation of scripture and went against the group's concept of leadership.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: In November 2012, Brent Roper confronted Phelps-Roper's sister Grace about a relationship which Grace was having with another church member. During this discussion, Phelps-Roper encouraged her sister to leave the church with her, and they announced their intention to their parents. The two sisters spent one night in Topeka where they stayed in the basement of a former teacher before they moved into their cousin's home in Lawrence, Kansas. In February 2013, she announced that she had left the church after its members planned to stage protests at the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. She stated that she did not want others to believe that her lack of response to the protests constituted tacit approval of the church's actions.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Phelps-Roper and her sister moved to South Dakota after visiting the Black Hills. She is married to Chad Fjelland, an attorney whom she met through Twitter while advocating for the Westboro Baptist Church. Her daughter, Sølvi Lynne, was born in 2018.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: In 2019, Phelps-Roper appeared in Louis Theroux's third documentary about the Westboro Baptist Church, "Surviving America's Most Hated Family". During the taping, Theroux informed Phelps-Roper that two of her siblings were engaged to be married, which upset her greatly. Theroux was criticized for including this scene in the documentary, with one reviewer stating that the revelation exploited Phelps-Roper's emotions and was uncomfortable to watch. Phelps-Roper defended Theroux's inclusion of the footage, stating that she wanted her family members to see her unfiltered reaction to this information. In October 2019, Phelps-Roper released a memoir called "Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope", which details her upbringing and her decision to leave the Westboro Baptist Church. (It has also been issued as "Unfollow: a memoir of loving and leaving the Westboro Baptist Church" and as "Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving Extremism".)


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Phelps-Roper participated in her first protest with the church against homosexuality when she was five years old. Early pickets took place in Gage Park, Topeka, as part of her grandfather's campaign to stop homosexuals from allegedly engaging in sexual acts at the park. She participated in protests related to significant historical events, including the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the AIDS pandemic. She also picketed her public school, and local sporting events.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: At 11, Phelps-Roper gave her first live interview to radio DJs, who had called her house wanting to interview her mother. When interviewers wanted the perspective of a younger member of the church, her mother would often have them interview Phelps-Roper. She participated in interviews with local news stations, documentary filmmakers, and national talk shows, including "The Howard Stern Show".


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: In 2008, Phelps-Roper joined Twitter but became an active member in 2009 after someone asked if the church was using the service. Phelps-Roper preached the church's doctrine to celebrities and prominent users of the platform. In the late 2000s, Phelps-Roper sent messages to prominent Jewish Twitter users, calling for them to repent and stop their Jewish rituals before they were sent to Hell.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: In 2010, Phelps-Roper filed a lawsuit claiming that Nebraska's law against desecrating the American flag infringed on her free speech rights. A federal judge overturned the law, and Phelps-Roper was awarded $8,000 for her attorney fees, paid by the state of Nebraska.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Phelps-Roper and her family created parodies of pop-culture songs to spread Westboro Baptist Church's theology. One of their parodies was "Ever Burn", based on the Lady Gaga song "Telephone". The parody, sung by Phelps-Roper, changed the lyrics to claim that God will not listen to Lady Gaga's prayers and that she will be sent to Hell.


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Phelps-Roper has spoken at festivals to groups that she previously protested against, including the Jewlicious Festival in Long Beach, California, and a Jewish cultural festival in Montreal. In October 2015, she spoke at the Anti-Defamation League's Youth Leadership Conference. In January 2017, she presented a TED talk discussing her experiences growing up within the church and her decision to leave. In June 2017, she appeared on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast and in 2018 appeared in the first episode of "I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman".


title: Megan Phelps-Roper

text: Phelps-Roper has stated that she believes the Bible is not written by people under God's inspiration. Instead, she thinks it is a document of people trying to understand how to be good, and that other philosophies were developed with the same goals. She has stated that she is a "believer in humanity" and in that way still classifies herself as a believer. Phelps-Roper said that she avoids using the word "cult" to describe the Westboro Baptist Church. She believes that Twitter should disable bots and remove posts that advocate harm to others. She wants companies to hold public debates on controversial ideas, rather than removing these conversations from their platforms.