title: Military logistics

text: The word "logistics" is derived from the Greek adjective "logistikos" meaning "skilled in calculating", and the corresponding Latin word "logisticus". In turn this comes from the Greek "logos", which refers to the principles of thought and action. Another Latin root, "log-", gave rise to "logio", meaning to lodge or dwell, around 1380, and became the French verb , meaning "to lodge". Around 1670, the French King Louis XIV created the position of , an officer responsible for planning marches, establishing camp sites, and regulating transport and supply. The term soon came to refer to his duties. It was in this sense that Antoine-Henri Jomini referred to the term in his "Summary of the Art of War" (1838). In the English translation, the word became "logistics".


title: Military logistics

text: In 1888, Charles C. Rogers created a course on Naval Logistics at the Naval War College. In "Farrow's Military Encyclopedia" (1895), Edward S. Farrow, and instructor in tactics at West Point provided this definition:


title: Military logistics

text: The term became popularised during the Second World War. In "Logistics in World War II: Final Report of the Army Service Forces", LeRoy Lutes gave the term a more expansive definition:


title: Military logistics

text: In the 1960s, the term "Logistics" began to be used in the business world, where it means physical distribution and supply chain management.


title: Military logistics

text: Historically supplies for an army were first acquired by foraging or looting, especially in the case of food and fodder, although if traveling through a desolated region or staying in one place for too long resources could quickly be exhausted. A second method was for the army to bring along what was needed, whether by ships, pack animals, wagons or carried on the backs of the soldiers themselves. This allowed the army some measure of self-sufficiency, and up through to the 19th century most of the ammunition a soldier needed for an entire campaign could be carried on their person. However, this method led to an extensive baggage train which could slow down the army's advance and the development of faster-firing weapons soon outpaced an army's ability to supply itself. Starting with the Industrial Revolution new technological, technical and administrative advances led to a third method, that of maintaining supplies in a rear area and transporting them to the front. This led to a "logistical revolution" which began in the 20th century and drastically improved the capabilities of modern armies while making them highly dependent on this new system.


title: Military logistics

text: The "De re militari", written by Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus in the late 4th-century, is an authoritative text which Illuminates the logistics, strategies and tactics, as well as the training regimen for soldiers at the end of the Roman Empire, some of which was maintained and modified throughout the medieval period. It became used widely as a military guide during the medieval period and demonstrates the medieval inheritance and adaptation of the Roman military infrastructure.


title: Military logistics

text: One of the most significant changes in military organization after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century was the shift from a centrally organized army to a combination of military forces made up of local troops. According to the De ordine palatii—composed in the late 9th century as a reflection of the organization of courts under Louis III of France and Carloman II—local troops often worked within the household during peace time and were provided food and drink from the high officials in the house. The magnates of the households drew upon their own resources for their men, and during Charlemagne's reign and the reign of the Ottonian dynasty in Germany, some heads of house built permanent storages and dwellings to house men or supplies.


title: Military logistics

text: While on campaign, soldiers through the medieval period (the 5th to 15th century in Europe) were responsible for supplying themselves, either through foraging, looting (more common during sieges), or purchases from markets along the campaign route. Even so, military commanders often provided their troops with food and supplies, but this would be provided in lieu of the soldiers' wages if they worked within the king's household, or soldiers would be expected to pay for it from their wages if they did not work in the king's household, either at cost or even with a profit.


title: Military logistics

text: Some early governments, such as the Carolingians in 8th century, required soldiers to supply their own food for three months, but would feed soldiers thereafter for free if the campaign or siege was ongoing. Later, during the German civil war in the early 1070s, Saxon soldiers were required to bring supplies enough for the entire campaign.


title: Military logistics

text: As for food transportation for soldiers and the beasts which accompanied the army on the campaigns, approximately 2,500 kilograms of food supplies were needed for the soldiers, roughly 9,000 kilograms of food for horses, and 19,000 kilograms (nearly 1/2 of which was grain) was needed for other beasts of burden (donkeys and oxen, for example) per day. Commanders could also bring along herds of cattle to provide their men with fresh meat while traveling. A herd of roughly 1,000 cattle could feed 14,000 or so men for roughly ten days.


title: Military logistics

text: Beasts of burden were used as vehicular transport for the food and supplies, either by carrying the supplies directly on their backs—the average medieval horse and mule could carry roughly 100 kilograms—or by pulling carts or wagons, depending on the weather conditions. Commanders also made use of water transport throughout the medieval period as it was often more efficient than ground transport. Prior to the crusading period, mid-scale sea vessels could carry several dozen tons of supplies. Cargo ships were also used, and were most commonly of the Nordic-type, the Utrecht-type, or the proto-cog crafts. Similar to the proto-cogs, river boats resembling simple log-boats were also used, as the larger crafts could carry up to 15 metric tons of supply and animal cargo. These ships made transporting supplies, and often soldiers, much easier and more reliable for the commander; but, the ability to use water transport was limited by geographic location, weather, and the availability of such ships. In the eastern Mediterranean, many vessels were smaller than those used in antiquity, often not exceeding 30-40 tonnes of cargo capacity. Supply by sea is not necessarily that much easier than supply by land, as factors like loading and unloading, stowage, and moving supplies to an army that may not be on the coast are all complicating factors.


title: Military logistics

text: Outside of food and fodder, commanders and soldiers also carried with them their arms and armor. In a letter from Charlemagne to Abbot Fulrad, the king states that horsemen must come prepared with their own arms and gear: including, "a shield, lance, sword, dagger, bow, and quivers with arrows". Likewise, according the Visigoth legal code (c.680), soldiers were required to come equipped for campaign with armor and shields. This practice was common throughout the pre-crusading period. Soldiers could often obtain the needed supplies from local craftsmen: smiths, carpenters, and leather workers often supplied the local militia troops with cooking utensils, bows and arrows, and horse shoes and saddles. Archaeologists have also found evidence of goods production in excavations of royal houses, suggesting that the Roman infrastructure of central arms and equipment factories was inherited, even if such factories were more decentralized. Further, all estates during Charlemagne's reign were required to have carpenters staffed to produce weapons and armor, according to the Capitulare de villis.


title: Military logistics

text: The construction of large-scale weapons systems, particularly those designed for siege warfare, was also an important part of military logistics. In the pre-crusading period, Vikings and Saxons would often use lever-action stone-throwing technology; but, the torsion-powered spear-throwing "ballistae" was also common, though it required much more technological expertise to build. The most difficult of the large-scale weapons systems to construct was the siege tower, which was meant to provide besieging soldiers with the ability to shoot at the level of their opponents in the tower or allow them to roll up to the tower itself and climb over the wall, breaching the fortress. The first recorded construction of a siege tower is in 984 during King Lothair IV's siege of Verdun. These siege engines were often constructed on site, rather than being constructed before the campaign and transported with the soldiers. In the 11th century, Emperor Otto III ordered siege engines to be built only once he had arrived at the fortress of Tivoli to begin his siege, and Emperor Henry II did the same upon arriving at Troia. It is generally assumed that the materials for the siege engines were transported along with the food, fodder, and arms and that specialized craftsmen from the military households travelled with the army to build the engines on site.


title: Military logistics

text: In 1294, the same year John II de Balliol of Scotland refused to support Edward I of England's planned invasion of France, Edward I implemented a system in Wales and Scotland where sheriffs would acquire foodstuffs, horses and carts from merchants with compulsory sales at prices fixed below typical market prices under the Crown's rights of prise and purveyance. These goods would then be transported to Royal Magazines in southern Scotland and along the Scottish border where English conscripts under his command could purchase them. This continued during the First War of Scottish Independence which began in 1296, though the system was unpopular and was ended with Edward I's death in 1307.


title: Military logistics

text: Starting under the rule of Edward II in 1307 and ending under the rule of Edward III in 1337, the English instead used a system where merchants would be asked to meet armies with supplies for the conscripts to purchase. This led to discontent as the merchants saw an opportunity to profiteer, forcing conscripts to pay well above normal market prices for food.


title: Military logistics

text: As Edward III went to war with France in the Hundred Years' War (starting in 1337), the English reintroduced the practise of foraging and raiding to meet their logistical needs. This practice lasted throughout the course of war, extending through the remainder of Edward III's reign into the reign of Henry VI.


title: Military logistics

text: Starting in the late sixteenth century, armies in Europe greatly increased in size, upwards of 100,000 or more in some cases. This increase in size came not just in the number of actual soldiers but also camp followers — anywhere from half to one and a half the size of the army itself — and the size of the baggage train — averaging one wagon for every fifteen men. However, very little state support was provided to these massive armies, the vast majority of which consisted of mercenaries. Beyond being paid for their service by the state (an act which bankrupted even the Spanish Empire on several occasions), these soldiers and their commanders were forced to provide everything for themselves. If permanently assigned to a town or city with a working marketplace, or traveling along a well-established military route, supplies could be easily bought locally with intendants overseeing the exchanges. In other cases an army traveling in friendly territory could expect to be followed by sutlers, whose supply stocks were small and subject to price gouging, or a commissioner could be sent ahead to a town to make arraignments, including quartering if necessary.


title: Military logistics

text: When operating in enemy territory an army was forced to plunder the local countryside for supplies, a historical tradition meant to allow war to be conducted at the enemy's expense. However, with the increase in army sizes this reliance on plunder became a major problem, as many decisions regarding where an army could move or fight were made based not on strategic objectives but whether a given area was capable of supporting the soldiers' needs. Sieges in particular were affected by this, both for any army attempting to lay siege to a location or coming to its relief. Unless a military commander was able to implement some sort of regular resupply, a fortress or town with a devastated countryside could be effectively immune to either operation.


title: Military logistics

text: Conversely, armies of this time had little need to maintain lines of communication while on the move, except insofar as it was necessary to recruit more soldiers, and thus could not be cut off from non-existent supply bases. Although this theoretically granted armies freedom of movement, the need for plunder prevented any sort of sustained, purposeful advance. Many armies were further restricted to following waterways due to the fact that what supplies they were forced to carry could be more easily transported by boat. Artillery in particular was reliant of this method of travel, since even a modest number of cannons of the period required hundreds of horses to pull overland and traveled at half the speed of the rest of the army.


title: Military logistics

text: The first half of the seventeenth century saw the Thirty Years' War devastate large parts of Europe where waves of large invading armies repeatedly plundered the same locations for supplies.


title: Military logistics

text: By the mid-seventeenth century, the French under Secretary of State for War Michel Le Tellier began a series of military reforms to address some of the issues which had plagued armies previously. Besides ensuring that soldiers were more regularly paid and combating the corruption and inefficiencies of private contractors, Le Tellier devised formulas to calculate the exact amount of supplies necessary for a given campaign, created standardized contracts for dealing with commercial suppliers, and formed a permanent vehicle-park manned by army specialists whose job was to carry a few days' worth of supplies while accompanying the army during campaigns. With these arrangements there was a gradual increase in the use of magazines which could provide a more regular flow of supply via convoys. While the concepts of magazines and convoys was not new at this time, prior to the increase in army sizes there had rarely been cause to implement them.


title: Military logistics

text: Despite these changes, French armies still relied on plunder for a majority of their needs while on the move. Magazines were created for specific campaigns and any surplus was immediately sold for both monetary gain and to lessen the tax burden. The vehicles used to form convoys were contracted out from commercial interests or requisitioned from local stockpiles. In addition, given warfare of this era's focus on fortified towns and an inability to establish front lines or exert a stabilizing control over large areas, these convoys often needed armies of their own to provide escort. The primary benefits of these reforms was to supply an army during a siege. This was borne out in the successful campaign of 1658 when the French army at no point was forced to end a siege on account of supplies, including the Siege of Dunkirk.


title: Military logistics

text: Le Tellier's son Louvois would continue his father's reforms after assuming his position. The most important of these was to guarantee free daily rations for the soldiers, amounting to two pounds of bread or hardtack a day. These rations were supplemented as circumstances allowed by a source of protein such as meat or beans; soldiers were still responsible for purchasing these items out-of-pocket but they were often available at below-market prices or even free at the expense of the state. He also made permanent a system of magazines which were overseen by local governors to ensure they were fully stocked. Some of these magazines were dedicated to providing frontier towns and fortresses several months' worth of supplies in the event of a siege, while the rest were dedicated to supporting French armies operating in the field.


title: Military logistics

text: With these reforms French armies enjoyed one of the best logistical systems in Europe, however there were still severe restrictions on its capabilities. Only a fraction of an army's supply needs could be met by the magazines, requiring that it continue to use plunder. In particular this was true for perishable goods or those too bulky to store and transport such as fodder. The administration and transportation of supplies remained inadequate and subject to the deprivations of private contractors. The primary aim of this system was still to keep an army supplied while conducting a siege, a task for which it succeeded, rather than increase its freedom of movement.


title: Military logistics

text: The British were seriously handicapped in the American War of Independence by the need to ship all supplies across the Atlantic, since the Americans prevented most local purchases. The British found a solution after the war by creating the infrastructure and the experience needed to manage an empire. London reorganized the management of the supply of military food and transport that was completed in 1793–94 when the naval Victualling and Transport Boards undertook those responsibilities. It built upon experience learned from the supply of the very-long-distance Falklands garrison (1767–72) to systematize needed shipments to distant places such as Australia, Nova Scotia, and Sierra Leone. This new infrastructure allowed Britain to launch large expeditions to the Continent during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and to develop a global network of garrisons in the colonies.


title: Military logistics

text: Before the Napoleonic wars, military supply was based on contracts with private companies, looting and requisition (legal taking of whatever the army needed, with minimal compensation). Napoleon made logistical operations a major part of French strategy. During the Ulm Campaign in 1805, the French army of 200,000 men had no need for time-consuming efforts to scour the countryside for supplies and live off the land, as it was well provided for by France's German allies. France's ally, the Electorate of Bavaria, turned the city of Augsburg into a gigantic supply center, allowing the Grande Armée, generously replenished with food, shoes and ammunition, to quickly invade Austria after the decisive French victory at Ulm. Napoleon left nothing to chance, requesting the Bavarians to prepare in advance a specified amount of food at certain cities such as Würzburg and Ulm, for which the French reimbursed them. When French demands proved excessive for the German principalities, the French army used a system of vouchers to requisition supplies and keep the rapid French advance going. The agreements with French allies permitted the French to obtain huge quantities of supplies within a few days' notice. Napoleon built up a major supply magazine at Passau, with barges transporting supplies down the Danube to Vienna to maintain the French army prior to the Battle of Austerlitz in combat readiness. In 1807, Napoleon created the first "military train" regiments—units entirely dedicated to the supply and the transport of equipment.


title: Military logistics

text: The French system fared poorly in the face of guerrilla warfare by Spanish "guerillas" that targeted their supply lines during the Peninsular War, and the British blockade of French-occupied ports on the Iberian Peninsula. The need to supply a besieged Barcelona made it impossible to control the province and ended French plans to incorporate Catalonia into Napoleon's Empire.


title: Military logistics

text: The first theoretical analysis of this was by the Swiss writer, Antoine-Henri Jomini, who studied the Napoleonic wars. In 1838, he devised a theory of war based on the trinity of "strategy", "tactics", and "logistics".


title: Military logistics

text: In the American Civil War (1861–65), both armies used railways extensively, for transport of personnel, supplies, horses and mules, and heavy field pieces. Both tried to disrupt the enemy's logistics by destroying trackage and bridges. Military railways were built specifically for supporting armies in the field.


title: Military logistics

text: During the Seven Weeks War of 1866, railways enabled the swift mobilization of the Prussian Army, but the problem of moving supplies from the end of rail lines to units at the front resulted in nearly 18,000 tons trapped on trains unable to be unloaded to ground transport. The Prussian use of railways during the Franco-Prussian War is often cited as a prime example of logistic modernizations, but the advantages of maneuver were often gained by abandoning supply lines that became hopelessly congested with rear-area traffic.


title: Military logistics

text: With the expansion of military conscription and reserve systems in the decades leading up to the 20th century, the potential size of armies increased substantially, while the industrialization of firepower (bolt-action rifles, artillery, and machine guns) was starting to multiply the potential amount munitions each required. Military logistical systems, however, continued to rely on 19th century technology.


title: Military logistics

text: When World War I started, the capabilities of rail and horse-drawn supply were stretched to their limits. Where the stalemate of trench warfare took hold, special narrow gauge trench railways were built to extend the rail network to the front lines. The great size of the German Army proved too much for its railways to support except while immobile. Tactical successes like Operation Michael devolved into operational failures where logistics failed to keep up with the army's advance over shell-torn ground.


title: Military logistics

text: On the seas, the British blockade of Germany kept a stranglehold on raw materials, goods, and food needed to support Germany's war efforts, and is considered one of the key elements in the eventual Allied victory in the war. At the same time, Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare showed the vulnerability of shipping lanes despite Allied naval superiority.


title: Military logistics

text: The mechanization of warfare, starting at the tail end of World War I, added increasing ammo, fuel, and maintenance needs of tanks and other combat vehicles to the burden on military logistics. The growing needs of more powerful and numerous military ships and aircraft increased this burden even further. On the other hand, mechanization also brought trucks to logistics; though they generally require better roads and bridges, trucks are much faster and far more efficient than fodder-bound horse-drawn transport. While many nations, including Germany, continued to rely on wagons to some extent, the US and UK readily switched to trucks wherever possible.


title: Military logistics

text: Military logistics played a significant role in many World War II operations, especially ones far from industrial centers, from the Finnish Lapland to the Burma Campaign, limiting the size and movement of any military forces. In the North African Campaign, with a lack of rail, few roads, and hot-dry climate, attacks and advances were timed as much by logistics as enemy actions. Poor logistics, in the form of Russia's vast distances and its state of road and rail networks, contributed to the fate of Germany's invasion of the USSR: despite many battlefield victories, the campaign lost momentum before the gates of Moscow.


title: Military logistics

text: Breaking the logistics supply line became a major target for airpower; a single fighter aircraft could attack dozens of supply vehicles at a time by strafing down a road, many miles behind the front line. Air superiority became critical for almost any major offensive in good weather. Allied air forces took out German-controlled bridges and rail infrastructure throughout northern France to help ensure the success of the Normandy landings, but after the breakout from Normandy, this now limited the Allies' own logistics. In response, the Red Ball Express was organized—a massive truck convoy system to supply the advance towards Germany. During the Battle of Stalingrad, supplying by air, called an airbridge, was attempted by Germany to keep its surrounded 6th Army supplied, but they lacked sufficient air transport. Allied airbridges were more successful; in the Burma Campaign, and in "The Hump" to resupply the Chinese war effort. (A few years after the war, the Berlin Air Lift was successful in supplying the whole non-Soviet half of the city.)


title: Military logistics

text: At sea, the Battle of the Atlantic began in the first days of the war and continued to the end. German surface raiders and U-boats targeted vital Allied cargo ship convoys supplying British, American, and Russian forces, and became more effective than in World War I. Technological improvements in both U-boats and anti-submarine warfare raced to out-do each other for years, with the Allies eventually keeping losses to U-boats in check.


title: Military logistics

text: Logistics was a major challenge for the American war effort, since wartime material had to be supplied across either the Atlantic or the even wider Pacific Ocean. Germany undertook an aggressive U-boat campaign against American logistics on the Atlantic, but the Japanese neglected to attack shipping in the Pacific, using their submarines to fight alongside the surface Navy in large-scale battles.


title: Military logistics

text: Long logistical distances dominated the Pacific War. For the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese required numerous oiler ships to refuel the attacking fleet at sea on-route. Massive numbers of transports, including thousands of US Liberty ships, were required to sustain the Allied forces fighting back towards the Japanese homeland. As in the Atlantic, submarine warfare accounted for more losses than naval battles, with over 1,200 merchant ships sank.


title: Military logistics

text: During Operation Desert Storm, US forces faced the daunting task of keeping over 500,000 American military personnel supplied in a geographically remote harsh environment with no pre-existing presence or basing arraignment. This challenge was only further underscored by the logistical needs of the forces involved. A typical US armored division was composed of 350 tanks, 200 Bradley fighting vehicles and 16,000 soldiers. Together their daily supply requirement could amount to 5,000 tons of ammunition, 555,000 gallons of fuel, 300,000 gallons of water, and 80,000 meals. To meet these needs the division was equipped with nearly a thousand trucks carrying cargo, fuel and ammunition, and 3,500 of the division's soldiers had logistical responsibilities. Despite these resources though, the division could only sustain itself for three to five days before requiring resupply from an external source. Likewise, a typical squadron of 24 fighter aircraft would require the equivalent of 20 C-141 Starlifters carrying supplies to support its initial deployment and operational capability.


title: Military logistics

text: Logistics, occasionally referred to as "combat service support", must address highly uncertain conditions. While perfect forecasts are rarely possible, forecast models can reduce uncertainty about what supplies or services will be needed, where and when they will be needed, or the best way to provide them.


title: Military logistics

text: Ultimately, responsible officials must make judgments on these matters, sometimes using intuition and scientifically weighing alternatives as the situation requires and permits. Their judgments must be based not only upon professional knowledge of the numerous aspects of logistics itself but also upon an understanding of the interplay of closely related military considerations such as strategy, tactics, intelligence, training, personnel, and finance.


title: Military logistics

text: However, case studies have shown that more quantitative, statistical analysis are often a significant improvement on human judgment. One such recent example is the use of Applied Information Economics by the Office of Naval Research and the Marine Corps for forecasting bulk fuel requirements for the battlefield.


title: Military logistics

text: In major military conflicts, logistics matters are often crucial in deciding the overall outcome of wars. For instance, tonnage war—the bulk sinking of cargo ships—was a crucial factor in World War II. The successful Allied anti-submarine campaign and the failure of the German Navy to sink enough cargo in the Battle of the Atlantic allowed Britain to stay in the war and the ability to maintain a Mediterranean supply chain allowed the maintenance of the second front against the Nazis in North Africa; by contrast, the successful U.S. submarine campaign against Japanese maritime shipping across Asian waters effectively crippled its economy and its military production capabilities and the Axis were unable to consistently maintain a supply chain to their North African forces with on average 25% fewer supplies than required being landed and critical fuel shortages dictating strategic decisions. In a tactical scale, in the Battle of Ilomantsi, the Soviets had an overwhelming numerical superiority in guns and men, but managed to fire only 10,000 shells against the Finnish 36,000 shells, eventually being forced to abandon their heavy equipment and flee the battlefield, resulting in a Finnish victory. One reason for this was the successful Finnish harassment of Soviet supply lines.


title: Military logistics

text: More generally, protecting one's own supply lines and attacking those of an enemy is a fundamental military strategy; an example of this as a purely logistical campaign for the military means of implementing strategic policy was the Berlin Airlift.


title: Military logistics

text: Military logistics has pioneered a number of techniques that have since become widely deployed in the commercial world. Operations research grew out of WWII military logistics efforts. Likewise, military logistics borrows from methods first introduced to the commercial world.


title: Military logistics

text: The Kargil Conflict in 1999 between India and Pakistan also referred to as Operation Vijay (Victory in Hindi) is one of the most recent examples of high altitude warfare in mountainous terrain that posed significant logistical problems for the combating sides. The Stallion which forms the bulk of the Indian Army's logistical vehicles proved its reliability and serviceability with 95% operational availability during the operation.


title: Military logistics

text: After 2016, as the counterinsurgency operations in CENTCOM were drawing down, the US Department of Defense began to prepare for large scale combat operations (LSCO) against near-peer adversaries. These adversaries are expected to be capable of integrated, coordinated, near-simultaneous operation in multiple domains (MDO) – air, space, land, sea, and cyber (that is, robotic, computer-driven, even automated competition/crisis/conflict). The preparation of a Joint Warfighting Concept is expected. Four sub-concepts are: § contested logistics, artillery indirect fire, command and control (C2), and information advantage. "See Defender Pacific 2021, and Defender Europe 2021"


title: Military logistics

text: In conditions approaching total war, top-down prosecution of a war may no longer be possible, as headquarters themselves become front-line units, which must remain on the move in order to survive conflict. "By 2035, sustainment nodes are to be survivable" and capable of rapidly moving materiel to the fight.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Red coat, also referred to as redcoat or scarlet tunic, was a military garment which was widely (though not exclusively) used by the infantry units of the British military, including the British Army and Royal Marines, from the 16th to 19th centuries. The garment was also widely used by the British Colonial Auxiliary Forces and the British Indian Army during the 18th and 19th centuries. Though by the 20th centuries the red coat was abandoned for practical duties in favour of khaki by all British and Commonwealth military units, it continues to be used for ceremonial full dress and mess dress uniforms.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The usage of red coats by English soldiers dates back to the Tudor period, when the Yeomen of the Guard and the Yeomen Warders were both equipped in the royal colours of the House of Tudor, red and gold. During the Tudor conquest of Ireland and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, units of English soldiers were equipped in red coats, most notably the New Model Army, which fought on the Parliamentary side.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: From the mid-17th century to the 19th century, the uniform of most British soldiers (apart from artillery, rifles and light cavalry) included a madder red coat or coatee. From 1873 onwards, the more vivid shade of scarlet was adopted for all ranks, having previously been worn only by officers, sergeants and all ranks of some cavalry regiments.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: There had been instances of red military clothing pre-dating its general adoption by the New Model Army. The uniforms of the Yeomen of the Guard and the Yeomen Warders, both formed in 1485, have traditionally been in Tudor red and gold. The Gentlemen Pensioners of King James I wore red uniforms with yellow feathers in their hats. At the Battle of Edgehill, the first battle of the English Civil War, Royalist troops wore red coats, as did at least two Parliamentary regiments. However, none of these examples constituted the national uniform that the red coat was later to become.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: In the Kingdom of Ireland, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the soldiers of the queen's Lord-Lieutenant were occasionally referred to as "red coats" by Irish commentators, from the colour of their clothing. As early as 1561 the Irish named a victory over these troops as , literally meaning 'The Battle of the Red Cassocks' but usually translated as the Battle of the Red Sagums – "sagum" being a cloak. Note the Irish word is ("cassock") but the word may be translated as coat, cloak, or even uniform, in the sense that all of these troops were uniformly attired in red.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: That the term "redcoat" was brought to Europe and elsewhere by Irish emigrants is evidenced by Irish nobleman and soldier Philip O'Sullivan Beare, who mentions the 'Battle of the Redcoats' event in his 1621 history of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, written in Latin in Spain. He wrote of it as "that famous victory which is called 'of the red coats' [] because among others who fell in battle were four hundred soldiers lately brought from England and clad in the red livery of the viceroy."


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: O'Sullivan alludes to two other encounters in which Irish rebels defeated English forces wearing 'red coats'. One concerns an engagement, twenty years later in 1581, during the Second Desmond Rebellion, in which he says, "a company of English soldiers, distinguished by their dress and arms, who were called 'red coats' [], and being sent to war [in Ireland] by the Queen were overwhelmed near Lismore by John Fitzedmund Fitzgerald, the seneschal." The other relates to a rout by William Burke, Lord of Bealatury, in 1599 of "English recruits clad in red coats" ().


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: English sources confirm that royal troops in Ireland wore red uniforms. In 1584, the Lord President of the Council informed the Sheriffs and Justices of Lancashire who were charged with raising 200 foot soldiers for service in Ireland that they should be furnished with "a cassocke of some motley, sad grene coller, or russett". Seemingly, russet was chosen. Again, in the summer of 1595, the Lord Deputy William Russell, writing to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, about the relief of Enniskillen, mentions that the Irish rebel Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, had "300 shot in red coats like English soldiers" – the inference being that English soldiers in Ireland were distinguished by their red uniforms.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: During the Anglo-Spanish War, English pike men and arquebusiers fighting with their Dutch ally were also clad in red cassocks. This was noted during the Siege of Ostend, where 1,600 Englishman under the command of Sir Francis Vere arrived as reinforcements there in July 1601. The 16th-century military historian Julius Ferretus stated that the reason behind the red uniform of the English soldiers was to conceal blood stains but this claim is questionable because blood does in fact show on red clothing as a black stain.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The red coat evolved from being the British infantryman's normally worn uniform to a garment retained only for ceremonial purposes. Its official adoption dates from February 1645, when the Parliament of England passed the New Model Army ordinance. The new English Army was formed of 22,000 men, paper strength, comprising eleven regiments of cavalry each of 600 men for a total of 6,600, twelve regiments of infantry each of 1,200 men for a total of 14,400, and one regiment of 1,000 dragoons and the artillery, consisting of 900 men. The infantry regiments wore coats of Venetian red with white, blue or yellow facings. A contemporary comment on the New Model Army dated 7 May 1645 stated: "the men are Redcoats all, the whole army only are distinguished by the several facings of their coats."


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Outside of Ireland, the English red coat made its first appearance on a European continental battlefield at the Battle of the Dunes in 1658. A Protectorate army had been landed at Calais the previous year and "every man had a new red coat and a new pair of shoes." The English name from the battle comes from the major engagement carried out by the "red-coats". To the surprise of continental observers they stormed sand-dunes high, fighting experienced Spanish soldiers from their summits with musket fire and push of pike.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The adoption and continuing use of red by most British/English soldiers after The Restoration (1660) was the result of circumstances rather than policy, including the relative cheapness of red dyes. Another factor favouring red was that dyes of this colour were "fast" and less inclined to fade when exposed to weather. Red was by no means universal at first, with grey and blue coats also being worn.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Prior to 1707, colonels of regiments made their own arrangements for the manufacture of uniforms under their command. This ended when a royal warrant of 16 January 1707 established a Board of General Officers to regulate the clothing of the army. Uniforms supplied were to conform to the "sealed pattern" agreed by the board. The style of the coat tended to follow those worn by other European armies. From an early stage red coats were lined with contrasting colours and turned out to provide distinctive regimental facings (lapels, cuffs and collars). Examples were blue for the 8th Regiment of Foot, green for the 5th Regiment of Foot, yellow for the 44th Regiment of Foot and buff for the 3rd Regiment of Foot.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: In 1747, the first of a series of clothing regulations and royal warrants set out the various facing colours and distinctions to be borne by each regiment. The long coat worn with a white or buff-coloured waistcoat was discontinued in 1797 in favour of a tight-fitting coatee fastened with a single row of buttons, with white lace loops on either side.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: In the United States, "Redcoat" is associated in cultural memory with the British soldiers who fought against the Patriots during the American Revolutionary War. The Library of Congress possesses several examples of the uniforms the British Army used during this time. Most soldiers who fought the Patriots wore the red coat, though the Hessian mercenaries and some locally recruited Loyalist units had blue or green clothing.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Accounts of the time usually refer to British soldiers as "Regulars" or "the King's men". However, there is evidence of the term "red coats" being used informally, as a colloquial expression. During the Siege of Boston, on 4 January 1776, General George Washington used the term "red coats" in a letter to Joseph Reed. In an earlier letter dated 13 October 1775, Washington used a variation of the expression, stating, "whenever the Redcoat gentry pleases to step out of their Intrenchments." Major General John Stark of the Continental Army was purported to have said during the Battle of Bennington (16 August 1777), "There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!"


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Other pejorative nicknames for British soldiers included "bloody backs" (in a reference to both the colour of their coats and the use of flogging as a means of punishment for military offences) and "lobsters", most notably in Boston around the time of the Boston Massacre. The earliest reference to the association with the lobster appears in 1740, just before the French and Indian War.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Following the discomfort experienced by troops in the Crimean War, a more practical tunic was introduced in 1855, initially in the French double-breasted style, but replaced by a single-breasted version in the following year. An attempt at standardisation was made following the Childers Reforms of 1881, with English and Welsh regiments having white facings (collar and cuffs), Scottish yellow, Irish green and Royal regiments dark blue. However some regiments were subsequently able to obtain the reintroduction of historic facing colours that had been uniquely theirs.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: British soldiers fought in scarlet and blue uniforms for the last time at the Battle of Gennis in the Sudan on 30 December 1885. They formed part of an expeditionary force sent from Britain to participate in the Nile Campaign of 1884–85, wearing the "home service uniform" of the period. This included scarlet "frocks" (plain jackets in harder-wearing material designed for informal wear), although some regiments sent from India were in khaki drill. A small detachment of infantry which reached Khartoum by steamer on 28 January 1885 were ordered to fight in their red coats in order to let the Mahdist rebels know that the "real" British forces had arrived.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Even after the adoption of khaki Service Dress in 1902, most British infantry regiments (81 out of 85) and some cavalry regiments (12 out of 31) continued to wear scarlet tunics on parade and for off-duty "walking out dress", until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. While nearly all technical and support branches of the army wore dark blue, the Royal Engineers had worn red since the Peninsular War in order to draw less fire when serving amongst red-coated infantry.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Scarlet tunics ceased to be general issue upon British mobilisation in August 1914. The Brigade of Guards resumed wearing their scarlet full dress in 1920, but for the remainder of the army red coats were only authorised for wear by regimental bands and officers in mess dress or on certain limited social or ceremonial occasions (notably attendance at court functions or weddings). The reason for not generally reintroducing the distinctive full dress was primarily financial, as the scarlet cloth requires expensive cochineal dye dyed in the grain of the cloth by old-fashioned methods.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: As late as 1980, consideration was given to the reintroduction of scarlet as a replacement for the dark blue "No. 1 dress" and khaki "No. 2 dress" of the modern British Army, using cheaper and fadeless chemical dyes instead of cochineal. Surveys of serving soldiers' opinion showed little support for the idea and it was shelved.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Red and scarlet uniforms were widely worn by British organised or allied forces during the Imperial period. This included the presidency armies of the East India Company from 1757 onwards (along with the succeeding British Indian Army), and colonial units from Canada.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Red coats were first worn by British sea-going regiments when adopted by the Prince of Denmark's Regiment in 1686. Thereafter red coatees became the normal parade and battle dress for marine infantry, although the staining effects of salt spray meant that white fatigue jackets and subsequently blue undress tunics were often substituted for shipboard duties. The Royal Marine Artillery wore dark blue from their creation in 1804. The scarlet full-dress tunics of the Royal Marine Light Infantry were abolished in 1923 when the two branches of the Corps were amalgamated and dark blue became the universal uniform colour for both ceremonial and ordinary occasions. Scarlet for the Royal Marines now (2021) survives only in the mess uniform jackets of officers and senior NCOs.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The scarlet tunic has been retained as the full dress, band or mess uniforms by several armed forces of the Commonwealth of Nations. These include the Australian, British, Canadian, Fijian, Ghanaian, Indian, Jamaican, Kenyan, New Zealand, Pakistani, Singaporean, and Sri Lankan armies.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Use of the scarlet tunic originates with the Canadian Militia, a militia raised to support the British Army in British North America, as well as the Canadian government following Confederation in 1867. Present dress regulations relating to the scarlet tunic originated from a simplified system ordered by the sovereign in 1902, and later promulgated in the Canadian Militia Dress Regulations 1907 and Militia Order No. 58/1908. The dress regulations, including the scarlet tunic, were maintained after the Canadian Militia was reorganized into the Canadian Army in 1940.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The Canadian Army's universal full dress uniform includes a scarlet tunic. Although scarlet is the primary colour of the tunic, its piping is white, and the unit's facing colours appear on the tunic's collar, cuffs, and shoulder straps. The universal design also features a trefoil-shaped Austrian knot embroidered atop the facing on the tunic's cuff. The variation of the scarlet tunic is also worn by cadets of the Royal Military College of Canada. However, some units in the Canadian Army are authorized regimental differences from the Army's universal full dress. As a result, some armoured regiments and artillery units substitute dark blue, Canadian-Scottish regiments "archer green", and all rifle/Voltigeur regiments "rifle green" for scarlet tunics as a part of their full dress.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: In addition to the full dress uniform, a scarlet-coloured mess jacket is a part of the authorized mess dress for members of the Canadian Army. Several other Canadian uniforms are also derived from the scarlet tunic. Members of the City of Toronto Honour Guard, a group of veterans that are employed in the local civil service, wear a scarlet tunic based on Governor General's Foot Guards. The dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a federal law enforcement agency, also incorporates elements of a red coat, referred to as the Red Serge.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: During the 19th century, several volunteer militias in New Zealand wore a variety of scarlet, dark blue, or green tunics, closely following the contemporary uniforms of the British Army. Presently however, the New Zealand Army Band and the Officer Cadet School are the only units of the New Zealand Army that use the scarlet tunic as part of their ceremonial full dress uniforms.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: In addition to full dress, the standard mess dress for the New Zealand Army includes a scarlet jacket with dark blue/black lapels.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The scarlet tunic remains in the current British Army Dress Regulations. The scarlet tunic is one of three coloured tunics used by the British Army, alongside dark green tunics (used by The Rifles), and dark blue tunics (used by several units, such as the Royal Artillery). The scarlet tunic is presently used as part of the full dress uniforms for the Life Guards and several other cavalry units, the Foot Guards, the Royal Engineers, line infantry regiments, generals, and most army staff officers of the British Army. The locally recruited Royal Gibraltar Regiment also uses a scarlet tunic as part of its winter ceremonial dress.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: In addition, the scarlet tunic is still used by some regimental bands or drummers for ceremonial purposes. Officers and NCOs of those regiments which previously wore red retain scarlet as the colour of their "mess" or formal evening jackets. Some regiments turn out small detachments, such as colour guards, in scarlet full dress at their own expense, e.g. the Yorkshire Regiment before amalgamation.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, The Yeoman of the Guard and the Military Knights of Windsor are ceremonial units known as the Sovereign's Bodyguard three ceremonial units wear an early 19th century scarlet officer tunic when performing ceremonial tasks.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: From the modern perspective, the retention of a highly conspicuous colour such as red for active service appears inexplicable and foolhardy, regardless of how striking it may have looked on the parade ground. However, in the days of the musket (a weapon of limited range and accuracy) and black powder, battle field visibility was quickly obscured by clouds of smoke. Bright colours provided a means of distinguishing friend from foe without significantly adding risk. Furthermore, the vegetable dyes used until the 19th century would fade over time to a pink or ruddy-brown, so on a long campaign in a hot climate the colour was less conspicuous than the modern scarlet shade would be. As formal battles of the time commonly involved deployment in columns and lines, the individual soldier was not likely to be a target by himself.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: There is no universally accepted explanation as to why the British wore red. As noted above, the 16th century military historian Julius Ferretus asserted that the colour red was favoured because of the supposedly demoralising effect of blood stains on a uniform of a lighter colour.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: In his book "British Military Uniforms" (Hamylyn Publishing Group 1968), the military historian W. Y. Carman traces in considerable detail the slow evolution of red as the English soldier's colour, from the Tudors to the Stuarts. The reasons that emerge are a mixture of financial (cheaper red, russet or crimson dyes), cultural (a growing popular sense that red was the sign of an English soldier), and simple chance (an order of 1594 is that coats "be of such colours as you can best provide").


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Before the Tudor period, red frequently appeared in the cloth livery provided for the household personnel—including guard troops—of many European royal houses and Italian or Church principalities. Red or purple had provided a rich distinction for senior clerics through the Middle Ages in the hierarchy of colours distinguishing the Roman Church.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: During the English Civil War red dyes were imported in large quantities for use by units and individuals of both sides, though this was the beginning of the trend for long overcoats. The ready availability of red pigment made it popular for military clothing, and the dying process required for red involved only one stage. Other colours required the mixing of dyes in two stages and accordingly involved greater expense; blue, for example, could be obtained with woad, but more popularly it became the much more expensive indigo. In financial terms the only cheaper alternative was the grey-white of undyed wool—an option favoured by the French, Austrian, Spanish and other Continental armies. The formation of the first English standing army (Parliamentarian New Model Army in 1645) saw red clothing as the standard dress. As Carman comments, "The red coat was now firmly established as the sign of an Englishman."


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: On traditional battlefields with large engagements, visibility was not considered a military disadvantage until the general adoption of rifles in the 1850s, followed by smokeless powder after 1880. The value of drab clothing was quickly recognised by the British Army, who introduced khaki drill for Indian and colonial warfare from the mid-19th century on. As part of a series of reforms following the Second Boer War (which had been fought in this inconspicuous clothing of Indian origin), a darker khaki serge was adopted in 1902 for service dress in Britain itself. From then on, the red coat continued as a dress item only, retained for reasons both of national sentiment and its value in recruiting. The British military authorities were more practical in their considerations than their French counterparts, who incurred heavy casualties by retaining highly visible blue coats and red trousers for active service until several months into World War I.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The epithet "redcoats" is familiar throughout much of the former British Empire, even though this colour was by no means exclusive to the British Army. The entire Danish Army wore red coats up to 1848, and particular units in the German, French, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Bulgarian and Romanian armies retained red uniforms until 1914 or later. Amongst other diverse examples, Spanish hussars, Japanese Navy and United States Marine Corps bandsmen, and Serbian generals had red tunics as part of their gala or court dress during this period. In 1827 United States Artillery company musicians were wearing red coats as a reversal of their branch facing colour. However the extensive use of this colour by British, Indian and other Imperial soldiers over a period of nearly three hundred years made red uniform a veritable icon of the British Empire. The significance of military red as a national symbol was endorsed by King William IV (reigned 1830–1837) when light dragoons and lancers had scarlet jackets substituted for their previous dark blue, hussars adopted red pelisses, and even the Royal Navy were obliged to adopt red facings instead of white. Most of these changes were reversed under Queen Victoria (1837–1901). A red coat and black tricorne remains part of the ceremonial and out-of-hospital dress for in-pensioners at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Whether scarlet or red, the uniform coat has historically been made of wool, with a lining of loosely woven wool known as bay to give shape to the garment. The modern scarlet wool is supplied by Abimelech Hainsworth and is much lighter in weight than the traditional material, which was intended for hard wear on active service.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The cloth for private soldiers used up until the late 18th century was plain weave broadcloth weighing , made from coarser blends of English wool. The weights often quoted in contemporary documents are given per "running" yard, though; so for a cloth of width a yard weighed . This sometimes leads to the erroneous statement that the cloth weighed 24 oz per "square" yard.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Broadcloth is so called not because it is finished wide, 54 inches not being particularly wide, but because it was woven nearly half as wide again and shrunk down to finish 54 inches. This shrinking, or milling, process made the cloth very dense, bringing all the threads very tightly together, and gave a felted "blind" finish to the cloth. These factors meant that it was harder-wearing, more weatherproof and could take a raw edge; the hems of the garment could be simply cut and left without hemming as the threads were so heavily shrunk together as to prevent fraying.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Officers' coats were made from "superfine" broadcloth; manufactured from much finer imported Spanish wool, spun finer and with more warps and wefts per inch. The result was a slightly lighter cloth than that used for privates, still essentially a broadcloth and maintaining the characteristics of that cloth, but slightly lighter and with a much finer quality finish. The dye used for privates' coats of the infantry, guard and line, was rose madder. A vegetable dye, it was recognised as economical, simple and reliable and remained the first choice for lower quality reds from the ancient world until chemical dyes became cheaper in the latter 19th century.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Infantry sergeants, some cavalry regiments and many volunteer corps (which were often formed from prosperous middle-class citizens who paid for their own uniforms) used various "mock scarlets"; a brighter red but derived from cheaper materials than the cochineal used for officers' coats. Various dye sources were used for these middle quality reds, but lac dye, extracted from a kind of scale insect "lac insects" which produce resin shellac, was the most common basis.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The noncommissioned officer's red coat issued under the warrant of 1768 was dyed with a mixture of madder-red and cochineal to produce a "lesser scarlet"; brighter than the red worn by other ranks but cheaper than the pure cochineal dyed garment purchased by officers as a personal order from military tailors. Officers' superfine broadcloth was dyed true scarlet with cochineal, a dye derived from insects. This was a more expensive process but produced a distinctive colour that was the speciality of 18th-century English dyers.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The most notable centre for dying "British scarlet" cloth was Stroud in Gloucestershire, which also dyed cloth for many foreign armies. An 1823 recipe for dying 60 pounds (lbs) - about 27 kg - of military woollen cloth lists: 1 lb of cochineal, 3 lbs madder, 6 lbs argol (potassium tartrate), 3 lbs alum, 4 pints tin liquor (stannous chloride), 6 lbs cudbear (orcein) and two buckets of urine. The alum, argol and tin liquor, which acted as mordants or dye fixatives, were boiled together for half an hour, and the madder and cochineal were added for another ten minutes. The cloth was added and boiled for two hours; after that, the cloth was drained and immersed in cudbear and urine for another two hours. The cloth was stretched out to dry on tenters, then finally brushed with teasels and tightly rolled to produce a sheen.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: During the 18th and much of the nineteenth centuries the cheaply made coats of other ranks in the British army were produced by a variety of contractors, using the laborious process of dyeing described above. Accordingly, even when new, batches of garments sent to regiments might be issued in different shades of red. This tendency towards variations in appearance, commented on by contemporary observers, would subsequently be compounded by weather bleaching and soaking.)


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Although the term "red coat" is most often associated with British soldiers in the English language, several other armed forces have used red-coloured coats as a part of their uniform.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: The term "redshirts" was also used in mid-19th century Italy to refer to volunteers who followed Giuseppe Garibaldi during the unification of Italy. However, the term "redshirt" is derived from the red shirts or loose-fitting blouses worn by volunteers, as opposed to a specific piece of military garment.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Several military forces have used red-coloured coats in the past. The combined Denmark–Norway army wore red uniforms from the 17th century to the union's dissolution in 1814. A number of Danish Army infantry, cavalry and artillery regiments continued to wear red coats from 1814 to 1848, when they were replaced by dark blue service tunics. Members of the Paraguayan Army also wore red-coloured coats during the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870). Members of the Royal Burmese Armed Forces were also recorded to have worn western-style red-coloured uniforms during the 18th and 19th centuries.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Certain specific military units have also historically worn red-coloured coats. The Royal Polish Guards of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, wore a red cloth jacket with white lapels and a blue or turquoise vest, and a red coat made of wool during the winter season. The line infantry regiments of the Army of the Papal States were characterised by red coats and breeches during the 1730s. During the Venezuelan War of Independence, the "Ejército Libertador" (Army of Liberation) adopted the red hussar cavalry uniforms used by the British Legions' Company of Honor Guard for Simón Bolívar. Prior to World War I, officers of the Prussian Army's Guard Cuirassier Regiment wore scarlet tunics as part of their gala uniform for court functions.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Several French Army units have also historically worn red-coloured coats, including the Irish Brigade (1690–1792), who supposedly wore red-coloured coats to show their origins and continued loyalty to the cause of Jacobitism; and Swiss mercenary regiments in the French Army, including the Swiss Guards, from the mid-17th to early 19th centuries. The French North African spahi regiments also wore red jackets until their disbandment in 1962.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Several military units continue to use a red-coloured coat as a part of their ceremonial uniform. In Europe, red-coloured coats are still used by the Danish Royal Life Guards, and the Garderegiment Fuseliers Prinses Irene of the Royal Netherlands Army. The latter unit's red-coloured tunics are derived from British style red coats, in commemoration of the unit's foundation in exile in the United Kingdom during World War II.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Several South American units continue to wear red-coloured coats for ceremonial purposes, including the Brazilian Marine Corps, and the Bolivian Colorados Regiment ("colorados" meaning red in the Spanish language). Several Venezuelan Army units also use a red-coloured coat as a part of their parade uniforms, including the Presidential Honor Guard, the "Compañia de Honor "24 de Junio"" (Company of Honor ""24 de Junio"") and the Bolivarian Militia of Venezuela.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Red-coloured coats also see some use in Asia, forming a part of a unit's ceremonial uniform. The ceremonial honour guard uniform for the military of Myanmar includes a red-coloured tunics. In Indonesia, a detachment from the Presidential Security Force of Indonesia uses a red-coloured tunic with as a part of their full dress.


title: Red coat (military uniform)

text: Members of the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, United States Marine Band and the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps wear red coats for performances at the White House and elsewhere. This is a rare survival of the common 18th-century practice of having military bandsmen wear coats in reverse colors to the rest of a given unit. (United States Marines wear blue/black tunics with red facings, so United States Marine bandsmen wear red tunics with blue/black facings.)


title: Victor Vescovo

text: Victor Lance Vescovo (born 1966) is an American private equity investor, retired naval officer, space tourist and undersea explorer.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: He is a co-founder and managing partner of private equity company Insight Equity Holdings. Vescovo achieved the Explorers Grand Slam by reaching the North and South Poles and climbing the Seven Summits, and he then visited the deepest points of all Earth's five oceans during the Five Deeps Expedition of 2018–2019.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: Vescovo grew up in Dallas, Texas, where he graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University, a master's degree in Defense and Arms Control Studies (Political Science) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker scholar.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: Vescovo served 20 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer, retiring in 2013 as a Commander (O-5).


title: Victor Vescovo

text: In 2018, Vescovo launched the Five Deeps Expedition, whose objective was to visit and thoroughly map the bottom of all five of the world's oceans by the end of September 2019. This expedition was filmed in the documentary television series "Expedition Deep Ocean". This objective was achieved one month ahead of schedule, and the expedition's team carried out biological samplings and depth confirmations at each location. Besides the deepest points of the five world oceans, the expedition also made dives in the Horizon Deep and the Sirena Deep, and mapped the Diamantina Fracture Zone.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: In December 2018, he became the first person to reach the deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean, piloting "DSV" Limiting Factor, a reported US$50 million submarine system (Triton 36000/2) – including its support ship the "DSSV Pressure Drop" and its three ultra-deep-sea robotic landers – below the ocean surface to the base of the Puerto Rico Trench, an area subsequently referred to by world media as Brownson Deep.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: On February 4, 2019, he became the first person to reach the bottom of the Southern Ocean, in the southern portion of the South Sandwich Trench. For this attempt, the expedition used a Kongsberg EM124 multibeam sonar system to achieve accurate mapping of the trench.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: On April 16, 2019, Vescovo dived to the bottom of the Sunda Trench south of Bali, reaching the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Likewise, this was done aboard the "Limiting Factor". The team reported sightings of what they believed to be species new to science, including a hadal snailfish and a gelatinous organism believed to be a stalked ascidean. The same dive was later undertaken by Patrick Lahey, President of Triton Submarines, and the expedition's chief scientist, Dr. Alan Jamieson. This dive was organised subsequent to the scanning of the Diamantina Fracture Zone using multibeam sonar, confirming that the Sunda Trench was deeper and settling the debate about where the deepest point in the Indian Ocean is.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: On April 28, 2019, Vescovo descended nearly to the deepest place in the ocean – the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench. On his first descent, he piloted the "DSV Limiting Factor" to a depth of , a world record by . Diving for a second time on May 1, he became the first person to dive the Challenger Deep twice, finding "at least three new species of marine animals" and "some sort of plastic waste". Among the underwater creatures Vescovo encountered were a snailfish at and a spoon worm at nearly , the deepest level at which the species had ever been encountered.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: On May 7, 2019, Vescovo and Jamieson made the first human-occupied deep submersible dive to the bottom of the Sirena Deep, the third deepest point in the ocean lying about 128 miles northeast from Challenger Deep. The time they spent there was 176 minutes; among the samples they retrieved was a piece of mantle rock from the western slope of the Mariana Trench.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: On June 10, 2019, Vescovo reached the bottom of the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench, confirming that it is the second deepest point on the planet and the deepest in the Southern Hemisphere at . In doing so, Vescovo had descended to the first, second, and third deepest points in the ocean. Unlike the Sunda and Mariana Trenches, no signs of human contamination were found in the deep, which was described by the expedition as "completely pristine".


title: Victor Vescovo

text: Vescovo completed the Five Deeps Expedition on 24 August 2019 when he reached a depth of at the bottom of the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean. He was the first human to reach this location.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: In 2019, Vescovo escorted "Titanic"-historian Parks Stephenson to the wreck of the RMS "Titanic" for the first revisit of the wreck in 15 years. Findings included continued extensive corrosion and bacterial growth on iron and steel surfaces.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: In February 2020, Vescovo piloted his deep diving submersible twice to the wreck of the French submarine "Minerve" in the Mediterranean Sea. The retired French Rear Admiral Jean-Louis Barbier investigated the wreck of the "Minerve" on the first dive. On the second dive, Vescovo was accompanied by Hervé Vauve, the son of the captain of the sunken submarine. They placed a commemorative plaque at the wreck.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: In 2021, Vescovo identified and surveyed the wreck of the at a depth of in the Philippine Sea; at the time of identification this was the deepest shipwreck ever surveyed. The Johnston was sunk during the Battle off Samar (1944) in one of the most lopsided naval battles in history.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: In 2022 a submersible expedition piloted by Vescovo located the wreck of destroyer escort (also sunk in the Battle off Samar in 1944), in the Philippine Sea at a depth of , making it the deepest wreck identified at this date.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: In 2019, Victor Vescovo was recognized by Guinness World Records as the person who has covered the greatest vertical distance without leaving Earth's surface. As part of achieving the Explorers Grand Slam (Last Degree), Vescovo climbed Mount Everest () on 24 May 2010, Earth's highest point. Almost nine years later he dove to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (), Earth's lowest point, in the deep submersible "Limiting Factor" on 29 April 2019, for a total vertical distance of .


title: Victor Vescovo

text: Vescovo completed the Explorers Grand Slam (Last Degree) by climbing the highest peak on each of the seven continents, and skied the Last Degree of Latitude at both the North and South Poles. Uniquely, with the successful completion of his Five Deeps Expedition, Vescovo has also dived the deepest point in each of the five world's oceans. He is the first human to have reached the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench, the Sunda Trench, the Molloy Deep, the Sirena Deep, the Horizon Deep, and the deepest point of the Southern Ocean, which lies in the southern end of the South Sandwich Trench. He is also the first to have dived the Challenger Deep more than once, doing so at least a dozen times, as well as the first to have visited the three deepest points in the ocean (the Challenger, Horizon, and Sirena Deeps).


title: Victor Vescovo

text: In June, 2020 Vescovo returned to the Challenger Deep, specially equipped to survey its three, well-defined basins, or "pools". Carrying three CTDs on his submersible Limiting Factor as well as one CTD and one depthometer on each of his three independent robotic "landers". Vescovo piloted six passengers to the bottom of the Challenger Deep. These included former astronaut and NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan, the first woman to ultimate depth; Kelly Walsh, the son of Don Walsh (who with Jacques Piccard made the first dive into the Challenger Deep) to become the only father/son team to make this journey albeit 60 years apart; and Vanessa O'Brien, the first woman to both climb Everest and also descend to the bottom of the seafloor (Vescovo was the first person). At the end of his 2020 dives, Vescovo had the unique record of eight total dives to Challenger Deep, including the record for the deepest dive in history on April 28, 2019.


title: Victor Vescovo

text: Vescovo flew to space onboard New Shepard, as part of the Blue Origin NS-21 mission in 2022. "Forbes" has recognized Vescovo as the "First To Climb Everest, Visit Ocean’s Deepest Depth And Fly To The Final Frontier.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: The Bell Labs Holmdel Complex, in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, United States, functioned for 44 years as a research and development facility, initially for the Bell System and later Bell Labs. The centerpiece of the campus is an Eero Saarinen–designed structure that served as the home to over 6,000 engineers and researchers. This modernist building, dubbed "The Biggest Mirror Ever" by "Architectural Forum", due to its mirror box exterior, was the site of a Nobel Prize discovery, the laser cooling work of Steven Chu. The building has undergone renovations into a multi-purpose living and working space, dubbed Bell Works by its redevelopers. Since 2013 it has been operated by Somerset Development, who redeveloped the building into a mixed-use office for high-tech startup companies. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: Before the present building, the site was used by Bell Telephone Laboratories for research. Karl Guthe Jansky invented radio astronomy there, and a monument was placed at the former location of the antenna almost seventy years later in 1998. The monument is a stylized sculpture of the antenna and is oriented as Jansky's antenna was at 7:10 p.m. on September 16, 1932, at a moment of maximum signal caused by alignment with the center of our galaxy in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: In 1957, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) began to plan a research laboratory in Holmdel Township in Central New Jersey. Constructed between 1959 and 1962, this complex was one of the final projects of Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen before his death in 1961. Used as a research and development complex, it served the needs of the Bell Laboratories division of AT&T, later part of Lucent, and Alcatel-Lucent. Basic research, applied hardware development, and software development occurred in the building.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: The building's distinctive features, including its mirror-like appearance, led to recognition as the Laboratory of the Year by R&D in 1967.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: The building was expanded in 1966 and 1982 to its final size of two million square feet of office and laboratory space. Despite these expansions, the original curtain wall design remained intact, as did the unique layout of the site, which included a large elliptical master plan and country-road like approach. Over its active life-span, the facility and its layout were studied in universities as models of modernist architecture. Internally, the building is divided into four pavilions of labs and offices, each separated from the others by a cross-shaped atrium. The internal pavilions are linked via sky-bridges and perimeter walkway.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: Also of note is the water tower on the complex. The three-legged design reminded people of a transistor-- a major achievement of Bell Labs (in 1947 at a different location). Despite a total lack of historical evidence, an urban legend claims that the designer actually intended to memorialize the transistor. Another urban legend-- less widely circulated than the transistor story-- claims that the concrete floodlight stand at the base of the tower was originally a water fountain. The tower is still in usable condition more than 40 years after its construction.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: In 2006, Alcatel-Lucent contracted to sell the facility to Preferred Real Estate Investments in the process of restructuring the company's research efforts. Despite initial plans to maintain the original buildings and keep the complex as a corporate office park, economic developments later resulted in Preferred seeking to re-zone as residential property. As a result, the complex was added to The Cultural Landscape Foundation's list of 10 Most Endangered Historic Sites in New Jersey in May 2007. Additionally action led to the creation of a citizen's group, Preserving Holmdel, by former Bell employees, to lobby for keeping the complex as it was when in use as a laboratory. Working with the community, ideas for changes such as a university center or recreational complex, in portions of the former facility are under consideration.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: The Preferred transaction did not close and on May 17, 2012 Holmdel Township declared the site as an "Area in Need of Redevelopment" and adopted a Redevelopment Plan for the property that included various adaptive reuses of the main building and the construction of up to 40 single family homes and 185 age-restricted townhouses outside the main ring road surrounding the building. The Redevelopment Plan is available on the Township's website. The complex is currently under contract to Somerset Development LLC. Somerset has provided concept plans for the redevelopment of the complex in accordance with the Redevelopment Plan and is in discussions with Township officials concerning the details of those plans.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: In September 2013, it was announced that the property was purchased by Somerset Development Corp for $27 million for a redevelopment project planned to include a health and wellness center, skilled nursing facility and assisted living center, a hotel, restaurants and shopping, spa, office spaces and a 20,000-square-foot public library. Recreational space and luxury homes were planned for the surrounding land. Toll Brothers was slated to be the residential developer the project. Several office tenants have moved into the Bell Works building, and there is a cafe now open in the main lobby. In November 2016, Nokia completed its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: Architect Alexander Gorlin designed the 2018-2019 renovation which includes opening up the laboratory spaces to the atrium light by replacing Saarinen's metal panels with glass. He also redesigned the two mammoth 1,000 x 100 ft atria floors. Skylights were replaced with transparent photovoltaic panels, and a hotel is planned for the roof.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: In July 2016 iCIMS announced plans to move their headquarters to the facility to become the anchor tenant. They moved in on November 27, 2017.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: In April 2017 Guardian Life Insurance Company announced plans to move several hundred employees to the facility.


title: Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

text: The exterior and some interior shots of the facility serve as the fictional headquarters of Lumon Industries, where the main characters of the 2022 Apple TV+ show "Severance" are employed.


title: Burisma

text: Burisma Holdings Limited () is a holding company for a group of energy exploration and production companies. It is registered in Limassol, Cyprus, but based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Burisma Holdings has operated in the Ukrainian natural gas market since 2002. It is one of the largest private natural gas producers in Ukraine. It is owned by Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky through his company Brociti Investments Limited ().


title: Burisma

text: Burisma's subsidiaries include Esko-Pivnich, Pari, Persha Ukrainska Naftogazova Kompaniya, Naftogaz Garant, KUB-Gas and Astroinvest-Ukraine.


title: Burisma

text: Burisma was founded in 2002. Consolidation of the Burisma Group took place mainly in 2006 and 2007. It became a major shareholder of Sunrise Energy Resources, a Delaware Corporation, which in 2004 acquired Ukrainian companies Esko-Pivnich () and Pari (), which owned natural gas exploration licences. In 2009, shares in these companies were transferred to Millington Solutions Limited. However, shortly thereafter Millington ceased to exist, at which point Burisma claimed ownership of those two companies. In 2012, Persha Ukrainska Naftogazova Kompaniya (First Ukrainian Oil and Gas Company, ), Naftogaz Garant (Oil and Gas Guarantee, ), and KrymTopEnergoServis (CrimeaTopEnergoService, ) became a part of the Burisma Group.


title: Burisma

text: In 2014, Burisma signed a cooperation agreement with KazMunayGas, the national oil and gas company of Kazakhstan. In 2016, Burisma bought two hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fleets. In 2017, it bought a 3,000-horsepower Service King Manufacturing SK 3000 drilling rig for $40 million (USD); it was the most powerful drilling rig in Eastern Europe at the time.


title: Burisma

text: In February 2016, Burisma acquired a 70% stake in KUB-Gas (КУБ-Газ). In 2017, it bought a majority stake in Diloretio Holdings Limited, a company which owned Ukrainian gas companies SystemOilEngineering (г), Naftogazopromyslova geologiya, (Oil and Gas Industrial Geology, ), and Tehnokomservis (TechnoComService, ). Also in 2017, Burisma bought Nadragasvydobuvannya (Subsoil Gas Extraction, ) and GasOilInvest (Гасоілінвест). In April 2019, Burisma acquired Astroinvest Ukraine (Астроінвест-Україна), a natural gas trader.


title: Burisma

text: In 2015, Burisma was one of the founders of the International Forum on Energy Security for the Future and partnered the Electric Marathon. In 2017, it signed a partnership agreement with the Atlantic Council to promote anti-corruption measures.


title: Burisma

text: In the 2020 United States presidential election, the re-election campaign of President Donald Trump and his allies promoted allegations of corruption focused on the relationship between Burisma and Hunter Biden. The claims were first stated by an editor of Breitbart News, and subsequently formed the basis of a pressure campaign by Trump and associates to push the Ukrainian government to announce an investigation of the younger Biden's role with Burisma, culminating in Trump's impeachment and acquittal. Republicans hoped to use the Burisma allegations to tarnish Biden's 2020 Presidential campaign, but an investigation by the Republican-controlled Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees shortly before the 2020 presidential election concluded that there was no evidence of improper influence or wrongdoing by Joe Biden.


title: Burisma

text: Burisma's primary operations are in Ukraine, supplemented by activities in Germany, Mexico, Italy, and Kazakhstan. It holds 35 gas production licences in Ukraine in the Dnieper-Donets, Carpathian, and Azov-Kuban Basins. Exploration and production activities are carried out at eight sites in five regions. Burisma also provides natural gas well services, including hydraulic fracturing. Burisma plans to build a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant in Kharkiv with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes per year.


title: Burisma

text: In 2016, Burisma was the second largest privately owned natural gas producer in Ukraine after DTEK, accounting for 26% of all natural gas produced by privately owned companies and more than 5% of total gas production in Ukraine. According to the company, it produced of natural gas in Ukraine in 2018.


title: Burisma

text: In Kazakhstan, the company has provided drilling services to KazMunayGas and its subsidiaries, including at the Urikhtau gas field. In Italy, Burisma develops three geothermal power projects in partnership with Gesto Investimento e Gestão.


title: Burisma

text: Burisma's subsidiary Esko-Pivnich operates in the Kharkiv Oblast, and Pari operates in Western Ukraine (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi oblasts). KUB-Gas operates in Luhansk Oblast, GasOilInvest in Poltava Oblast, and Nadragasvydobuvannya in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Burisma also owned KrymTopEnergoServis, a company which leased three gas deposits in Crimea. However, after annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, KrymTopEnergoServis ceased operation as Burisma subsidiary.


title: Burisma

text: Burisma Holdings is owned by Brociti Investments Limited, a Cyprus-based company owned by Ukrainian former politician and businessman Mykola Zlochevsky. Zlochevsky was minister of natural resources under Viktor Yanukovych, then president of Ukraine. Brociti Investments acquired Burisma Holdings in 2011. Before that acquisition, Mykola Zlochevsky and Mykola Lisin each owned a 50% interest in Burisma Holdings. Lisin, a Ukrainian politician, died in a traffic accident in 2011.


title: Burisma

text: Taras Burdeinyi is the chief executive officer of Burisma Holdings, and Alan Apter is chairman of the board of directors. As of 14 October 2019, the members of the board of directors, in order of seniority, are Alan Apter, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Joseph Cofer Black, Karina Zlochevska, Christina Sofocleous, Riginos Charalampous, and Marina Pericleous. Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former president of Poland, joined the board in January 2014. In 2017, Joseph Cofer Black, former director of the Counterterrorism Center of the Central Intelligence Agency (1999–2002) in the George W. Bush administration and former Ambassador-at-Large for counter-terrorism (2002–2004), was appointed to the board. Karina Zlochevska, daughter of Mykola Zlochevskiy, was also appointed in February 2016.


title: Burisma

text: In April 2014, Devon Archer, a former senior adviser to the John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign, and Hunter Biden, an attorney and the son of then-US vice president Joe Biden, joined the board. Archer left the company in 2018 and Hunter Biden left in April 2019, when his term as a director expired.


title: Burisma

text: Burisma Holdings does not disclose its financial results. It has been calculated, based on a minimal natural gas price, that the company's revenue in 2018 may have totaled at least US$400 million.


title: Burisma

text: In April 2014, the Serious Fraud Office of the United Kingdom launched a money laundering investigation against Zlochevsky, and as a result, accounts of Burisma Holdings and its parent Brociti Investments at the London branch of BNP Paribas containing US$23 million were frozen. That money was transferred as a result of complex transactions by a company controlled by a Ukrainian businessman Serhiy Kurchenko, a subject of the European Union restrictive measures. When the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office failed to provide documents needed for the investigation, a British court in January 2015 dropped the case and ordered to unfreeze the assets. In September 2015, then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt gave a speech in which he called out Ukrainian prosecutors for failing to cooperate with the investigation.


title: Burisma

text: Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) have conducted in total 15 investigations on Burisma's owner Zlochevsky. In 2016, former Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko accused Burisma subsidiaries of conspiracy and tax evasion of about one billion hryvnias (US$70 million) in 2014–2015, but later during investigation subsidiaries of Burisma were not mentioned. Tax audit of Esko-Pivnich by the State Fiscal Service found some violations in 2016. As a result, 50 million hryvnias (US$1.9 million) of additional taxes was paid to eliminate criminal charges. In total, Burisma paid additional 180 million hryvnias (US$7.44 million) of taxes to avoid further criminal proceedings. A criminal investigation was conducted if natural resources extraction licenses were issued to Burisma subsidiaries legally during the period Zlochevsky held government office. Although violations of the procedure were established by NABU, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office missed procedural deadlines for a lawsuit and the case for nullifying licenses was dismissed by the court. In October 2019, Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka announced that all 15 investigation cases will be reviewed.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: Religion in Ethiopia consists of a number of faiths. Among these mainly Abrahamic religions, the most numerous is Christianity (Ethiopian Orthodoxy, P'ent'ay, Roman Catholic) totaling at 67.3%, followed by Islam at 31.3%. There is also a longstanding but small Jewish community. Some adherents of the Baháʼí Faith likewise exist in a number of urban and rural areas. Additionally, there is also a substantial population of the adherents of traditional faiths.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: According to the national census conducted in 2007, over 32 million people or 43.5% were reported to be Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, over 25 million or 33.9% were reported to be Muslim, 13.7 million, or 18.6%, were P'ent'ay Christians, and just under two million or 2.6% adhered to traditional beliefs. Neither in the 2007 census, nor in the 1994 census, were responses reported in further detail: for example, those who identified themselves as Hindus, Jewish, Baháʼí, agnostics or atheists were counted as "Other".


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: The Kingdom of Aksum in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea was one of the first Christian countries in the world, having officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century. Ethiopia was the only region of Africa to survive the expansion of Islam as a Christian state.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: In general, most of the Christians (largely members of the non-Chalcedonian Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church) live in the highlands, while Muslims and adherents of traditional African religions tend to inhabit more lowland regions in the east and south of the country. The numerous indigenous African religions in Ethiopia operate mainly in the far southwest and western borderlands.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: Ethiopia has close historical ties to all three of the world's major Abrahamic religions. Christians form the majority of the population. Islam is the second most followed religion, with 33.9% of the population being adherents. 2.6% of the population (mainly in the far south and southwest) follow traditional religions; other religions (the Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, etc.) make up the remaining 0.6%. Ethiopia is the site of the first hijra in Islamic history and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash. Until the 1980s, a substantial population of Ethiopian Jews resided in Ethiopia. The country is also the spiritual homeland of the Rastafari religious movement.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: Ethiopia is one of the oldest Christian states in the world. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is an Oriental Orthodox Church, which is the largest Christian denomination in Ethiopia. It was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, and is the only pre-colonial Orthodox church in Sub-Saharan Africa. The apostle St. Matthew is said to have died in Ethiopia.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: According to the government's 1994 census (which the CIA World Factbook follows), 61.6% of the Ethiopian population was Christian: 50.6% of the total were Ethiopian Orthodox, 10.1% were various Protestant denominations (such as P'ent'ay and the Lutheran Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus), and Roman Catholics constituted 0.9% of the population). The U.S. State Department estimates that just over 50% of the country is Christian (40 to 45% of the population belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, about 10% are members of Christian evangelical and Pentecostal groups). Orthodox Ethiopian Christians are predominant in the Tigray (95.6%) and Amhara (82.5%), while the majority of Protestants live in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region or SNNPR (55.5% of the inhabitants) and the Oromia Region (4.8 million or 17.7%). According to the government's most recent census from 2007, Christians constitute 62.8% of the total population, with the largest group being Ethiopian Orthodox Christians at 43.5%, followed by Protestants 18.6% and Catholics at 0.7%. A 2015 study estimates some 400,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: The Kingdom of Aksum was one of the first nations to officially accept Christianity, when St. Frumentius of Tyre, called Fremnatos or Abba Selama ("Father of Peace") in Ethiopia, converted King Ezana during the 4th century AD. Many believe that the Gospel had entered Ethiopia even earlier, with the royal official described as being baptised by Philip the Evangelist in chapter eight of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8:26–39). Orthodox Christianity has a long history in Ethiopia dating back to the 1st century, and is dominant in northern and central Ethiopia. Both Orthodox and Protestant Christianity have large representations in southern and western Ethiopia. A small ancient group of Jews, the Beta Israel, live in northwestern Ethiopia, though most emigrated to Israel in the last decades of the 20th century as part of the rescue missions undertaken by the Israeli government, Operation Moses and Operation Solomon. Some Israeli and Jewish scholars consider these Ethiopian Jews as a historical "Lost Tribe of Israel" (SOURCE NEEDED). Today, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, part of Oriental Orthodoxy, is by far the largest denomination, though a number of Protestants (P'ent'ay) churches have recently gained ground. Since the 18th century there has existed a relatively small (uniate) Ethiopian Catholic Church in full communion with Rome, with adherents making up less than 1% of the total population.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: The name "Ethiopia" (Hebrew "Kush") is mentioned in the Bible numerous times (thirty-seven times in the King James version). Abyssinia is also mentioned in the Qur'an and Hadith. While many Ethiopians claim that the Bible references of Kush apply to their own ancient civilization, pointing out that the Gihon river, a name for the Nile, is said to flow through the land, some scholars believe that the use of the term referred to the Kingdom of Kush in particular, or Africa outside of Egypt in general. The modern name "Ethiopia" is from the Greek term "Aethiopia" used to translate "Kush", and was applied to all of Sub-Saharan Africa, including what is now Sudan, but with a few classical geographers giving more detailed descriptions of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea (e.g. Adulis) as well.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: Islam in Ethiopia dates back to the founding of the religion; in 615, when a group of Muslims were counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and travel to Ethiopia via modern-day Eritrea, which was ruled by Ashama ibn Abjar, a pious Christian king. Bilal ibn Ribah, the first Muezzin, the person chosen to call the faithful to prayer, and one of the foremost companions of Muhammad, was born in Mecca to an Abyssinian mother. Moreover, the largest portion of non-Arab companions of Muhammad belonged to Ethiopian ethnic groups.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: According to the most recent 2007 CSA governmental data, Muslims are 33.9% of the population, up from 32.8% in 1994 (according to the census data of that year).


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: Before the publication of the 2007 census results, however, the U.S. State Department estimated that "approximately 45 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim." Roughly 68% of Ethiopian Muslims are Sunni, whilst 23% are non-denominational Muslims, whilst another 2% adhere to other sects such as Shia, Quranist, Ibadi etc. and some belonging to various Sufi orders. Islam first arrived in Ethiopia in 614 with the First Migration to Abyssinia. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city, is home to about 443,821 Muslims or 16.2%. While Muslims can be found in almost every community, Islam is most prevalent in the Somali (98.4%), Afar (95.3%) and Oromia (47.5%) Regions. Haile Selassie's government reportedly concealed the actual figures of the Muslim population in order to present Ethiopia as a Christian nation to the outside world. The writers of "Ethiopia: a country study" claimed that Islam made up 50% of the total population in 1991 based on the 1984 census commissioned by the Derg regime. Some web columnist even say the Muslim population are the majority and disagree with the current Ethiopian governments claims.


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: The Beta Israel, also known as the "Falashas" (though this term is considered derogatory), are a long-isolated group of African Jews who have lived in Ethiopia since antiquity. Their existence was not widely known to the outside world for many years, and they likewise were not aware of other Jewish groups outside of their own community. They became known to the West during the 19th and 20th centuries, and were accepted as Jews by the Israeli government in 1975. After this, Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, conducted in 1984 and 1991, respectively, airlifted the vast majority of the Ethiopian Jewish population to Israel, where there is currently a population of 150,000 Beta Israel. A small Jewish community still exists in Ethiopia, although it is mostly composed of Falash Mura, Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity in the past, and as such have not been recognized as Jews by the State of Israel, but have returned to Judaism (the Falash Mura now number some 22,000).


title: Religion in Ethiopia

text: The Baháʼí Faith in Ethiopia begins after `Abdu'l-Bahá wrote letters encouraging taking the religion to Africa in 1916. Mr. Sabri Elais, then a 27-year-old Bahá'í from Alexandria, Egypt, introduced the Baháʼí Faith to Ethiopia in 1933. A year later, in November 1934, the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly in the country was formed in Addis Ababa. In 1962, Ethiopia Baháʼís elected a National Spiritual Assembly. By 1963, there were seven localities with smaller groups of Baháʼís in the country. The Association of Religion Data Archives estimated that there were around 23,000 Baháʼí adherents in 2010. The Ethiopian community celebrated its diamond jubile in January 2009. the largest Baháʼí community is in Addis Ababa.