title: Military history of France

text: In the 11th century, French knights wore knee-length mail and carried long lances and swords. The Norman knights fielded at the Battle of Hastings were more than a match for English forces, and their victory simply cemented their power and influence. Between 1202 and 1343, France reduced England's holdings on the continent to a few small provinces through a series of conflicts including the Bouvines Campaign (1202-1214), the Saintonge War (1242) and the War of Saint-Sardos (1324).


title: Military history of France

text: Improvements in armor over the centuries led to the establishment of plate armor by the 14th century, which was further developed more rigorously in the 15th century. However, by the late 14th century and the early 15th century, socioeconomic calamities such as the Black Death, and political crises such as the Jacquerie peasant revolt, and especially the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War combined with numerous English invasions, all led to French military power declining during the first two phases of the Hundred Years' War. New weapons, including artillery, and tactics seemingly made the knight more of a sitting target than an effective battle force, but the often-praised longbowmen had little to do with the English success. Poor coordination or rough and soft, muddy terrain led to a number of bungled French assaults. The slaughter of knights at the Battle of Agincourt best exemplified this carnage. The French were able to field a much larger army of men-at-arms than their English counterparts, who had many longbowmen. Despite this, the French suffered about 6,000 casualties compared to a few hundred for the English because the narrow terrain prevented the tactical envelopments envisioned in recently discovered French plans for the battle. The French suffered a similar defeat at the Battle of the Golden Spurs against Flemish militia in 1302. When knights were allowed to effectively deploy and attack their opponents in the open field, however, they could be more useful, as at Cassel in 1328 or, even more decisively, at Bouvines in 1214, and Patay in 1429.


title: Military history of France

text: Popular conceptions of the third and final phase of the Hundred Years War are often dominated by the exploits of Joan of Arc, but French resurgence was rooted in multiple factors. A major step was taken by King Charles VII, who created the "Compagnies d'ordonnance"—cavalry units with 20 companies of 600 men each—and launched the first standing army for a dynastic state in the Western world. The "Compagnies" gave the French a considerable edge in professionalism and discipline, being composed of paid full-time professional soldiers, at a time when the allegiances of the aristocratic knights would often shift to the opposing side. Strong French counterattacks turned the tide of the war. The important victories of Orléans, Patay, Formigny and Castillon allowed the French to win back all English continental territories, except Calais, which was later captured by the French.


title: Military history of France

text: The French Renaissance and the beginning of the "Ancien Régime", normally marked by the reign of Francis I, saw the nation become far more unified under the monarch. The power of the nobles was diminished as a national army was created. With England expelled from the continent and being consumed by the Wars of the Roses, France's main rival was the Holy Roman Empire. This threat to France became alarming in 1516 when Charles V became the king of Spain, and grew worse when Charles was also elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. France was all but surrounded as Germany, Spain, and the Low Countries were controlled by the Habsburgs. The lengthy Italian Wars that took place during this period eventually resulted in defeat for France and established Catholic Spain, which formed a branch of the Habsburg holdings, as the most powerful nation in Europe, with their dreaded "tercios" dominating the European battlefield well into the Thirty Years War. Later in the 16th century, France was weakened internally by the Wars of Religion. As nobles managed to raise their own private armies, these conflicts between Huguenots and Catholics all but demolished centralization and monarchical authority, precluding France from remaining a powerful force in European affairs. On the battlefield, the religious conflicts highlighted the influence of the gendarmes, heavy cavalry units that comprised the majority of cavalrymen attached to the main field armies. The pride of the royal cavalry, gendarme companies were often attached to the main royal army in hopes of inflicting a decisive defeat on Huguenot forces, although secondary detachments were also used for scouting and intercepting enemy troops.


title: Military history of France

text: After the Wars of Religion, France could do little to challenge the dominance of the Holy Roman Empire, although the empire itself faced several problems. From the east it was severely endangered by the Ottoman Empire, with which France formed an alliance. The vast Habsburg empire also proved impossible to manage effectively, and the crown was soon divided between the Spanish and Austrian holdings. In 1568, the Dutch declared independence, launching a war that would last for decades and would illustrate the weaknesses of Habsburg power. In the 17th century, the religious violence that had beset France a century earlier began to tear the empire apart. At first France sat on the sidelines, but under Cardinal Richelieu it saw an opportunity to advance its own interests at the expense of the Habsburgs. Despite France's staunch Catholicism, it intervened on the side of the Protestants. The Thirty Years' War was long and extremely bloody, but France and its allies came out victorious, under the leadership of the legendary commanders Condé and Turenne, beginning a long line of unparalleled French marshals who would help usher in a new era of military strategy. After their victory, France emerged as the sole dominant European power under the reign of Louis XIV. In parallel, French explorers, such as Jacques Cartier or Samuel de Champlain, claimed lands in the Americas for France, paving the way for the expansion of the French colonial empire.


title: Military history of France

text: The long reign of Louis XIV saw a series of conflicts: the War of Devolution, the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the Reunions, the Nine Years War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. Few of these wars were either clear victories or definite defeats, but French borders expanded steadily anyway. The west bank of the Rhine, much of the Spanish Netherlands, and a good deal of Luxembourg were annexed while the War of the Spanish Succession saw the grandson of Louis placed on the throne of Spain. The French strategic situation, however, changed decisively with the Glorious Revolution in England, which replaced a pro-French king with an enemy of Louis, the Dutch William of Orange. After a period of two centuries seeing only rare hostilities with France, England now became a consistent enemy again, and remained so until the 19th century. To stop French advances, England formed coalitions with several other European powers, most notably the Habsburgs. While these armies had difficulties against the French on land, the British Royal Navy dominated the seas, and France lost many of its colonial holdings. The British economy also became Europe's most powerful, and British money funded the campaigns of their continental allies.


title: Military history of France

text: Wars in this era consisted mostly of sieges and movements that were rarely decisive, prompting the French military engineer Vauban to design an intricate network of fortifications for the defense of France. The armies of Louis XIV were some of the most impressive in French history, their quality reflecting militaristic as well political developments. In the mid-17th century, royal power reasserted itself and the army became a tool through which the King could wield authority, replacing older systems of mercenary units and the private forces of recalcitrant nobles. Military administration also made gigantic progress as food supply, clothing, equipment, and armaments were provided in a regularity never before equaled. In fact, the French embedded this standardization by becoming the first army to give their soldiers national uniforms in the 1680s and 1690s.


title: Military history of France

text: The 18th century saw France remain the dominant power in Europe, but begin to falter largely because of internal problems. The country engaged in a long series of wars, such as the War of the Quadruple Alliance, the War of the Polish Succession, and the War of the Austrian Succession, but these conflicts gained France little. Meanwhile, Britain's power steadily increased, and a new force, Prussia, became a major threat. This change in the balance of power led to the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, when France and the Habsburgs forged an alliance after centuries of animosity. This alliance proved less than effective in the Seven Years' War, but in the American Revolutionary War, the French helped inflict a major defeat on the British.


title: Military history of France

text: The French Revolution, true to its name, revolutionized nearly all aspects of French and European life. The powerful sociopolitical forces unleashed by a people seeking liberté, égalité, and fraternité made certain that even warfare was not spared this upheaval. 18th-century armies—with their rigid protocols, static operational strategy, unenthusiastic soldiers, and aristocratic officer classes—underwent massive remodeling as the French monarchy and nobility gave way to liberal assemblies obsessed with external threats. The fundamental shifts in warfare that occurred during the period have prompted scholars to identify the era as the beginning of "modern war".


title: Military history of France

text: In 1791 the Legislative Assembly passed the "Drill-Book" legislation, implementing a series of infantry doctrines created by French theorists because of their defeat by the Prussians in the Seven Years' War. The new developments hoped to exploit the intrinsic bravery of the French soldier, made even more powerful by the explosive nationalist forces of the Revolution. The changes also placed a faith on the ordinary soldier that would be completely unacceptable in earlier times; French troops were expected to harass the enemy and remain loyal enough to not desert, a benefit other Ancien Régime armies did not have.


title: Military history of France

text: Following the declaration of war in 1792, an imposing array of enemies converging on French borders prompted the government in Paris to adopt radical measures. August 23, 1793, would become a historic day in military history; on that date the National Convention called a levée en masse, or mass conscription, for the first time in human history. By summer of the following year, conscription made some 500,000 men available for service and the French began to deal blows to their European enemies.


title: Military history of France

text: Armies during the Revolution became noticeably larger than their Holy Roman counterparts, and combined with the new enthusiasm of the troops, the tactical and strategic opportunities became profound. By 1797 the French had defeated the First Coalition, occupied the Low Countries, the west bank of the Rhine, and Northern Italy, objectives which had defied the Valois and Bourbon dynasties for centuries. Unsatisfied with the results, many European powers formed a Second Coalition, but by 1801 this too had been decisively beaten. Another key aspect of French success was the changes wrought in the officer classes. Traditionally, European armies left major command positions to those who could be trusted, namely, the aristocracy. The hectic nature of the French Revolution, however, tore apart France's old army, meaning new men were required to become officers and commanders.


title: Military history of France

text: Besides opening a flood of tactical and strategic opportunities, the Revolutionary Wars also laid the foundation for modern military theory. Later authors that wrote about "nations in arms" drew inspiration from the French Revolution, in which dire circumstances seemingly mobilized the entire French nation for war and incorporated nationalism into the fabric of military history. Although the reality of war in the France of 1795 would be different from that in the France of 1915, conceptions and mentalities of war evolved significantly. Clausewitz correctly analyzed the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras to give posterity a thorough and complete theory of war that emphasized struggles between nations occurring everywhere, from the battlefield to the legislative assemblies, and to the very way that people think. War now emerged as a vast panorama of physical and psychological forces heading for victory or defeat.


title: Military history of France

text: The Napoleonic Era saw French power and influence reach immense heights, even though the period of domination was relatively brief. In the century and a half preceding the Revolutionary Era, France had transformed demographic leverage to military and political weight; the French population was 19 million in 1700, but this had grown to over 29 million in 1800, much higher than that of most other European powers. These numbers permitted France to raise armies at a rapid pace should the need arise. Furthermore, military innovations carried out during the Revolution and the Consulate, evidenced by improvements in artillery and cavalry capabilities on top of better army and staff organization, gave the French army a decisive advantage in the initial stages of the Napoleonic Wars. Another ingredient of success was Napoleon Bonaparte himself—intelligent, charismatic, and a military genius, Napoleon absorbed the latest military theories of the day and applied them in the battlefield with deadly effect.


title: Military history of France

text: Napoleon inherited an army that was based on conscription and used huge masses of poorly trained troops, which could usually be readily replaced. By 1805 the French Army was a truly lethal force, with many in its ranks veterans of the French Revolutionary Wars. Two years of constant drilling for an invasion of England helped to build a well-trained, well-led army. The Imperial Guard served as an example for the rest of the army and consisted of Napoleon's best handpicked soldiers. Napoleon's huge losses suffered during the disastrous Russian campaign would have destroyed any professional commander of the day, but those losses were quickly replaced with new draftees. After Napoleon, nations planned for huge armies with professional leadership and a constant supply of new soldiers, which had huge human costs when improved weapons like the rifled musket replaced the inaccurate muskets of Napoleon's day during the American Civil War.


title: Military history of France

text: This large size came at a cost, as the logistics of feeding a huge army made them especially dependent on supplies. Most armies of the day relied on the supply-convoy system established during the Thirty Years' War by Gustavus Adolphus. This limited mobility, since the soldiers had to wait for the convoys, but it did keep possibly mutinous troops from deserting, and thus helped preserve an army's composure. However, Napoleon's armies were so large that feeding them using the old method proved ineffective, and consequently, French troops were allowed to live off the land. Infused with new concepts of nation and service. Napoleon often attempted to wage decisive, quick campaigns so that he could allow his men to live off the land. The French army did use a convoy system, but it was stocked with very few days worth of food; Napoleon's troops were expected to march quickly, effect a decision on the battlefield, then disperse to feed. For the Russian campaign, the French did store 24 days' worth of food before beginning active operations, but this campaign was the exception, not the rule.


title: Military history of France

text: Napoleon's biggest influence in the military sphere was in the conduct of warfare. Weapons and technology remained largely static through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, but 18th-century operational strategy underwent massive restructuring. Sieges became infrequent to the point of near-irrelevance, a new emphasis arose towards the destruction of enemy armies as well as their outmaneuvering, and invasions of enemy territory occurred over broader fronts, thus introducing a plethora of strategic opportunities that made wars costlier and, just as importantly, more decisive. Defeat for a European power now meant much more than losing isolated enclaves. Near-Carthaginian treaties intertwined whole national efforts—social, political, economic, and militaristic—into gargantuan collisions that severely upset international conventions as understood at the time. Napoleon's initial success sowed the seeds for his downfall. Not used to such catastrophic defeats in the rigid power system of 18th-century Europe, many nations found existence under the French yoke difficult, sparking revolts, wars, and general instability that plagued the continent until 1815, when the forces of reaction finally triumphed at the Battle of Waterloo.


title: Military history of France

text: The history of French colonial imperialism can be divided in two major eras: the first from the early 17th century to the middle of the 18th century, and the second from the early 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. In the first phase of expansion, France concentrated its efforts mainly in North America, the Caribbean and India, setting up commercial ventures that were backed by military force. Following defeat in the Seven Years' War, France lost its possessions in North America and India, but it did manage to keep the wealthy Caribbean islands of Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe, and Martinique.


title: Military history of France

text: The second stage began with the conquest of Algeria in 1830, then with the establishment of French Indochina (covering modern Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) and a string of military victories in the Scramble for Africa, where it established control over regions covering much of West Africa, Central Africa and Maghreb. In 1914 France had an empire stretching over (6,000,000 mile²) of land and about 110 million people. Following victory in World War I, Togo and most of Cameroon were also added to the French possessions, and Syria and Lebanon became French mandates. For most of the period from 1870 to 1945, France was territorially the third largest nation on Earth, after Britain and Russia (later the Soviet Union), and had the most overseas possessions following Britain. Following the Second World War, France struggled to preserve French territories but wound up losing the First Indochina War (the precursor to the Vietnam War) and granting independence to Algeria after a long war. Today, France still maintains a number of overseas territories, but their collective size is barely a shadow of the old French colonial empire.


title: Military history of France

text: After the exile of Napoleon, the freshly restored Bourbon monarchy helped the absolute Bourbon king of Spain to recover his throne during the French intervention in Spain in 1823. To restore the prestige of the French monarchy, disputed by the Revolution and the First Empire, Charles X engaged in the military conquest of Algeria in 1830. This marked the beginning of a new expansion of the French colonial empire throughout the 19th century. In that century, France remained a major force in continental affairs. After the 1830 July Revolution, the liberal king Louis Philippe I victoriously supported the Spanish and Belgian liberals in 1831. The French later inflicted a defeat on the Habsburgs in the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, a victory which led to the unification of Italy in 1861, after having triumphed over Russia with other allies in the Crimean War 1854–56. Detrimentally, however, the French army emerged from these victories in an overconfident and complacent state. France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War led to the loss of Alsace-Lorraine and the creation of a united German Empire, both results representing major failures in long-term French foreign policy and sparking a vengeful, nationalist revanchism meant to earn back former territories. The Dreyfus Affair, however, mitigated these nationalist tendencies by prompting public skepticism about the competence of the military.


title: Military history of France

text: In World War I, the French, with their allies, managed to hold the Western front and to counterattack on the Eastern front and in the colonies until the final defeat of the Central Powers and their allies. After major conflicts such as the Battle of the Frontiers, the First Battle of the Marne, the Battle of Verdun, and the Second Battle of the Aisne—the last resulting in tremendous loss of life and mutiny within the army—the French proved to be enough of a cohesive fighting force to counterattack and defeat the Germans at the Second Battle of the Marne, the first in what would become a string of Allied victories that ended the war. The Treaty of Versailles eventually returned Alsace-Lorraine to France. The French military, civilian and material losses during the First World War were huge. With more than 1.3 million military fatalities and more than 4.6 million wounded, France suffered the second highest Allied losses, after Russia. As a result, France was adamant on the payment of reparations by Germany. The organised failure of the Weimar Republic to pay reparations led to the Occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian forces.


title: Military history of France

text: A variety of factors—ranging from smaller industrial base to low population growth and obsolete military doctrines—crippled the French effort at the outset of World War II. The Germans won the Battle of France in 1940 despite the French often having better planes and tanks than their opponents whereas they were lacking modern weaponry for the infantry, the main problem although was the unexistant doctrine to synchronize the tanks alongside the plane, as tanks were not used as a primary force but rather as support for infantry, without planning an anti-air protection for them. their use as primary force were made in very rare occasion, when commanded by Charles de Gaulle for example, only a tank crew division commander by the time of 1940.


title: Military history of France

text: Prior to the Battle of France, there were sentiments among many Allied soldiers, French and British, of pointless repetition; they viewed the war with dread since they had already beaten the Germans once, and images of that first major conflict were still poignant in military circles. The costs of World War I along with the now stale doctrine employed by the French Army (while the Germans were developing a doctrine which stressed initiative from junior commanders and combining different arms, the French sought to minimize casualties through a rigorously controlled type of battle and a top down command structure) forced the French to look for more defensive measures. The Maginot Line was the result of these deliberations: the French originally allocated three billion francs for the project, but by 1935 seven billion had been spent. The Maginot Line succeeded in holding off the German attack. However, while the French thought that the main weight of the German attack would arrive through central Belgium, and accordingly deployed their forces here, the assault actually came further south in the Ardennes forest. The Third Republic collapsed in the ensuing conflict.


title: Military history of France

text: After the defeat, Vichy France cooperated with the Axis powers until 1944. Charles de Gaulle exhorted the French people to join the allied armies, while the French Vichy forces participated in direct action against Allied forces, inflicting casualties in some cases.


title: Military history of France

text: The Normandy landings in that year were the first step towards the eventual liberation of France. The Free French Forces, under de Gaulle, had participated widely throughout previous campaigns, and their large size made them notable at the end of the war. As early as the winter of 1943, the Free French already had nearly 260,000 soldiers, and these numbers only grew as the war progressed. The French Resistance had also a significant contribution, participating also actively in the liberation of France. At the end of the war, France was given one of four occupation zones in Germany, in Berlin and Austria.


title: Military history of France

text: Following the First Indochina War, they withdrew from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The military also tried to keep control of Algeria during the Algerian War, when French forces attempted to defeat the Algerian rebels. Despite its military victory, France granted independence to Algerians. French Algeria was home to over a million of settlers (known as Pieds-Noirs), de Gaulle's decision to grant independence to Algeria, almost led to a civil war, supported by various Pied-Noir, Harki and nationalist factions, including the FAF and the OAS. Related to and during the Algerian war France participated in the Suez Crisis with Israel and the UK.


title: Military history of France

text: By 1960 France had lost its direct military influence over all of its former colonies in Africa and Indochina. Nonetheless, several colonies in the Pacific, Caribbean, Indian Oceans and South America remain French territory to this day and France kept a form of indirect political influence in Africa colloquially known as the "Françafrique".


title: Military history of France

text: As President of the French Republic, Charles de Gaulle oversaw the development of French atomic weapons and promoted a foreign policy independent of U.S. influence. He also withdrew France from the NATO military command in 1966—although remaining a member of the western alliance. The effect of withdrawal was reduced by continued cooperation between the French military and NATO, though France did not formally rejoin the NATO military command until 2009.


title: Military history of France

text: France intervened in various post-colonial conflicts, supporting former colonies (Western Sahara War, Shaba II, Chadian–Libyan conflict, Djiboutian Civil War), NATO peacekeeping missions in war-torn countries (UNPROFOR, KFOR, UNAMIR) and many humanitarian missions.


title: Military history of France

text: As a nuclear power and having some of the best trained and best equipped forces in the world, the French military has now met some of its primary objectives which are the defense of national territory, the protection of French interests abroad, and the maintenance of global stability. Conflicts indicative of these objectives are the Gulf War in 1991—when France sent 18,000 troops, 60 combat aircraft, 120 helicopters, and 40 tanks—and Mission Héraclès in the War in Afghanistan, along with recent interventions in Africa.


title: Military history of France

text: African interventions during the early 21st century include peacekeeping actions in Côte d'Ivoire, which involved brief direct fighting between the French and Ivorian armies in 2004; French forces returned to Côte d'Ivoire in 2011 to remove the Ivorian president. In the same year, France played a pivotal role in the 2011 military intervention in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi. The year after, France intervened in Mali during that country's civil war, as Islamist militants appeared to threaten the south after seizing control of the arid north. Changes in the government of France, including Socialist François Hollande becoming president in 2012 after years of center-right governance, have done little to alter Paris' foreign policy in Africa.


title: Military history of France

text: Hollande also proposed French military involvement in the Syrian civil war in the wake of chemical attacks French intelligence reports linked to the forces of President Bashar al-Assad in mid-2013.


title: Military history of France

text: France has encouraged military cooperation at an EU level, starting with the formation of the Franco-German Brigade in 1987 and Eurocorps in 1992, based in Strasbourg. In 2009 a battalion of German light infantry was moved to Alsace, the first time German troops had been stationed in France since the Nazi occupation of World War II. This process has not been immune to budget cuts—in October 2013 France announced the closure of her last infantry regiment in Germany, thus marking the end of a major presence across the Rhine although both countries will maintain around 500 troops on each other's territory. As fellow members of the UN Security Council with many interests and problems in common, the UK and France have a long history of bilateral collaboration. This has occurred both at government level and in industrial programmes like the SEPECAT Jaguar whilst corporate mergers have seen Thales and MBDA emerge as major defence companies spanning both countries. The financial crisis of 2007–08 led to renewed pressure on military budgets and the "austerity alliance" enshrined in the Lancaster House Treaties of 2010. These promised close integration in both procurement and at an operational level, reaching into the most sensitive areas such as nuclear warheads.


title: Military history of France

text: The Armée de l'Air became one of the first professional air forces in the world when it was founded in 1909. The French took active interest in developing their air force and had the first fighter pilots of World War I. During the interwar years, however, particularly in the 1930s, the technical quality fell when compared with the Luftwaffe, which crushed both the French and British air forces during the Battle of France. In the post–World War II era, the French made a concerted and successful effort to develop a homegrown aircraft industry. Dassault Aviation led the way forward with their unique and effective delta-wing designs, which formed the basis for the famous Mirage series of jet fighters. The Mirage repeatedly demonstrated its deadly abilities in the Six-Day War and the Gulf War, becoming one of the most popular and well-sold aircraft in the history of military aviation along the way. Currently, the French are awaiting the A400M military transport aircraft, which is still in developmental stages, and the integration of the new Rafale multi-role jet fighter, whose first squadron of 20 aircraft became operational in 2006 at Saint-Dizier. In 2020 it was renamed the Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace, or French Air and Space Force.


title: Military history of France

text: Medieval fleets, in France as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into naval service in time of war, but the early beginnings of the French naval history goes back to that era. The first battle of the French Navy was the battle of Arnemuiden (23 September 1338), where it defeated the English Navy. The battle of Arnemuiden was also the first naval battle using artillery. It was later defeated by an Anglo-Flemish fleet at the Battle of Sluys and, with Castilian help, managed to beat the English at La Rochelle—both battles playing a crucial role in the development of the Hundred Years War. However, the navy did not become a consistent instrument of national power until the 17th century with Louis XIV. Under the tutelage of the "Sun King," the French Navy was well financed and equipped, managing to resoundingly defeat a combined Spanish-Dutch fleet at the Battle of Palermo in 1676 during the Franco-Dutch War, although, along with the English navy, it suffered several strategic reversals against the Dutch, who were led by the brilliant Michiel de Ruyter. It scored several early victories in the Nine Years War against the Royal Navy and the Dutch Navy. Financial difficulties, however, allowed the English and the Dutch to regain the initiative at sea.


title: Military history of France

text: A perennial problem for the French Navy was the strategic priorities of France, which were first and foremost tied to its European ambitions. This reality meant that the army was often treated better than the navy, and as a result, the latter suffered in training and operational performance. The 18th century saw the beginning of the Royal Navy's domination, which managed to inflict a number of significant defeats on the French. However, in a very impressive effort, a French fleet under de Grasse managed to defeat a British fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781, ensuring that the Franco-American ground forces would win the ongoing Siege of Yorktown. Beyond that, and Suffren's impressive campaigns against the British in India, there was not much more good news. The French Revolution all but crippled the French Navy, and efforts to make it into a powerful force under Napoleon were dashed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where the British all but annihilated a combined Franco-Spanish fleet. The disaster guaranteed British naval domination until the end of the Napoleonic wars.


title: Military history of France

text: Later in the 19th century, the navy recovered and became the second finest in the world after the Royal Navy. It conducted a successful blockade of Mexico in the Pastry War of 1838 and obliterated the Chinese navy at the Battle of Foochow in 1884. It also served as an effective link between the growing parts of the French empire. The navy performed well during World War I, in which it mainly protected the naval lanes in the Mediterranean Sea. At the onset of the war, the French had a large fleet in the Mediterranean whive no less than seven battleship & six heavy cruiser . French defeats in the early stages of World War II, however, forced the British to atatck the French fleet moored at Mers-el-Kebir in order to prevent the threat she fall to the Germans, the remaining of French fleet scuttled herself at Toulon for prevent the 7th Panzer Division to capture the fleet, two years later .


title: Military history of France

text: Currently, French naval doctrine calls for two aircraft carriers, but the French currently only have one, the "Charles de Gaulle", due to restructuring. The navy is in the midst of some technological and procurement changes; newer submarines are under construction and Rafale aircraft (the naval version) are currently replacing older aircraft.


title: Military history of France

text: The Foreign Legion was created in 1831 by French king Louis-Philippe to allow the incorporation of foreign nationals into the French Army. Over the past century and a half, it has gone on to become one of the most recognizable and lauded military units in the world. The Legion had a very difficult start; there were few non-commissioned officers, many of the soldiers could not speak French, and pay was often irregular. The Legion was soon transferred to fight in Algeria, performing moderately successfully given its condition. On August 17, 1835, the commander of the Legion, Colonel Joseph Bernelle, decided to amalgamate all the battalions so that no nationality was exclusively confined to a particular battalion; this helped ensure that the Legion did not fragment into factions.


title: Military history of France

text: Following participation in Africa and in the Carlist Wars in Spain, the Legion fought in the Crimean War and the Franco-Austrian War, where they performed heroically at the Battle of Magenta, before earning even more glory during the French intervention in Mexico. On April 30, 1863, a company of 65 legionnaires was ambushed by 2,000 Mexican troops at the Hacienda Camarón; in the resulting Battle of Camarón, the legionnaires resisted bravely for several hours and inflicted 300–500 casualties on the Mexicans while 62 of them died and three were captured. One of the Mexican commanders, impressed by the memorable intransigence he had just witnessed, characterized the Legion in a way they've been known ever since, "These are not men, but devils!"


title: Military history of France

text: In World War I, the Legion demonstrated that it was a highly capable unit in modern warfare. It suffered 11,000 casualties in the Western Front while conducting brilliant defenses and spirited counter-attacks. Following the debacle in the Battle of France in 1940, the Legion was split between those who supported the Vichy government and those who joined the Free French under de Gaulle. At the Battle of Bir Hakeim in 1942, the Free French 13th Legion Demi-Brigade doggedly defended its positions against a combined Italian-German offensive and seriously delayed Rommel's attacks towards Tobruk. The Legion eventually returned to Europe and fought until the end of the Second World War in 1945. It later fought in the First Indochina War against the Viet Minh. At the climactic Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, French forces, many of them legionnaires, were completely surrounded by a large Vietnamese army and were defeated after two months of tenacious fighting. French withdrawal from Algeria led to the collapse of the French colonial empire. The legionnaires were mostly used in colonial interventions, so the destruction of the empire prompted questions about their status. Ultimately, the Legion was allowed to exist and participated as a rapid reaction force in many places throughout Africa and around the world.


title: Skinny pig

text: The Skinny pig or skinny is an almost hairless strain of guinea pig. Skinny pigs typically have hair on their muzzles, feet, and legs, but are hairless over the remainder of their bodies. Some of them have a thin covering of fuzzy hair on their backs as well. The Skinny pig is not one of the 13 recognized cavy breeds by the American Cavy Breeders Association. A healthy skinny has skin that is mostly smooth, with some wrinkling around the legs and neck. The body is full with no appearance of spine or ribs. Skinnies can come in a variety of skin colors and patterns, including "Dutch", "Brindle", and "Himalayan". The term "skinny" is used for hairless guinea pigs either because it colloquially refers to the exposed skin of the animal, or because it describes their thinner appearance due to their lack of hair.


title: Skinny pig

text: The modern strain of skinny pig originated from a cross between haired guinea pigs and a hairless lab strain. The hairless strain that it is most likely related to was a spontaneous genetic mutation that was first identified at Montreal's Armand Frappier Institute in 1978, in a colony of Hartley lab guinea pigs. In 1982 they were sent to Charles River Laboratories to be bred for laboratory use and are commonly used in dermatology studies today. They are an outbred strain that has an intact thymus and standard immune system.


title: Skinny pig

text: Hairless guinea pigs are not significantly different physiologically from regular haired guinea pigs, although they need to eat more to maintain body heat. The optimal temperature range for a hairless guinea pig is , which is slightly higher than the optimal temperature range for the haired guinea pig.


title: Skinny pig

text: Their sensitive skin has very much the same appearance as human skin, but has the same needs as normal guinea pig skin. Exposed skin is vulnerable to sunburn, other injuries and fungal infections unless precautions are taken. Skinny pigs have also been found to have an increased risk of some eye diseases when compared to haired guinea pigs. Skinny pigs should be housed indoors, and they are usually kept with nesting materials such as a blanket or cloth bag for heat conservation. The breeding protocol for Skinny pigs requires outcrossing to haired carriers at least every other generation. This is an important step in the breeding process, which makes them a poor choice for novice breeders. Skinny pigs are born nearly hairless and must maintain the same level of hair through their life.


title: Skinny pig

text: "Werewolf" is a slang term for skinny pigs with more hair than usual, extending up over the face and onto the neck and shoulders. Extremely hairy werewolf skinny pigs will have hair all the way down to their rump. Werewolves typically gain and lose fur based on hormone levels, especially hormones related to pregnancy.


title: Skinny pig

text: The gene causing hairlessness in skinny pigs is a recessive gene, and breeding two skinny pigs together will always result in all offspring being skinny pigs. Breeding a skinny pig to a standard haired guinea pig will result in offspring that all carry one copy of the gene, but none will express hairlessness. These offspring are generally called skinny carriers. Breeding two skinny carriers together will result in averages of 25% of offspring being skinny pigs, 50% of offspring being skinny carriers and 25% of offspring being regular haired guinea pigs that do not carry the gene. Since the chance of getting a skinny pig is low, and because it is not possible to visually tell the difference between a haired guinea pig that does carry the gene and one that does not, this method of breeding is not recommended.


title: Skinny pig

text: Haired skinny carriers remain haired their entire life and look like a normal guinea pig despite carrying the hairless gene.


title: Skinny pig

text: There is a second type of hairless guinea pig called the Baldwin guinea pig, however its hairlessness is the result of a completely different recessive gene. Breeding a skinny pig with a Baldwin guinea pig will result in offspring that all are haired and carry one copy of the gene for skinny pig hairlessness and one copy of the gene for Baldwin hairlessness.


title: Skinny pig

text: Even though the skinny is a relatively new breed among pet owners and cavy fanciers, it is gaining popularity in Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia as well as in the United States where it was introduced into the pet trade in the mid-to-late 1990s.


title: Bro-country

text: Bro-country is a form of country pop originating in the 2010s, and is influenced by 21st-century hip hop, hard rock and electronica. Bro-country songs are often musically upbeat with lyrics about attractive young girls, the consumption of alcohol, partying, and pickup trucks.


title: Bro-country

text: The first use of the term was by Jody Rosen of "New York" magazine in an article published on August 11, 2013, in which Rosen described songs by Florida Georgia Line, particularly their debut single "Cruise". Rosen also named Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, and Jake Owen among singers of the genre. "Entertainment Weekly" cited "Boys 'Round Here" by Blake Shelton and "Ready Set Roll" by Chase Rice as other examples of bro-country. The popularity of the genre opened up a divide between the older generation of country singers and the bro-country singers which was described as "civil war" by musicians, critics and journalists.


title: Bro-country

text: Although elements of bro-country had been noted prior, such as in the Trace Adkins hit "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk", the genre began to gather steam in the early 2010s, but the song that brought the movement to the attention of music journalists was the 2012 Florida Georgia Line song "Cruise". In 2014, "Cruise" became the best-selling digital country song of all time, with over 7 million copies sold in the US while also holding a then-record 24 weeks as the No. 1 Hot Country Song. According to Jody Rosen: "We may look back on 'Cruise' as a turning point, the moment when the balance of power tipped from an older generation of male country stars to the bros.".


title: Bro-country

text: A number of highly popular albums and songs by singers such as Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton considered to be bro-country appeared in the first half of the 2010s. In 2013, Luke Bryan's "Crash My Party" was the third best-selling of all albums in the US, with Florida Georgia Line's "Here's to the Good Times" at sixth and Blake Shelton's "Based on a True Story" at ninth. It has also been estimated in research in mid-2010s that about 45 percent of country’s best-selling songs could be considered bro-country, with the top two artists being Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line.


title: Bro-country

text: While bro-country was popular with country music fans, programmers and those within the industry grew weary of the genre. According to radio programmer R.J. Curtis: "The real fatigue on it has been with [radio] programmers and the people who have to listen to it a lot and evaluate it — the air personalities and the program directors. The people who aren't really sick of it are the listeners." Some thought that the genre had waned by 2015; others, however, felt that the genre remained popular and argued that it had expanded in a positive way. According to radio program director Phathead: "The hip-hop, rock and R&B influence you hear in Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, Brett Eldredge, Cole Swindell and all the others is about to take us to new places, and it's awesome."


title: Bro-country

text: The bro-country movement has been criticized by listeners and music reviewers for its repetitive subject matter, namely lyrical themes of partying associated with Friday nights, alcoholic beverages, euphemistic references to sex, and trucks, as well as its lack of female country artists. Traditional country fans and artists have expressed the sentiment that bro-country music is a poor representation of country music. One critic who spoke favorably about bro-country was David Horsey of the "Los Angeles Times", who wrote: "But this music has an appeal not unlike the teen surfing songs of the Beach Boys or the screaming guitar, take-everything-too-far anthems of Bon Jovi and Sammy Hagar...For a young man, the allure of reckless freedom is forever strong. And it’s not just young men. I know I’ve got a 25-year-old bottled up inside my decidedly not young self who still longs for the fantasy."


title: Bro-country

text: The genre was also criticized for being formulaic. Throughout 2014, radio station KTCK had a regular segment called "Fun With Country Music" hosted by Corby Davidson, criticizing the new form of country music, and produced a checklist of specific items that would be found in these songs: boots, alcohol, jeans, trucks, guns, farm equipment, the word "girl", and rural settings. A video by Greg Todd, an aspiring songwriter, which highlighted the similarities between bro-country songs went viral after being featured by "Time" in January 2015. The video combined six songs released between 2012 and 2014: Shelton's "Sure Be Cool If You Did", Bryan's "Drunk on You", Florida Georgia Line's "This Is How We Roll", Cole Swindell's "Chillin' It", Parmalee's "Close Your Eyes" and Chase Rice's "Ready Set Roll". Todd noted the formula as "a tight, mid-tempo backbeat; a quick, two-verse set-up, often laced with clever wordplay and bouncy, lyrical melody; and — bam — the power chorus to bring it all home and keep them coming back."


title: Bro-country

text: In addition, some also criticized the music's portrayal of women. In November 2014, country artist Kenny Chesney, interviewed by "Billboard", opined about bro-country: "over the last several years, it seems like anytime anybody sings about a woman, she’s in cutoff jeans, drinking and on a tailgate... they objectify the hell out of them."


title: Bro-country

text: In December 2014, Brad Paisley spoke out against bro-country and the lack of women on country radio: "one of my frustrations with radio now is lyrics: [...] there's a lot of stuff on the radio about, you know, put your tan legs on the dashboard and we'll roll around in the truck and go party. It's like, 'Guys, come on!' – and specifically, yes, guys, 'cause there are no girls! We can say something, too. There are phrases that are totally cliché that we as songwriters owe it to ourselves to not use again."


title: Bro-country

text: In 2017, Steve Earle noted that the genre was, in some ways, a watered-down form of hip hop, stating that "The guys just wanna sing about getting fucked up. They’re just doing hip-hop for people who are afraid of black people. I like the new Kendrick Lamar record, so I’ll just listen to that.”


title: Bro-country

text: In response to the criticisms, Blake Shelton said in January 2013 that he did not care about the "old farts" who complained about their songs: "Well that's because you don't buy records anymore, jackass. The kids do, and they don't want to buy the music you were buying." In turn, that sparked a response from Ray Price via his Facebook page: "It's a shame that I have spend 63 years in this business trying to introduce music to a larger audience and to make it easier for the younger artists who are coming behind me. ... You should be so lucky as us old-timers. Check back in 63 years (the year 2075) and let us know how your music will be remembered." Shelton later apologized to Price.


title: Bro-country

text: Zac Brown described Luke Bryan’s "That's My Kind of Night" as the worst song he had ever heard, to which Jason Aldean replied, "nobody gives a shit what u think." Aldean also called the term bro-country ridiculous and was bothered to be labeled as such because he did not "feel like it's a compliment," that "it's sort of a backhanded thing that comes from a very narrow-minded listener". On his song about drinking and trucks, he said: "Yeah, we've had some songs that talk about that stuff. But that's also what we really grew up doing. A lot of us grew up in these little towns where there wasn't a whole lot to do, and we were entertaining ourselves. I can't sing you a song about being a stockbroker on Wall Street, because I don't even know where the hell Wall Street's at."


title: Bro-country

text: Rosen himself was unhappy the way the term bro-country had been used by some as an insult and felt that some criticisms of the genre came from class and regional prejudices and snobbery. He thought that artists such as Jake Owen and Thomas Rhett made music that pushed the genre into "exciting new territory" and said: "All the ways country is flirting with R&B and hip hop, production-wise and otherwise, I think it’s really cool." To Rosen, bro-country has changed country in a positive way, producing an increasing diversity of sound and subject matter on country radio.


title: Bro-country

text: A number of country singers expressed their criticism of the genre in their songs. In July 2014, female duo Maddie & Tae released their debut single, "Girl in a Country Song", which criticized and referenced many bro-country songs, particularly the roles of women within such songs. However, in the same month, country singer songwriter Maggie Rose released her single "Girl in Your Truck Song". In the song she praises bro-country songs, saying she actually wants to be the girl in their songs.


title: Bro-country

text: In August 2014, country artist Brad Paisley recorded a song called "4WP" for his album "Moonshine in the Trunk". In the song, Paisley pokes fun at bro-country by joining the trend and heavily relying on some of its recurrent elements. A sample of Paisley's hit single "Mud on the Tires" is also featured in the song. About the song, Paisley said: "In the middle of this bro-country movement, with all this criticism about [the genre's reliance on] the jean shorts and the mud and the outdoors, we do a song that's just like that... but we include a sample of myself from 2003! Which is kind of like saying, 'I have a little license. I kinda did this already'. But it's written so tongue-in-cheek, and it doesn't take itself too seriously."


title: Bro-country

text: On October 15, 2014, Canadian country music artist Paul Brandt released the song "Get a Bed" as a comedic response to the bro-country phenomenon.


title: Bro-country

text: In April 2015, songwriter Brent Cobb, who has written cuts by Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Frankie Ballard and Luke Bryan, released a song called "Yo Bro" which mocks and pokes fun at all of bro-country's clichés stating that it was "inspired by frustration".


title: Bro-country

text: In 2016, comedian and musician Ben Hoffman released his first country album, "Redneck Shit", under the stage name Wheeler Walker, Jr., finding success satirizing stereotypical modern country music tropes with raunchy themes and lyrics. Hoffman has used the character's success to vocalize his displeasure with the modern Nashville music scene, specifically the bro-country subgenre.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Renton is a city in King County, Washington, and an inner-ring suburb of Seattle. Situated southeast of downtown Seattle, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington, at the mouth of the Cedar River. As of the 2020 census, the population of Renton was 106,785, up from 90,927 at the 2010 census. The city is currently the sixth-largest municipality in greater Seattle and the ninth-largest in Washington state.


title: Renton, Washington

text: After a long history as an important salmon fishing area for Native Americans, Renton was first settled by people of European descent in the 1860s. Its early economy was based on coal mining, clay production, and timber export. Today, Renton is best known as the final assembly point for the Boeing 737 family of commercial airplanes, but it is also home to a growing number of well-known manufacturing, technology, and healthcare organizations, including Boeing Commercial Airplanes Division, Paccar, Kaiser Permanente, IKEA, Providence Health & Services, UW Medicine, and Wizards of the Coast.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Long a cultural center for the Duwamish, European settlers arrived in the area of present-day Renton in the 1870s. First among them were Henry Tobin and his wife Diana. The town of Renton was accessed via the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, the first railroad to be built to Seattle, and was in the vicinity of several coal mines that attracted entrepreneurs like Erasmus M. Smithers, who is credited with the founding and establishment of the town in 1875. Smithers named Renton in honor of Captain William Renton, a local lumber and shipping merchant who invested heavily in the coal trade. Smithers discovered coal there and brought in Charles D. Shattuck as the coal mine operator.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Renton was incorporated as a city on September 6, 1901, when coal mining and timber processing were the most important economic industries in the area. The town was prone to flooding from the Cedar River and Black River. In 1916 the completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal lowered the surface of Lake Washington by several feet which consequently eliminated drainage of Lake Washington through the Black River (in favor of the Ship Canal). The Cedar River was then diverted to drain into Lake Washington instead of into the Black River. As a result, the Black River largely disappeared, leaving only a few remnants. The culmination of these actions reduced the threat of annual flooding.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The population sharply increased during World War II when Boeing built their Renton Factory to produce the B-29 Superfortress. Renton grew from a population of 4,488 in 1940 to 16,039 in 1950.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The game company Wizards of the Coast also is headquartered in Renton. Providence Health System has centralized its administrative offices in Renton, along with Group Health Cooperative.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Owing to its location at the confluence of three major freeways (I-5, I-405, and SR 167), Renton's economic development team has lured a number of specialty retailers that draw consumers from around the region, including IKEA. Some retail establishments were unwanted though, and the city successfully defended zoning restrictions on pornographic theaters before the U.S. Supreme Court in "Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc."


title: Renton, Washington

text: The Renton Public Library was built directly over the Cedar River and opened in 1966. It stretches across the river, next to Liberty Park, and was the main branch of the city's independent library system until its 2010 annexation into the King County Library system.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The city government has encouraged redevelopment of industrial areas around Downtown Renton and near Southcenter since the 1980s. The first IKEA in the Pacific Northwest opened in Renton in 1994. The former Longacres horse-racing track was redeveloped in the 1990s to support offices for Boeing and the Federal Reserve Bank, which moved from its Seattle building. Port Quendall, a land parcel in north Renton, is home to the Virginia Mason Athletic Center (VMAC), housing the Seattle Seahawks Headquarters and training facility that opened in August 2008; before then, the Seahawks trained in Kirkland.


title: Renton, Washington

text: In the mid-1990s, Renton undertook a major redevelopment effort to revitalize its downtown core, which had declined in commercial prominence since the opening of the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila in 1968. The many car dealerships that had previously occupied the center of downtown Renton were encouraged through economic incentives to relocate to a newly created auto sales zone close to the I-405/SR-167 interchange. In place of the old dealerships downtown, a new transit center and parking garage were built in partnership with King County Metro. The transit center is surrounded by several multi-family residential buildings and a small town square named Piazza Park, which hosts a weekly farmers' market.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Centered on former Boeing Co. property near the south shore of Lake Washington is a residential and commercial development named The Landing. To the north of the Landing, a hotel and office development on the lakefront called Southport has been developed at the site of the former Shuffleton power plant, which was demolished in 2001. A 347-room hotel operated under the Hyatt Regency brand opened in June 2017.


title: Renton, Washington

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water, most of which is the Cedar River.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Potential Annexation Areas (PAAs) include the communities of Fairwood southeast of Renton, the East Renton Plateau on the eastern edge of Renton, and West Hill northwest of Renton. These communities are large unincorporated urban areas that are encouraged by the King County Annexation Initiative to incorporate as cities or annex into neighboring cities. As of 2012 these three PAAs are not part of the City of Renton, and not included in its demographics or statistics.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Renton one of the cities in the Puget Sound Region with an independent street grid system. Roads names beginning with sectional divisions (N 32nd ST) generally follow a latitudinal direction, while roads names ending in a sectional direction (Duvall Ave NE) generally follow a longitudinal direction. Many of the avenues in the city are named in honor of other cities in Washington.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Renton is bordered to the north by Newcastle. Along the east side of Renton is the Urban Growth Boundary established by King County, as such there is no incorporated city directly east of Renton. The geographical characteristics of Renton's eastern border are varied and include (from north to south) the south flank of Cougar Mountain descending southward merging with the community of May Valley. The terrain then elevates south of May Valley to the communities of the East Renton Plateau before descending to the north bank of the Cedar River. Renton is bordered to the south by the city of Kent. The western border consists of the city of Tukwila, and finally the unincorporated King County community West Hill and Lake Washington to the northwest.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Renton has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: "Csb") with warm and dry summers mixed with cloudy, wet and cool winters, with a precipitation regime typical of the Pacific Northwest. Being located in a partial rain shadow and shielded from the coastal summers, Renton has more of a climate influenced by the interior than many other areas nearby.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The 2019 median income for households in Renton is $70,661, while the mean household income is $89,808. The per capita income is $49,624 – 9% of families and 12% of individuals are below the federal poverty line, while 15% of those under 18 and 9% of those 65 years or older are below.


title: Renton, Washington

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 90,927 people, 36,009 households, and 21,849 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 38,930 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 54.6% White (49.4% Non-Hispanic White), 10.6% African American, 0.7% Native American, 21.2% Asian, 0.8% Pacific Islander, 6.2% from other races, and 5.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13.1% of the population.


title: Renton, Washington

text: There were 36,009 households, of which 32.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.2% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 39.3% were non-families. 30.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.16.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The median age in the city was 35.2 years. 23.2% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 33.5% were from 25 to 44; 24.4% were from 45 to 64; and 10.1% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.5% male and 50.5% female.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Capital, Providence Health & Services, and Wizards of the Coast have their headquarters in Renton.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The Boeing Renton Factory has operated since World War II, when it manufactured the B-29 Superfortress; currently, it produces the 737 airliner. The Renton plant produced the Jetfoil and Pegasus class hydrofoils in the 1970s. As of 2001, 40% of all commercial aircraft in the air were assembled in Renton. Boeing remains the largest employer in Renton, which is home to over 10,000 employees and three of the aerospace giant's six major business divisions: Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Capital Corporation and the Shared Services Group. The local newspaper in the 1970s, the Record Chronicle, proclaimed the city the jet capital of the world.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Paccar has traditionally been a large employer in the city as well with its Kenworth Truck plant located in Renton's industrial area on the south end of Lake Washington. In 1907 the Seattle Car Mfg Company also known as the Car Company moved to a large manufacturing plant in Renton after demand for the company's railroad equipment exceeded the capacity of its Seattle plant. The Car Company was the only manufacturer of train cars on the west coast.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The Renton plant expanded to foundry capabilities in 1911, and Seattle Car and Foundry Co merged with the Twohy Brothers of Portland in 1917 and became the Pacific Car and Foundry Company or Paccar. During the great depression the Renton Paccar plant developed power winches for use in the logging industry. When World War II arrived the Renton manufacturing switched its production towards the war effort, and by the war's end in 1945 had built 1,500 Sherman Tanks. In the second half of the 20th century there was not enough repeat business for Paccar-built train cars as rail equipment in 1965 came to only 1/3 of the company's sales. Thus the Paccar Renton plant began manufacturing structural steel until the 1970s recession. In the early 1980s the Paccar Railcar Division; the last remnants of the original Pacific Car and Foundry Co closed down. In 1993, a new Kenworth assembly plant opened on the former site of Pacific Car and Foundry.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Renton Technical College, originally opened in 1942 as a war production school, offers associate degrees and certificates of completion in professional-technical fields.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The Renton School District provides K–12 public schooling. Additionally, the Issaquah School District serves a small portion of unincorporated Renton neighborhoods. The Tahoma School District serves a small portion of Renton along Maple Valley Highway. The Kent School District serves the majority of Fairwood, a census-designated place between Renton and Maple Valley.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The Renton School District includes the four high schools: Hazen High School, Lindbergh High School, Renton High School, and Albert Talley Senior High School. The school district also has four middle schools and fifteen elementary schools.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Parts of the city are also served by the Issaquah School District, Kent School District, and the Tahoma School District, all of which predominantly serve neighboring cities.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Renton has a mayor–council government that oversees municipal services and contracts with other entities for utilities. The mayor and seven councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in staggered, at-large elections. Councilmembers are divided into working committees that recommend legislation to the whole council in meetings.


title: Renton, Washington

text: Renton is served by King County Metro and Sound Transit Express buses. Metro operates the RapidRide F Line through the city and plans to expand bus rapid transit service in the 2020s; Sound Transit is scheduled to open its own bus rapid transit service, Stride along the Interstate 405 corridor through Renton in 2026.


title: Renton, Washington

text: The city government owns and operates Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT), officially Clayton Scott Field, a public airport at the foot of Lake Washington. It is used by the Boeing Renton Factory as well as for charter services and flight training.


title: Whitefly

text: Whiteflies are Hemipterans that typically feed on the undersides of plant leaves. They comprise the family Aleyrodidae, the only family in the superfamily Aleyrodoidea. More than 1550 species have been described.


title: Whitefly

text: The Aleyrodidae are a family in the suborder Sternorrhyncha and at present comprise the entire superfamily Aleyrodoidea, related to the superfamily Psylloidea. The family often occurs in older literature as "Aleurodidae", but that is a junior synonym and accordingly incorrect in terms of the international standards for zoological nomenclature.


title: Whitefly

text: Aleyrodidae are small insects, most species with a wingspan of less than 3 mm and a body length of 1 mm to 2 mm. Many are so small that their size complicates their control in greenhouses because they can only be excluded by screening with very fine mesh; in fact they can enter mesh so fine that many of their natural enemies cannot come in after them, so that unchecked whitefly populations in greenhouses rapidly become overwhelming. Some "giant whitefly" species exist, some of which may exceed 5 mm in size. This sometimes is associated with sexual dimorphism in which one sex is markedly larger than the other. Such dimorphism is common in the Sternorrhyncha, in which the males of most scale insects for example are tiny compared to the female. Remarkably however, in some giant tropical species the males are much larger than the females.


title: Whitefly

text: Like most of the mobile Sternorrhyncha, adult Aleyrodidae have well-developed antennae, which in most species in this family are seven-segmented.


title: Whitefly

text: As in many Hemiptera, there are two ocelli, which generally in the Aleyrodidae are placed at the anterior margins of the compound eyes. The compound eyes themselves are rather remarkable: many have a distinct constriction between the upper and lower halves, and in some species there is a complete separation. Many insects' compound eyes are divided into functionally and anatomically distinct upper and lower regions, but the adaptation's purpose or origin in Aleyrodidae is unclear. The degree of separation is useful in recognising the species; for instance, one way to tell adult "Bemisia" from "Trialeurodes" is that the upper and lower parts of the compound eyes are connected by a single ommatidium in Bemisia, while in "Trialeurodes" they are completely separate.


title: Whitefly

text: Both sexes have functional mouthparts and two pairs of membranous, functional wings; the rear wings are neither much reduced, nor modified into any such hooked or haltere-like structures as occur in some other Hemiptera such as many of the Coccoidea. The wing venation is reduced, like that of the Psyllidae, only generally much more so. In many genera there is only one conspicuous and unbranched vein in each wing; however, wings of larger species such as "Udamoselis" have less reduced venation, though their veins still are simple and few.


title: Whitefly

text: The insects and their wings are variously marked or mottled according to species, and many species are covered with fine wax powder, giving most species a floury, dusted appearance, hence names such as Aleyrodidae, Aleurodidae and "Aleuroduplidens"; the root refers to the (aleurodes) meaning "floury". However, not all species are white; for example, "Aleurocanthus woglumi" is slaty black.


title: Whitefly

text: The legs of Aleyrodidae are well developed and fairly long, but gracile, and in contrast to Psyllidae, not adapted to leaping. The tarsi have two segments of roughly equal length. The pretarsus has paired claws, with an empodium between—in some species the empodium is a bristle, but in others it is a pad.


title: Whitefly

text: The digestive system of the Aleyrodidae is typical of the Sternorrhyncha, including a filter chamber, and all active stages of the Aleyrodidae accordingly produce large quantities of honeydew; the anus is adapted to presentation of honeydew to symbiotic species, mainly ants; the honeydew emerges from the anus, which is inside an opening called the on the dorsal surface of the caudal segment of the abdomen. This orifice is large and is covered by an operculum. The entire structure is characteristic of the Aleyrodidae and within the family it is taxonomically diagnostic because it varies in shape according to the species. Within the orifice beneath the operculum there is a tongue-like lingula. It appears to be involved in the expulsion of honeydew, and in fact at one time was wrongly assumed to be the organ that produced the honeydew. In some species it protrudes from beneath the operculum, but in others it normally is hidden.


title: Whitefly

text: The oldest members of the family belong to the Mesozoic subfamily Bernaeinae, known from the Middle/Upper Jurassic-Upper Cretaceous, the oldest representatives of the extant subfamilies Aleyrodinae and Aleurodicinae appear during the Lower Cretaceous.


title: Whitefly

text: The eggs of Aleyrodidae generally are laid near each other on the food plant, usually on a leaf, in spiral patterns or arcs, sometimes in parallel arcs. The egg is elongated, with one narrow end produced into a pedicel, which in some species is longer than the rest of the egg. After fertilisation the pedicel shrivels into a stalk.


title: Whitefly

text: The details vary, but at least some species can reproduce parthenogenically by automixis. However, apparently all males are parthenogenically produced by arrhenotoky. The female however, can mate with her own male offspring, and thereafter produce eggs of both sexes.


title: Whitefly

text: There generally are four larval instars. All the instars are more or less in the shape of a flattened ellipse fringed with bristles and waxy filaments. The first instar has functional legs, though short. Once it has inserted its stylets into the phloem to feed, it settles down and no longer uses its legs, and they degenerate after the first ecdysis. From then until it emerges as an adult, it remains attached to the plant by its mouthparts. The final instar feeds for a while, then undergoes changes within its skin, ceasing feeding and growing a new skin, forming what amounts to pupa. In doing so the insect does not shed the larval skin, which it retains as a protective puparium and which dries out. Meanwhile, the pupa within this skin develops into a pharate adult that usually is visible through the wall of the puparium. The puparium splits open as the imago forces its way out.


title: Whitefly

text: This pupal stage is analogous to the pupal forms of the Endopterygota and it raises questions of terminology and concept. Some authorities argue that there is little functional, and no logically cogent basis for the distinction between the terms "larva" and "nymph". Some have long been in favour of dropping the term nymph entirely, and certainly apply the term "larvae" to the Aleyrodidae.


title: Whitefly

text: In warm or tropical climates and especially in greenhouses, whiteflies present major problems in crop protection. Worldwide economic losses are estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars annually.


title: Whitefly

text: Although several species of whitefly may cause some crop losses simply by sucking sap when they are very numerous, the major harm they do is indirect. Firstly, like many other sap-sucking Hemiptera, they secrete large amounts of honeydew that support unsightly or harmful infestations of sooty mold. Secondly, they inject saliva that may harm the plant more than either the mechanical damage of feeding or the growth of the fungi. However, by far their major importance as crop pests is their transmission of diseases of plants.


title: Whitefly

text: Although there are a great many species of whiteflies, and the family is notorious for devastating transmission of crop viruses, the actual proportion of whiteflies which are responsible is very low. The most prominent disease vectors among the Aleyrodidae are a species complex in the genus "Bemisia". "Bemisia tabaci" and "B. argentifolii" transmit African cassava mosaic, bean golden mosaic, bean dwarf mosaic, bean calico mosaic, tomato yellow leaf curl, tomato mottle, and other Begomoviruses, in the family Geminiviridae. The worldwide spread of emerging biotypes, such as "B. tabaci" biotype B, also known as, 'B. argentifolii', and a new biotype Q, continue to cause severe crop losses which are expected to increase, demanding matching increases in pesticide use on many crops (tomatoes, beans, cassava, cotton, cucurbits, potatoes, sweet potatoes). Efforts to develop environmentally friendly integrated pest management systems, with the goal of reducing insecticide use, aim to re-establish the ecological equilibrium of predators, parasitoids, and microbial controls that were once in place. New crop varieties are also being developed with increased tolerance to whiteflies, and to the plant diseases carried by them. A major problem is that whiteflies and the viruses they carry can infect many host plants, including agricultural crops, palms, and weeds. These problems are complicated by difficulties in classifying and detecting new whitefly biotypes and begomoviruses. Proper diagnosis of plant diseases depends on using sophisticated molecular techniques to detect and characterize the viruses and whiteflies which are present in a crop. A team of researchers, extension agents and growers working together are needed to follow disease development, using dynamic modeling, to understand the incidence of disease spread.


title: Whitefly

text: In 1997, tomato yellow leaf-curl begomovirus was discovered in Florida, USA. This is the worst viral disease transmitted by the whitefly, "Bemisia argentifolii". The whitefly has also been shown to transmit almost 60 other viral plant diseases.


title: Whitefly

text: Whiteflies feed by tapping into the phloem of plants, introducing toxic saliva and decreasing the plants' overall turgor pressure. Since whiteflies congregate in large numbers, susceptible plants can be quickly overwhelmed. Further harm is done by mold growth encouraged by the honeydew whiteflies secrete. This may also seriously impede the ability of farms to process cotton harvests.


title: Whitefly

text: Whiteflies share a modified form of hemimetabolous metamorphosis, in that the immature stages begin life as mobile individuals, but soon attach to host plants. The stage before the adult is called a pupa, though it shares little in common with the pupal stage of holometabolous insects.


title: Whitefly

text: Whitefly control is difficult and complex, as whiteflies rapidly develop resistance to chemical pesticides. The USDA recommends "an integrated program that focuses on prevention and relies on cultural and biological control methods when possible".


title: Whitefly

text: While an initial pesticide application may be necessary to control heavy infestations, repeated applications may lead to strains of whiteflies that are resistant to pesticides, so only use of selective insecticides is advised. Specific insecticide information and guidance for the fig whitefly is available from the University of Florida. Care should be taken to ensure that the insecticide used will not kill the natural predators of whiteflies. For effective use of biological method after application of pesticide, plant washing is advised prior to release of predators or parasitoids.


title: Whitefly

text: Pesticides used for whitefly control usually contain neonicotinoid compounds as active ingredients: clothianidin (commercial), dinotefuran (over-the-counter and commercial), imidacloprid (over-the-counter and commercial) and thiamethoxam (commercial). Neonicotinoids can be harmful if ingested. Rotation of insecticides from different families may be effective at preventing the building of tolerance to the product. Clothianidin and dinotefuran are of the same family. Spraying the leaves using insecticidal soap is another, environmentally friendly, option.


title: Whitefly

text: Biological methods have also been proposed to control whitefly infestation, and may be paired with chemical methods. Washing the plant, especially the undersides of leaves, may help reduce the number of the pests on the plants and make their management by other methods more effective. Whiteflies are also attracted by the color yellow, so yellow sticky paper can serve as traps to monitor infestations. Dead leaves or leaves that have been mostly eaten by whiteflies can be removed and burned or carefully placed in closed bins to avoid reinfestation and spreading of the disease.


title: Whitefly

text: Early detection in combination with hosing or vacuuming of diseased portions as well as removal of any section that is heavily infested. Pesticide use is not ideal in the case of controlling whitefly and widespread contamination can be costly; it is best to avoid this problem with aggressive preventive measures.


title: Whitefly

text: Several predators and parasitoids may be effective in controlling whitefly infestations, including green lacewings, ladybirds, minute pirate bugs, big-eyed bugs, damsel bugs, "Encarsia formosa" and phytoseiid mites.


title: Whitefly

text: Integrated management of whiteflies can as well be done using biopesticides based on microbials such as "Beauveria bassiana" (effective on larvae and adults) or "Isaria fumosorosea".


title: Whitefly

text: Green lacewing larvae have voracious appetites, so will attack whiteflies, as well as other pests, including aphids, mealybugs, spider mites, leafhopper larvae, moth eggs, scales, and thrips. They also can attack other insects, including caterpillars. They are available as eggs from commercial insectaries, and will stay in a larval stage after they hatch for one to three weeks. The adult insects can fly and will feed only on pollen, honey, and nectar to reproduce. Repeated application may be necessary and the eggs could be eaten before they hatch by their natural predators, such as ants or mature green lacewings.


title: Whitefly

text: Ladybirds are also used. They eat mostly insect eggs, but will also feed on beetle larvae, aphids, scale insects, and young caterpillars. Adults are often collected when in a dormant state in the wild and shipped for use in pest control; however, they may not stay in the location where they are released. They do live for about a year and will continuously lay eggs and reproduce. Spraying the bugs' wings with a sticky substance before release may hinder their ability to fly.


title: Whitefly

text: Some promising claims have been made that mesh or film that excludes ultraviolet of certain wavelengths from a greenhouse interfere severely with the ability of whitefly and various other greenhouse pests, to find their food plants. It is not yet clear, assuming that the effect is substantially of value, how readily pests in such circumstances might develop behavioural tolerance to such control measures.


title: Whitefly

text: A number of plants can be intercropped with vegetables, in a garden setting, serving as companion plants to protect against whiteflies.


title: Whitefly

text: For example, nasturtiums are thought to provide a defense to gooseberries or tomatoes. They provide root chemicals that deter whiteflies.


title: Whitefly

text: Zinnias, conversely, attract predators that consume whiteflies, including hummingbirds and predatory wasps and flies. Other plants with a similar function include the hummingbird bush, pineapple sage, and bee balm. Each of these plants also conceals the scent of nearby plants, making their detection by some pest insects more difficult, as do most other mints.


title: Slovak Super Liga

text: The Slovak Super Liga is the top level football league in Slovakia, currently known as the Fortuna Liga due to a sponsorship arrangement. It was formed in 1993 following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The record for most titles is eleven, held by Slovan Bratislava, who are the current title holders.


title: Slovak Super Liga

text: Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia (1918–1939 and 1945–1993). The first Slovak championship Zväzové Majstrovstvá Slovenska was played between Slovak teams (1925–1933); until 1935-36, no Slovak team played in the Czechoslovak (professional, state) league. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1939 and the establishment of the German-allied Slovak Republic, the sole Slovak club in the Czechoslovak, ŠK Bratislava, played in the new Slovak league, the Slovenská liga (1939–1945).


title: Slovak Super Liga

text: Throughout the Fortuna liga history, the number of clubs competing at the top level in 1996 has increased, in 2000 has been gradually decreased and in 2006 has again increased. Below is a complete record of how many teams played in each season throughout the league's history:


title: Slovak Super Liga

text: The All-time table is an overall record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in Slovak Super Liga since its inception in 1993.


title: Slovak Super Liga

text: The table as of the end of 2021–22 season. Teams in bold are part of the 2022–23 Fortuna liga.top-flight.


title: Slovak Super Liga

text: There is no club that played all seasons in top-flight. The best clubs in that respect - MŠK Žilina and Spartak Trnava missed 1 season, Slovan Bratislava missed 2 seasons.


title: Slovak Super Liga

text: Spartak Myjava withdrew from the league on 21 December 2016, and their results from season 2016-17 were expunged.


title: Slovak Super Liga

text: Fortuna liga have produced numerous players who have gone on to represent the Slovak national football team. Over the last period there has been a steady increase of young players leaving Fortuna liga after a few years of first team football and moving on to play football in leagues of a higher standard.


title: Slovak Super Liga

text: Based on an idea of Umberto Agnelli, the honor of "Golden Star for Sports Excellence" was introduced to recognize sides that have won multiple championships or other honours by the display of gold stars on their team badges and jerseys.


title: None of the above

text: "None of the above" (NOTA), or none for short, also known as "against all" or a "scratch" vote, is a ballot option in some jurisdictions or organizations, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of the candidates in a voting system. It is based on the principle that consent requires the ability to withhold consent in an election, just as they can by voting "No" on ballot questions. It must be contrasted with "abstention", in which a voter does not cast a ballot.


title: None of the above

text: Entities that include "None of the Above" on ballots as standard procedure include India ("None of the above"), Indonesia (, "empty box"), Greece (, white), the U.S. state of Nevada (None of These Candidates), Ukraine (, "against all"), Belarus, Spain (, "white vote"), North Korea, and Colombia (). Russia had such an option on its ballots (, "against all") until it was abolished in 2006. Bangladesh introduced this option (, "no vote") in 2008. Pakistan introduced this option on ballot papers for the 2013 Pakistan elections, but the Election Commission of Pakistan later rejected it. Beginning with the 2016 presidential election, and 2017 parliamentary one, Bulgaria introduced a 'none of the above' option, which received in the presidential elections 5.59% of the vote in the first round and 4.47% in the run-off. It was also used in the 2019 mayoral election of Sofia.


title: None of the above

text: When "none of the above" is listed on a ballot, there is the possibility of NOTA receiving a majority or plurality of the vote, and so "winning" the election. In such a case, a variety of formal procedures may be invoked, including having the office remain vacant, having the office filled by appointment, re-opening nominations, or holding another election (in a body operating under parliamentary procedure), or it may have no effect, as in India and the US state of Nevada, where the next highest total wins regardless.


title: None of the above

text: The advantages of a NOTA option include support for freedom of expression. Individuals possess the formal right to reject all candidates, and express that none are sufficient for democratic self-determination. NOTA may also increase voter turnout by allowing citizens to vote for an option contrary to existing options, rather than decline to participate entirely. Accordingly, movements in the NOTA vote share indicate movements in public opinion.


title: None of the above

text: Disadvantages of a NOTA option include the possibility that it can serve as a spoiler: vote splitting may cause the defeat of the least-disliked candidate to a more-disliked opponent. And as with all additional options on a ballot, there are likely to be administrative costs in processing votes, and voters who select NOTA without a full understanding of all alternatives. Perhaps most important is the potential for fallout should NOTA "win" an election, depending on the method of resolution. Delays may increase, democratic legitimacy may fall, an important office may remain vacant, or the electorate may end up with an office-holder worse than previous candidates.


title: None of the above

text: In Colombia, a NOTA option in the ballots has been recognized by the Constitutional Court of Colombia by upholding a political reform law (Law 1475 of 2011), declaring that a None of the Above vote is "a political expression of dissent, abstention or inconformity with political effects" and also adding that "a None of the Above vote constitutes a valuable expression of dissent through which the electorate's will protection can be promoted. As such, the constitution grants it a decisive importance in the election of uni-personal offices and public corporations". The NOTA option has been present in ballots since at least 1991; in fact legislative act 01 of 2009 instructs what should happen if NOTA would "win" an election.


title: None of the above

text: In accordance with the aforementioned Act, if an election for a public corporation (such as Congress, Assemblies or Councils), Governor, Mayor or the first round of the presidential elections would end with None of the Above as the most selected option, the election must be repeated a single time with new candidates (for unipersonal offices, like president, governor or mayor) and for public corporations, the election must be repeated with only the lists which had achieved the threshold for seats. If this new election would again return None of the Above as "winner", the election would not be repeated.


title: None of the above

text: In the regional elections of 2011 for the municipality of Bello, Antioquia, 56.7% of voters picked None of the Above, defeating the uncontested candidate and prompting the election for Mayor to be repeated.


title: None of the above

text: In the 1990 elections that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Soviet version of "none of above" led to new elections with new candidates in 200 races of the 1,500-seat Congress of People's Deputies. More than 100 incumbents representing the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were defeated in the run-off, leading Boris Yeltsin to later say the "none of the above" option "helped convince the people they had real power even in a rigged election, and [it] played a role in building true democracy."


title: None of the above

text: Owing to the Spanish voting regulations (), the blank ballot is recognized as 'none of the above' () but has very little chance to influence the distribution of seats within a democratic election. It is mostly considered as a statistical indicator of candidatures' disapproval. The blank ballots only increase the number of valid votes, raising the threshold of votes (3% and 5% depending on the election) which every political party has to overcome to be fully considered. The parties over the threshold get their seats according to the D'Hondt method.


title: None of the above

text: Since 1999, several political parties have arisen in order to make visible the 'none of the above' option in the parliaments and force empty seats. "Blank Seats" ran for the Congress and Senate elections of 20 November 2011. Its programme is to leave empty the corresponding assigned seats by not taking full possession of their duties as congressperson, senator, etc. According to law, the seat remains assigned to the elected candidate until the possession act takes place, the elected candidate explicitly refuses or new elections are called. In this way, the political party and its candidates stay free from obligations and are not entitled to receive any money from the public funding scheme for politics.


title: None of the above

text: By voting such option at the local elections in May 2011, the citizens of the villages of Gironella (Barcelona) and Foixà (Girona) were able to reduce the number of politicians in their councils by one and two respectively. Overall, citizenship supported Blank Seats at different municipalities, including Barcelona, with 15,582 votes (averaging 1.71% of valid votes).


title: None of the above

text: The (Citizens for Blank Votes) party aims to give blank ballots the meaning of representing empty seats if the votes indicate so as for any other party, disbanding the party when such law would be approved.


title: None of the above

text: The origins of the ballot option "None of the Above" in the United States can be traced to when the State of Nevada adopted "None of These Candidates" as a ballot option in 1976.


title: None of the above

text: In 1998 in California, citizen proponents of Proposition 23, titled the "None of the Above Act", qualified a new State ballot initiative through circulated petitions submitted to the Secretary of State, but the measure was defeated in the March 2000 general election 64% to 36%. Were it to be passed by the voters, it was meant to require this new ballot option for all state and federal elective offices, exempting only local judicial races; in determining official election results, the "none of the above" voter tally would be discarded in favor of the candidate with the greatest number of votes.


title: None of the above

text: No similar options were known to have been permitted, much less approved, on any other state levels, least of all the federal level, as of 2022.


title: None of the above

text: The Election Commission of India told the Supreme Court in 2009 that it wished to offer the voter a "none of the above" option on ballots, which the government had generally opposed. The People's Union for Civil Liberties, a non-governmental organisation, filed a public-interest litigation statement in support of this.


title: None of the above

text: On 27 September 2013, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the right to register a "none of the above" vote in elections should apply, and ordered the Election Commission to provide such a button in the electronic voting machines, noting that it would increase participation.


title: None of the above

text: The Election Commission also clarified that even though votes cast as NOTA are counted, they are considered as invalid votes so they will not change the outcome of the election process. They are not taken into account for calculating the total valid votes and will not be considered for determining the forfeiture of deposit.


title: None of the above

text: The specific symbol for NOTA, a ballot paper with a black cross across it, was introduced on 18 September 2015. The symbol is designed by National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.


title: None of the above

text: The Indonesian Law 10 of 2016 regulates local elections, and includes provisions for elections in which there is only one candidate. In such cases, the candidate contests the election against a NOTA option (commonly referred to as "kotak kosong"/empty box), and is declared the winner if they manage to secure a majority of the valid votes. Otherwise, the election will be postponed to the next occurrence; the government of Indonesia appoints an acting office holder until the new election, in which the losing candidate is eligible to stand again.


title: None of the above

text: There were 3 uncontested seats in the 2015 local elections, nine in the 2017 local elections, and at least 13 in the 2018 local elections (including the mayoral elections for Tangerang and Makassar). In the 2018 election for mayor of Makassar, the NOTA option received over 300,000 votes, 35,000 more than the sole candidate, forcing a repeat election in 2020.


title: None of the above

text: UK electoral counting procedures require that all votes be counted and announced, including 'rejected' votes. 'Rejected votes' are classified into four categories, protest votes are recorded with others rejected as 'voter's intention uncertain'.


title: None of the above

text: NOTA UK is a voluntary organisation set up in 2010 to campaign for a formal None Of The Above (NOTA) option to be added to ballot papers for all future UK elections. It has made numerous written evidence submissions to the parliamentary Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee (PCRC) making the case for NOTA 'with teeth', i.e. formalised consequences for the election result in the event of a NOTA 'win' (as opposed to 'faux' NOTA, whereby the next placed candidate takes office anyway as happens in India and elsewhere). As a result of these representations, the PCRC explicitly recommended in its final report on 'voter engagement', published in February 2015, that the next UK government should hold a public consultation before May 2016 solely on inclusion of NOTA on UK ballot papers. This in turn has led to increased support for and awareness of NOTA UK's campaign and its founder, recording artist and music producer Jamie Stanley (known as Mailman), being asked to give a number of media interviews. No public consultation materialised as the incoming Conservative majority government scrapped the PCRC, effectively disregarding all of its recommendations.


title: None of the above

text: Since 2015, in part thanks to NOTA UK's lobbying, it has been a policy of the Green Party of England and Wales to get a form of NOTA (RON – Re-Open Nominations) on UK ballot papers. In the run-up to the 2017 UK general election, NOTA UK wrote to the Green party suggesting that they should reword the policy so that, instead of RON, it refers specifically to the more self-explanatory NOTA, and that they should also place the policy centre stage in their next manifesto.


title: None of the above

text: The Above and Beyond Party was founded in 2015 and fielded eight candidates in the 2015 general election, none of whom were elected. Their sole stated policy was to introduce a "none of the above" option on all UK ballot papers. The party's logo is based on the West African Adinkra symbol "Aya", "derived from a fern tree which famously grows in difficult-to-survive places", and a symbol of resilience. Critics pointed out that their website and Facebook page at the time indicated that they had policy ideas and a political agenda beyond the single issue of NOTA and appeared to be jumping on the bandwagon of other NOTA campaigns.


title: None of the above

text: The party registered with the Electoral Commission on 18 March 2015. The Electoral Commission listed the party leader, nominating officer and campaigns officer as Mark Flanagan and the treasurer was Karen Stanley. The party chairman was Michael Ross. The party was de-registered by the Electoral Commission on 3 November 2016.


title: None of the above

text: Above and Beyond fielded four candidates in the 2015 general election. The candidates stood in Clwyd West, Cheadle, Sheffield Central and Leeds North West. In Sheffield Hallam the party endorsed Carlton Reeve, an independent candidate. No Above and Beyond candidate received 5% or more of the votes cast, therefore all lost their deposit.