title: Late modern period

text: Northern leaders agreed that victory would require more than the end of fighting. Secession and Confederate nationalism had to be totally repudiated and all forms of slavery or quasi-slavery had to be eliminated. Lincoln proved effective in mobilizing support for the war goals, raising large armies and supplying them, avoiding foreign interference, and making the end of slavery a war goal. The Confederacy had a larger area than it could defend, and it failed to keep its ports open and its rivers clear as was the case in the Battle of Vicksburg. The North kept up the pressure as the South could barely feed and clothe its soldiers. Its soldiers, especially those in the East under the command of General Robert E. Lee proved highly resourceful until they finally were overwhelmed by Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman in 1864–65. The Reconstruction era (1863–77) began with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and included freedom, full citizenship and voting rights for Southern blacks. It was followed by a reaction that left the blacks in a second class status legally, politically, socially and economically until the 1960s.


title: Late modern period

text: During the Gilded Age, there was substantial growth in population in the United States and extravagant displays of wealth and excess of America's upper-class during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, in the late 19th century. The wealth polarization derived primarily from industrial and population expansion. The businessmen of the Second Industrial Revolution created industrial towns and cities in the Northeast with new factories, and contributed to the creation of an ethnically diverse industrial working class which produced the wealth owned by rising super-rich industrialists and financiers called the "robber barons". An example is the company of John D. Rockefeller, who was an important figure in shaping the new oil industry. Using highly effective tactics and aggressive practices, later widely criticized, Standard Oil absorbed or destroyed most of its competition.


title: Late modern period

text: The creation of a modern industrial economy took place. With the creation of a transportation and communication infrastructure, the corporation became the dominant form of business organization and a managerial revolution transformed business operations. In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act—the source of all American anti-monopoly laws. The law forbade every contract, scheme, deal, or conspiracy to restrain trade, though the phrase "restraint of trade" remained subjective. By the beginning of the 20th century, per capita income and industrial production in the United States exceeded that of any other country except Britain. Long hours and hazardous working conditions led many workers to attempt to form labor unions despite strong opposition from industrialists and the courts. But the courts did protect the marketplace, declaring the Standard Oil group to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1911. It ordered Standard to break up into 34 independent companies with different boards of directors.


title: Late modern period

text: Replacing the classical physics in use since the end of the scientific revolution, "modern physics" arose in the early 20th century with the advent of quantum physics, substituting mathematical studies for experimental studies and examining equations to build a theoretical structure. The old quantum theory was a collection of results which predate modern quantum mechanics, but were never complete or self-consistent. The collection of heuristic prescriptions for quantum mechanics were the first corrections to classical mechanics. Outside the realm of quantum physics, the various aether theories in classical physics, which supposed a "fifth element" such as the Luminiferous aether, were nullified by the Michelson–Morley experiment—an attempt to detect the motion of earth through the aether. In biology, Darwinism gained acceptance, promoting the concept of adaptation in the theory of natural selection. The fields of geology, astronomy and psychology also made strides and gained new insights. In medicine, there were advances in medical theory and treatments.


title: Late modern period

text: Starting one-hundred years before the 20th century, the enlightenment spiritual philosophy was challenged in various quarters around the 1900s. Developed from earlier secular traditions, modern Humanist ethical philosophies affirmed the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationality, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from religious texts. For liberal humanists such as Rousseau and Kant, the universal law of reason guided the way toward total emancipation from any kind of tyranny. These ideas were challenged, for example by the young Karl Marx, who criticized the project of political emancipation (embodied in the form of human rights), asserting it to be symptomatic of the very dehumanization it was supposed to oppose. For Friedrich Nietzsche, humanism was nothing more than a secular version of theism. In his "Genealogy of Morals", he argues that human rights exist as a means for the weak to collectively constrain the strong. On this view, such rights do not facilitate emancipation of life, but rather deny it. In the 20th century, the notion that human beings are rationally autonomous was challenged by the concept that humans were driven by unconscious irrational desires.


title: Late modern period

text: Sigmund Freud is renowned for his redefinition of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life, as well as his therapeutic techniques, including the use of free association, his theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship, and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires.


title: Late modern period

text: Albert Einstein is known for his theories of special relativity and general relativity. He also made important contributions to statistical mechanics, especially his mathematical treatment of Brownian motion, his resolution of the paradox of specific heats, and his connection of fluctuations and dissipation. Despite his reservations about its interpretation, Einstein also made contributions to quantum mechanics and, indirectly, quantum field theory, primarily through his theoretical studies of the photon.


title: Late modern period

text: At the end of the 19th century, Social Darwinism was promoted and included the various ideologies based on a concept that competition among all individuals, groups, nations, or ideas was a "natural" framework for social evolution in human societies. In this view, society's advancement is dependent on the "survival of the fittest". The term was in fact coined by Herbert Spencer and referred to in "The Gospel of Wealth" written by Andrew Carnegie.


title: Late modern period

text: Karl Marx summarized his approach to history and politics in the opening line of the first chapter of "The Communist Manifesto" (1848). He wrote:


title: Late modern period

text: The "Manifesto" went through a number of editions from 1872 to 1890; notable new prefaces were written by Marx and Engels for the 1872 German edition, the 1882 Russian edition, the 1883 German edition, and the 1888 English edition. In general, Marxism identified five (and one transitional) successive stages of development in Western Europe.


title: Late modern period

text: Major political developments saw the former British Empire lose most of its remaining political power over commonwealth countries. The Trans-Siberian Railway, crossing Asia by train, was complete by 1916. Other events include the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, two world wars, and the Cold War.


title: Late modern period

text: In 1901, the Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation. They kept the systems of government that they had developed as separate colonies but also would have a federal government that was responsible for matters concerning the whole nation. When the Constitution of Australia came into force, the colonies collectively became states of the Commonwealth of Australia.


title: Late modern period

text: The last days of the Qing dynasty were marked with civil unrest, failed reforms and foreign invasions such as the Boxer Rebellion. Responding to these civil failures and discontent, the Qing Imperial Court did attempt to reform the government in various ways, as the decision to draft a constitution in 1906, the establishment of provincial legislatures in 1909, and the preparation for a national parliament in 1910. However, many of these measures were opposed by the conservatives of the Qing Court, and many reformers were either imprisoned or executed outright. The failures of the Imperial Court to enact such reforming measures of political liberalization and modernization caused the reformists to steer toward the road of revolution.


title: Late modern period

text: The assertions of Chinese philosophy began to integrate concepts of Western philosophy, as steps toward modernization. By the time of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, there were many calls, such as the May Fourth Movement, to completely abolish the old imperial institutions and practices of China. There were attempts to incorporate democracy, republicanism, and industrialism into Chinese philosophy, notably by Sun Yat-sen at the beginning of the 20th century


title: Late modern period

text: In 1912, the Republic of China was established and Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated in Nanjing as the first Provisional President. But power in Beijing already had passed to Yuan Shikai, who had effective control of the Beiyang Army, the most powerful military force in China at the time. To prevent civil war and possible foreign intervention from undermining the infant republic, leaders agreed to Army's demand that China be united under a Beijing government. On March 10, in Beijing, Shikai was sworn in as the second Provisional President of the Republic of China.


title: Late modern period

text: After the early 20th century revolutions, shifting alliances of China's regional warlords waged war for control of the Beijing government. Despite the fact that various warlords gained control of the government in Beijing during the warlord era, this did not constitute a new era of control or governance, because other warlords did not acknowledge the transitory governments in this period and were a law unto themselves. These military-dominated governments were collectively known as the Beiyang government. The warlord era ended around 1927.


title: Late modern period

text: Four years into the 20th century saw the Russo-Japanese War with the Battle of Port Arthur establishing the Empire of Japan as a world power. The Russians were in constant pursuit of a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean, for their navy as well as for maritime trade. The Manchurian Campaign of the Russian Empire was fought against the Japanese over Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria, specifically the area around the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden, and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. The resulting campaigns, in which the fledgling Japanese military consistently attained victory over the Russian forces arrayed against them, were unexpected by world observers. These victories, as time transpired, would dramatically transform the distribution of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. The embarrassing string of defeats increased Russian popular dissatisfaction with the inefficient and corrupt Tsarist government.


title: Late modern period

text: The Russian Revolution of 1905 was a wave of mass political unrest through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included terrorism, worker strikes, peasant unrests, and military mutinies. It led to the establishment of the limited constitutional monarchy, the establishment of State Duma of the Russian Empire, and the multi-party system.


title: Late modern period

text: In China, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown following the Xinhai Revolution. The Xinhai Revolution began with the Wuchang uprising on October 10, 1911, and ended with the abdication of Emperor Puyi on February 12, 1912. The primary parties to the conflict were the Imperial forces of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), and the revolutionary forces of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui).


title: Late modern period

text: The Edwardian era in the United Kingdom is the period spanning the reign of King Edward VII up to the end of the First World War, including the years surrounding the sinking of the RMS "Titanic". In the early years of the period, the Second Boer War in South Africa split the country into anti- and pro-war factions. The imperial policies of the Conservatives eventually proved unpopular and in the general election of 1906 the Liberals won a huge landslide. The Liberal government was unable to proceed with all of its radical programme without the support of the House of Lords, which was largely Conservative. Conflict between the two Houses of Parliament over the People's Budget led to a reduction in the power of the peers in 1910. The general election in January that year returned a hung parliament with the balance of power held by Labour and Irish Nationalist members.


title: Late modern period

text: The causes of World War I included many factors, including the conflicts and antagonisms of the four decades leading up to the war. The Triple Entente was the name given to the loose alignment between the United Kingdom, France, and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907. The alignment of the three powers, supplemented by various agreements with Japan, the United States, and Spain, constituted a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, the third having concluded an additional secret agreement with France effectively nullifying her Alliance commitments. Militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism played major roles in the conflict. The immediate origins of the war lay in the decisions taken by statesmen and generals during the July Crisis of 1914, the spark (or casus belli) for which was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.


title: Late modern period

text: However, the crisis did not exist in a void; it came after a long series of diplomatic clashes between the Great Powers over European and colonial issues in the decade prior to 1914 which had left tensions high. The diplomatic clashes can be traced to changes in the balance of power in Europe since 1870. An example is the Baghdad Railway which was planned to connect the Ottoman Empire cities of Konya and Baghdad with a line through modern-day Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The railway became a source of international disputes during the years immediately preceding World War I. Although it has been argued that they were resolved in 1914 before the war began, it has also been argued that the railroad was a cause of the First World War. Fundamentally the war was sparked by tensions over territory in the Balkans. Austria-Hungary competed with Serbia and Russia for territory and influence in the region and they pulled the rest of the great powers into the conflict through their various alliances and treaties. The Balkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913 in the course of which the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece, and Serbia) first captured Ottoman-held remaining part of Thessaly, Macedonia, Epirus, Albania and most of Thrace and then fell out over the division of the spoils, with incorporation of Romania this time.


title: Late modern period

text: The First World War began in 1914 and lasted to the final Armistice in 1918. The Allied Powers, led by the British Empire, France, Russia until March 1918, Japan and the United States after 1917, defeated the Central Powers, led by the German Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. The war caused the disintegration of four empires—the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian ones—as well as radical change in the European and West Asian maps. The Allied powers before 1917 are referred to as the Triple Entente, and the Central Powers are referred to as the Triple Alliance.


title: Late modern period

text: Much of the fighting in World War I took place along the Western Front, within a system of opposing manned trenches and fortifications (separated by a "No man's land") running from the North Sea to the border of Switzerland. On the Eastern Front, the vast eastern plains and limited rail network prevented a trench warfare stalemate from developing, although the scale of the conflict was just as large. Hostilities also occurred on and under the sea and—for the first time—from the air. More than 9 million soldiers died on the various battlefields, and nearly that many more in the participating countries' home fronts on account of food shortages and genocide committed under the cover of various civil wars and internal conflicts. Notably, more people died of the worldwide influenza outbreak at the end of the war and shortly after than died in the hostilities. The unsanitary conditions engendered by the war, severe overcrowding in barracks, wartime propaganda interfering with public health warnings, and migration of so many soldiers around the world helped the outbreak become a pandemic.


title: Late modern period

text: Ultimately, World War I created a decisive break with the old world order that had emerged after the Napoleonic Wars, which was modified by the mid-19th century's nationalistic revolutions. The results of World War I would be important factors in the development of World War II approximately 20 years later. More immediate to the time, the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire was a political event that redrew the political boundaries of West Asia. The huge conglomeration of territories and peoples formerly ruled by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was divided into several new nations. The partitioning brought the creation of the modern Arab world and the Republic of Turkey. The League of Nations granted France mandates over Syria and Lebanon and granted the United Kingdom mandates over Mesopotamia and Palestine (which was later divided into two regions: Palestine and Transjordan). Parts of the Ottoman Empire on the Arabian Peninsula became parts of what are today Saudi Arabia and Yemen.


title: Late modern period

text: The Russian Revolution is the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. Following the abdication of Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established. In October 1917, a "red" faction revolution occurred in which the Red Guard, armed groups of workers and deserting soldiers directed by the Bolshevik Party, seized control of Saint Petersburg (then known as Petrograd) and began an immediate armed takeover of cities and villages throughout the former Russian Empire.


title: Late modern period

text: Another action in 1917 that is of note was the armistice signed between Russia and the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk. As a condition for peace, the treaty by the Central Powers conceded huge portions of the former Russian Empire to Imperial Germany and the Ottoman Empire, greatly upsetting nationalists and conservatives. The Bolsheviks made peace with the German Empire and the Central Powers, as they had promised the Russian people prior to the Revolution. Vladimir Lenin's decision has been attributed to his sponsorship by the foreign office of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, offered by the latter in hopes that with a revolution, Russia would withdraw from World War I. This suspicion was bolstered by the German Foreign Ministry's sponsorship of Lenin's return to Petrograd. The Western Allies expressed their dismay at the Bolsheviks, upset at:


title: Late modern period

text: In addition, there was a concern, shared by many Central Powers as well, that the socialist revolutionary ideas would spread to the West. Hence, many of these countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle".


title: Late modern period

text: The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and then in other places. In the wake of the October Revolution, the old Russian Imperial Army had been demobilized; the volunteer-based Red Guard was the Bolsheviks' main military force, augmented by an armed military component of the Cheka, the Bolshevik state security apparatus. There was an instituted mandatory conscription of the rural peasantry into the Red Army. Opposition of rural Russians to Red Army conscription units was overcome by taking hostages and shooting them when necessary to force compliance. Former Tsarist officers were used as "military specialists" ("voenspetsy"), taking their families hostage to ensure loyalty. At the start of the war, three-fourths of the Red Army officer corps was composed of former Tsarist officers. By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers.


title: Late modern period

text: The principal fighting occurred between the Bolshevik Red Army and the forces of the White Army. Many foreign armies warred against the Red Army, notably the Allied Forces, yet many volunteer foreigners fought in both sides of the Russian Civil War. Other nationalist and regional political groups also participated in the war, including the Ukrainian nationalist Green Army, the Ukrainian anarchist Black Army and Black Guards, and warlords such as Ungern von Sternberg. The most intense fighting took place from 1918 to 1920. Major military operations ended on October 25, 1922, when the Red Army occupied Vladivostok, previously held by the Provisional Priamur Government. The last enclave of the White Forces was the Ayano-Maysky District on the Pacific coast. The majority of the fighting ended in 1920 with the defeat of General Pyotr Wrangel in the Crimea, but a notable resistance in certain areas continued until 1923 (e.g., Kronstadt uprising, Tambov Rebellion, Basmachi Revolt, and the final resistance of the White movement in the Far East).


title: Late modern period

text: While the early 1920s was a time of flux for revolutionary Russia and Central Asia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was proclaimed in 1922 as the successor state to the fallen Russian Empire. Revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin died of natural causes and was succeeded by Joseph Stalin.


title: Late modern period

text: In 1917, China declared war on Germany in the hope of recovering its lost province, then under Japanese control. The New Culture Movement occupied the period from 1917 to 1923. Chinese representatives refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles, due to intense pressure from the student protesters and public opinion alike.


title: Late modern period

text: The May Fourth Movement helped to rekindle the then-fading cause of republican revolution. In 1917 Sun Yat-sen had become commander-in-chief of a rival military government in Guangzhou in collaboration with southern warlords. Sun's efforts to obtain aid from the Western democracies were ignored, however, and in 1920 he turned to the Soviet Union, which had recently achieved its own revolution. The Soviets sought to befriend the Chinese revolutionists by offering scathing attacks on Western imperialism. But for political expediency, the Soviet leadership initiated a dual policy of support for both Sun and the newly established Chinese Communist Party (CCP).


title: Late modern period

text: In early 1927, the Kuomintang-CCP rivalry led to a split in the revolutionary ranks. The CCP and the left wing of the Kuomintang had decided to move the seat of the Nationalist government from Guangzhou to Wuhan. But Chiang Kai-shek, whose Northern Expedition was proving successful, set his forces to destroying the Shanghai CCP apparatus and established an anti-Communist government at Nanjing in April 1927.


title: Late modern period

text: The "Nanjing Decade" of 1928–37 was one of consolidation and accomplishment under the leadership of the Nationalists, with a mixed but generally positive record in the economy, social progress, development of democracy, and cultural creativity. Some of the harsh aspects of foreign concessions and privileges in China were moderated through diplomacy.


title: Late modern period

text: The interwar period was the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War. This period was marked by turmoil in much of the world, as Europe struggled to recover from the devastation of the First World War.


title: Late modern period

text: In North America, especially the first half of this period, people experienced considerable prosperity in the Roaring Twenties. The social and societal upheaval known as the Roaring Twenties began in North America and spread to Europe in the aftermath of World War I. The "Roaring Twenties", often called "The Jazz Age", saw an exposition of social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. "Normalcy" returned to politics, jazz music blossomed, the flapper redefined modern womanhood, Art Deco peaked. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity, a break with traditions. Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology. New technologies, especially automobiles, movies and radio proliferated "modernity" to a large part of the population. The 1920s saw the general favor of practicality, in architecture as well as in daily life. The 1920s was further distinguished by several inventions and discoveries, extensive industrial growth and the rise in consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle.


title: Late modern period

text: Europe spent these years rebuilding and coming to terms with the vast human cost of the conflict. The occupation of Istanbul and Izmir in the Ottoman Empire by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I prompted the establishment of the Turkish National Movement. The Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923) was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres. After the Turkish victory, the Treaty of Lausanne of July 24, 1923, led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923, in Ankara, the country's new capital. The Lausanne Convention stipulated a population exchange between Greece and Turkey, whereby 1.1 million Greeks left Turkey for Greece in exchange for 380,000 Muslims transferred from Greece to Turkey. The economy of the United States became increasingly intertwined with that of Europe. In Germany, the Weimar Republic gave way to episodes of political and economic turmoil, which culminated with the German hyperinflation of 1923 and the failed Beer Hall Putsch of that same year. When Germany could no longer afford war payments, Wall Street invested heavily in European debts to keep the European economy afloat as a large consumer market for American mass-produced goods. By the middle of the decade, economic development soared in Europe, and the Roaring Twenties broke out in Germany, Britain and France, the second half of the decade becoming known as the "Golden Twenties". In France and francophone Canada, they were also called the ""années folles"" ("Crazy Years"). Worldwide prosperity changed dramatically with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 served to punctuate the end of the previous era, as "The Great Depression" set in. The "Great Depression" was a worldwide economic downturn starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries. It was the largest and most important economic depression in the 20th century, and is used in the 21st century as an example of how far the world's economy can fall.


title: Late modern period

text: The depression had devastating effects in virtually every country, rich or poor. International trade plunged by half to two-thirds, as did personal income, tax revenue, prices and profits. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by roughly 60 percent. Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries suffered the most.


title: Late modern period

text: The Great Depression ended at different times in different countries with the effect lasting into the next era. America's Great Depression ended in 1941 with America's entry into World War II. The majority of countries set up relief programs, and most underwent some sort of political upheaval, pushing them to the left or right. In some world states, the desperate citizens turned toward nationalist demagogues—the most infamous being Adolf Hitler—setting the stage for the next era of war. The convulsion brought on by the worldwide depression resulted in the rise of Nazism. In Asia, Japan became an ever more assertive power, especially with regards to China.


title: Late modern period

text: The interwar period was also marked by a radical change in the international order, away from the balance of power that had dominated pre–World War I Europe. One main institution that was meant to bring stability was the League of Nations, which was created after the First World War with the intention of maintaining world security and peace and encouraging economic growth between member countries.


title: Late modern period

text: However the League failed to resolve any major crises and by 1938 it was no longer a major player. The League was undermined by the bellicosity of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, the Soviet Union, and Mussolini's Italy, and by the non-participation of the United States.A series of international crises strained the League to its limits, the earliest being the invasion of Manchuria by Japan and the Abyssinian crisis of 1935/36 in which Italy invaded Abyssinia, one of the only free African nations at that time.


title: Late modern period

text: The League tried to enforce economic sanctions upon Italy, but to no avail. The incident highlighted French and British weakness, exemplified by their reluctance to alienate Italy and lose her as their ally. The limited actions taken by the Western powers pushed Mussolini's Italy towards alliance with Hitler's Germany anyway. The Abyssinian war showed Hitler how weak the League was and encouraged the remilitarization of the Rhineland in flagrant disregard of the Treaty of Versailles. This was the first in a series of provocative acts culminating in the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the beginning of the Second World War.


title: Late modern period

text: Hungry for raw materials and pressed by a growing population, Japan initiated the seizure of Manchuria in September 1931 and established ex-Qing emperor Puyi as head of the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932. During the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the loss of Manchuria, and its vast potential for industrial development and war industries, was a blow to the Kuomintang economy. After 1940, conflicts between the Kuomintang and Communists became more frequent in the areas not under Japanese control. The Communists expanded their influence wherever opportunities presented themselves through mass organizations, administrative reforms, and the land- and tax-reform measures favoring the peasants—while the Kuomintang attempted to neutralize the spread of Communist influence.The Second Sino-Japanese War had seen tensions rise between Imperial Japan and the United States; events such as the Panay incident and the Nanking massacre turned American public opinion against Japan. With the occupation of French Indochina in the years of 1940–41, and with the continuing war in China, the United States placed embargoes on Japan of strategic materials such as scrap metal and oil, which were vitally needed for the war effort. The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China and losing face or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials in the resource-rich, European-controlled colonies of Southeast Asia—specifically British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). In 1940, Imperial Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.


title: Late modern period

text: Even though Japan had been invading in China since 1937, the conventional view is that the World War II began on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, the Drang nach Osten. Within two days the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany, even though the fighting was confined to Poland. Pursuant to a then-secret provision of its non-aggression Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union joined with Germany on September 17, 1939, to conquer Poland and to divide Eastern Europe.


title: Late modern period

text: The Allies were initially made up of Poland, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, as well as British Commonwealth countries which were controlled directly by the UK, such as the Indian Empire. All of these countries declared war on Germany in September 1939.


title: Late modern period

text: Following the lull in fighting, known as the "Phoney War", Germany invaded western Europe in May 1940. Six weeks later, France, in the meantime, attacked by Italy as well, surrendered to Germany, which then tried unsuccessfully to conquer Britain. On September 27, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a mutual defense agreement, the Tripartite Pact, and were known as the Axis Powers. Nine months later, on June 22, 1941, Germany launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, which promptly joined the Allies. Germany was now engaged in fighting a war on two fronts. This proved to be a mistake by Germany – Germany had not successfully carried out the invasion of Britain and the war turned against the Axis.


title: Late modern period

text: On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, bringing it too into the war on the Allied side. China also joined the Allies, as eventually did most of the rest of the world. China was in turmoil at the time, and attacked Japanese armies through guerilla-type warfare. By the beginning of 1942, the major combatants were aligned as follows: the British Commonwealth, the United States, and the Soviet Union were fighting Germany and Italy; and the British Commonwealth, China, and the United States were fighting Japan. The United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and China were referred as a "trusteeship of the powerful" during the World War II and were recognized as the Allied "Big Four" in Declaration by United Nations These four countries were considered as the "Four Policemen" or "Four Sheriffs" of the Allies power and primary victors of World War II. From then through August 1945, battles raged across all of Europe, in the North Atlantic Ocean, across North Africa, throughout Southeast Asia, throughout China, across the Pacific Ocean and in the air over Japan.


title: Late modern period

text: Italy surrendered in September 1943 and was split into a northern Germany-occupied puppet state and an Allies-friendly state in the South; Germany surrendered in May 1945. Following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered, marking the end of the war on September 2, 1945.


title: Late modern period

text: It is possible that around 62 million people died in the war; estimates vary greatly. About 60% of all casualties were civilians, who died as a result of disease, starvation, genocide (in particular, the Holocaust), and aerial bombing. The former Soviet Union and China suffered the most casualties. Estimates place deaths in the Soviet Union at around 23 million, while China suffered about 10 million. No country lost a greater portion of its population than Poland: approximately 5.6 million, or 16%, of its pre-war population of 34.8 million died.


title: Late modern period

text: The Holocaust (which roughly means "burnt whole") was the deliberate and systematic murder of millions of Jews and other "unwanted" during World War II by the Nazi regime in Germany. Several differing views exist regarding whether it was intended to occur from the war's beginning, or if the plans for it came about later. Regardless, persecution of Jews extended well before the war even started, such as in the "Kristallnacht" (Night of Broken Glass). The Nazis used propaganda to great effect to stir up anti-Semitic feelings within ordinary Germans.


title: Late modern period

text: After World War II, Europe was informally split into Western and Soviet spheres of influence. Western Europe later aligned as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Eastern Europe as the Warsaw Pact. There was a shift in power from Western Europe and the British Empire to the two new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. These two rivals would later face off in the Cold War. In Asia, the defeat of Japan led to its democratization. China's civil war continued through and after the war, resulting eventually in the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The former colonies of the European powers began their road to independence.


title: Late modern period

text: The mid-20th century is distinguished from most of human history in that its most significant changes were directly or indirectly economic and technological in nature. Economic development was the force behind vast changes in everyday life, to a degree which was unprecedented in human history.


title: Late modern period

text: Over the course of the 20th century, the world's per-capita gross domestic product grew by a factor of five, much more than all earlier centuries combined (including the 19th with its Industrial Revolution). Many economists make the case that this understates the magnitude of growth, as many of the goods and services consumed at the end of the 20th century, such as improved medicine (causing world life expectancy to increase by more than two decades) and communications technologies, were not available at any price at its beginning. However, the gulf between the world's rich and poor grew wider, and the majority of the global population remained in the poor side of the divide.


title: Late modern period

text: Still, advancing technology and medicine has had a great impact even in the Global South. Large-scale industry and more centralized media made brutal dictatorships possible on an unprecedented scale in the middle of the century, leading to wars that were also unprecedented. However, the increased communications contributed to democratization. Technological developments included the development of airplanes and space exploration, nuclear technology, advancement in genetics, and the dawning of the Information Age.


title: Late modern period

text: Pax Americana is an appellation applied to the historical concept of relative liberal peace in the Western world, resulting from the preponderance of power enjoyed by the United States of America starting around the start of the 20th century. Although the term finds its primary utility in the latter half of the 20th century, it has been used in various places and eras. Its modern connotations concern the peace established after the end of World War II in 1945.


title: Late modern period

text: The Cold War began in the mid-1940s and lasted into the early 1990s. Throughout this period, the conflict was expressed through military coalitions, espionage, weapons development, invasions, propaganda, and competitive technological development. The conflict included costly defense spending, a massive conventional and nuclear arms race, and numerous proxy wars; the two superpowers never fought one another directly.


title: Late modern period

text: The Soviet Union created the Eastern Bloc of countries that it occupied, annexing some as Soviet Socialist Republics and maintaining others as satellite states that would later form the Warsaw Pact. The United States and various western European countries began a policy of "containment" of communism and forged myriad alliances to this end, including NATO. Several of these western countries also coordinated efforts regarding the rebuilding of western Europe, including western Germany, which the Soviets opposed. In other regions of the world, such as Latin America and Southeast Asia, the Soviet Union fostered communist revolutionary movements, which the United States and many of its allies opposed and, in some cases, attempted to "roll back". Many countries were prompted to align themselves with the nations that would later form either NATO or the Warsaw Pact, the Non-Aligned Movement emerged from nations who desired neutrality.


title: Late modern period

text: In China Mao Zedong ("Máo zé dōng") used Marxist–Leninist thought. When the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, previous schools of Chinese thought, excepting notably Legalism, were denounced as backward. Many parts of China's past were even purged during the Cultural Revolution. Though initially friendly with the Soviet Union the Chinese and Soviet communists diverged in the Sino-Soviet split of 1960. Through the end of the Cold-War, China would continue on its own path from other communist countries, building better relations with the United States after 1972. China's economy would recover from the Cultural Revolution due to market-oriented reforms led by Deng Xiaoping.


title: Late modern period

text: The Cold War saw periods of both heightened tension and relative calm. International crises arose, such as the Berlin Blockade (1948–1949), the Korean War (1950–1953), the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Vietnam War (1955–1975), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989) and NATO exercises in November 1983. There were also periods of reduced tension as both sides sought détente. Direct military attacks on adversaries were deterred by the potential for mutual assured destruction using deliverable nuclear weapons.


title: Late modern period

text: The Cold War drew to a close in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The United States under President Ronald Reagan increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressure on the Soviet Union, which was already suffering from severe economic stagnation. In the second half of the 1980s, newly appointed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the "perestroika" and "glasnost" reforms. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving the United States as the dominant military power, though Russia retained much of the massive Soviet nuclear arsenal.


title: Late modern period

text: In Latin America in the 1970s, leftists acquired a significant political influence which prompted the right-wing, ecclesiastical authorities and a large portion of the individual country's upper class to support coups d'état to avoid what they perceived as a communist threat. This was further fueled by Cuban and United States intervention which led to a political polarization. Most South American countries were in some periods ruled by military dictatorships that were supported by the United States of America. In the 1970s, the regimes of the Southern Cone collaborated in Operation Condor killing many leftist dissidents, including some urban guerrillas. However, by the early 1990s all countries had restored their democracies.


title: Late modern period

text: The Space Age is a period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. The Space Age began with the development of several technologies that culminated with the launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union in October 1957. This was the world's first artificial satellite, orbiting the Earth in 98.1 minutes and weighing in at 83 kg. The launch of Sputnik 1 ushered a new era of political, scientific and technological achievements that became known as the Space Age. The Space Age was characterized by rapid development of new technology in a close race mostly between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Space Age brought the first human spaceflight during the Vostok programme and reached its peak with the Apollo program which captured the imagination of much of the world's population. The 1969 landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon was an event watched by over 500 million people around the world and is widely recognized as one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Since then, and with the end of the space race due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, public attention has largely moved to other areas.


title: Late modern period

text: The Information Age began in the mid-20th century, characterized by a rapid epochal shift from the traditional industry established by the Industrial Revolution to an economy primarily based upon information technology. The onset of the Information Age can be associated with the development of transistor technology, particularly the MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor), which became the fundamental building block of digital electronics and revolutionized modern technology.


title: Late modern period

text: According to the United Nations Public Administration Network, the Information Age was formed by capitalizing on computer microminiaturization advances, which, upon broader usage within society, would lead to modernized information and to communication processes becoming the driving force of social evolution.


title: Por una Cabeza

text: "Por una Cabeza" is a tango song written in 1935 with music by Carlos Gardel and lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera.


title: Por una Cabeza

text: The name () is a Spanish horse-racing phrase meaning "by a head", which refers to a horse winning a race narrowly by just the length of its head. The lyrics speak of a compulsive horse-track gambler who compares his addiction for horses with his attraction to women.


title: Por una Cabeza

text: Alfredo Le Pera was born in Brazil, son of Italian immigrants. Le Pera and Gardel died in an aeroplane crash in Medellín, on Monday, June 24, 1935.


title: Por una Cabeza

text: The song was originally composed in A major. It was thereafter adapted to the violin and the piano sometimes in A major, sometimes in G major.


title: Por una Cabeza

text: "Por Una Cabeza" is featured in a famous tango scene in Martin Brest's film "Scent of a Woman" (1992), in the opening scene of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" (1993) and in James Cameron's "True Lies" (1994).


title: Por una Cabeza

text: An arrangement, without vocals, is performed by Nicola Benedetti on her 2012 album "The Silver Violin".


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The funeral of Pope John Paul II was held on 8 April 2005, six days after his death on 2 April. The funeral was followed by the devotional in which the Catholic Church observes nine days of mourning.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: On 22 February 1996, Pope John Paul II introduced revisions to the centuries-old ceremonies surrounding papal death, repose and burial. The revisions enacted through the apostolic constitution applied to his own funeral.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Pope John Paul's funeral brought together what was, at the time, the single largest gathering in history of heads of state outside the United Nations, surpassing the 1965 funeral of Winston Churchill and the state funeral of Josip Broz Tito in Belgrade in 1980, only to be surpassed by the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony and the funeral of former South Africa leader Nelson Mandela in December 2013. Four kings, five queens, at least seventy presidents and prime ministers, and more than fourteen leaders of other religions attended, alongside the faithful. It is likely to have been one of the largest single gatherings of Christianity in history, with numbers estimated in excess of four million mourners gathering in Rome alone.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Coinciding with the funeral in Vatican City, bishops at cathedrals throughout the world celebrated memorial masses. In a historical rarity, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox leaders, as well as representatives and heads from Judaism, Islam, Druze and Buddhism, offered their own memorials and prayers as a way of sympathising with the grief of Catholics.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: At the funeral itself, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople was in the honorary first seat in the sector reserved for delegations from churches not in full communion with the See of Rome; this was the first time an ecumenical patriarch attended a papal funeral since the East–West Schism. The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was also present at the papal funeral, the first time since the Church of England broke with the Catholic Church in the 16th century. Also for the first time ever, the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Patriarch Abune Paulos, attended a papal funeral.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Centuries of sacred rituals are set in motion upon the death of a Pope, and these are administered by the Cardinal Camerlengo.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: When John Paul II died, the Camerlengo Eduardo Martínez Somalo removed the Pope's Ring of the Fisherman from his finger, then ceremonially crushed it with the ceremonial silver hammer in the presence of members of the College of Cardinals. This was originally done to prevent the creation of forged, backdated documents, which would appear to have been approved by the late pope.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: After the ring's destruction, Cardinal Martínez Somalo cordoned off and placed wax seals on the entrances to the Pope's private bedroom and study. This tradition originates from ruthless cardinals looting the papal chambers upon the death of past popes.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The Pope's formal death certificate was signed by the physician Renato Buzzonetti, Director of the Department of Health and Sanitation of Vatican City, on the evening of his death. Cardinal Martínez Somalo then ceremonially ordered the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, to summon the cardinals of the world to Vatican City to elect a new pope.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: While his predecessors had been embalmed after death, the Vatican claimed that Pope John Paul II was not embalmed and lay in state without normal treatment for preservation, which is evident by the grey colour taken on by the body. Also, it was customary for popes to have their organs removed after death. Pope Pius X ended this practice during his reign, and the wish of some Poles that John Paul II's heart be buried in Poland was not obliged.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: John Paul II's body was clothed in the familiar white soutane, over which was placed a plain white alb. A stole, the symbol of ordained ministry, was placed around his neck. Over the inner vestments, John Paul II was clothed in a red chasuble. An ancient Byzantine custom, red is the colour of mourning for Popes. Around his collar, the pallium of white lamb's wool was draped. A white zucchetto and a white bishop's mitre adorned John Paul II's head. In his arm rested Paul VI's pastoral cross-staff, used by popes in place of the crozier. His hands clasped a rosary. At first, he lay in state in his favourite pair of Polish-made brown leather shoes, size 44-1/2, which he wore on his travels throughout the world. Later, following the example of his immediate predecessors, these were changed to plain red leather papal shoes.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The body of John Paul II was exposed first in the Papal Residence and venerated by the Clergy before a procession, after which it was placed in St. Peter's Basilica; The Swiss Guard remained always beside the body while it was exposed for viewing. After the placement of the body before the Burial Site of St. Peter, the faithful who had gathered in St. Peter's Square were allowed to enter the Basilica to pray before the exposed body. It remained there before a private ceremony of the placement of the body in a cypress casket, and then was brought outside into the Square for the funeral. For the funeral, the Swiss Guard departed the body to guard the Requiem Mass, presided by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: A first Mass of Repose, such as is offered for anyone baptised in the Catholic Church, commemorating the sending of the soul to God, was led by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Cardinal Secretary of State, on 3 April 2005, the day after the death of the Pope. That Sunday service coincided with the celebration of the Feast of Divine Mercy, a memorial feast instituted by Pope John Paul II himself. The service was followed by the recitation of the Regina Caeli, at which Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, Substitute of the Secretariat of State read out the words that John Paul II himself wrote for the occasion and was due to recite.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The body of John Paul II was dressed in his vestments and moved to the Clementine Hall on the third level (considered the second floor) of the Apostolic Palace on 3 April. His body was laid on a sloped olive-sheeted catafalque and his head propped on a stack of three gold pillows. Near the catafalque was a wooden crucifix and a paschal candle symbolic of Jesus Christ as the light of the world in the face of darkness and death. His body was guarded by the Swiss Guard, a corps of men which has sworn to protect the pope through several centuries. During a period of private visitation Vatican officials and a contingent of officials from the Italian government viewed the body of John Paul II.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: On 4 April, the body of John Paul II was moved onto a red velvet catafalque, with his head propped on three red pillows. The Papal Gentlemen, clothed in black morning coats and white gloves, were chosen as pallbearers and stood along the sides of the pope's bier. Cardinal Martínez Somalo, dressed in red and gold vestments, officiated the asperges rite. He blessed the pope with the holy waters of baptism three times: to the right of the pope, at his head and then to his left. An acolyte then brought to the Camerlengo a thurible and boat. Cardinal Martínez Somalo incensed the pope three times.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: A long procession was begun in order to transfer the body of John Paul II from the Clementine Hall, through the colonnades of the Apostolic Palace and into St. Peter's Square among the waiting people. Traditionally, the pope's body is then brought to either St. Peter's Basilica or the papal cathedral, St. John Lateran Basilica. A procession of monks, priests and bishops paced slowly along a route towards St. Peter's Basilica. The College of Cardinals trailed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Cardinal Martínez Somalo followed them.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: As the ritual dating back to the Medieval era proceeded, Gregorian chants were sung by several religious orders with the people responding to each verse with the ancient Greek prayer, "Lord, have mercy" or . The Litany of the Saints was sung. After each name of a martyr or saint was chanted, invoking their intercession between God and the people, participants in the procession sang the Latin words, , meaning "Pray for him". This is a departure from the traditional , or "Pray for us".


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: When the body of the pope was hoisted upon the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, the Papal Gentlemen turned the bier and lifted the pope's head to face the tens of thousands of people that filled St. Peter's Square. Cardinal Martínez Somalo noted it as the pope's symbolic last look at the devoted followers that had filled St. Peter's Square throughout the papacy of John Paul II.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The procession ended with the seating of the College of Cardinals and the placement of the bier carrying the body of John Paul on a catafalque in front of the steps leading to the altar of St. Peter's Basilica. The paschal candle was lit and the body of the Pope was incensed again by Cardinal Martínez Somalo. Prayers were said and a reading from the Gospels was performed by a deacon. After the College of Cardinals paid their respects and left the sanctuary, the basilica was closed and then reopened for the official lying in state to last until the day of the Mass of Requiem and subsequent interment.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger celebrated the Mass of Requiem on 8 April at 10:00 am CEST (08:00 UTC), by virtue of his office as Dean of the College of Cardinals. He was also one of Pope John Paul II's closest friends and carried out most of the Pope's duties during his final illness. Concelebrating in the Mass of Requiem were the College of Cardinals (the number of members that were present has been variously given as 157 and 164) and the patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: As the pope must be buried between the fourth and sixth day after his death, Friday was chosen as the last possible date. The Mass at St. Peter's Basilica was the first Mass of Requiem for a pope to be televised live in almost every nation in the world.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The event had an estimated viewership of over 2 billion people; the Catholic Church claims only 1.3 billion among its members. The funeral of John Paul II was by far the largest funeral in the history of the world. In lieu of a public viewing at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, as was tradition, immense digital screens instead broadcast the Mass of Requiem and subsequent Rite of Interment to those in the pope's cathedral church outside the confines of Vatican City. The same digital screens were hoisted at several sites in Rome, including the Circus Maximus, and at specially designated campsites outside the city for the millions of pilgrims who descended on the city.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The funeral was perhaps the most-watched live event in the history of television. Because people in North America understood that the service took place during the early morning hours on their side of the Atlantic, many awoke to view the funeral, and others taped it for a historical record. In addition, several television networks in the Americas rebroadcast the funeral later in the day.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: As the Mass of Requiem began, the doors of St. Peter's Basilica were locked with dignitaries asked to stand outside the church. Only the College of Cardinals and the patriarchs and presiding metropolitans of the Eastern Catholic Churches were allowed inside for a private ceremony in which John Paul was placed in a cypress coffin, the first of three. Before being laid in the coffin, Archbishops Marini and Stanisław Dziwisz had the honour of placing a white silk veil over the face of the pope (a tradition started by Leo XIII). It was his last official act of service to the pope as his papal secretary. The body was lowered into a cypress coffin, which served as the innermost coffin. Along with the body was a sealed document, the Rogito, a eulogy detailing the life and works of John Paul II, read aloud in Latin by Archbishop Marini and signed by those present during the funeral. Three bags containing gold, silver, and copper euro coins were placed beside the body. Each bag contained one coin for each year in John Paul II's reign, constituting the only monetary compensation he ever received for his service as pope, which totalled to about €100. After the private ceremony, the doors of St. Peter's Basilica were opened while dignitaries were seated. Cardinal Ratzinger and his concelebrants prepared for their procession from inside the basilica to a marble apron in the middle of St. Peter's Square where the Mass of Requiem was held.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The procession began with the introductory chant, "Requiem Aeternam" ("Eternal Rest Grant Him, O Lord"), which includes verses from Psalm 64 (65), "To You We Owe Our Hymn of Praise, O God of Zion." Carried on the shoulders of the Papal Gentlemen, the coffin bearing the image of John Paul II's coat-of-arms burned onto the lid, the pope was carried into St. Peter's Square onto the marble apron. Archbishop Marini and Konrad Krajewski, Papal Master of Ceremonies led the coffin, carrying a red leather-bound Book of the Gospel. The Papal Gentlemen laid the coffin onto a red carpet directly front in the altar, with the Book of the Gospel placed open on top of it. As the funeral was held during a particularly windy day, the pages of the book were fluttered by the gusts until the wind forced the Gospel closed.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The Liturgy of the Word began with a reading from the Acts of the Apostles, 10:34–43, read by Chilean Alejandra Correa in Spanish. The responsorial was Psalm 22(23). The second reading was read by John McDonald in English, taken from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians, 3:20–4:1. It was entitled, "But our citizenship is in heaven." The reader ended by singing, "Verbum Domini" ("The Word of the Lord.") Congregants replied in chant, "Deo gratias" ("Thanks be to God.")


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Congregants stood for the proclamation of the Gospel, heralded by the singing of Alleluia. After being blessed by Cardinal Ratzinger, an English deacon of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, Paul Moss (who has now been ordained priest and is currently serving as Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Birmingham), proceeded with the Book of the Gospels to the ambo or lectern. He began by singing, "The Gospel according to John." Congregants replied, "Glory to you, O Lord." Moss then incensed the Book of the Gospel and then sang the reading in Latin. The reading came from John chapter 6, verse 40, stating, "For this is the will of my father that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have eternal life." Moss then read from John chapter 21, verses 15 through 19, which is an account of a dialogue between Jesus and Saint Peter. Jesus asked three times, "Do you love me?" He then told his disciple, "Follow me." The deacon raised the Book of the Gospel and sang, "Verbum Domini" or "The Gospel of the Lord." Congregants replied in chant, "Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ."


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: After kissing the text of the Book of the Gospels, Cardinal Ratzinger stood before the congregants to offer the homily which included references to the life and service of Pope John Paul. He spoke in Italian, first greeting the many political figures and religious leaders that had gathered, and then told the story of how the young Karol had answered the Lord's call, and became a priest after the persecution of the Nazis, the answer of the command: "Follow me!" Cardinal Ratzinger also told of John Paul's life as a bishop, cardinal, and pope, frequently applying scripture to the pope's life. Finally, he told of the pope's devotion to Mary and the Divine Mercy of Christ. The cardinal's last words were about the end of Pope John Paul II's life: 'We entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who guided you each day and who will guide you now to the eternal glory of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ."


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Some construed the ending of the homily to mean that the pope had already entered into heaven, and had become a saint.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The Nicene Creed sung in the Latin language followed the homily. Prayers were said in Italian, French, Swahili, Tagalog, Polish, German, and Portuguese.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The part of the Mass of Requiem called the Liturgy of the Eucharist began. Cardinal Ratzinger and the concelebrating cardinals gathered around the altar to consecrate the bread and wine.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: After the Eucharistic Prayer (the point in the Mass when it is believed the elements become Christ), the Lord's Prayer was sung followed later by the brief Latin litany, "Agnus Dei". The Eucharist was then taken to the congregation in St. Peter's Square to be distributed among those present. As the congregation received the Blessed Sacrament, Psalm 129 (in some Biblical versions Psalm 130) was sung. Its lyrics proclaimed, "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice."


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: After the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the crowds in the streets of Vatican City burst into applause, waving flags and banners chanting, "Santo Subito!" which means "Saint now!" and "Giovanni Paolo Santo" or "Saint John Paul!". A few also repeatedly chanted "Magnus" or "Great", spontaneously declaring that he should be John Paul the Great.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: After the congregants received Communion, Cardinal Ratzinger led the Rite of Final Commendation and Farewell. He asked the College of Cardinals and patriarchs of the Eastern Rite to converge on the casket of Pope John Paul II. The congregants were called to prayer, "Dear brothers and sisters let us entrust to the most gentle mercy of God, the soul of our Pope John Paul II." He continued, "May the Blessed Virgin Mary... intercede with God so that He might show the face of His blessed Son to our Pope, and console the Church with the light of the Resurrection."


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The choir sang the Litany of the Saints; the same litany was chanted during the procession that transferred the body of Pope John Paul II from the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace to St. Peter's Basilica. Breaking with tradition for the sacred prayer, the names of the saints canonised by Pope John Paul II, such as Faustina Kowalska and Josemaría Escrivá, were allowed to be included in the litany. Names of saints included in the more traditional litany were also included along with the newer saints.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: After the singing of the Litany of the Saints, the patriarchs, archbishops and metropolitans of the Eastern Catholic Churches approached the coffin of Pope John Paul II for their own rituals of commendation and farewell ("panikhida"). They incensed the casket and chanted the Easter proclamation, "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by His death", three times, and the rest of the Eastern memorial service. The Eastern patriarchs together with the entire College of Cardinals witnessed the sprinkling of the casket with the waters used in the Sacrament of Baptism. Incense was used once again, when Cardinal Ratzinger, assisted by an Italian deacon of the Pontifical Major Seminary in Rome, Father Nello Luongo, incensed and prayed for the dead Pope at the very end of the Mass. The Prayer of the Eastern Churches from the "Parastas" (Office of the Dead) of the Byzantine Rite was chanted in Greek and in Arabic by Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham, ending with "Your memory is eternal, our brother, dignified with blessings and unforgettable."


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The Mass of Requiem officially ended with the congregation standing to sing the "In paradisum": "May Angels lead you into Paradise; upon your arrival, may the Martyrs receive you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem."


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The Papal Gentlemen carried the Pope's coffin towards the entrance of St. Peter's for interment, and the congregation in attendance broke out into applause and cheered as a final farewell. The coffin was then turned 180 degrees to face the congregation and the cameras, and the crowd applauded and cheered with more fervour before it was taken out of the public view for the last time. Cardinal Ratzinger handed over authority of the Rite of Interment to Cardinal Martínez Somalo, the Camerlengo.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The people of Poland had wished for the heart of John Paul II to be removed from his body and transferred to Wawel Cathedral to be buried alongside the greatest of Poland's monarchs and National heroes. Cardinal Martínez Somalo said that the request would not be obliged, as per the dead Pope's wish not to have any parts of his body removed during preparation for the funeral.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: An underground grotto beside the former shrine of the now glass-entombed and preserved body of Pope John XXIII was chosen for the interment of John Paul II. He was lowered into a tomb that had been prepared following the transfer of John XXIII's remains from the grotto to the main floor of the basilica after his beatification. The vault that originally held John XXIII's body had been removed so a new tomb could be built. The College of Cardinals decided to keep John Paul II beneath the altar of St. Peter's Basilica, citing the possibility of future beatification and canonisation into sainthood.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Pallbearers took the coffin through the central door of St. Peter's Basilica. At that point a single bell tolled. The pallbearers took the coffin through the Santa Marta Door, under the Monument to Alexander VII, to the outside (South) of the Basilica. They entered the grottoes, a cemetery underneath the Basilica where Saint Peter is believed to be buried, through the door now used as the grottoes' exit. After passing beneath low ceilings and through long corridors, the pallbearers stopped at the crypt of Pope John Paul II.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Cardinal Martínez Somalo, Camerlengo of the Roman Church, then presided over the Rite of Interment. It was a private service witnessed only by the highest-ranking members of the College of Cardinals. As is custom, Pope John Paul II was entombed in three nested coffins. The cypress coffin was sealed and tied with three red silk ribbons.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The cypress casket was lowered into a larger solid zinc (traditionally lead) casket, which was soldered shut. This coffin was adorned with three bronze plaques: a simple cross at the head of the coffin, a middle plaque with the Pope's name and the length of his life and pontificate, and a third with Pope John Paul II's personal coat of arms at the foot. The zinc casket was finally lowered into a larger walnut (traditionally elm) casket, bearing three identical plaques, which was shut with nails of pure gold. The middle plaques bear the following statement in Latin:


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The unified coffin was lowered into the ground, as the Pope requested, and covered with a plain stone slab featuring his name and dates of his pontificate. Pope John Paul II asked that his burial be like that of Pope Paul VI, not in an elaborate sarcophagus and ornate above-ground tomb, but in "bare earth". His remains lay in this tomb for six years before it was exhumed to prepare for his beatification in 2011.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Cardinal Martínez Somalo ended the Rite of Interment with the words, "Lord, grant him eternal rest, and may perpetual light shine upon him." Those present sang "Salve Regina" or "Hail Holy Queen."


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Before the College of Cardinals could offer official customary invitations to the various heads of state and government, over 200 foreign officials had expressed their desire to attend the Mass of Requiem. 18 international organizations and 112 countries attended the event. A total of 10 royal guests, 70 heads of state and government and 15 former leaders were present. Among the most familiar faces worldwide were the President of the United States and two former presidents of the United States, the Prime Minister of Italy, the current and former Presidents of Brazil, the current and former Presidents of Poland, the President of France, the President of Ireland, the Taoiseach of Ireland, the King and Queen of Spain, the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the Chancellor of Germany and the President of Germany, future King Charles III of the United Kingdom (who was the Prince of Wales at the time; he postponed his wedding to Camilla Parker-Bowles by 24 hours, to attend), the Prime Minister of Canada, the King and Queen of Jordan, the President of Afghanistan, and the Vice-President of India. International representatives included the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Also attending were Mohammad Khatami of Iran and Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Kings and Queens from Denmark, Sweden and Norway were also present.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The dignitaries were seated alphabetically according to the French spelling of their country's name and arranged according to diplomatic protocol, with Sovereigns taking precedence over elected heads of state and seated in the front row. The largest delegations were the Italian (sitting in the first honorary seats were the President of Italy and other high Italian dignitaries) and Polish ones. As such, Israeli President Moshe Katsav sat only two seats away from the president of Iran amidst strained relations. Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe defied a European Union travel ban to attend the funeral. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian made an unprecedented appearance and was seated in the front row as the head of state of China, due to the existence of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Republic of China. The People's Republic of China was not invited to the funeral and protested to Italy for allowing Chen passage to the Vatican. Altogether, the Mass of Requiem was deemed at the time to be the largest gathering of heads of state in world history, exceeding the gathering at the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in London in 1965 and the state funeral of Josip Broz Tito in Belgrade in 1980. Some of the dignitaries, including German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain who attended the funeral also attended the installation Mass for Pope Benedict XVI on 24 April 2005.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: After the Rite of Interment, nine official days of mourning began. The devotional called novemdiales features a Mass of Requiem on each of the nine days at St. Peter's Basilica. Several cardinals were chosen by Cardinal Ratzinger to have the honour of presiding over each Mass.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: One of the most controversial honourees was Bernard Francis Law, Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, scheduled to preside a novemdiales on 11 April. During his tenure as Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law was accused of having mishandled cases of sexual abuse at the hands of diocesan priests. The event sparked the nationwide Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in the dioceses of the United States.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Several members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) flew to Rome to protest saying Cardinal Law's place of honour was painful to sexual abuse victims and embarrassing to Catholics. Just as the group's members arrived at St. Peter's Basilica, led by founder Barbara Blaine, police officers escorted them outside the confines of St. Peter's Square. Blaine was unable to pass out fliers to people walking into the Mass offered by Cardinal Law.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Blaine had earlier told reporters in a press conference, "We are the sons and daughters of the Catholic family who were raped, sodomized and sexually molested by priests. At this time, we should be able to focus on the Holy Father's death, instead of Cardinal Law's prominence." The College of Cardinals responded by stating that Cardinal Law was honoured as a matter of his being the ordinary of one of the most important basilicas of the Roman Catholic Church.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: 14 April novemdiales Mass at St. Peter's Basilica replaced traditional hymns and prayers with those of the Maronite Rite, one of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, presided over the Mass. It was the first time a cardinal patriarch of an Eastern Catholic Church offered a novemdiales Mass, in his own rite, for a pope.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The immensity of the pilgrim presence in Rome and the vast diplomatic contingent from nations around the world raised concerns by the College of Cardinals that the funeral, conclave and installation of a new pope would make Vatican City a target for terrorism. The anti-terrorism task forces responsible for securing the funeral considered international terrorists the primary potential threat because of the attending dignitaries; domestic terrorism from Italian political extremists was considered less likely.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: On 6 April—in advent of the arrival of the United States delegation aboard "Air Force One", protected by a military escort—the Italian government issued a no-fly zone within a five-mile radius of Rome. The Italian government considered the President of the United States, the first sitting American president to attend a papal funeral, as the most tempting target for terrorists. Official diplomatic delegations from other nations began arriving at the same time.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: The "Aeronautica Militare Italiana" (Italian air force) prepared their aircraft to be launched at a moment's notice in case of a terrorist strike. The Italian Army deployed anti-aircraft missiles around Vatican City, to the grudging dismay of the College of Cardinals. "Marina Militare" (Italian navy) warships were positioned along the shorelines of Italy armed with torpedoes. Gunboats ran up and down the rivers and waterways of Rome, including the Tiber River which flows around Vatican City.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: One thousand sharpshooters were positioned on strategic rooftops throughout the Italian capital as Carabinieri police task forces swept aqueducts and drains for explosives. Helicopters were dispatched to scan the city streets from above. Plans to close Ciampino Airport from commercial flights and divert air traffic to and from Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino were finalised for the day of the Mass of Requiem and Interment of Pope John Paul II. Other smaller civilian commuter and recreational airports were also shut down.


title: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

text: Some of the same security measures that were in effect for the funeral were also in effect for the installation Mass of Pope Benedict XVI on 24 April.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: He competed in amateur sumo at the World Junior Championships in 2004, held in Osaka, Japan and at the World Championships in 2005. He trained at the prestigious Nichidai sumo club at Nihon University and it was a member of that club who encouraged him to turn professional. In his early days in Japan he suffered from homesickness and had to deal with his grandmother being killed and his father seriously injured in an accident. Having no knowledge of the Japanese language, he was helped by the wife of his stablemaster who contacted an interpreter from the Georgian embassy, as well as by fellow Georgian Gagamaru from the nearby Kise stable, and by a junior member of his own stable, Munakata, who taught him traditional Japanese greetings.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: At the beginning of 2006 he was recruited by the former "sekiwake" Tochinowaka of Kasugano stable. The stable had not had a foreigner since the Taiwanese wrestler Tochinohana retired in 1988, but agreed to take on Gorgadze just as his tourist visa was about to expire. After eleven straight "kachi-koshi" or winning scores he gained "sekitori" status in January 2008 upon promotion to the "jūryō" division and immediately took the "yūshō" or championship in that division with a 12–3 record.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: He took his first ever "make-koshi" or losing score in his top division debut in May 2008, but still won enough bouts to remain in the division. He reached "maegashira" 4 in November 2008, but facing the highest ranking men for the first time he could only record three wins against twelve losses. However, in July 2009 he produced a good score of 9–6 at "maegashira 5", and was promoted to the rank of "maegashira" 1 in the September tournament. He could manage only four wins there, but he performed much better in November, finishing runner-up to Hakuhō at 12–3 and winning his first special prize, Fighting Spirit. However, his defeat to Hokutōriki on the final day cost him a chance of making his debut in the titled "san'yaku" ranks in January 2010.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: In the May 2010 tournament he defeated four "ōzeki" in a row from Days 2 to 5 (becoming only the second man below "sekiwake" to achieve this, following Masurao in March 1987) and won his second Fighting Spirit prize (shared with Aran). He was rewarded with promotion to "komusubi" for the first time in the July 2010 tournament. He fell short with a 6–9 record, but returned to komusubi in November.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: In May 2011 he equalled his best ever top division performance, once again finishing runner-up to Hakuho on 12–3 and winning another Fighting Spirit prize. This saw him return to the "komusubi" rank for the July 2011 tournament. His poor performance in November, scoring only 2–13, could be attributed to the fact that he was banned from training before the tournament by his stablemaster as punishment for breaking "heya" rules on curfew and wearing Western style clothes in public. Tochinoshin was one of three wrestlers at the stable who were beaten with a golf club during this incident, for which his stablemaster was given a warning by the Japan Sumo Association. He made "komusubi" for the fourth time in September 2012.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: Tochinoshin suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the July 2013 tournament, resulting in him missing the next three tournaments and falling from the "maegashira" ranks to the unsalaried "makushita" division. In March 2014, fighting from "makushita" 55, he bounced back with a 7–0 perfect championship. He followed this in the very next tournament in May with a consecutive 7–0 championship in at "makushita" 6, thereby guaranteeing his re-promotion to the salaried ranks of "jūryō". He continued his comeback in fine style by winning two consecutive "jūryō" championships, the first after a playoff win over Ichinojō and the second with a perfect 15–0 score (only the third time since the six tournaments a year system began in 1958 that the latter had occurred). Returning to the top division in November 2014, he scored 11–4 and picked up his fourth Fighting Spirit Award. In 2015 he won six times in January but in March his eight victories included a win over the "yokozuna" Harumafuji, earning him his first "kinboshi". Winning records in May and July at "maegashira" 1 saw him promoted to "komusubi" for the September tournament for the first time in three years. Having fought his way back to "san'yaku" from "makushita" 55, Tochinoshin is in first place for the lowest rank fallen before a successful return to the "komusubi" rank since World War II. In September 2015 he maintained his rank with a 10–5 record and received his fifth Fighting Spirit prize. He scored only 7–8 in the following November tournament but managed to stay at "komusubi," although he fell to the "maegashira" ranks after a 6–9 in January. In the May 2016 tournament he received his first Technique Prize, and earned promotion to the third highest rank of "sekiwake" for the first time in the following July tournament. Losing records in July and September saw him drop down the rankings but he returned to "komusubi" yet again after a 10–5 in November. In January 2017 he lost his first five bouts before withdrawing from the tournament with a knee injury. He had an excellent showing in the July 2017 tournament, which resulted in his being promoted to "maegashira" 1 for the September tournament, but an aggravation of his knee injury resulted him only achieving four wins against eleven losses in September.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: In January 2018, fighting at "maegashira" 3, Tochinoshin won twelve of his first thirteen matches, thereby ensuring that he would, at least, enter a play-off for the championship and that he needed only one win from his last two bouts to secure the championship outright. Before his penultimate match he received a message of support from the Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili. On the fourteenth day he claimed his first top division title with a "yorikiri" win over Shōhōzan, becoming the first man from Georgia to do so. It was the first top division championship for Kasugano stable in 46 years, since Tochiazuma Tomoyori in January 1972. His achievement brought some good news for the stable after it had emerged earlier in the tournament that Kasugano Oyakata was being sued over an assault at the stable in 2014. Tochinoshin, who wrestles in his stablemaster's old "mawashi", embraced Kasugano after his victory on Day 14 and later told reporters, "several years ago he told me that he would clutch me to his chest if I won... I was so glad that I made it come true."


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: In February 2018 he was awarded Georgia's Medal of Honour, for the promotion of his country abroad. Tochinoshin returned to the "sekiwake" rank for the March 2018 tournament for the first time since his single appearance at the rank in September 2016. In the March Tournament in Osaka, Tochinoshin started out slow with a record of 2–2 in the first four days. He would then go on to win his next five matches, before losing the following two against both "ōzeki". On Day 12, Tochinoshin won against "yokozuna" Kakuryū ending his undefeated record. Tochinoshin finished the tournament with a 10–5 record to keep his hopes of being promoted to "ōzeki" alive. He was also awarded the Outstanding Performance prize for achieving a winning record and having defeated Kakuryū the tournament champion and "yokozuna".


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: Tochinoshin won his first 12 matches in the May tournament, including a win over "yokozuna" Hakuhō on Day 12 which was his first victory against him in 26 attempts. He eventually finished the tournament 13–2 and runner-up to "yokozuna" Kakuryū, earning the Fighting Spirit and Technique prizes in the process. Having won 37 bouts over the last 3 tournaments, including 1 "yūshō", his promotion to "ōzeki" was all but certain. The promotion was finalized during an extraordinary meeting of the Sumo Association on May 29, and the following day it was officially announced. He became the eleventh foreign-born wrestler to reach "ōzeki", and the 60 tournaments it took him from his debut in the top division ties the record for the slowest ever, alongside Masuiyama II. He is only the second wrestler since the start of the Showa era to fall from "makuuchi" to "makushita" and subsequently make "ōzeki", after Kotokaze. He was the first wrestler from Kasugano stable to reach "ōzeki" since the double promotion of Tochinoumi and Tochihikari in May 1962. He returned to Georgia after the announcement for the first time in a year, and met Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili. In June 2018 he was awarded the title of Knight seen as the highest honor in the Georgian sports world.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: Tochinoshin won his first five bouts in his "ōzeki" debut but then injured his right big toe in a defeat to Tamawashi on Day 6 and was forced to withdraw from the tournament. He was "kadoban," or in danger of demotion from ōzeki, for the September 2018 tournament, the first time in 18 years (since Miyabiyama in the September 2000 tournament) that a wrestler has been "kadoban" in only his second "ōzeki" tournament. In September he still seemed below his best form but saved his "ōzeki" status with a win over Abi on day 14 and defeated Takayasu in his final match to end on 9–6. Going into the final tournament of the year Tochinoshin was tied with Kakuryū for the most wins in 2018, with 51. With Kakuryū not participating in the tournament, Tochinoshin's 8–7 score in November was enough to give him the record with 59 wins in 2018.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: Tochinoshin withdrew from the January 2019 tournament on Day 5 having suffered four straight defeats, due to a thigh injury he picked up in training shortly before the tournament. At the March 2019 tournament Tochinoshin finished with seven wins and eight losses, and was demoted to "sekiwake" for the May tournament after two losing records in succession.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: On Day 13 of the May 2019 tournament, Tochinoshin was initially declared the winner over eventual champion Asanoyama, but the ruling of the "gyōji" was reversed by the "shimpan" in what was viewed by some as a controversial decision. Tochinoshin would win the next day without incident to secure his tenth victory of the "basho". His "ōzeki" rank was officially restored for the July 2019 tournament, making him the fifth sumo wrestler since 1969 to be promoted back to "ōzeki" after just being demoted to "sekiwake", and the first since Tochiazuma who accomplished the feat twice in 2004 and 2005. He withdrew from the July tournament on Day 6 having suffered five straight losses, citing knee and shoulder injuries. In September he managed only six wins and was demoted from "ōzeki" for the second time. He withdrew from the November tournament on Day 5 after fracturing a rib in defeating Takarafuji on the previous day. This ended his hopes of winning ten bouts and making an immediate return to "ōzeki", and he dropped to the "maegashira" ranks for the January 2020 tournament.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: Tochinoshin withdrew from the first four days of the November 2021 tournament due to lower back pain. He was facing demotion to "jūryō" at that point, but managed to return to the tournament and win six matches. In March 2022 he produced his first winning record since November 2020, reaching 8–3 on Day 11 by defeating Terutsuyoshi with a trademark or lift out. This ended a run of seven straight losing records.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: Tochinoshin was married in January 2016 to a childhood friend. His first child, a girl named Anastasia, was born in Georgia in November 2017. His wife and daughter were still in Georgia at the time of his tournament victory in January 2018 and Tochinoshin told reporters that because of his sumo commitments he would not have time to visit them until May.


title: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

text: Tochinoshin favours "yotsu-sumo" techniques, preferring to grapple with rather than push his opponents. His stablemaster urged him to concentrate on traditional forward moving sumo, in contrast to other European and Russian sumo wrestlers of the time who specialized in pulling techniques. His favourite grip on the "mawashi" is "migi-yotsu", meaning he likes his right hand inside and his left hand outside his opponent's arms. His most common winning technique or "kimarite" is "yori kiri" or force out, but he also uses his left hand grip to good effect by regularly employing "uwatenage", or overarm throw. He is well known for his strength, and his muscular physique, with his thighs being measured at 90 cm around.


The m:tel Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina (), also known as Liga 12, is the top tier football league in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is operated by the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As the country's most prestigious level of football competition, the league changed format in the 2016–17 season and is contested by 12 clubs with the last two teams relegated at the end of every season.


title: Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina

text: The League is, as of the 2021–22 season, represented by four clubs in European competition. The winner of the Premier League starts from the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round. The winner of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Cup as well as the runner-up and third placed team on the table starts from the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa Conference League.


text: At the end of the season, the bottom two teams are relegated while winners of the First League of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the First League of the Republika Srpska are promoted to the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina.


text: After breakup of Yugoslavia, and following proclamation of independence in late winter 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina clubs left the Yugoslav First League, which ceased to exist after the 1991–92 season. Already in April the same year N/FSBiH applied for membership with FIFA and UEFA. Meanwhile, due to the outbreak of Bosnian War in April 1992 no games were played in the 1992–93 season. In late 1993 some parts of the country re-launched football competitions with reduced scope. But just as the country was divided along ethnic lines, so was football.


text: In 1993 Bosnian Croats launched the Football Federation of Herzeg Bosnia and its First League of Herzeg-Bosnia, in which only Croatian clubs competed on parochial scale within the limits of West Herzegovina and few other enclaves. In the same year Bosnian Serbs also organized their own First League of the Republika Srpska, on a territory held by Republika Srpska regime at the time.


text: Only football on a territory under the control of then Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina institutions and auspices of N/FSBiH, at the time consequently with Bosniak majority, apart from a brief competition for the season 1994–95 (won by Čelik Zenica), came to a standstill.


text: Competition under auspices of N/FSBiH did not resume until 1995–96 season when the First League of Bosnia and Herzegovina was launched.


text: These three separate football leagues were operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina until 1998, and 2000. Since FIFA and UEFA showed support only for the association operating under patronage of the official and internationally recognized state institutions, during the war and prior to "Dayton Peace Agreement" as well as after its signage, they endorsed unification of all three organizations as N/FSBiH. This also came as a consequence of FIFA decision to recognize N/FSBiH already in July 1996, while in the same year UEFA admitted N/FSBiH as an adjacent member until 1998 when they recognized its full membership. This meant that only N/FSBiH clubs and its national team could compete at the international and official level.


text: Final unification has been preceded by several stages. At first was created a playoff where clubs were playing for the champion under N/FSBiH auspices. Idea was that playoff under unified N/FSBiH auspices should bring together clubs competing under three separate organizations for the first time but was rejected by Serb association, leaving clubs from Croat football association and N/FSBiH participating playoff for the seasons 1997–98 and 1999–00, while 1998–99 playoff was canceled due to Croat's association hesitation on the decision on which stadiums games should be played. Next season playoff was resumed for the last time prior to full and final agreement on unified N/FSBiH and its competition, Premier League BiH "(Premijer Liga)", in the fall 2000.


text: Full and final agreement on unified N/FSBiH and its competition, Premier League BiH "(Premijer Liga)", happened in the fall 2000. However, the first 2000–01 season seen clubs from Federation of BiH only, while clubs from Republic of Srpska entity continue to compete in their own separate league as their entity association still refused to join agreed unified N/FSBiH and its new competition. However, UEFA and FIFA never intended to recognize this separate organization nor its competition, which meant clubs could not compete outside territory of the entity and would not compete internationally. This situation forced clubs to insist that their organization also join N/FSBiH, and two years later they became part of the competition for the season 2002–03. Ever since the year 2000 Premier League is the top tier of Bosnia and Herzegovina football, with two entity-based leagues, First League of Republika Srpska and First League of the Federation of BiH, being pushed to the second tier of the football pyramid and serve as feeder leagues to Premier League.


text: During the 2016–17 season and the 2017–18 season BH Telecom Premier League had changed its format entirely, reducing a number of clubs from 16 to 12, thus sometimes referred to as "Liga 12" (League 12), with the calendar also modified accordingly, and introducing playoffs (also known as the ""title playoffs"") and play out.


text: Number of matches were played by each club during regular season after which, according to their position, they entered to play-offs or play out. Playoffs were contested by the top 6 clubs in the regular season, with each club playing each other twice for the title, which guarantees Champions League qualifications, second and third place, guaranteeing Europa League qualifications berths. Play out was contested by six clubs to avoid relegation with last two teams being relegated.


text: Since the 2018–19 season, the league is not played as the last two seasons before. Actually very simple, after all the 12 clubs play each other two times, once home and once away, they play each other three times, also playing home or away depending on how the schedule is made. With that, the league season has 33 full rounds instead of the 22 rounds and an additional 10 rounds in the relegation and championship games.